Serial Control
goschman
Posts: 12
I am trying to control a digital recorder via the RS-232 serial port on the back of a blu-160. I have set up logic with a serial trigger/table with the appropriate command strings but cannot get any signs of functionality. I have matched the baud rates of both units but am currently stuck. This is my first time dealing with serial control so any help or direction would be much appreciated. Cheers...
I just that read that the serial port is only for 3rd party control of Soundweb London. I was told that the serial port can also be used for control of external devices from the London. Am I taking crazy pills?
I just that read that the serial port is only for 3rd party control of Soundweb London. I was told that the serial port can also be used for control of external devices from the London. Am I taking crazy pills?
0
Comments
However, I was unable to make this work in one instance where I was trying to control a Marantz PMD-570 using the method you have described.
It seemed to be something to do with Hardware Flow Control which is not supported on the Soundweb London RS-232 port.
This was a long time ago so don't shoot me down, but that's the way I remember it.
Good luck, and be sure to let us know if you find a way to make it work...
Martin
I just looked at the PMD580 manual, and it states that the 580 has no hardware flow control.
A couple of \"gotchas\"... I use the Soundweb's serial port to control an Extron matrix, which is somewhat similar to what you are attempting to do, although the command strings do not appear as long. But you have to make sure that the setting of the Serial trigger matches the type of string you give it. For the PMD580, you'll want to make sure its set to ASCII (I'm pretty sure it defaults to hex)
Make sure you set the right Baud rate!!! This will hopelessly confuse both devices. (edit: seriously, double check. I had the Extron crash on me more than once after I thought I had matched the SW's serial port speed, because I hadn't and I was overloading the extron's buffer. Shouldn't have crashed from that, but what are you gonna do? I also accidentally set the wrong control strings once and managed to overwrite about 2/3 of my configuration before I realized what was happening. With the extron, that's the difference between a . (read/recall) and a , (write) )
Looks like it wants a \"CR\" after the command. make sure you are actually sending a CR (0x13), not the literal characters \"CR\". Hyperterm is your friend here. Connect your SW to a PC serial port, you'll be able to monitor what's actually going out the serial port.
If all that fails, PM me more details, I'll try to help you more specifically.
Depending on the level of control you need, you have a couple of other options: you could connect the PMD580 to your control PC instead of the SW. Write a program to send the data you want over the serial port, and then call the program from a Logic End's \"command\" property. (This would get around Martin's Flow Control problem, since presumably the PC's serial port supports flow control; however, if you can't make it work from the SW with my suggestions above, I don't think this will help, unless there is Flow Control on the Marantz despite the manual's protestation to the contrary.)
Slightly more exotic, but probably simpler to implement would be implement a call via the 580's network interface. It should be possible to mimic a web control button press with a program call in a variety of ways that wouldn't require a \"real\" programming language. Or using VB or Delphi it wouldn't be hard to put that together.
Along the same lines, if you don't require automated operation, you can throw a web component on a control panel, and point it at your PMD580. (If you do that, just make sure you aren't using DHCP!!!) Then the operator can control the PMD580 via the web interface from their control panel. This might be the simplest method of all!
If your remote needs are pretty simple, there is also a contact closure remote port that should be able to interface to the regular logic ports of the SW, however, you won't have a lot of control options via that method; it appears intended mostly as a pause control, to Pause/Start during recording or playback. However, it can also be used to increment the track after a pause, or to simply manually track, so if that's all you need, that will actually work for you.
Since we aren't sure exactly what you are trying to do here, it's rather hard to say which method is best, but the main point is that there are options. It has been said before, but it's probably worth repeating, that lots of things that \"can't be done\" with the Soundweb, actually can be done. Sometimes you just have to get a little creative.
mike