2-way Serial control of the Halo via Main Lobby

[Kingdaddy]

For those of you interested in remote serial 2-way control of the Halo C1/C2 there is some good news, Cinemar is working on a plugin for their Main Lobby control program that will allow RS-232 (serial) 2-way control of all major functions. I originally bought this program to control the Sony CX777ES DVD Changer and if it works as good as the Sony plugin then this should be a Godsend for us who are into home automation. The 2-way controls should be able to reliable report status of all displayed functions as well as control. I have made a scene that has the Halo control buttons layed out and working for IR right now but will be converting them to serial control over the next few weeks. I will post a screen shot later tonight of the control layout to give an idea of what can be done with this software. For those who cant afford a AMX / Creston system this should do all that it will for about $200. To really make this system like the AMX system you will need to add some Progear or Airpanels for wireless touch screen interface, this will add about $500 to the total. Having a 15” touch screen next to my seat with 300 DVD’s and nearly 400 CD’s on tap for instant viewing and listening is the coolest thing I have yet to set up in my HT. This kind of control make me feel like all my money was well spent, plus I have a lot more room now that I don’t have rows of shelves storing media. This kind of system is defiantly not for everyone, but if you have the time and the desire to DIY your own control system and some computer skills then it is well worth it and far cheaper then any turnkey system. Some of these guys over at the Cinemar forum have their entire house setup and automated through the Lobby software and can control security cameras, A/C, Pool temp, lighting, A/V and even door locks.


Jprafter:

Sorry about the syntax error, I forgot to tell you that I ran into the same problem but it took me 3 day to find out that the Tildey (~) was supposed to be Piping (|). I have all my one-way commands working now and Dave has sent me a partially working 2-way command for the volume control that reports back the volume level on a scale of 1-100. However, the command is very erratic and basically unusable, but it has some example codes in it that may be of use for all of us who are experimenting.

Far more information can be found at Cinemar’s forum where I have a thread on controlling the Halo C2 via Main Lobby. Do a search on kingdaddy or emillika and it should point you to the thread, emillika is the primary beta tester and further along then me at this point, so he may be able to shed some more light on the 2-way stuff.

[jprafter]

I'll be working on the two way commands this weekend. I'll let you know if I make any progress. BTW how did you get it working? Was it your comport settings? the cable? the commands? What was wrong?

I'm glad you are making progress. Like you I bought the cinemar products to control my CX777ES, though I've never been completly happy because it can not automatically identify the DVD discs and populate the information in cinemar. I found another product from IBT corp. that did this, but it was somewhat unstable. I also use music lobby and velocity server to front end my cdj/slinke control of my 9 CX90ES changers. I have played with main lobby in the past to control some other equipment with varied results.

KingDaddy, I'm curious, I use a viewsonic airpanel to access the cinemar products on my HTPC. Are you using anything like that?

Thanks again for sending the plugin!

[Kingdaddy]

The problem was phantom, after a few re-boots it just started working, still haven’t figured out why, didn’t make any changes.

Are you saying that DVD Lobby will not populate, I use it with great success, love it, of course I have to manually enter each DVD bar code into the data base but once you get your collection in there isn’t a snap to add as you buy.

Yes I have a Airpanel as well, love it too.

I've ripped my CD collection to the HD in a .wav format and use MC10 as the engine, works pretty well but J Rivers MC10 has a few quarks and the owner is a.....well I cant use those words on a public forum, but after posting a few questions about some problems I was having on their forum my post was immediately deleted and I was banned for life, then when I e-mailed him to ask why he would not tell me. Then after repeatedly asking why I was being denied support he went nuts and started phone stalking me at work and tried to get it touch with my boss to rat me out for posting on working hours. I had to call him up and threaten him to stay away from me, then he revoked my license for his software so I can’t get any help what so ever. Anyway, I have figured out how to get around all the most bothersome issues, and it works pretty well except for some pops and clicks in the music files, cant figure out why I'm getting them. Still it’s nice to have all your music at the touch of a finger, just wish I could get away from MC10.

I’ll be working on the 2-way commands this weekend as well, still cant figure out why the 2-way volume is so erratic, when you grab the vol slider and pull it to the right to turn up the volume then let it go it will snap back to (very close) where it was and barly change the volume at all, then when you grab it and pull it to the left it seems to work much better. If you want I will e-mail you my Halo .swf file that has the 2-way slider on it if you need an example of how the 2-way commands work, I for one cant figure out what is going on in the label field and how it works.

Good Luck.

