MLGenericSerial plugin v2.0

[Lee]

Ok gentlemen,

Bad news, Mario broke off the relationship with the company I work for in a rather poor way. Left a bad tast in my Bosses mouth. I was going to tell you guys I would do some work on the plugin in my spare time (pro-bono) but seems like I am not the owner of the plugin. Can't really do much work on it .

I'll try and convince my boss to let me do some work on it on my personal time but don't hold your breath.

Can somebody compile a list of bugs and maybe prioritize them. If I do get the OK to do some work on it, long shot at best, I will want to spend my time on the top priority bugs. As a standard, every bug should be accompanied with a debug file and config file so I can try and reproduce.

Don't expect a quick turnaround. also remember that I don't do home automation personally so detail your problems well. If I get the OK, I'll do this just to get you guys out of a bind and once the major points are fixed I won't be spending any more time on it.

Bob, I would recommend you be in charge of compiling the list of bugs and sending them to me.

Really sorry for the bad news,

don't blame the messenger

Lee

[jpimentel]

Well,

That is about the worst news I could think of. I was just starting to get excited about using this plugin, and although it has tremendous potential usefulness, without some bug fixes, it is near useless for me. I can do one way serial just fine with Girder, I really need a simple to manage two way control and this was just about there. I feel it slipping away from my grasp.

I am really sorry that Mario did this (of course there are two sides to every story).

[Ripper]

Forgive me for asking but I have read this thread and need to understand better..I am looking to control my serial devices and actually just ordered a Global Cache the other day and understand I should have no problem controlling my components with one way serial but without 2 way I will not be able to get status back from the rs232? For instance I wont be able to have my pre-amp and main processor tell me the volume levels they are at via ML?

If this is the case its very unfortunate and I really hope someone can provide 2 way serial support in the near future..I was hoping to eventually control 5 serial devices some day instead of using IR.

[jpimentel]

This plugin in it's current state does not have suport for the GC series at all as far as I know. Most of the plugins that Dave P. Has written do though and I am hopeful that since development has stopped on this plugin, that Mario and Co. will write a new even better plugin moving forward.

[geislerk]

If there is going to be no more (or slow development) of this plugin, then how about posting the source so someone could help make fixes and/or enchancments. I really like this plugin and would like to see further enchancements.

[jpimentel]

Any chance of that actually happening??

[Guest]

If I have a device receiving the following status Command:

!S,1,zon,sta,stv,ssa,ssv,vvl,vvr,bas,trb <cr>

where each of these variables are a numeric value, how can I populate variables with the generic serial plugin? Can I just use wildcards or do I have to break this down with a script? If I need a script, does anyone have a quick example?

[K-Wood]

Brandon's string functions MLServer plugins would likely be able to parse the incoming data from the serial plugin.

That said, I have no idea how to go about using one of his plugins to parse and manipulate the data being returned by a serial device.

For starters, is it possible to populate a variable with the entire return string from the device?

If the return string comes back in hex, is it possible to use a function to convert it to ASCII? Should it be parsed before or after conversion to ascii?

Once the entire return string is assigned to a MLServer variable, how would one go about using specific string functions to parse the string?

For example, my Outlaw pre/pro generates a fixed length string which specific data stored at specific locations within the string. I'd like to be able to extract the data from each location and assign it to a variable within MLServer. Once the variable has been created, the sky is the limit.

I have a pretty good conceptual understanding of what needs to be done, but I simply lack the programming knowledge to make it happen.

Anyone interested in helping?

Thanks,
Ken

[blafarm]

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere - but if there a maximum number of serial devices that this plugin supports simultaneously? I'm trying to figure out which Edgeport USB/Serial to buy (8 or 16).

Thanks.

[Guest]

At the risk of being outspoken, it seems to me that not having a working and dependable generic 2-way serial plugin, that is supported, is a real achillles heel for the Lobby suite.

Am I the only one that feels this way?
Are there any plans afoot to remedy this situation?

[HAObsessed]

I am having a heck of a time getting this PI running. I am upgrading from 1.0 version. I wanted to use the 2.0v so I could import some devices that others had already taken the time to setup. My dilemma is that the drop down list for the port numbers is not populated.

To remedy I have tried uninstalling, reinstalling, & repairing the PI. Uninstalled & reinstall MLServe to see if I could get original MLGenericSerial 1.0 to work, but now that version is out of commission.

I have tried reregistering the DLL, but get:
DllRegisterServer in c:\program Files\MLServer\Plugins\MLGenerisSerial.dll FAILED.
Return code was: 0x80004005

Please to not beat up the Newbie too much here.

[HAObsessed]

OK... V1.0 is now back up & running. When I run MLGenericSerial V2.0 installer, it installs the dll here MLServer/Plugins/Plugins
The MLGeneric Serial V2.0 install guide indicates that the new dll would/should be installed in the the MLServer/Plugins folder. Correct?

I do not suppose that anyone else has experienced the same.

[mcascio]

Larry,

Check where you are installing it too. It should be: C:\Program Files\MLserver

NOT
C:\Program Files\MLServer\Plugins

[HAObsessed]

Boy I feel stupid now!!!!

I there a port # limit with V2.0?
I only have port 1-6 to choose.
MY devices are on 8,9 (with Edgeport usb serial adaptor)

[craig]

Is it correct to state that GenericSerial plugin version 2 can not be used with any device that always ends a reply with a checksum? ... Replies are different every time?

At the risk of being outspoken, it seems to me that not having a working and dependable generic 2-way serial plugin, that is supported, is a real achillles heel for the Lobby suite.

Am I the only one that feels this way?
Are there any plans afoot to remedy this situation?