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HD1010 not getting serial commands from PC

Irene Giblin

November 03, 2011 00:47

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Hi, I'm trying to send serial/rs232 commands to the HD1010 from a PC via Hyperterminal. Autorun.brs is on the flash card. I'm connected at 115200, 8 data bits, parity none, 1 stop bit and no flow control. I'm using a USB to serial cable out of necessity. After connecting, the HD1010 doesn't respond to commands sent in Hyperterminal. I am pressing "enter" after each command. I set it up so I can see what I'm typing. I updated the firmware yesterday to 3.5.77. The unit will play video on the card without any prompting if I remove autorun.brs and if there is only one video file on the card. This is my first time working with a Roku. I've searched the forums but none of the serial control discussions helped me. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Thank you, Irene

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8 comments

• 0
  
  Brian2 November 03, 2011 16:14

  
  
  Throw away the USB to serial adapter cable.  At 115200 Baud they just don't work reliably enough.
  If you are using a notebook get yourself a PCI express to serial card.  If a desktop PC get a serial card.
  I wasted a whole damn day rooting around with one of those damn Kludgy USB to serial adapters.
  
• 0
  
  Irene Giblin November 03, 2011 22:11

  
  
  Thank you for your reply. I have tried using a PC with a network card and get no response from the Roku. I'm very frustrated at this point.
  
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  Brian2 November 05, 2011 16:03

  
  
  Are you using a null modem cable ?
  ie.  Pin5 to Pin5, pin2 to Pin3, pin3 to pin2 ?
  
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  RokuLyndon November 07, 2011 04:51

  
  
  If you power up the u nit with a script, the unit will ignore any serial input except for those your script has been setup to listen to. If you want to go to the shell, then power up with no content on the root, and no script on the card. Here's some standard info I normally send out about serial or udp control.
  
  You can create your own commands to control the unit over serial or udp. You can do this either using brightauthor where the serial or udp strings you use are up to you. The strings can be used to change from one file to another.
  
  I'm including a link to a video that shows you how you can send commands to playlists created using brughtauthor.
  
  https://www.brightsignnetwork.com/download/Videos/Amx-Crestron-Control-1.m4v
  
  For new control options under BrightAuthor 2.2 watch:
  https://www.brightsignnetwork.com/download/Videos/ba2.2_advanced_serial-1.mp4
  
  Additionally, you can control the unit using a script. I'm attaching a control script and readme. This control script defines a fixed set of playback commands (Play, Stop, Search, Loop, Pause, List, Resume, Download, Reboot, etc). Just copy the autorun and your content to a flash card and you're ready to send commands. The script also provides feedback when a command is received, when a file is found, when a file loops, etc.
  
  You can download the files from this link:
  https://www.brightsignnetwork.com/download/Scripts/control-5-23-11.zip

• 0
  
  Irene Giblin November 14, 2011 22:26

  
  
  Thank you for your replies.
  @brianshirley, no, I am not using a null modem cable, it's an off the shelf cable from Radio Shack.
  
  @Lyndon, thank you, I have done all these things but no results. The unit I'm using for development is 2-3 years old and went through an office relocation. I'm wondering if the serial card is dead. If I set it up in BrightAuthor to return a string after I send a command, nothing happens. I've never gotten any string back from the unit. We may have to order a new one.
  
  Thank you again!
  
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  RokuLyndon November 15, 2011 07:31

  
  
  If you're going from your computer to the brightsign, it has to be a null modem cable...a straight thru cable would only work going from the brightsign a display or some other slave serial device. THink of the brightsign like it's another computer. It has the same kind of serial port as your computer.  a straight thru cable won't work.
  
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  Irene Giblin November 15, 2011 23:14

  
  
  Well, that would explain it. I must have missed that in the documentation.
  Thank you, I'm off to order a null modem cable.
  
• 0
  
  RokuLyndon November 16, 2011 00:45

  
  
  This isn't something unique to the BrightSign. The BrightSign is like your computer. So, to connect two computers together you would need an null modem cable as well.