CP-650 Serial Programming in Control4

[Joseph Re]

Yeah, from what I was able to glean the C4 website, the real programming software is a paid product or dealer only product. The very rudimentary driver wizard he has access to may not get him across the goal line without access to the more complete programming interface that can use variables and logic. If there is a party responsible for the C4 install there, that is who to solicit. Or use the workaround of a 2nd device that can accept commands you are able to build, and has the requisite features to do the rest of the 650 serial stuff.

Joseph, I wasn't thinking of a separate volume device, nothing that complex, I think the C4 could still be the front end, you just have to build the real automation scripting elsewhere on something like a JNIOR or Raspberry Pi, and C4 just sends the basic commands it is able to, the translation device does the rest of the work. But it all depends what you need on the front-end.

So, we are the Control4 dealer, and that "wizard" is literally the only <advanced> programming tool available for creating drivers. It's basically garbage. It has not been updated in years. The drivers that C4 develops for supported devices are built in high level language that we don't have access to - I am actually having a call with a 3rd party C4 app developer this afternoon who builds commercial drivers for products like this. I also spoke to the Dolby tech who is supporting this system and he understands the JNIOR implementation, so he said he'd help sorting that out (to see if it's a good alternative).

Thanks for all the great info, I appreciate the insights!

Edit: this is literally the only page available regarding serial codes - https://www.control4.com/help/c4/sof...ing_serial.htm

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Tony, serial or Ethernet...it is the same commands. Even in your code you are using a variable (CP650_LEVEL_SEND) and testing if you are going above 100 or below 0 and if not, incrementing. The CP650_LEVEL_NORMAL is also your variable, not the CP650's. I think Joseph's problem is that he doesn't have a variable to store the existing fader so he can add/subtract and then send it back to the processor.

Thank you for confirming my thought process on this.

Now a question for you: Since the command structure is the same on Ethernet and RS232 for the CP650, why won't it do incremental volume changes over Ethernet? Is it something to do with how the Ethernet port parses incoming data? Or is it just that it takes some fancy programming tricks on the controller's end to make it work? Even with the NetLinx hardware by AMX, a much more experienced programmer than I am wasn't able to get it to work. Since we had a handy RS232 output on the Netlinx server, we just gave in and used the RS232 to make it work.

I also am curious about Dolby's remote faders for the CP 650, what protocol is that data bus? (knowing Dolby it is probably something proprietary kept under double secret probation.)

[Steve Guttag]

Tony, what command are you sending over serial to increment/decrement. I don't know of any such command (I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I just haven't seen it). As far as the remotes, if you check the CP650 manual section D.2, they do go over its protocol including that it is a tri-state output (so all devices have to release the buss when they are done). Nowhere is it mentioned that there is a built-in increment/decrement function.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Steve that was about two decades ago so I don't recall what the other programmer tried, and I don't have any of those Netlinx programs archived. (My programming for Netlinx was pretty awful, I never even finished transcoding my own screening room program from Axcess to Netlinx. I had written over a hundred programs for Axcess, and was more comfortable with that code set.) About the only thing I am fairly certain about was that he tried several iterations of the same "integer to ascii" variable strings and never got it to work. The processor would completely ignore any attempts. But we did get format selections and muting to work.

So the remotes seem to use a proprietary Dolby protocol, and I guess the remote faders were just shaft encoders as on the front panel. Which in hindsight makes me wonder if somehow emulating the encoder output could work..but the secret sauce is getting the processor's attention to accept that input I guess. Someone smarter than me could probably 'scope the remote bus and figure it out..but since we are talking about essentially obsolete equipment it wouldn't be worth it economically. (But if I had a CP-650 and remote I'd try it for giggles.)

[Lindsay Morris]

FWIW.
When I switched from Film to Digital in 2013 I found the control of Volume settings in the CP 650 processor very good and desirable as I found that volume settings on various Trailers, screen ads and then features varied quite a LOT which really annoyed me as nothing is worse than a blaring trailer and then a quiet feature.
So after building each Playlist session I would do a run through into about the first 10mins of the feature and observe on the VU Meter what the sound levels were on every clip and adjust the CP650 volume to what I deemed suitable for my setup noting each clip's ideal volume setting.
Then go back into the Playlist and set the Vol precisely from my notes for each clip and then save it.

That was using the Ethernet control of the CP 650 and I found it quite reliable although I had been told by my installer that it was rather "clunky". In practice it worked flawlessly and I was fascinated to watch the CP 650 Vol number I had set in the playlist move precisely to where I wanted it as each clip came along.
End result was a nice clean consistent Audio volume for every session

[Bruce Cloutier]

Also FWIW, The CP 650 commands are listed in the last section of the Installation Manual and there is no command to increment/decrement. So what the JNIOR does is read the volume level, increment that and write it back. At least this is my understanding after asking Kevin briefly about it just now. We save the volume level to make further adjustments easier. This is how iBooth (AMC) handles the CP 650 for instance.

This doesn't lend itself to the transmission of a simple unidirectional command. You do need a device like the JNIOR that can be programmed to perform the steps in response to a simple command from the media server.

BTW, even if you don't have a JNIOR at all you are welcome to contact support to see how it is handled.