We have a MSC-400 controlling the display system in our showroom. I'm trying to add a RS232 controlled device to our existing configuration and am hitting a snag. I'm able to open the "add devices" dialog and configure the new device, but when I click on the "Save and exit" button, nothing happens. The button responds to the mouse click (that is to say the graphic changes to its "depressed" state) but the program doesn't save the information or close the dialog box. I've also tried creating a new configuration with just the device I'm adding, then importing that device into the existing configuration. This gives me a "Can't import connected device" error. I am able to add devices to other (new) configurations, so I don't think it's purely a problem with the editor. This is a fairly complex configuration (theater, media room, whole house system, multiple shared sources) that has taken many months to configure/tweak, so I'm not too thrilled about starting over. Anyone ever run into anything like this?

I just sent you an email with some questions. Hopefully we'll be able to get this solved for you...

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff. You have mail.

To everyone who might be reading this,

We're emailing each other on this one and I have some ideas - if this turns into a useful example to share with everyone I'll try to post the final results when we get there.

Jeff

Jeff, I wish you had been reading a couple weeks ago when I couldnt get the MSC400 software to let me import devices from a remote file (for an MX900). Every time I would check the boxes on the devices and then click save to import the editor would crash. I had to start completly over.

Jeff's email address is in his profile, so he obviously doesn't mind someone asking him directly when all else fails.

I don't mind at all, though you will often get a faster answer from tech support. This week, for instance, I'm in Calgary and Vancouver and will only have small windows of opportunity to answer emails or even to surf RC...

BTW, the problem here was that there were too many devices clogging the MSC400. Remember:
Don't import duplicate devices (same device from multiple MX configurations, CD when it's really just the DVD you are controlling).
Don't import fake devices (Watch and Listen are considered devices by the software, but they really aren't used that way).
Don't import RS232 devices (create them from scratch in the MSC editor).
While people have used dual emitters on the IR outputs of the MSC400, trying to control 23 or 24 (or more in this case) devices will work best with multiple MSC400's.

Jeff

This is not entirely true Jeff. I am Installtech's boss and have been following these events closely. We are both power programmers and are not novices. The MSC 400 has many small and irritating bugs, all of which we have been able to over come however. In fact it was bugs that originally forced us to import duplicate devices. At some stage in the life of the MSC, it seems that whatever bug was in the MSC firmware or MSC editor forcing that, has been corrected.

At any rate, your "guess" that this was a memory issue doesn't entirely hold water, as we started deleting devices and once we deleted about 2/3 of the devices in the MSC config, we were able to add in the serial device. We then were able to add back in all of the devices that we had in the first place, ending up with all the devices that there was supposedly not enough memory for. Granted, the editor may allocate memory in it's file allocation table differently, depending on the order the devices are added. Who knows though?

Another thing that seems buggy. On that supposed full configuration we were having trouble with, the only way we could delete devices was to delete them in the left tree pane of the editor. It would not allow us to delete them in the device assignment window, even though there is clearly a delete device utility there in that dialog box.

We gone through and deleted most of the duplicate devices in our showroom MSC config. We however are keeping our Watch pages, as they are the only thing that delineates devices from one remote to the next. i.e. We rename the watch pages on the remotes to indicate what area they reside in. This allows us better housekeeping in the MSC400 config tree view. I hope this is ok to do, it seem benign (other than taking up a little bit of memory). Please let me know if this will mess the programming up.

Don't get me wrong, we love the MSC400 and do sell a number of them. I do wish URC would polish this product and work out some of the weird problems and quirks. It seems to be a little shaky at times, and we have been forced to start new when adding devices or features to an existing configuration. It seems that URC engineers are stretched thin at times, trying to bring out new products when the existing products could use some refining if not debugging.