element05 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Hi,I am brand new to c4 and am trying to write a driver to communicate with an automated blinds system via serial. I have read the Control4 DriverWorks SDK - Getting Started Guide and have analysed the template .c4i file called DriverWorks_232_GettingStarted.c4i . Everything seems to make sense however when I try to make my own .c4i file and put it in the C:\Users\Documents\Control4\Drivers directory, the driver does not show up in Composer. The only way I can seem to make a new driver that will show up in Composer is if I use the Composer Driver Wizard which does not give me enough freedom to design the specific driver I want. I have tried making a driver with the wizard and then opening the .c4i file it creates and editing it but I have had no luck. Little changes like changing from 9600 baud to 1200 baud will show up in composer but adding sections like properties does not show up at all. I feel like I have hit a wall in my progress. If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 You need to click the drivers tab and add the driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element05 Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 I have tried. If I go into Manage Drivers, the driver I have created does not appear, nor does it appear under My Drivers or Search. Only drivers I created with the Wizard appear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgbrown Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Did you restart composer so it reloaded the list of drivers in the your drivers directory ?That would be step one. Report back and we can take it from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 You likely have an error in your xml. Does it validate?Also, Composer only reads the driver files when it initially starts up. If you make changes, you have to restart Composer to see if the driver loads.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element05 Posted June 12, 2010 Author Share Posted June 12, 2010 Hi,Thanks for the responses. I have tried restarting composer and still no luck. The XML is fine formatting wise. Someone has suggested that because I am using Windows 7 the way files are stored might be different than what Composer is expecting. Is this a possibility? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Zip and post your .c4i.You also may want to check Composer's log file to see if it says why it's not loading the driver.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwhitaker@revit Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 i am with ryan. editors like xml editor are ok, BUT some errors are inherent in drivers themselves that these editors will not show. if an underscore is incorrect in a proxy name your hosed. if you forget a comma after an ip or serial command you lose every command after that. if you forget a < or a > an editor might not catch it.ALSO if you made a new driver, you ALWAYS have to enter the drivers properties on you pc and change the extension from .xml or .txt. to .c4i UNLESS you have it auto set that way. otherwise composer will not even see it.take a peek at another c++ or lua driver to check your driver against. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwhitaker@revit Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 p.s. beside having to restart composer to load drivers, you can just click on files in the upper left corner, click refresh "right above refresh navigators" and it will reload all new drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdvr Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 On the dealer forums, is a thread called "driverworks for dummies". you might want to look at that thread to get some help.Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element05 Posted June 16, 2010 Author Share Posted June 16, 2010 Thanks for your help and sorry for taking so long to respond. I am a student. I can post the file I am using but actually it is the sample driver that comes with the SDK so you probably already have it. I haven't made any changes yet because I am waiting for it to show up in composer before I start tweaking to suit my needs. I am assuming that the .c4i files supplied as examples would be formatted correctly. Is just putting the file into the correct folder sufficient for it to show up in the driver manager? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwhitaker@revit Posted June 16, 2010 Share Posted June 16, 2010 file needs to be in in mydocuments/control4/drivers. i cant even remember what the sample driver in the sdk is, haven't looked at that document in years. if it is an actual driver it should show up if in the correct folder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 16, 2010 Share Posted June 16, 2010 file needs to be in in mydocuments/control4/drivers. i cant even remember what the sample driver in the sdk is, haven't looked at that document in years. if it is an actual driver it should show up if in the correct folder.Was it weatherbug? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element05 Posted June 21, 2010 Author Share Posted June 21, 2010 FYI this is the getting stared file. I have it in the directory C:\Users\Thomasin\Documents\Control4\Drivers which I know is the correct directory because when I create drivers using the wizard this is where they show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdvr Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 No, that is not a properly formatted driver, as it states in the sdk, this is for Illustration purposes to go along with the getting started document.Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element05 Posted June 21, 2010 Author Share Posted June 21, 2010 By accident I got all of the drivers I have created to show up. I was in a location that was out of range of the controller on our LAN so I had to connect to a virtual controller. Now everything shows up. I am going to stay on the virtual controller until I get my driver complete. Once I do want to connect to the controller on my LAN does anyone know how to get my driver to show up? Thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 By accident I got all of the drivers I have created to show up. I was in a location that was out of range of the controller on our LAN so I had to connect to a virtual controller. Now everything shows up. I am going to stay on the virtual controller until I get my driver complete. Once I do want to connect to the controller on my LAN does anyone know how to get my driver to show up? Thanks for the help!Yes....I told you how in the first reply to your original questions (post #2). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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