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Hey Dean, Getting back to testing the MonoPrice Blackbird 24179 HDMI 4x4 Switcher (replacement finally arrived Thursday 10/5 and then I went in for foot surgery on Friday so been delayed) and am running into several issues:  (this is v3 of the driver file you sent me)
- When I try to pause the driver the driver does not pause.  The driver indicates that it is paused in the GUI. The driver is cycling between waiting for connect and waiting for comm resource states.  I closed the tab for the instance of the driver and was able to pause at that point.  Going back into the driver display tab I was then able to pause / resume.  So somewhere in there is a funky state where.  After additional testing on the driver of pausing and resuming the driver the GUI is again out of sync   Now the driver thinks it is paused even though the driver is in a connected state and right mouse on the driver instance indicates that I can "Resume" the driver but not pause. Selecting Resume results in pausing the driver and the state get's back into sync with the GUI. (this issue is the reason why I am posting this on this thread)  
- The IP instance of the driver will not connect to the unit if it is powered off.  If powered on before driver start then the driver will come up correctly. There appears to be the text "Please Input Your Command :" with a cr/lf sent from the unit when the socket first connects.  If that is not the issue then sequence probably should be 1) get status %9962. 2) if PWOFF then a) turn power on, b) Status. to get config status, c) turn back off 3) if PWON then Status. to get config status
- IP version of the file does not contain the serial manifest and so when I upgraded to 911 had to reload v2 (latest serial) and v3 IP version
- The serial version does not remember the state of the power when connecting and leaves the unit in an on state if unit is turned off when the driver connects
- There are 3 or more HDMI switchers under the Blackbird name so manifest should indicate model # of unit which is 24179 for this one. Maybe "Blackbird 4x4 #24179"
- To finish up I think we need to add to the Invoke command the ability to recall presets 1 - 10
so Recall1 results in the below from the unit:  (I've not configured anything yet so input is 00)
Recall From F1Out  01 02 03 04In   00 00 00 00
Thanks Dean
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The extra prompt thing shouldn't be an issue. I'd seen that and it ignores stuff it doesn't understand (this is why these telnet protocols suck and shouldn't be used really.)
So it would seem to me it doesn't respond to queries when powered off. If the device has to be powered on to talk to, then we shouldn't have a power field. The driver should just send a power on when it connects. It makes no sense to have a power field that knocks the driver off line. You'd want the device to just be powered on all the time.
Not sure what you mean on #4.
If you want to expose the IP one again I can take another whack at it. You'll have to send me the info again. Be sure to unload any existing driver.
Dean Roddey
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10-09-2017, 03:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-09-2017, 03:44 PM by batwater.)
What I mean by #4 is that the serial driver turns on the unit before querying the status and then leaves it on after done. Email sent.
The driver remains on the line and stays on line with the IP connection if the unit is powered on with first connect of the driver. The issue is that the unit has to be turned on to query it's status.
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Turning the device on to query initial state may not be a good thing. People always complained back when the Denon's required that for secondary zones, since it would suddenly turn on and some left running source starts blaring out in the middle of the night or something.
I would argue just don't have any power control, have the driver power it on on startup if it needs to but it otherwise just stays on all the time. That way, you are much less likely to have a sudden blast of audio if the driver cycles or something, because it's always on and it would already be blasting if there were something to blast.
Dean Roddey
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Dean,
This device is a switcher not an amplifier. Unlike the Denon example this type of device does not present the suggested sudden unexpected noise risk. There is no reason to leave it on once the configuration state is learned. Since there is an IR remote control and the power state is a toggle the power state needs to remain known for Harmony Hub to work properly. One of my 4 output destinations is controlled by a Harmony Hub, the other 3 will be by CQC.
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Dean, I'm trying to use the Variable Driver Client to create a new variable on a new variable driver instance and it's just not working. I'm on .912, running the admin client on a laptop. When I try to add a new variable it will not allow me to name it, always comes up NewField1, 2 etc, if I edit the name and hit save it reverts to NewField1, 2 etc. If I try to change the variable type it reverts back to NewField1, 2 etc.
If I try to select the data type before hitting add I get an Unhandled exception in GUI thread error dialog box "4294967295 is not a valid index for the TVector<TElem> object. Count=0 error"
Same errors occur on master server directly.
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Commit to the name change before you hit save. If the little in-place editor is still visible, then it's not been changed yet. So I'm guessing you just edited the name but didn't hit enter to save the change?
The index error is legit. I'll fix that. It would only happen if you had no fields yet, so I hadn't noticed it.
Dean Roddey
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10-10-2017, 10:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-10-2017, 10:44 AM by batwater.)
Okay, got that, now new thing, when I go into the "edit" fields dialog it does not retain the value of the variable type, e.g I saved it as a StringList but when I go in to edit it again it comes back up as boolean (first in list).
Also, what is the syntax for adding an enumerated list? Tried text on a new line, "quoted" with , with space, ; not getting it. Where would this be documented in the Help files?
Thanks!
clarification, when you enter the edit dialog the first item on the list does not have the correct data type highlighted. If it is the only entry there is no way to up / down arrow to cause it to reflect the correct data type.
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10-10-2017, 10:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-10-2017, 10:48 AM by Dean Roddey.)
Set the type after you create the field. That isn't showing you what new fields will be, it's the type of the current field. When you create a new field, it defaults to boolean. After that change it to what you want and safe.
The limits fields are in the format used by the drivers for such things. So:
Range: 1,10
Enum: Value1, Value2, Value3
And whatever the other ones are defined for fields, which I don't remember at the moment. They are documented in /More Details/Drivers/Fields/Fields. But I just noticed it doesn't give an actual example of each. I'll update that for the next drop, and add a link on the variables driver page to the field definition docs.
Dean Roddey
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Dean thanks for the documentation reference and fixes to the documentation.
What I was trying to say is that after a field is created and saved and then you go back into edit again the 1st entry in the list indicates that it has a boolean data type. In other words the dialog does not come up with the correct data type defined with the cursor sitting on the first entry.
