Greetings,

I'm a control systems programmer from Colorado and I'm making my move from AMX, which I have strong coding skills in, to now Crestron. My company really really wants me to get me into the Intermediate Crestron Programming class ASAP, so they've asked me to on my own time start gearing up for my Crestron training. Only problem is I have little to no clue how one goes about doing this. I've scoured the Crestron web-site and so far the only real helpful things I've found are some manuals and a few product demos. Are there any tutorials available? Or online classes? I have a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow and I'm debating as to wether or not it is wise to skip the programming essentials course at all? It just seems difficult to learn this system on your own. Anyone out there have any experience about teaching themself Crestron? I'm going to ask for a small demo system that I can take home and play around with. Perhaps that will help me along some, I don't know I'm at a real loss.

I was told last week that the first online class should be available any day now.

I'd keep an eye on the dealer section of the Crestron website.

Good Luck!

Crestron's symbolic language will take some getting used to if your experience is with mostly procedual languages. Think of learning Arabic when all you are used to is Lantinate languages. There are a number of reference guides to the language, specificly Crestron Simpl Windows software Installation and Operations guide ( Doc. 5728B04.00 ) which may be available on line. Perhaps easier would be to contact your rep and have Crestron send you the appropriate information.

The Crestron Yahoo site ( not company supported ) has the original "Book of Jeff," which is old and difficult to decipher but the information is there if you are a skilled miner. The " Book of Jeff " ( Jeff wrote the language ) was written for internal use but migrated out. It defines each of the symbols but using language only a hardware engineer could understand. The help files in Simpl Windows does a much better job in defining what a symbol does.

I would print out the help file in Simpl Windows and read over the definitions therein. I would open up some macros and sample programs and try to figure out the basic sybmbols you need to make a simple system work. I do sympathize as I am trying to teach myself procedual languages and it takes some getting used to. The easiest way to grasp is to stop thinking and try to write. That is also the fastest way to learn a foreign language but it can be Zen like to put into practice.

Alan

Speaking as someone with a strong line coding background.....

I started programing Crestron about 9 years ago.... Took a LOT of getting used to. I think the other document on the crestron Yahoo group s the "STS Cookbook" or something like that... Very good read... But mostly, its trial and error....

You'll want to look into Simpl+ as well.... Much like Netlinx, its a bridge to accomodate some more complex string manipulation ....

When I moved to AMX about 3 years ago, it was a good day from a programming standpoint..... Both systems will accomplish the same thigns with the right Programming.... But the Structured line code makes much more sense to my brain.

Good luck!

Darn! You stole the words right of my mouth! (Not!)

A little more of this stuff around RC and I'm going to slink into the background and lurk again, thinking I don't have enough college to offer a contribution. :-)

...and the other important thing to realize is that Crestron courses don't teach you how to program... they teach you how to use their development tools. There are plenty of examples, but it is up to you to develop your own techniques, or steal them from others.

The most usefull thing that I can attribute to helping me with Crestron programming are fundamental digital design and logic courses. You know, the logic side of EE courses... half adders, MUX, deMUX, flip flops, latches, etc...

All right you guys, when is the last time you used a JK flip flop in your Crestron program? ...this illustrates that its not a perfectly efficient way to learn Crestron, but is is one and one that I found very helpful. Hardware architecture is not "programming" in the traditional sense of the word, but it is a standardized science. Take PSpice, unlearn the concept of a CLOCK signal, and you might find Simpl Windows looking more familiar. Higher level languages have opened up the occupation of programming to many more people than if everyone had to work on assembler, plus improved the quality of the software, but its not the only way of doing things. I think that some of the reasons that Crestron has not evolved their programming environment to something more modern is...

1) They are NOT a software company, they provide solutions for a very specific task.
2) The typical Crestron programmer is not a professional programmer, and I don't mean to slight Crestron programmers, (me included, I'm definitely not a professional programmer) but use this term to describe typical software developers that are mostly using MS .NET environment. Most of the Crestron programmers that you see on this forum or other are VERY professional in all other aspects of the word, but not .NET developers.
3) There is a scalability to Simpl Windows that most find very efficient. I'm less concerned with how elegant the solution is inside the box (rare that anyone ever sees this or appreciates it), but being able to predict how long it is going to take me to do, being able to do it, and on many simultaneous projects of large sizes and large quantities.
4) 98% of integration work is not that complicated. Don't underestimate that last 2%, though, it is what makes or breaks the end product.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with Crestron specifically, but everyone who develops UI. Don't think like an engineer.

Thanks for all the help guys, for anyone interested in trying to learn SIMPL on their own I did find a great "Primer to SIMPL Windows" on the Crestron web-site. It's been really helpful so far! Any other web based forums or fan sites for Crestron where I could get some more info??

[Link: groups.yahoo.com]

SIMPL and VTPro have the most comprehensive help sections I've ever seen. F1 will be your best friend when working in these environments.

If you already have a control system background I would skip the essentials course. It's very basic, when I took it, it was just a hardware overview and programing through the wizards.