HouseBot

Anybody else running one of these units via serial?

Not the Pioneer, but an Onkyo. The code setup should be the same for most all AV stuff containing an rs232 port. You can find some examples in the scripts section. Just looked at the new Pioneer 09TX. That should be a nice one to automate... Lot's of features

a little late, but I had housebot running with a marantz VC8100 just fine. I lost the HD and had a corrupted CD-r, so I'm starting from scratch with several RS-232 devices, so I'll have my hands full for a while.


erie

Richard Naninck wrote:Not the Pioneer, but an Onkyo. The code setup should be the same for most all AV stuff containing an rs232 port.

Does it mean, that AV receivers with RS232 port use the same communication protocol? Or this is any standard for that stuff?
You wrote this script for an Onkyo receiver, you tested it with a Pioneer too, so what do you think, is it suitable for my Sony STR-DA5300ES? (The Sony support don't gave me any information about it...)

There are no standards at all in AV land. Everybody uses it's own control protocol. Some reply status and others don't, but no receiver is equal to the other when comparing brands.

About a year ago I wasted a lot of time trying to get the rs232 protocols for my STR-DA3000ES. I finally got someone from Sony on the phone, they told me I had to be an 'authorized installer' to get the info Check out http://www.vibert.us/es-presso/index.htm, it is a utility to control Sony ES receivers. May be a starting point to finding the protocols, if you do find them, let us know.

If you dig a bit around, you will find just about any protocol out there, even Sony's.
I got a directory full of protocols. Onkyo, LG, NAD, Denon, NEC etc etc all have protocols online and most even display them i the owners manual.

Then figure out the settings like baudrate etc, create a generic serial device (see help files), download my Onkyo script and study it. It will be a good basis for writing your own protocol layer for your device.

I integrate with a NEC plasma, Onkyo receiver, multiple LG flatscreens, ELK M1 Gold alarm, FS20 Domotica system, Kramer VGA Matrix etc. All work fine just from vbscript in combination with the Generic Serial Device.

Certainly this way (generic serial device + a script device to parse the received data) is a good solution for it. I'm using this method to communicate with my DSC alarm system with PC5401 card, with my DIY 8 zones, RS232 controlled irrigation system and now I'm developing the integration of my Buderus heating system with Buderus KM271 communication card. So it is a clear method for me.
The problem of Sony devices is a little more complicated. Only a few Sony devices have RS232 connection, there is no published protocol but on many devices there is a little confused S-Link (Control A/A1/A1-II and Control S) connector. Some resources: http://www.boehmel.de/slink.htm, http://undeadscientist.com/slink/index.html, http://www.agoraquest.com/viewtopic.php ... lectronics, and a very fine solution: http://www.qbits.de. I think, that communication with Sony devices through S-Link or RS232 uses the same protocol...
In the HB there is a solution for it, the Nirvis Slink-e product, but it was discontinued in 2004 Q2.
So. one of my next projects is to find a general (RS232 & S-Link) and fine solution to communicate with Sony devices. You know, I'm a Sony fan

I have the Marantz/Pioneer protocol document somewhere, as soon as I find it, I'll post a link to the document on my webserver.


erie patsellis