rs-232 control

[pangloss]

i was surprised to find so little about the rs232 port searching the forum. are most people not trying to use their computers to control their equipment? it seems more and more people are using htpcs so i thought there would be more interest in controlling the stereo equipment via computer as well.

i know that there are (expensive) commercial solutions such as crestron. and i know there's some technical documentation on rotel's site. is there nothing in between? has anyone actually tried some very basic manipulation--e.g. hooking up a rotel receiver to a pc and using a terminal emulator like hyperterm to send on/off codes or input switch codes?

also, can someone recommend a source for a db-9 to rj-45 cable for use between a pc and the rsx-1055? this isn't a cable i've seen before.

[JKohn]

Actually there was a thread here discussing it not long ago, a forum member even wrote a VB app for controlling the 1066. The only problem is there really aren't any capabilities via the RS-232 that aren't also available via remote. It would be nice if you could do thinks like explicit volume levels, etc, but you can't.

Anyways a search should turn up the thread containing the download link.




Jeff Kohn

http://home.houston.rr.com/jeffkohn

[pangloss]

when you click on a posting from a search query, is there a way to view the entire thread and not just the single post?

anyway i'm not finding this vb app. fyi: searching for "rs-232" on "club rotel" for "past year+"

and i'm surprised you can't set volume levels explicitly. that's a shame, actually. i was thinking it'd be great to set up an htpc to turn on the receiver, set the input, volume, etc. and start playing a dvd or audio cd, and set the appropriate surround mode depending on the media, etc. all from a single click.

[JKohn]

when you click on a posting from a search query, is there a way to view the entire thread and not just the single post?

You're right, I hadn't noticed that before but it is rather inconvenient. Anyway, here's the thread I was talking about.

i was thinking it'd be great to set up an htpc to turn on the receiver, set the input, volume, etc. and start playing a dvd or audio cd, and set the appropriate surround mode depending on the media, etc. all from a single click.

Well, you can do most of that except set the volume to a specific setting. But there's really not much you get do with the serial protocal that you can't do with a learning remote, with the exception of possibly querying the current status of certain things.




Jeff Kohn

http://home.houston.rr.com/jeffkohn

[pangloss]

thank-you!
i have to say this is a great forum. it might be enough to swing me to the rotel over the nad just to have such a great community =)
i could just think of the $400 difference as a feel-good, warm & fuzzy support network thing oi.