iPort Docking System

[jrlewis]

This driver is brought to you by Juan and the folks at AV Solutions (http://www.youravsolutions.com/). They are integration partners by way of VidaBox.

This is probably one of the most frustrating experiences with a manufacturer I have ever had. I think they take a hippocratic oath "To Do No Help". The company line is they provide no programming support and the only support they provide is the online documentation (http://www.iportmusic.com/cms_documents/iPort%20RS232%20Programming%20Manual_041709Final.p df). As my original suspicions confirmed it was impossible to develop a driver based on the printed documentation. The document has the usual errors/omissions/ambuguities that plague many protocol documents, but the glaring defect is the manner in which it describes how to navigate and play selections from the docked device. It is correct up to a point and then just falls flat. If you are a developer and have found this site and are scratching your head as I was feel free to contact me. Enough of the rant and on to the driver.

This driver provides support for the iPort Docking System. To date the driver has been tested against and FS-22 running firmware version 1.04. The docked devices tested have ranged from iPhones to regular iPods. If you happen to have one of these or know someone who does it would be great to have it tested against another dock. The driver provides access to cover art for the currently playing song via Amazon. The code base for the cover art is based on the work of Jonothan from the XMChannel Info driver. One interesting note on the driver is it allows you to access the list of queued songs on the docked device. Ipod'ish devices don't have a "playlist" in the same sense as CQC media renderer drivers, but the protocol provides access to the list of queued songs. I have a test template set that I need to package up and add to the attachments below.

Posted Version 0.8
0.1 Beta release with player support and no music selection
0.2 Added support for cover art from Amazon
0.3 Finally figured out how to select and control music in spite of the published protocol.
0.4 Changed music navigation to non-cached
0.5 Fixed Bugs
0.6 Fixed Bugs
0.7 Added MultiScroll,Playlist support, and general code cleanup
0.8 Renaming, cleanup, and added All Songs to strategic locations in the MediaList

[VidaBox LLC]

JR,

I just wanted to say thank you for the great work you did with this driver and for being such a valuable resource for our dealer AV Solutions. We have had so many of our dealers ask for support of this iPod dock. Now we can tell them that we do support it. And thank you to AV solutions for allowing the driver to be posted back to the community. They are the ones that paid for this driver to be written.

[jrlewis]

Thanks Sergio. AV Solutions is great to work with. The device itself is pretty cool. Definitely would be a big hit for parties and what not where folks can take turns being the DJ for a bit and having it tied into a whole home audio or such. Definitely looking forward to having more foks get their hands on it and testing it out. At this point about the only thing it needs is to replace the ReplaceSubStr methods with the native implementation and once there is native support for the SHA256 hash swap it out. The SHA256 is required for the Amazon art work functionality. The java implementation I morphed into CML works surprising well which is just a testament to how efficient CML really is, but a native implementation would be a lot cleaner.

[MSDW]

Great news, and thanks JR. I am one of those who has been asking Sergio to find an option for this dock. Again thanks, Mike.