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Intermittent 232 issues?
This thread has 6 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Friday September 11, 2015 at 16:22
Dave in Balto
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I have a system in place, RTI control with xp6, 3 epson projectors, ipad running rti app. On occasion, one of the projectors, the closest to the rack won't respond to the power off command. Im using the rti epson driver.

It turns on as its supposed to every time, the relays drop the screen. On occasion though, when the power off macro is issued the screen comes up and the projector stays on.

Any ideas?
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The Dude
Post 2 made on Friday September 11, 2015 at 17:27
Audiophiliac
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Is power off the only code you have issues with? Odd, but I have seen odder. We have had issues with Sony projectors and RS232. Oddly (there's that word again) enough, with the power on command not working reliably. Upon looking at the driver (C4), I noticed that the ON macro issued the command twice. Not sure why. I switched the problem ones to IR and never looked back.

Sony says it is the length of the cable run. We use CAT5e with DB9->RJ45 adapters and sometimes spliced to 3.5mm stereo ends depending on the controller being used. I think they said we should not be running RS232 longer than 15-20'? The funny thing is that we have ones that are closer to 50' that we have not had an issue with. And we have had ones that are closer to 20-25' with issues. So I do not think it is strictly a cable length issue.

I wish they would all just put ethernet ports and give us IP control. It is 2015 for crying out loud! I can IP control a damn refrigerator!
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Post 3 made on Friday September 11, 2015 at 19:25
mark65
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You can try eliminating all the pins except for 2,3, and 5 in the DB9. I've seen instances where RTS and CTS can cause issues.
Post 4 made on Friday September 11, 2015 at 19:34
Duct Tape
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Have you tried sending multiple power off commands in your macro?
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Post 5 made on Friday September 11, 2015 at 21:01
kgossen
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On September 11, 2015 at 19:34, Duct Tape said...
Have you tried sending multiple power off commands in your macro?

Bingo!

My JVC requires 2 off commands to shut off. I've had other gear do weird things like this, always found sending the command twice cleared it up.
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Post 6 made on Friday September 11, 2015 at 21:40
schlepp571
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Most projectors I've ever dealt with be it Sony, Panasonic, etc., have required some kind of second command to power down. It needs to be this way due to the long cool down time and startup times. 2 or 3 minute wait times to restart a presentation are no good if caused from 1 inadvertent power off press.
No, it doesn't come preprogrammed.
Post 7 made on Saturday September 12, 2015 at 20:39
Audible Solutions
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You are not going to get very far with some of these suggestions. By specification 232 has to go 60 ft using shielded, twisted pair. CAT5 is technically a different story but it probably is not going to be the issue. Proper termination is typically avoided when UTP is used. Both TX and RX should have their pairs wired to ground. In other words if OR and GR solid are RX and TX OR/WH and GR/WH should be tied to ground. Rarely is this done. In reality, you can often send RS-232 much further, especially at lower baud rates like 9600. But many issues can effect commands as it is a digital signal, that is made up of square waves. If the wire is too close to a high voltage cable, security cable or some other wire causing induction problems could result. If you just want an out, send an OFF command via IR and figure out the timing for the multiple commands.

Very few devices require by protocol multiple serial commands to turn a projector off. As a practical matter this is often done. Proper coding technique would be to write the macro so that off commands are sent till off_FB is received. This introduces a whole other set of issues regarding polling speed and robustness of serial protocols.

To your problem: You can follow the advice to send the commands multiple times. How far should you space them? And if you are including lift up commands as part of the macro rather than on the off_fb argument you will play with fire no matter what you do. If you have a lift in the system the best procedure is to tie the Lift_UP command to projector feedback that it is cooling down. Failing reliability you might as well use IR as you are in essence doing the same thing with serial by not using the feedback in your code.

OK, solving the problem: Only way to do this is to look at the actual commands being sent and received. This might require putting your computer at the projector and seeing if the command arrives without any issues in the square wave. Use a terminal emulation program for this. 2. See what responses to your command the projector gives. If it's an error code, as I suspect, figure out what it means and fix the macro. Since you probably cannot fix the macro ask C4 to do it. Since they probably will not is there an alternative way to issue the code you can send? Can you write your own command for off? Generally speaking, many who write modules like to include a polling command with it and timing of this can sometimes cause problems. Turn off polling if this is an option but often it's not. Hence we return to using a different "OFF" signal

Alan
"This is a Christian Country,Charlie,founded on Christian values...when you can't put a nativiy scene in front fire house at Christmas time in Nacogdoches Township, something's gone terribly wrong"


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