I am having trouble controlling my VPL-VW40 Sony Projector via RS232 from my MSC-400. I had no problem getting RS232 to work with my Integra Processor. Here is my set up:

Remote MX-3000
Controller: MSC-400
Connection: URC RS232F with Radio Shack Gender Changer. (Don’t have an extra RS232M yet)
Null Modem Adapter: Tried both with and without this Radio Shack Adapter
Baud Rate: 38.4kbps
Data: 8 Data Bits
Parity: Even
Stop: 1 bit
Commands I tried:
-All Preprogrammed Serial commands for the VPL-VW50
-I typed in the following manual commands (Without header):
1)Proj_On \xA9\x17\x2E\x00\x00\x00\x3F\x9A
2)Proj_Off \xA9\x17\x2F\x00\x00\x00\x3F\x9A

I don’t see any other Sony TVs in the Serial DB other than the VW50. I am not sure if my issue is that I am sending the wrong commands or I don’t have the correct connection. Any help that can be provided will greatly be appreciated. FYI, the only commands that need to work are ON, OFF and HDMI 1 input. Thanks again.

Ok, to ensure that I have done my due diligence I have read and re-read the Protocol for this projector.   I am now very comfortable that I am sending the right codes. This is my understanding.

The data/code being sent to the projector must contain 8 sets (B0-B7) of hex codes per command.

B0) Per the protocol, the first byte will always be 0xA9, which from my understanding should be entered in to the hex field as A9.

B1&B2) The second and third bytes should be the item number. To figure out what I need to type here, I need to refer to the Appendix Table 1 and type the upper byte and lower byte for the code I need. For any command that is listed as a “15BIT CATEGORY” or “20BIT CATEGORY,” I would use 17h (15bit Cat) or 19h (20bit Cat) for the upper byte, entered in to the hex field as either 17 or 19 and refer to either Table4 or Table5 for the lower byte. Looking at Table4 for “POWER OFF,” I would type 17 for the upper and 2F for the lower.

B3) The fourth byte has to do with the type of communication. For remote functions, this should always be “Set data” (0x00) and typed as 00 in the hex field.

B4) For the purpose of sending remote commands, the fifth field will be dummy data (0x00) and should be typed as 00 in the hex field.

B5) The sixth field is taken from Table2 and determines what is being asked for. For example, if in step 2&3, I want to set an input, step 6 tells the projector which input I want.

B6) The seventh byte is the checksum. This is probably the most difficult part of determining what hex code to enter. The protocol states, “B1 to B5 are calculated by OR.” For this SONY Projector, I calculated the checksums as indicated in the examples below. NOTE: if any byte between B1 and B5 were 0, I did not include them.


-------B0-B1-B2-B3-B4-B5-B6-B7
On - --A9-17-2E-00-00-00-3F-9A
B1-B2-B3-B4-B5
17-2E-00-00-00

17 - 10111
2E -101110
IS= 111111 or 3F

Full On code entered = "A9, 17, 2E, 00, 00, 00, 3F, 9A" (without the quotes)

B7) The last byte should always be 0x9A and should be entered in to the hex field as 9A.


I think my issue is that the codes are somehow not reaching the projector correctly. I checked the port in the software and even tried other ports. I double checked all the other settings too. When I hit test in the software, I see the blue light on the MSC-400 come one. Could the issue be with using a gender changer? Is there something in the projector menu that I need to get to enable the RS-232 port? Any help would be great. Thanks.

First thing I can see is 232F (not 232M) URC cables are wired null, so don't trouble shoot with the adapter. If I have some time I'll look at the protocol......if it were a Sony changer the checksum for 17, 2E would be BB. Just for grins, try that.

John

Thank you VERY much for the info. Somehow I missed that 232F were null and 232M were not. This is very important as you already know so this is a big help.

Now for the good news, SUCCESS! I finally was able to get this projector to respond via RS232 commands. I found a great little tester for Sony Projectors here -> [Link: the-gordons.net]. Once this worked, it revived my hope that I would succeed because I knew the projector was capable of receiving these codes. Next I followed the MSC’s manual and used hyper terminal to compare what was being sent from the MSC and the utility. Once I verified that these were the exact same, I tried testing again with the MSC on the VW40 with both the RS232F and RS232M both with and without the null modem adapter.. The commands continued to not work. I then moved the triggers to the remote and tested without using the MSC’s software. Still, the test did not work (with RS232M). I was about to give up and post my results here, but I had 2 tests left. First I was going to add the null modem adapter and test again. If that failed I was going to document the pin out throughout the entire chain and compare them to that of using the computer with the utility. Fortunately, adding the null modem adapter worked and I did not have to trace all of the pin outs. Ultimately, the thing I find the most discouraging was that I had to set the triggers from the remote for the test to work instead of simply testing from the software (yes the MSC was connected to the computer and responding).

Thanks again for your help and for anyone else that has the same issue, be sure to add hyper terminal to your troubleshooting steps.

John,
I forgot to add that I also calculated BB with the changer protocol, but the projector checksums are different and very strange if you ask me. It took me about 20 mins to understand how the projector's checksum worked.

.

LOL. If you can find this written somewhere you're a better man than me. I found out the hard way. I'm impressed you figured out how to calculate Checksums for the Changer. A friend tried to explain it to me and gave up. I found a spreadsheet that did the math for me.

Glad you got it working.

John