Is it possible to use axlink connection from two different AMX controllers

ajay thomas

Hi

im installing a new AMX touch panel MVP 5150 and controller Ni 3100 for an auditorium.There is already an old AMX Accent controller,AMX radia MC240,AMX 12 button switch with Axlink in the site.They only want to add their new devices like Oppo blu ray player,LCD sceen,projector to the new Ni 3100 controller but would like both the Accent controller and Ni controller to control the Radia Lights thru Axlink.Is this possible

The customer is planning to keep the old amx accent controller and button panel.My question is can i use the same Axlink from Ni 3100 to communitcate with AMX radia panels which is already connected to the old Accent controller.

I already tried to connect just the Ni 3100 Axlink data signal portion AXP and AXM to the old accent controller but when i push the button MVP5150 ,only the input LED blinks no output LED.

Thanks in advance n happy new year to all

Ajay

ericmedley

The Axcent3 can be put into slave mode and will live on the Axlink buss connected to an NI master. The Axcemt cannot do so. Although I cannot think this would in any way be financially profitable, you could develope your own protocol and use a serial port on each master to talk back and forth. Since you can get NXIs and whatnot on ebay for under a hundred bucks, I cannot think this would be worth doing except for the shear intelectual execise of it.

DHawthorne

If you slave the Axcent3, any code running on it has to be moved to the NI. That's probably the best way to do it, but it may not be the most cost-effective. Making a quick-and-dirty serial-to-serial protocol doesn't have to be all that involved. If it only has to control the RA, just send a simple string with the address and what you want it to do, then parse it on either end. If you don't need feedback, it's even easier.

John Nagy

Clarifying... the OP mentioned an AXCENT controller, not an AXCENT3. As mentioned, an AXCENT3 can and an AXCENT cannot be used as an IO slave to an NI, via the AXLINK connection and an appropriate CPU assignment in the AXCENT3 via serial connection. No code can run in the AXCENT3.

I think you really are asking can you jumper the AXLINK and let the NI and AXCENT share it and command the hardware independently, and that's a NO.

I think that covers the permutations.

Auser

Worth doing a search for the external control protocol for the Axcent series. While you can't slave them on Axlink, the original Axcent and Axcent 2 support turning one of the serial ports into a control port. Using a fairly trivial serial protocol you can directly interface with the ports on the unit.

As other posters have mentioned, if it is not an Axcent 3 or Axcess card frame (which can be slaved on Axlink) I would personally bite the bullet and spend the money to replace it. We're talking about hardware that is over a decade old and has definitely reached its obsolence point.

The development cost for interfacing between earlier Axcent devices and current Netlinx devices is likely to far outweigh the cost of replacing the unit with a current model control system.

John Nagy

And I see the last AXCENT3 that actually got sold on the international auction site that shall not be named, got nearly eight dollars for it, with free shipping. So if you simply must go cheap, that's pretty cheap.

ericmedley

I bought an Axcess Card Frame full of cards on eBay for $80 six years ago. Everything works fine.

locknar

DHawthorne wrote: »

Making a quick-and-dirty serial-to-serial protocol doesn't have to be all that involved. If it only has to control the RA, just send a simple string with the address and what you want it to do, then parse it on either end. If you don't need feedback, it's even easier.

jumping in on this, lets says I have a novara keypad pressing button one sends a serial string F2-9-81-10-1
on a Axcent 2, RS 232 port,
on the Axcent 2 I have a relay for the shades and a defined variable as "Shades_up"

how do I connect the incoming string, to the variable "shades_up"

ericmedley

locknar wrote: »

jumping in on this, lets says I have a novara keypad pressing button one sends a serial string F2-9-81-10-1
on a Axcent 2, RS 232 port,
on the Axcent 2 I have a relay for the shades and a defined variable as "Shades_up"

how do I connect the incoming string, to the variable "shades_up"

Personally, I wouldn't write something like this that's so 'one-off' I'd instead write a moudle on the
master side that I could send commands to, turn channles on/off, levels, etc.. like any other AMX device and then write code on the old Axcess master that converts whatever protocol you develop back into a simple action on the master. So, you might have a command on your Netlinx master something like

Send_Command vdv_My_Acxess_Master,'send_string 3:This is a string'


then your module parses this out and sends the needed string down the RS232 port from the NI to the old master. Then on the old master side, you then parse the command and send it to the port mentioned in the command. (this case port 3)