AS2 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 does anyone know of a way combine 3 serial ports into one? i need to take 3 rs232 outs from a Media Controller into one Key Digital 8x3 switcher. Why? Because I am going to make 3 8x1 video switches and control them serially in order to 'hide' cable boxes from other rooms. any ideas? (ps: you can't just twist them together, it doesn't seem to work) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samer Shami Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 You aren't going to like the price...http://www.microridge.com/microridge_store.htm#MPX & S/MUX Pricing(check out the S/MUX Multiplexer - info on this product is from http://www.microridge.com/smux.htm)Not sure how this one would work: http://www.statpak-pc.com/muxs.htmHere's another one: http://www.bomara.com/WTI/sdc.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfleck Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 why not get 3 of the Lantronix UDS-10 adapters and give each one a unique IP address and control them over ethernet? http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/external-device-servers/uds-10.htmlthere are other brands that are cheaper and do exactly the same thing. they make multi-port versions to. i think someone has a 3 port version. http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/external-device-servers/uds200.htmlsteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Is there a driver in Control4 for lantronix ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS2 Posted April 10, 2006 Author Share Posted April 10, 2006 I think this might be what we're looking for: http://www.microridge.com/smux.htmI wish C4 let us virtually connect more than one device up to a serial output (like you can for IR) so we wouldn't need to do something like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chambrick Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Why not use a bigger video switch...one that will support all the I/O you need in one box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamman Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 B&K just came out with a 9X6 HD switch. It will even upconvert comp and svideo. IR or Serial control.... It was designed to work with their CT600 series but will work stand alone....Might be an easier solution.Jamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samer Shami Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Guys, Andrew is doing this 3x serial thing to get around a limitation of having three particular video input available per room (he only wants one to appear) - hence he has split the key digital matrix switcher into a 8x1 instead of 8x3. Andrew can elaborate on the exact details, suffice to say that he is battling with IR control of the key digital switcher and doing this 3x serial thing for a very good reason. Increasing the capacity of the matrix switcher will not have the desired effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS2 Posted April 12, 2006 Author Share Posted April 12, 2006 I got the S/MUX and tried it out today - nothing. I am hoping it's just the crappy AC wall wart and it'll actually spring to life and work with power. There is no LED so it's hard to tell!The idea is to split the 8x3 matrix into three 'virtual' 8x1 switches controlled via serial. This will allow me to grant a client request that each room have it's own (and only it's own) cable box available but still share DVD players etc. It will be SO MUCH EASIER, when C4 just lets us 'click' off items we want to hide in each room from the end user.Since this hasn't worked yet, we told the client that, yes, all the cable boxes appear, but if you begin your TV session in each room by clicking on a premade 'channel' button, C4 will automatically begin a fresh 'session' with cablebox1. When a second room goes to watch cable, and clicks on a premade 'channel' button, C4 will automatically begin a session with cablebox2, because it knows cablebox1 is being view already. This works fine, but we need to hide those icons in the near future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samer Shami Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Andrew, you can test this out by feeding the outputs of the S/MUX into your computer and checking it using HyperTerminal. You will then be able to see the incoming strings when you swap inputs/channels etc. You should then compare the ouputs of the S/MUX to those of the serial port on the controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chambrick Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I'm sure you're already down one path that you may not be able to divert from but you might at least be interested to know about AutoPatch.http://www.autopatch.com/productsmatrix.htmlThey make high end auto switchers and if I remember correctly one of their lines would allow you to customize it to just 2 inputs and x outputs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTCNJ Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 We have been using a videostorm 8 in 4 out piece wich is cheap and works really well and is 8 in 4 outhttp://www.video-storm.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.