[jprafter]

As for DVD Lobby, I would like it to do what CDJ does. I would like it to read the DVD table of contents and identify the DVD automatically from a database (Like CDDB for CD's). This is what DVPGenie from IBT does, but it's not too polished. I can manually identify them through DVD Profiler and import them in to DVD Lobby OK enough, but it's more work. Anyway, living with it till I find something better.

As for the ML, I've got most 2 way commands working. Please email me the volume slider, that doesn't seem to work right as I used MLServeCmd.MLHaloC2|Set_Volume~{{HaloC2_VolumeREL} } and the standard slider button. Seems to do something but not steady. When I use the discrete volume up and down commands from another button, strangely, it changes the slider correctly. Odd huh?

Further, I think there may be some problems regarding the ML plugin and the new firmware. When was the pluging developed? Before or After the firmware release? The reason I ask, is because I do not believe there are status return codes for the prologic IIx modes. Also is the a staus to return if the EBass is on?

Anyway, making progress and still very happy.

Thanks again. I will post this on the ML site as well.

[jprafter]

Does anyone have a copy of the updated C1/C2 RS232 Codes for the new release? I don't remeber seeing this pdf in the download. I believe there would have to be some new commands and return codes for the new fuctionality, specifically Dolby Prologic IIx and others.

If not, does anyone have contacts at Parasound so we can get it?

Regards,

John

[jprafter]

ops: Looks like they updated the website. I just checked, and looks like a new version is out there. Thanks anyway.

[bhuskins]

the codes have not been updated though...

There actually is another more robust pdf file on AMX's website in regards to the 232 protocol.

Brent Huskins

[jprafter]

Brent, can you supply the link? I would be very interested. I did see another document from Flextronics, entitled Titan RS232 Document version 0.5, however this also hadn't been updated for PLIIx.

Thanks in advance.

[bhuskins]

The flextronics document version .5 is the one I'm talking about. The AMX's netlinx module is version 1.3 dated 10/18/04

As far as I'm aware though the new commands have not had coordinating RS232 commands added to the protocol for use. I've heard though that the command for PLII will work for PLIIx...I haven't checked this out yet. I will be soon though...being that my house has a C1 and a C2 along with a complete AMX and Lutron system.

Brent Huskins

[bhuskins]

AMX's site is for dealers only...I can email the files if anyone wants them. Just PM or email me.

Brent Huskins

[jprafter]

Thanks Brent, I sent you a PM with my email.

[Kingdaddy]

Sorry, I've been neck deep in another project and hadn’t had time to check the thread. I have found the same problem you have with the slider, still not sure what the proper syntax for these 2-way commands are, the slider Dave did for me is using the Set_Volume Command and I don’t see that anywhere on the .pdf document that has the command list.


I will e-mail you the Volume Slider as soon as I get home tonight, do I have your e-mail?

[Kingdaddy]

Here is a screen shot

[jprafter]

I got the volume slider. I'm not crazy about how it works, seems quirky. I see you incorporated the mode buttons, they look good. Still wish we had some variables (on, off) for the source selection. I'll put a note out on the ML forum and see if there's any chance of getting those so we can show the selected souce button. Overall it's working well and looks nice on my airpanel.

[Kingdaddy]

Yes the Volume ABS just wont work for me either, if I change it to the Volume REL it works OK but still a little quarky. Have you tried ChannelInfo yet, I cant get it to work at all.

[Kingdaddy]

Jprafter:

Did you have any troubles with the toggle state of the 7.1 button? I cant get it to turn Blue when it's active, it's either Blue all the time or not at all.

[jprafter]

KingDaddy,

I don't belive he has a return variable for the 7.1 analog mode. That's what I used to trgger the color change of the buttons. Most of the other modes have variables that are on, off, Those you can use to trigger the button status. That's why I requested something like that for the audio source. I would like the source button to light up so to speak. Let me know if I'm mistaken and there really is a 7.1 status variable.

Regards

[Kingdaddy]

No you're not mistaken, now I know what you ment by that request. I'm a little behind on the beta testing, I've been trying to finish my center channel so I havent been spending much time on this. Guess I'll just have to leave the 7.1 toggle as is. Have you tried the channelInfo command yet, I still cant get it to work.

[jprafter]

Actually I think I did. I only tried it with stereo sources though. It didn't return anything. I was going to test it with a DVD source but I forgot, LOL. Guess I got busy with something else. ops:

[Kingdaddy]

I already tried it with a few DVD's and still got no variables returned. It would be nice to have one variable that would return all info that displays on the front panel.

[Kingdaddy]

FYI

There is a new version of the plugin available at the Cinemar site, Dave was able to fix the ChannelInfo bug. Now you can get the variables of 2/0 or 3/2.1.

