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Author Topic: RS/232 Integration With MC17  (Read 2393 times)

brucinski

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RS/232 Integration With MC17
« on: April 13, 2012, 08:04:30 am »

I just converted my theater to MC17 and am very pleased with the end result.  I want to take it to the next level and integrate MC17 with Girder (or any other automation framework) and was hoping someone could point me to a getting started guide/thread. 

My goal is to have Girder control my equipment via RS/232 and correlate events with lights, projector, etc.  I would like to leverage the MC17 Theater View interface as the UI.  For example extend the UI and allow controlling source input, volume, device power up/down, etc.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.
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WinoOutWest

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Re: RS/232 Integration With MC17
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2012, 12:16:14 pm »

I have played around with this for years.  I currently use EventGhost (OpenSource) http://www.eventghost.org/ after tiring of the annual Girder upgrade costs and complexity.  Eventghost is great to work with and has been super stable.

I currently use Eventghost and the Denon plugin vs RS232 and some basic lighting control via RS232.  I also use EG via USB-UIRT for a host of other control things via IR.  The macro capability is great and easy to learn.  IE Pushing the Play movie on my phone/webpage can: Switch to MC, TUrn on my Denon, set the volume to 40, change the input on my Denon to DVD, theater view for MC, dim the lights.

I've got JRiver music piped all over the house and I use Evenghost on my other computers to re-purpose the next button on the keyboards (like the keyboard on my basement office PC) to switch the next song on MC on the HTPC in the living room (the source of the music in the house).  (this is donw by running EventGhost on both PCs)


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brucinski

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Re: RS/232 Integration With MC17
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2012, 01:23:08 pm »

Thank you for the response WinoOutWest. 

I am coming at this from a bit of a different angle.  I wanted to actually have a UI in theater view that behind the scenes is making RS232 calls to my preamp and lighting.  For example, add a UI element called "System Control" and have the ability within it to fireup components, adjust volume, etc.  Or when i am in theater view and i start a movie trigger the projoector, dim lights, turn on preamp, adjust volume, etc. 

Do you know where I can find a getting started guide on extending the theater view UI and making calls to eventghost?

I have downloaded EventGhost and have it loaded. 
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WinoOutWest

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Re: RS/232 Integration With MC17
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2012, 01:49:00 pm »

Sweet. I'd be happy to steal have a look at all your work once its finsihed.  :-)
I know EG can certainly handle all the control side of this for you.  From the MC side (aside from the design work on the UI) all you need to be able to do is send an event to EG which although I'm not a programmer and haven't yet done this I know it is pretty straight forward.  Ie Send a network event to EG.   I know guys have made websites with buttons that send off the triggers to EG.  See here for some ideas:
http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3345&sid=18c1b759f0622449df7b7da0ca615572
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brucinski

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Re: RS/232 Integration With MC17
« Reply #4 on: April 13, 2012, 02:06:14 pm »

Thanks!  I will let you know how it goes.
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