my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Can I connect a Geffen Scaler to Doremi via serial? (Page 2)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Can I connect a Geffen Scaler to Doremi via serial? Matthew Philp Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Newquay, Cornwall, England Registered: Aug 2012 posted 09-13-2012 03:27 PM                     The advice came via an engineer at SA, I've added the serial device via device manager, set it all as should be (still not absolutely sure of the hex end command) and set the macro's as you recommend, but cannot get it to work, ive also tried a usb to serial adapter and changed the port to the usb, but still no luck  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 09-13-2012 03:41 PM                     did you try to connect the doremi to your laptop and see what comes from the server? Let's start with the basics, let's make sure there is something coming out of the server. But I am 100% sure the serial works. Also, you may want to test another device as a test bench. Have you got a Dolby CP650 or CP750? They both accept serial commands, and the commands to be sent are known. If you can change the format on a 750, you can also control your scaler! I haven't got a doremi handy, but have you got a SERIAL device on your control panel? Did you set speed and all values as requested? Then you setup a new macro, click on ADD ACTION and choose SEND MESSAGE. Select SERIAL on the device name, and on the message tab you can type the command that needs to be sent. Then you save the macro, go to MACRO EXECUTION and run the macro. Does that help?  |  IP: Logged Matthew Philp Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Newquay, Cornwall, England Registered: Aug 2012 posted 09-13-2012 03:54 PM                     I haven't been able to connect my laptop yet as the only cable's i have are m/f and i need a m/m to do this which I'll order as I'm sure it'll come in handy in the future, I'll have a go with one of our cp750's when i get a chance. Ive been doing exactly as you recommend though and had no luck, I do have two geffen units so I'm ready to try the other unit in case the one I'm using has a fault!  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 09-13-2012 04:14 PM                     Get a nullmodem cable or x-over adaptor, then first try to send commands from the Doremi to the Notebook. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 09-14-2012 05:45 AM                     I had a look at the manual, did you write the commands in CAPITAL letters? did you try S SOURCE 0\r\n Did you change the default speed of the serial device to the one listed on the manual (19200 if not mistaken?)  |  IP: Logged Matthew Philp Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Newquay, Cornwall, England Registered: Aug 2012 posted 09-16-2012 05:01 AM                     right, Ive connected a laptop to the doremi and sent the commands, the laptop picks up nothing at all. Ive looked in the bios for the doremi and its showing the serial ports (2 actually?) as active but no matter what i try i cant get a response on the pc at all. Marco, Ive been doing as you recommend, and this works fine from my PC via hyper terminal (using caps or small case doesn't actually make a difference - both work fine) so i'm stumped... This isnt something i would actually use a great deal, just would be handy for the few times I would (We are hosting the Cornwall Film Festival here again in November - would be handy for then as they have a large amount of short films on various formats). If we cant get this to work this way, does anyone know of a simple program that i can use on a windows laptop to create a gui where i can just click a button, and it send the desired command? Thanks for all your help thus far guys, its really appreciated. Matt  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 09-16-2012 06:18 AM                     Hello Matthew, Are you using a straight cable? Are you sure you are adding "\" and not "/" at the end? Are you sure you are selecting "serial" when creating the message you're sending? Do you mind sending me some screenshots? I tried that command on a doremi with a gefen connected and it worked, that's why I'm puzzled!  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 09-16-2012 07:29 AM                     First get it working towards the laptop. Understanding serial communication and cables is a bit complicated first time, but once you know the essentials, it becomes easy to track problems. You need a nullmodem or crossover cable, not a straight cable. This cable needs to have 2 female D9 at it's end. Using a straight cable (male+female) + gender changer is NOT sufficient, as a gender changer does not cross Tx and Rx like a nullmodem/crossover cable. Then you need to set communication parameters on both sides to the same values, Baudrate, Format, no handshake or software handshake at first. And on typical machines you need to make sure you are using the right COM Port. Some machines in the wild have dozends of COM Ports on the OS level. You need to make sure which of those is the physical port on the machine or USB converter. If you already manage to send commands from the notebook to the scaler, you should already know the proper COM Port. Do you use a built-in COM Port, or a USB-COM adaptor on the notebook? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 09-16-2012 08:39 AM                     Carsten, I used the serial cable I use to connect to Dolby equipment, as far as I remember it's a straight cable. And - as mentioned - it worked straight away with a doremi and a Gefen - hence there is no need to check the serial format. Also, I am fairly sure that serial ports work on doremi, old and new.  |  IP: Logged Matthew Philp Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Newquay, Cornwall, England Registered: Aug 2012 posted 09-16-2012 09:23 AM                     Right, Ive got it working (Finally) - the mistake i had was putting a space in between the S SOURCE 0 & the \r\n. So the settings necessary in case anyone wants to do this themselves... Under Devices, Add Serial device and the settings are.. Identifier - Serial (Can be whatever you like though) Serial Port - /dev/ttyS0 Speed - 19200 Data - 8 Stop bits - 1 Parity - none Flow Control - none Message type - fixed-length (leave bytes blank) Then under macro editor, create new macro add new action under input/output, send message Select device (serial or whatever you put in identifier above) Message type - text Message - S SOURCE X\r\n replace X with... 0 for HDMI 1 for DVI1 2 for DVI2 3 for Comp2 4 for Comp 1 5 for VGA now all i have to do is update my controlpanel page! Thanks everyone for their help with this, sorry its been such a pain. I'm off now to call my engineer to rub his nose in it! Thanks again Matt  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 09-16-2012 11:55 AM                     Glad it worked What you mean with "update my control panel page"? You mean sofware version? Or you mean the handy page where you can have all the buttons you want to easily call the macros, by the Schedule tab?  |  IP: Logged Matthew Philp Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Newquay, Cornwall, England Registered: Aug 2012 posted 09-16-2012 12:02 PM                     the control tab after schedule... thanks again  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 09-16-2012 01:00 PM                     What Doremi software version are you running? I am not familiar with said control page!  |  IP: Logged Matthew Philp Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Newquay, Cornwall, England Registered: Aug 2012 posted 09-16-2012 01:07 PM                     We have the latest version on our Doremi's, but the feature has been available since version 2.2 I believe. You want to check out page 167 on the Doremi's latest user manual here http://www.doremilabs.com/downloads/manuals/DCP-2000_and_DCP-2K4_User_Manual_001822_v1_2.pdf Its really handy if your doing anything live, we have it set up for house lights, tabs etc and some basic projector controls.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 09-16-2012 02:56 PM                     Yes, it's a bit hidden and it's not straightforward to setup, that's possibly why it's not usually installed as a default - you need to tweak an XML file. Nothing terrible, and very useful as Matthew said.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.