[jprafter]

Thanks, I had already gotten it. Channel information now displays correctly. Now if we could have a bass and treble slider, a better way to identify which audio input is on, a display of what is on the menu like the front panel of the C2, and a few other goodies I'd be happy. :W

[Kingdaddy]

What command are you using for the master volume? I've tried them all and the Frontpanel_Volume works the best, the others suck. In addition, there are about 20 commands on the list that I have no idea what they do, do you have any idea what they all do?

[jprafter]

The one I'm using does not work well either. It's the one for the slider. The slider does not seem to keep up with the volume change. I really havn't been spending much time on it with outdoor stuff coming into the picture. I'll see if I can take a look, is there anything specific you were looking for?

[Kingdaddy]

Here are a few:

Bass_Mix (Off/On)
Mode_Ctrl
Noise
Source_Ctrl
Trim_Mode (any of these)
Wakeup

Two-Way Commands:
HaloC2_ButtonPress
.....OperatingMode
.....VFD
.....CustomMusic
.....Surround61

to name a few.

Also notices that Stereo command doesnt work.

I've posted at Cinemar but no response.

[jprafter]

The Stereo command only works when you are using greater than 2 channel sources. If you want stereo for a 2 channel source, try DIRECT.

Bass_Mix is the Enhanced Bass as Parasound calls it.

I think the xxxx_Ctrl's are to set the preamp to use the Frontpannel_Control_Plus and Minus commands. This is just a guess.

There is a document from Flextronics Design that was used by the designer of the C2 plugin. You have to remember he doesn't have a C1 or C2. He used this Flextronics document as his guide and named the commands accordingly. This document is for the logic chip used in our C2. Parasound did not implement all the capabilities of this chip, and sometimes they renamed the capabilities they did implement. So this is where the confusion comes from. We will have to make sure he implemented all the commands and then just test them one by one to see what they do.

[jprafter]

OK, I felt guilty so I did lots of testing last night. Here's what I found out so far:

On the strange or not working side:

system_select, system_step, external_brightness, left, home, delay, f1, music1, normal and some other commands that are similar don't seem to do anything. Some I tested in various channel configurations since some commands only work with 2 channel sources and some with DD sources.

Cine_eq seems to turn on and off this Cinema EQ mode, but I called Parasound and they said this is not implemented.

It looks like trim should work with trim_mode, however I found trim_mode will toggle through bass, treble, center, ect. but then when you try to adjust with trim, it only changes the subwoofer setting. So this is probably not useful.

Trim_Plus_Repeat did something strange. It turned on zone B. After this zone is on, Trim_Minus_Repeat scrolls trough the Zone B inputs. This may be due to the wrong codes used or just an oddity.

On the working side:

Treble, Bass, Center, Surround and Subwoofer plus and minus work correctly along with the associated return abs variables.

Preset1-5 also works to change the preset on the fly. This does not change the permanent associations with the sources.

Compression is what Parasound calls Late Night, and it also works.

Noise works when you are in the level setup menu.

OSD_Status works just like the Status on the remote.

OSD_Setup brings up the setup menu, and the Cursor_Enter, right, etc. commands all work.

FrontPannel_Volume_plus works exactly the same as Main_volume_plus as far as I can see, I did not test when in Zone B.

ModePlus and Minus work as they should. Cycling through the available modes for the number of channels input. Note that when Direct is selected with two channel sources, the OSD showed Stereo. If Stereo is selected nothing happens with 2 channel sources but it does work with DD souces.

I still would like to see the values from the eeprom dumped to variables. I know that the user defined names for the audio and video inputs must be stored there and I would like to be able to display those. Dave has already provided the Audiosource variable which works great but only displays a number. There are other valuable fields stored in the eeprom which could be useful. I think that Dave needs a more up to date spec sheet than the Flextronics .5 version, but I have no idea how we can get one. I forgot to ask parasound if they have a more detailed spec sheet than the one on the web. My guess is they must. Maybe someone could investigate. Also, a nice to have would be a variable that contained what is being displayed on the front panel of the C2. Then you could navigate the menus without having the OSD.

If anyone wants anything specific tested, just let me know.

