RS232 usage

[MartinMFX]

Hi, I'm new to SCS but am working with someone who has SCS Platinum and I need to to control some hardware I'm providing via RS232. I am thinking of buying SCS myself once I've evaluted it further but I have a few queries re. RS232 control :-

1) Older posts (back in 2013) here suggest SCS only looks for COM ports up to 16 is this still the case? I can easily have USB COM ports numbered up to well over 30 due to the bizarre way Windows handles USB COM ports, there's no technical reason why there should be a limit, I actually look after systems that have well over 100 virtual COM ports active at the same time.

2) It seems there can only be 2 COM ports active in SCS, one for Cues in and one for Cues out, also the same COM port can not be used for both outgoing Cues and incoming ones. Is this correct?

It might help if I explain the sort of application I would want to use it for :-

Multiple Arduinos each on a different (Virtual USB) COM port.

Each Arduino is controlled by RS232 Cues from SCS either in sync with video, sound or other triggers.

Some Arduinos may also need to trigger SCS Cues on the same COM port that they are receiving Cues on in response to people pressing switches Etc.

There are some workarounds for simple set-ups but as things get more complex those workarounds will become problematic.

Hope this is clear enough.

Martin.

[Mike Daniell]

1) Older posts (back in 2013) here suggest SCS only looks for COM ports up to 16 is this still the case? I can easily have USB COM ports numbered up to well over 30 due to the bizarre way Windows handles USB COM ports, there's no technical reason why there should be a limit, I actually look after systems that have well over 100 virtual COM ports active at the same time.

SCS currently handles COM ports up to 32, but even that is an arbitrary limit - it could easily be increased if required.

2) It seems there can only be 2 COM ports active in SCS, one for Cues in and one for Cues out, also the same COM port can not be used for both outgoing Cues and incoming ones. Is this correct?

You can have multiple COM ports for output (Control Send Cues) but only one COM port for input (Cue Control), and that input port cannot also be used for output. However, having said that I've just been checking the program code and there's really no reason for imposing these limitations apart from the overall logic. So if there's a specific requirement to allow multiple input ports and/or sharing of input ports with output, then I'm willing to consider this as an enhancement.

[mookai1973]

Dear Mike,
In my project still need function with multiple device to control SCS too, this week I'm test a Arduino RFID tag to control SCS with virtual com port it's working perfect and next week I would like to test an Arduino to control SCS by Network messages and I'm post a result after test it.

Kai

[MartinMFX]

However, having said that I've just been checking the program code and there's really no reason for imposing these limitations apart from the overall logic. So if there's a specific requirement to allow multiple input ports and/or sharing of input ports with output, then I'm willing to consider this as an enhancement.

That would be extremely useful for the sort of stuff I'm doing (and looking to do more of), I can't post the current project at the moment as I'm under an NDA but hopefully should be able to in a few weeks.

Regards.
Martin.

[MartinMFX]

Further to this, I'm having trouble triggering SCS Cues from an external RS232 device at the moment, serial cues going out from SCS are working fine. I'm sending scsGo("50") followed by CR to try and trigger Cue 50 but it isn't triggering, does the Cue have to have something set to make it triggerable by RS232? The only other thing I can think of is I MAY be sending Newline+CR which would probably stop it working but I only thought about that after I left tonight and won't be able to check for a few days now. I have a plan B which is to have the Arduino enumerate itself as a USB Keyboard and send Hotkeys instead which should work but I'd still like to get to the bottom of the serial problem.

Cheers.
Martin.

[BCGTech]

Further to this, I'm having trouble triggering SCS Cues from an external RS232 device at the moment, serial cues going out from SCS are working fine. I'm sending scsGo("50") followed by CR to try and trigger Cue 50 but it isn't triggering, does the Cue have to have something set to make it triggerable by RS232? The only other thing I can think of is I MAY be sending Newline+CR which would probably stop it working but I only thought about that after I left tonight and won't be able to check for a few days now. I have a plan B which is to have the Arduino enumerate itself as a USB Keyboard and send Hotkeys instead which should work but I'd still like to get to the bottom of the serial problem.

Cheers.
Martin.

Is the cue you're trying to trigger actually just listed as "50" or is it actually "Q50"? When you send a GO from an external device, the whole cue ID needs to be between the double quotes in the scsGo string, so if your cue is listed as Q50, then the command you'd send is scsGo("Q50").

Bruce

[MartinMFX]

AH!, that wasn't particularly clear in the manual, I assumed X was just the Cue number and the Q bit was assumed. I'll give that a try, thanks.