Application Note
Serial Port Trigger Support
3/28/2014
175-100341-00
Serial Port Trigger Support
Application Note
Publication Information
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Serial Port Trigger Support
Application Note
Serial Port Trigger Support
Serial Port Trigger Support
Nexio® G8™ products support serial port triggers for automation or presentation systems. Serial port
trigger support is limited to selecting and outputting layouts both offline and online only, and does not
include the ability to change layout content in any way.
Benefit
The serial port trigger allows you to display playlist events or Media Store database resources in any
order via a CII formatted message on the serial port. The format of the serial port command is that of
the Drake, Phillips, or Probel protocol.
Using the protocol, your Nexio® G-Series product can be commanded to display events, making it easy
to cover live events like town council meetings or legislative assemblies. This kind of serial command is
often available with equipment commonly used in presentation control like that offered by companies
like Crestron.
As you need playlist events or Media Store resources, you can send them to air from the playlist by the
event number (if the number is less than 1000) or from an available Media Store database (if the
number is greater than 1000). A useful utility called the News Feed Simulator is provided to verify COM
port communications and test the serial communications procedure. You can also use the News Feed
Simulator to send commands to output events.
Hardware Support
Standard RS-232 or RS-422 serial port communication protocols are supported. A null modem cable is
required. TCP/IP Ethernet networking control is not supported.
Configure COM Port Settings
Before using the serial port trigger, review the settings in your Nexio® product inscribe.ini file.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Close your Nexio® product.
Open the inscribe.ini file, which is in your Nexio® product folder.
Find the INFINIT section.
Modify the serial port trigger support settings if required. In most cases, use the default values.
ComPort=COM1
Baud=9600
DataBits=8
Parity=None
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Serial Port Trigger Support
Application Note
Serial Port Trigger Support
StopBits=1
Note: If you are also using a GPI trigger, the ComPort entry must be assigned a COM port different
from the GPI trigger COM port. (To check the GPI port assignment, open the Preferences dialog and
switch to the Sequencer tab.)
5. Save the inscribe.ini file.
Install the News Feed Simulator
After you have configured your Nexio® product, install the News Feed Simulator, which you can use to
verify COM port communications and test the serial communications procedure.
Note: You must install the News Feed Simulator on a computer different from the system running your
Nexio® product.
To install the News Feed Simulator:
1. Double-click the News Feed Simulator.exe file on your Nexio® product CD.
2. During the installation select the COM port for the serial port trigger. If you need to change the COM
port setting after installation, you can select a different COM port on the Preferences tab in News
Feed Simulator.
After installing the News Feed Simulator, connect the two computer systems with a null modem cable
attached to serial ports. It is possible to use the News Feed Simulator without the recommended
hardware setup, but other hardware configurations are not guaranteed to work successfully.
Enable/Disable Serial Port Trigger Support
You can enable or disable serial port trigger support at any time in your Nexio® product. It is
recommended that you disable serial port trigger support in your Nexio® product when no serial port
trigger is being used. By default, serial port trigger support is disabled.
1. In your Nexio® product, select File > Preferences to open the Preferences dialog.
2. Switch to the General tab.
3. Enable or disable serial port trigger support.
To enable support, select the External Serial Control checkbox.
To disable support, clear the External Serial Control checkbox.
4. Click OK.
You must close and restart your Nexio® product to see the changes made in the Preferences dialog.
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Serial Port Trigger Support
Application Note
Serial Port Trigger Support
Use the News Feed Simulator
You can use the News Feed Simulator to test serial port communication. The News Feed Simulator sends
and receives commands via the serial port.
1. Open the News Feed Simulator by double-clicking the News Feed Simulator icon on your desktop.
You can also launch the News Feed Simulator from the Windows Start menu (Start > All Programs >
Harris > Inscriber News Feed Simulator > News Feed Simulator).
2. In the News Feed Simulator, switch to the Preferences tab.
3. On the Preferences tab, select the Serial Port option.
4. Click the Set button beside the Serial Port option.
5. In the Com Port Settings dialog, review the port’s communications settings and then click OK.
6. On your Nexio® product system, manually open a playlist (.scribelist file) by opening your Nexio®
product and selecting File > Open, and then navigating to and selecting a .scribelist file containing
layouts.
7. In the News Feed Simulator, switch to the Test Interface tab.
8. Select the CR and LF checkboxes to automatically add carriage return and line feed data to the end
of each command line.
9. Enter a single CII command or list of CII commands to send to your Nexio® product system. A list of
available commands is described in the following table.
Single Command - In the Line Command window, enter a CII command, and then press ENTER or
click the adjacent Send button. Only the top Send button executes a command you enter in the
Line Command window.
List of Commands - In the List Command window, enter a list of CII commands, and then
double-click in the window or click the adjacent Send button. Only the bottom Send button
executes commands in the List Command window.
Action
CII Command
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Serial Port Trigger Support
Application Note
Serial Port Trigger Support
Action
CII Command
Description
Take event from
the playlist
T\7\event#<1000\A\\
Outputs the event# that is less than
1000 to the program channel.
You must replace event#<1000 with
the actual event filename number that
is less than 1000.
Take event from T\7\event#>1000\A\\
currently selected
Media Store
database
The application switches to the Media
Store module and the event number
that is greater than 1000 is output to
the program channel.
You must replace event#>1000 with
the actual event filename number that
is greater than 1000.
Select an event in T\5\event#\\
the playlist for
preview and
preload
Selects the event number in the
currently loaded playlist. The selected
event is loaded into CG but is not
output to the program channel.
You must replace event# with the
actual event filename number.
Take currently
selected event in
the playlist
V\6\channel#\\
Outputs the currently selected event in
the playlist.
You must replace channel# with "0" to
take to channel 1.
Any event number higher than 1000 triggers and outputs the corresponding event number in the
currently selected Media Store database.
As you send commands, they display in the Command Reception window in the News Feed Simulator.
Create a Log of Commands Received
To help troubleshoot problems, you can log the commands that the Nexio® system receives.
1. On the Test Interface tab in the News Feed Simulator, click the File button and specify the location
where you want the log file saved.
2. Click the Start button to begin logging.
3. Send commands from the News Feed Simulator.
4. Click the End button to finish logging.
5. When you are finished testing, click OK. The log file is saved automatically.
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Serial Port Trigger Support
Application Note
Serial Port Trigger Support
Troubleshooting
Is serial port trigger support enabled in the Nexio® product?
To verify that the serial port trigger is enabled in your Nexio® product, complete the following steps.
1.
2.
3.
4.
In your Nexio® product, select File > Preferences to open the Preferences dialog.
Switch to the General tab.
Ensure that the External Serial Control checkbox is selected. Click OK.
Restart your Nexio® product to enable serial port trigger support.
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Proprietary and Confidential.
3/28/2014 | Page 7
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