Are these ready to go for all devices? 50% of them? Who knows what the pin out really is for these things?

BNC

Any device with a serial port on the back will use a standard 9-pin (compact) RS232 port.

So, if it has a serial port, it can be connected to the MSC400 with no difficulty.

Now, there aren't many serial port commands built into the MSC400, so it is likely that you'll have to define those commands yourself. However, any equipment advanced enough to have a serial port on the back will undoubtedly have a list of the supported commands available too. After all, it can't be used without them, which decreases its value as a selling point to zero. The manufacturers know this, so they make the commands available.

Sean

SO far I used a Female 232 adapter for the fireball, and a Male 232 adapter for the Sherbourn Preamp Processor with codes available from both their websites and support. I still can't get codes for the NAD T765 AVR and Sony VPL-VW50 Proj. If I can get my hands on the Pioneer plasma codes, then the only thing that would be IR in my system would be the cable boxes.

BTW I did notice that the new HD Scientific Atlanta cable boxes have a secret code for powering on and off. After testing, any number powers the box on. So if the unit is off and a code of 3 is sent, then that will power on the cable box. So then sending 3 - enter - power will always power off the box.

BNC

First off, every scientific atlanta box has a setting called POWER AND NUMERIC. ALl you have to do is insure it's checked off inthe menu.

Second, the BEST way to send a power command to the unit is 0 0 Select. Reason being is that 00 is not a valid channel and will not change the channel if you hit the button again. The purpose of two zeros is to make sure it's activated, and the purpose of the select command speeds it up. You can shut if off with 0 0 select power.

We have been doing this as of late and find them to be the best option. Just make sure you tell your customer if the box is replaced, reconfigured, rebooted that he needs to set it to POWER ON NUMERIC.

Vincent

Unfortunately, not all of the boxes have this option. The ones loaded with Passport software from Time Warner do not (I know, I have several)

Sean

These are the first two boxes I have seen with this feature so far. Must be new then.

SO far I have success with RS-232 control in this system:
Sony Pearl Projector (using cat5 to 9 pin null modem adapter)
Sherbourn Pre Processor using XLR out to genelec amps & sub
Fireball DVDM-100
NAD T765 (no luck yet with codes)

IR control:
2 HD cable boxes
2 Pioneer plasmas
1 X-Box 360
1 NAD 2 zone ARV
1 CE Labs 4x1


All this is connected to an MSC-400 being controlled by 2 MX-3000's and 1 MX-900 in a basement using 1 RF antenna.

So far so good,

BNC

ps. I was sharing one of the cable boxes for the theater and bar area. When I use the HDMI out to the projector, is it supposed to shut down the component output?

I wouldn't call it the best, per-say.. The best would actually be 0 0 Exit. Channel 0 on Comcast goes to their OnDemand channel.

Although off-topic to the thread, I should also point out that even if you have this, it may not work "well" depending on your model and firmware. This used to be a great workaround for my 8300HD cable boxes, but then they upgraded the firmware. Now, when I hit a numeral key to turn it on, 95% of the time the hard drive has powered down into idle mode.

The issue is the unit *ignores* all IR commands until the hard drive has finished spinning up. At which point there is an approximately 1/2 second window (and how many seconds this window is after the digit appears to be erratic since I could never get a macro to be reliable) to send the EXIT command. Otherwise, the tuner attempts to tune in the channel entered.

Of course most people use the digit [0], which isn't a valid channel and used to mean the box did nothing, but with the new firmware it tunes the *next* available channel, which for me is "1". To some this isn't an issue, but I prefer the box to turn on to the last viewed channel.

Otherwise, if you're using the MSC-400, a 100% reliable and more elegant workaround is to use the power sensor. Cannibalize an old AC/DC wall wart, wire it up to the sensor, plug it into the back of the 8300HD, then make sure it's configured to turn the outlet on and off. Works 100% smoothly and reliably as if the unit had discrete codes.

(I've heard reports that smaller, cheaper wall warts with less capacitance work best for this, otherwise there's a bit of a lag on sensing.)

Does anybody have the RS-232 code for the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD? I would like a more reliable connection to my box instead of regular IR via RF, triggers from the MSC works much better especially with RS-232. Can anybody email it to me?