[Kingdaddy]

I've found a strange quark with cretin input modes (video3) in this case, when I switch to this mode which is my DVD player input, it will automatically change the DSP mode from Direct to Stereo. It never did this before I installed the new plugin. I still get Dolby Digital 3/2.1 on the channel ID variable so there is no indication that anything is wrong unless I look at the front panel and see Stereo. Having a screen covering the C2 is the real problem here, normally you wouldn’t think this a problem except that the Halo when detecting a DD 3/2.1 source in stereo mode will play every channel except the center channel, I've never heard of this with any other processor. After about 15 minutes of the movie I started noticing something was wrong so I put my ear to the cc to find no sound was coming from it, then I have to raise the screen to see what’s happening and switch back to “Direct” to get sound out of the center. I concur with the idea of having a variable that will display the information shown on the front panel, all information, without it all the 2-way variables are worthless since there are so many combinations that can cause the wrong mode. Strange that the ChannelInfo wont return this info, it should. If I can’t get this to work, I'm of a mind to connect up a small dedicated monitor to the OSD and forget the whole 2-way variable return thing.

[jprafter]

Here's my current GUI...

Here's a screen shot...

[jprafter]

By the way, the plugin has been working well now. I do not use the slider for the volume as that is still not working properly.

[emillika]

Are you willing to share your scenes? I LOVE the look of them. I need to get back into configuring and playing with the lobby suite.

Thanks.

Elmer

[jprafter]

Sure, let me have your email and I'll send it to you.

[eduardw]

I would like to know if parasound has there own software to control their equipment by rs232.

[Kingdaddy]

I would like to know if parasound has there own software to control their equipment by rs232.

No they don't, just the raw codes to make your own. I use Cinemar's plugin to control mine.

http://www.cinemaronline.com/mlserver.html

[eduardw]

Thanks, kingdaddy

[Chris D]

jprafter, you should post lots more shots of your setups! That one by itself was just wayyyyy too much a tease. Make them bigger, too!

[jprafter]

Rofl

Didn't mean to be a tease... I tried to post a larger screen image in gif format but the attach files function limited the size I could post.

I could use some instruction on how to get a larger file in the message.

BTW, I believe that kingdaddy is using the same airpanel as I am. I think I saw you posted pics of his system. I've had good luck with it and using the cinemar software

[jprafter]

Kingdaddy, I just saw another post about an external monitor for displaying the OSD information and it got me thinking. I wondered if maybe you have already tried it...

What if we routed the OSD from the C2 back into our HTPC's and then presented it as an overlay in cinemar when the menu button is pressed? Or Maybe just a smaller part of our cinemar C2 control screen? I know my Radeon x800 has svideo input and I think I can display any size window as an overlay.

If you haven't already done this I think I'm game to try it. Let me know.

[Kingdaddy]

Haven’t tried it yet, but I would think you would need a some way to talk to the video input and I don’t think Main Lobby will do it without something like Homesteer. But I could be wrong; it's actually a very good idea and is getting me to thinking. Maybe Greg or Smoothy over at Cinemar’s site will know, they know everything. I don't know if my Video card has a Video In though, does yours?

[Chris D]

Ummm... well, not a bad idea. That would be cool... output OSD data from the Halo C1/C2, input it to a computer, then integrate it with a Cinemar display for output.

That would be pretty sweet. Seeing as how Mario is a genius, he could probably make it work.

[jprafter]

Kingdaddy,

I checked and found that my ATI X800 does not, however I have an ATI HDTV Wonder installed which does. I'm sure we can easily route the S-video w/OSD to that input. It would be very easy to call the ATI viewer finction to display. It will be just the logistics of the overlay screen in MainLobby. This would all display on the airpannel for easy viewing. Hopefully eliminating one of my big problems with the C2, not being able to see OSD when I'm using either my component or DVI inputs on my TV.

I'm currently changing out my operating system on my HTPC from XP Pro SP2 to MCE 2005. I want to see what benefits I can gain from that as my other two PC's already have MCE 2005. So this is on the list, but not number 1.

Regards,

John

[Kingdaddy]

Kingdaddy,

I checked and found that my ATI X800 does not, however I have an ATI HDTV Wonder installed which does. I'm sure we can easily route the S-video w/OSD to that input. It would be very easy to call the ATI viewer finction to display. It will be just the logistics of the overlay screen in MainLobby. This would all display on the airpannel for easy viewing. Hopefully eliminating one of my big problems with the C2, not being able to see OSD when I'm using either my component or DVI inputs on my TV.

I'm currently changing out my operating system on my HTPC from XP Pro SP2 to MCE 2005. I want to see what benefits I can gain from that as my other two PC's already have MCE 2005. So this is on the list, but not number 1.

Regards,

John

Let me know how it goes, I have the same problem as you and was hoping that the 2-way Halo plugin would alleviate this problem but sadly it don't, a little disappointed in the plugin, just too sketchy and erroneous. I'll go buy a Video Card with “Video In” if need be but still not sure how to display from within Main Lobby.