Building a cable for my Dell 4100MP projector

[tscales]

Since I have figured out that I can't transmit RF, I am trying to build a serial cable to connect from my PC to my Projector and control it that way. I admit, freely, that I am clueless. I will try to represent what I am trying to do here and see if anyone can help me. The documentation describes the pinout of the serial connector (6 pin female DIN) as:

http://www.scalesfamily.com/rs232_pin.gif

Then it describes the Connection settings as 19200,8,1,No stop bits.

So far so good. I went into Girder and setup the Generic Serial Driver with matching parameters (but don't know what to put in Handshake).

So I cobbled together a cable. Seemed like I should cross TX and RX. Is that right? I am assuming (maybe wrong), that the picture above is the female connector. So, I connected the bottom two pins to ground on the serial port (which I think is the upper left hole on the female DB-9). I connected the top right wire (TX) to RX on the female DB-9 -- which I think is the fourth hole on the top row. I connected the second on the right column (RX) to TX on the female DB-9 (third hole on the top row of the female DB-9).

Does that make ANY sense for my wiring?

I then setup a command and told it to use escape codes. The string I typed in was:

/ef/be/10/00/05/3f/c0/11/11/00/01/08

which comes from the documentation:

Control Commands List -- 0xefbe

Address Code (BYTE) -- 0x10

Size of the Payload (WORD) -- 0x0005

CRC16 for the entire packet (WORD) - 0x3fc0

MsG ID (WORD) -- 0x1111

MsG size (WORD) -- 0x0001

Command code (BYTE) -- 0x08

Attached it to the B button on my Firefly and saved everything. Pressed B and Girder said it sent a command over serial.

Nothing happened. So, it is likely either my cable, or my understanding of the Serial driver and commands.

I am hopeful that someone can point me in the right direction. I can get Girder to do pretty much everything else I need.

Thanks,

Tom

[Promixis]

Tom,

Mark, the author of the serial plugin is usually around on the weekdays and he should be able to give you some guidance.

You have to make sure you have it set to send hex not decimal numbers.

[tscales]

I have it set to ASCII->HEX. I suspect it is my cable. I tested it out with an ohmeter, but I think I might be misunderstanding what to run to what.

I'll keep playing.

Thanks

[Mark F]

I don't have access to one of these projectors. Do you have a URL to the manual that contains the RS-232 codes and wiring diagram? The TX/RX lines may be reversed. A site with very helpful wiring diagrams is located here (http://www.airborn.com.au/rs232.html).

By the way, use "no handshaking".

You can either use HEX->BIN or escape sequences, not both. If you use HEX->BIN, the data from your previous post would be

efbe1000053fc01111000108

If you use escape sequences, you had the data formatted correctly.

[tscales]

This is the URL, such as it is:

http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/acc/4100MP/english/specs.htm

The sum total of the information is the little picture. I tried swapping RX and TX -- tried everything. Every one caused Girder to fail with Unable to open Com port -- except one. Still doesn't work even with the right string.

Dell doesn't even sell the cable, but does sell an Optoma cable (but not their projectors), so I suspect that is the right cable.

Tom

[Mark F]

Hmmm. The "Unable to open Com port" message means something else (a different applicaiton or driver) has the Com port opened. This actually a different problem from not being able to send data.

Some business projectors look like a serial mouse to Windows (so the supplied remote can move the pointer during PowerPoint presentations). Would you look in the device manager and see if Windows has detected your projector and done something stupid? If it has detected your projector as a mouse and installed a mouse driver, disable the mouse driver on that port.

If it is not Windows, itself, then one of the other processes running on your machine is using that port and you need to make it stop before trying to use the port with Girder.

[tscales]

I'm still confused on this one. I have four different possibilities on the wiring for this cable. Three give me this message, which makes me believe it isn't the Com port in use. One doesn't give me the message, which made me think it was the right wiring.

None work!

Any suggestions on what I can try?

Tom

[Mark F]

I'll repeat myself :)

Would you look in the device manager and see if Windows has detected your projector and done something stupid? If it has detected your projector as a mouse and installed a mouse driver, disable the mouse driver on that port.

[tscales]

Sorry - I answered that earlier, but I see the post never showed up.

It does not install as a mouse. It has a USB connection for that. The connector is purely for serial control of the projector. Dell is clueless.

Tom

[Mark F]

Sorry - I answered that earlier, but I see the post never showed up.
I'm really not trying to add to a stressful and frustrating circumstance.


Dell is clueless.
I've heard that from others. This perception is very unfortunate.

I have not seen nor heard of, nor can I think of, a reason why a specific serial cable would not allow a COM port to be opened. I would suggest a Google search but I don't even know what terms to suggest. :(

[tscales]

Well I am hopeful that I made actual progress. Dell, finally, seems to have found the right cable to sell me. 3 weeks from now!

When I get it, we'll see if that solves the problem. I suspect my home-brewed cable is an issue.

P.S. Not stressful -- annoyed with Dell :) I sincerely appreciate your help!

Tom