Needed Modified Autopatch serial driver

[Cinema & Sound]

Composer will not let me modify the existing serial drivers for Autopatch

I need to have digital audio added to 8 x8 component switch

-Scott

[Samer Shami]

First off, you cannot edit inputs and outputs of a driver while it is currently being used within the project. That is, right-clicking on the driver from the left hand tree in System Design will not allow you to add extra inputs/ouputs to the Autopatch. The solution involves:

1) Right-click on the driver and choose "Export driver..."

2) Give it a different name that you can clearly indentify it with

3) Go to Driver -> Edit Existing Driver... from the menu bar

4) Find the driver in the list (it will probably be under ASwitch or AVSwitch)

5) Perform the necessary modifications

6) Delete the existing item from the project (remove it from the left hand tree in system design). Before you do this, it might pay to take a screenshot in Connection Manager so that you have a record of what the connections used to be.

7) Drag in the newly modified driver

8) Redo all previous connections

Hope this helps.

[danlevine]

I hope in future versions composer allows for modification of Inputs and Outputs on Running Drivers....

I understand why they prevent this but it's actually worse having to reconnect everything...

[Cinema & Sound]

This export driver does NOT work for the autopatch drivers. These are actually showing up like the C4 drivers for their own stuff. They are not modifiable.

Export Driver and edit driver are greyed out.

-Scott

[Samer Shami]

Interesting. Very interesting.

I tried out what you said, and confirmed that they are indeed greyed out. So I started playing with the driver manually by editing the appropriate c4i file. These are typically located in the "c:\program files\control4\driver\virtual" directory. I had mixed luck and one major problem that are not really important.

If you give me the exact driver (or model) I will try to modify the driver XML structure to include an additional digital audio on each and input and output.

[Samer Shami]

Strike that.

I'll give you the intructions on how to do it manually. You could always tell me the model if the instructions are too hard, I'll make the necessary mods.

1) Locate the appropriate driver. This means going into "c:\program files\control4\driver\virtual" and finding the correct c4i file. It will be in the form: "avswitch_232_autopatch_"

2) Open the file using notepad or wordpad - Make sure you make a copy of it first

3) You will a whole bunch of XML. Find the <model> tag. A suggestion is to add "modified" or "v2" or something that like to make it easier to find later on.

4) The interesting structures within the driver are:

    <connection>
      <id>4003</id>
      <facing>6</facing>
      <connectionname>Audio Output 1</connectionname>
      <type>6</type>
      <consumer>False</consumer>
      <audiosource>True</audiosource>
      <videosource>False</videosource>
      <linelevel>True</linelevel>
      <classes>
        <class>
          <classname>STEREO</classname>
        </class>
        <class>
          <classname>DIGITAL_COAX</classname>
        </class>
        <class>
          <classname>DIGITAL_OPTICAL</classname>
        </class>
      </classes>
    </connection>

5) What you will notice is that on each appropriate audio in and out is that <class><classname>DIGITAL_COAX</classname></class> is listed.

6) Essentially you will want to paste the bolded code above (in point 5) into the appropriate inputs and outputs. By adding this you will define extra connections on each input/output.

7) Remember that you will still have to delete the driver from the project and re-add the modified one.

Good luck.

[Cinema & Sound]

Finally built my own driver.

That is good for me.

C4 stuff may work as I found a null modem adapter problem during the process.

Sometimes building your own is less time consuming than debugging C4 driver stuff.

[andy.cytexone]

Hey Cinema,

Is it possible for you to post your work in the Drivers Section? It's much appreciated...

Andy