Using max10 with girder?

[Ron]

Susan,

sounds like you are having trouble with Girder in general, try to read through the getting started guide in the online help

http://www.girder.nl/help

[Ron]

Ah I see, I thought the black screen was the OSD popup that was popping up. I'm afraid I'm going to give this one back to Mark since I do not own a Max10 remote.

[Mark F]

Welcome to Girder!

I'd like to try to help. Where can I find information about Max10? Do you have a URL I could use?

EDIT: Found it. Digesting.

[Mark F]

First off, do you have maX10 working by itself? When you press a button on your remote, do you get "Key Settings" in the bottom left of the screen? If so, skip on to the next part. If maX10 is not working by itself, you really need to get it working before proceding. Check out the documentation.htm file that should have been of the maX10 distribution.

You want maX10 to "Start Program" for every key. The program you want to start depends on which version of Girder you are using. It will be TCPClient.exe or TCPClient2.exe or ieventc.exe. The parameters you need to pass to the program depend on which version you are using so I'll stop here for now.

If you can get your setup this far, there are some other threads that talk about configuring the Girder TCPIP client/server stuff along with a file in the girder/help directory included with 3.1.3 and 3.2. If you need help with the TCPIP config stuff, we will need to know which version of Girder you are using.

Please don't hesitate to ask more questions. I don't own one of these remotes and haven't used the software in question but I am fluent in "geek-speak" so I can sometimes decipher manuals. ;) Also, others here have done what you are trying to do and will hopefully come by and give much better answers than mine.

[Mark F]

I think the next step is to configure the Internet Event Server so it will receive the events being generated by the ievent.exe program.

I don't know how much you know about TCP/IP networking so I'll be extremely brief; follow the directions in the ievent_readme.txt file in the help directory off of the Girder directory to set up the server. If you get stuck, please ask more questions. :D

The flow we are trying to establish is:

Press a button on the remote
Received and decoded by maX10
ievent.exe is executed to send a unique event over TCP/IP
the internet event server plugin of Girder receives the event and passes it to Girder
Girder executes a command or two for you


If I understand where you are right now, you have maX10 working and executing ievent.exe. We now need to get the Internet Event Server to catch the event and trigger a command in Girder. We are getting close. :)

[Mark F]

Actually, you will be using the networking to get between two processes on the same computer (maX10 and Girder) and all the server stuff in the readme needs to be taken into account.

The IP address to match, for example, will be the IP address of the PC since this is the ONLY machine that you want to issue commands.

You don't need to focus on the Girder Client but instead the Console Client.

I'm sure many would benefit from your experiences. :)

[Mark F]

No problem. :)

Set the port number to anything you want (I use 1024).

Set the password to anything you want.

Type in your PC's TCP/IP address in the host name box and press add.

I think "configure" is a bit stronger of a word than we really need for the client. :) It is more "use".

Let me try to give an example client usage and maybe that will help. Assume -
Girder is installed in C:\Program Files\Girder32
your TCP/IP address is 192.10.1.100
your password is GEORGE
your port is 127
the event you want to send is Button1

The command to use is:

C:\Program Files\Girder32\ieventc 192.10.1.100 127 GEORGE Button1

You will need to substitute your specific values for those above. You are right, we are close. :D

[Mark F]

Sorry. This is the type of command line that maX10 needs to generate on each mouse remote button. This will be the step that causes maX10 to generate a Girder event.

[SusanGirderNewbie]

This is a unique/brilliant program. However, I'm having major dificulties getting it to work with my remote. Based on the research I've done on this board, the best way to use this remote seems to be with max10 and the tcp/ip plugin. Several posters suggest ways to do this, but I just don't understand how. Can anyone suggest a simple way of getting max10 and girder to talk to each other? Or. of getting my x10 remote to work with girder. Unfortunately, not all x10 remotes are created equal and my version (JR20A) does not want to cooperate with the serial port plug in and the x10 settings that other users have provided.

I would be incredibly grateful for any assistance or tips that any of you can provide. Thank you so much in advance!

[SusanGirderNewbie]

Thank you for your advice and help Mark. Here's where I am now. I have Max10 working and I've set it up so that it starts ievent.exe with every remote button. Now, how do I get girder to understand these commands? Every time I punch a button, a black screen briefly pops up. I've tried to figure this out on my own reading other posts. But, unfortunately, I can't make sense out of what others have done. I think I'm missing an easy step.

Sorry to trouble you guys. But, I would be really grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Thank you so much.

[SusanGirderNewbie]

Hi,

I forgot to tell you that I'm using Girder version 3.2.

Thanks again!

[SusanGirderNewbie]

Thanks for responding Rob,

I've read through almost everything there is to read. My problem is that my X10 remote doesn't work well with the plugins provided with girder (general serial plugin and x10 plugin). Many others have similar issues with the x10 remote. So, it seems like the solution that some users have come up with is to use the tcpip plug in and a program called max10 with girder. I'm trying to do this, but I can't figure out to get these two programs to talk to each other. I followed Mark's recommendations and I would be grateful if anyone had any advice for what I should do next.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[SusanGirderNewbie]

Hi Mark,

Ok, I'm at step four of this process. Thank you for laying it out so clearly. Since, I'm not actually networking two computers, I probably don't need to configure the port number and password as described on page 1 of the ievent-reame fact sheet. Is that correct? I don't need to worry about the ip address and such, right? Do I need to focus on configuring the girder client as outlined on page 2?

Thanks again Mark. I'm sorry if these are stupid questions. Once again, I'd be grateful for any advie you have to offer.

Also, I'd be happy to write this up so others can follow the same procedure.

[SusanGirderNewbie]

Thank you again Mark. I just have a few more simple-minded questions to ask you.

First, do I set the port number? Or, is there a port number somewhere in my network settings?

Second, can I create any password, or do I have to use my computer's current network password?

Third, Do I need a hostname? Or, is this just my computer's ip address?

Fourth, what's the best way to configure console client? I have windows xp. Do I need to start the computer in DOS. Or, can I use the computer's c prompt program. I tried the C prompt, but it was giving me error messages.

Once again, thank you for your patience. I think I'm almost done here. And, I promise to write all of this up when I'm done here.

[SusanGirderNewbie]

Thanks Mark, that clears up most of my questions. I'm still wondering where I type the command line that you suggested as an example: C:\Program Files\Girder32\ieventc 192.10.1.100 127 GEORGE Button1

In the instructions for the configuration of the console client, it states "to configure just open a dos box and type "ieventc <hostname> etc..."

Do I really have to open a dos box, or do I type this into the tiny "learn event" box that appears when I have internet event server enabled and I try to associate an event with the command.

I hope that this question makes sense.

Thank you.