Palm m130 to control Hitachi Projector

[BigbertII]

I'm looking for a way to control two Hitachi projectors simultaneously. I'd prefer to use my old M130 Palm to control them with the Palm > Dsub9 Connector. Then I'd make a passive split within the serial cable.

I'd basically like to
- Change source
- Turn Off and On
- Blank and freeze the projector

I don't need feedback to the device but if it's possible to have then id have it.

I was looking to program this but have no experience of serial communication nor Palm programming.

Does anyone think this is viable? and does anyone have any wee pointers of how to start?

Bert

[daver2]

Bert.

First of all - welcome to CMN

Secondly - yes you can control Hitachi projectors from a serial controller - we control three Hitachi projectors at our Church (although each projector is separately connected to the PC via its own serial port). We obtained the serial protocol from Hitachi via the internet - but wrote our own software to do exactly what we want to do (three of us A/V techs are programmers so this is kids stuff for us). Our software does exacly what you want to do - in addition it tells us how many hours of life we have used on the lamps and how long it will be until we have to clean the filters! (This information is stored in the projector but read out and displayed on our PC application to remind us)...

Thirdly - I am a PC programmer and no nothing about the Palm. I have had a quick check on the internet and found this tutorial website which may be of use to you. The turorial lesson comes under the heading of "advanced" so if you have not done any programming before you may like to start with the simpler tutorials first...

http://mobile.eric-poncet.com/palm/tutorial/serial.html

You have to install quite a bit of development software on a Windows or Linux machine to be able to program the Palm - this may be a bit advanced for you if you have not undertaken any programming before. Don't let my comment here put you off though - although the learning curve may be a bit steep for you at first.

If you can tell me which Hitachi projectors you have (or plan to use) I will be quite happy to look and see if they can be programmed with individual addresses so they can both be driven from a single serial port.

Dave

[BigbertII]

Dave, The hitachi projectors are two of these CP-A300NM.
I presume if the projectors were addressable I'd need some sort of distribution to get the info to them, any suggestions?

bert

[sempei13]

I think I'd start on the serial side (but then again that's where I have more experience). Hook up a windows xp pc (with a hardwired serial port) to the projector. Distance matters with a serial connection so look for how fast it's going (9600 baud, 1200 baud, etc.) and google that speed for distance. Slower speeds go farther in an rs-232 scenario.

Now connect between one projector and the computer with a straight-through cable (assuming that the connection on the projector is female and the one on the computer is male; otherwise use a null-modem cable).

Now you need to find the serial protocol. This is often in the instruction manual, but you might need to call the manufacturer to get it.

Now there are some settings you need to know. Look for connection speed, data bits, stop bits, flow control, etc. You'll need those in a second.

Open up hyperterminal in XP (doesn't come with vista or 7, which also rarely have serial ports). Set the settings in hyperterminal for the settings you found in the protocol and find a command to try.

Serial commands can be random-looking strings like "19573?" or actual words like "POWERON<CR>". Often there's some character or key you need to include like <CR> which stands for "carriage return" or "enter" on the keyboard.

Once you get the serial commands working reliably, try adding in the second projector (which might not work because of the way serial works) and try programming control from your palm.

Palm Pilots haven't been made for a while so this might not be the best way to go. You might look into some home automation solution if you want a wireless or handheld serial remote.

Paul

[daver2]

Hi Bert.

I found the technical manual for the projector. The manual states that you require a cross-connected RS232 cable to a PC - and gives details of the specific connections you will require in the manual. The RS232 protocol is 19200 bits per second, 8 data No parity and 1 stop bit. The projector also appears to use hardware handshaking (RTS/CTS - Request Ro Send / Clear To Send).

The technical manual also contains a few pages describing the individual bytes that you have to send to it to get it to do the things you want. For example, to turn the power on you would send the byte stream 'BE EF 03 06 00 BA D2 01 00 00 60 01 00' (each byte as a single character of course with no intervening spaces).

Unfortunately, the projector does not seem to have an RS232 'address' so you will either need two separate RS232 links (one to each projector) or a means of swithcing one serial link from the computer to the two separate projectors.

I am sort of with Paul on the palm though. Try using a PC first and see how you get on.

Another alternative though - the projector seems to be equipped with an ETHERNET port which means you can control multiple projectors at a much faster rate using ETHERNET and a web browser rather than RS232! Each projector will have its own IP address and you can 'point' the web browser of your PC to the relevant projector, log in and control!

If you need any more help just ask.

Dave

[BigbertII]

Cheers for the replies

I noticed the ethernet port on them. I think i'll make a Webpage which can send commands to both projectors at the same time, and individually depending upon what they're needed for.

I'll have a play with the palm and let you know how i get on.

Hitachi made a projector control app (PJCtrl) which has been very useful also

Bert

[waynehoskins]

I recently put in a pair of Eiki projectors and an Extron 7SC at my church. The 7SC can talk 232 to the projectors - power on, video mute, etc. - and being lazy, since it's unidirectional communication, I just wyed the one data pair out to both projectors (using cat-3 cable I had knocking around). Works great. If all you're doing is sending commands to the projectors without needing to hear back from them, it's all you need.