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Topic: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

Dear all


Looking For The Serial Configuration Of The Station-10

Baud Rate
Partity
databits
StopBits
Parcing time


Thanks

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

I don't know the answer to your question, but if I infer the implied application correctly:
We attempted unsuccessfully to connect a Station 10 via 485/Ethernet converters. There appeared to be timing issues we couldn't solve.
Just a friendly warning; please ignore if I'm on the wrong track. smile

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
                                                                                        - George Bernard Shaw

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

Sorry, but that is proprietary information.  That said, what are you needing to do?

Last edited by Fergy (2010-07-19 03:33:24)

Make it intuitive, never leave them guessing.

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

The *communication parameters* are proprietary?!?!?!?! I'd love to hear the reason for that. Marselle, if you can get to a, preferably single, working station, it shouldn't be too hard to figure those out with a scope. Of course that's only 10% of what you need. The protocol is the hard part, which if the baud rate is a matter of national security, access to the protocol may require proof of blood relation to Hartley wink

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

As every body know the communication bwtween the paging station and the controller is Rs-485 using the Rg-45 , the station is far from the controller more than 3 km , i tried to connect the rs-485 of the station to Cab-8i , from the controller side i use to connect the serial Rs-485 to the paging controller, win enabling the Rs-485 bridjing from the M-ware , The led of the Station become Green and always blinking , all the Hardwear buttons not working , and the disered text for the button not appearing in the LCD of the Station. Please Note that The Controller has been programmed using the
page matrix program , since i connect the station to the controller directly it will work fine !

I Think The Problem Of The Communication Using The Rs-485 of the Station / Paging Controller Using The Serial Bridjing is the serial format , No Technical Information Has Been Mentioned In Both Of The User Manual for the Rs-485.

I Decide To Connect The Station To a Crestron Processor ,The Processor Will Send The Serial Data To The Far Processor , And From it To The Controller , The Communication by Using Fiber Optics .

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

The reason CAB serial bridging dowsn't work is that CobraNet by default is Multicast, and the stations require point to point.  I haave never tried setting the CABs to point to point (unicast), but that is how we get 485 to work when using CABs with ControlMatrix PCU paging stations.

Make it intuitive, never leave them guessing.

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

So Any Body Can Provide A Solution , otherewise i have to use the station as microphone only , with internal switch-Push to Talk  ( Do Some Soldering on the Pcb).

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

Also, as I told you via email the other day:

from an email I sent to Marselle001 on July 9 I wrote:

The PageMatrix Station 10 is intended to be used with the PageMatrix Command Center paging controller. The PageMatrix Station 10 is configured and programmed by the PageMatrix Command Center according to how the PageMatrix Command Center is configured by the PageMatrix software. The PageMatrix Command Center connects to the MediaMatrix Mainframe via an RS-232 connection. So, I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the Station 10 connected to the 485 of a CAB 8i. We do not support this kind of configuration.

However... if you were to position the PageMatrix Command Center with the CAB 8i, use an RS-232 to 485 converter, connect it to the CAB 8i, then on the other end use another 458 to RS-232 converter, you might be able to get it to work... maybe... you would have to get all those variables set correctly, but it could probably be done.

Remember, you can not connect a PageMatrix Paging station directly to either a Mainframe, Miniframe, XFrame, or NION. (Well, you might be able to get it to work with a NION but it would require a lot of custom configuration programming.) As such, we do not support this kind of configuration directly, but you may be able to get it to work with the tools that we provide.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

jvalenzuela wrote:

The *communication parameters* are proprietary?!?!?!?! I'd love to hear the reason for that. Marselle, if you can get to a, preferably single, working station, it shouldn't be too hard to figure those out with a scope. Of course that's only 10% of what you need. The protocol is the hard part, which if the baud rate is a matter of national security, access to the protocol may require proof of blood relation to Hartley wink

hahaha!!!

I don't know that he really meant that they are proprietary, or if he meant that he doesn't know.

I do know that I do not know what they are, and I don't really care to know what they are. What I do care about is that when I plug the Station 10 into the Command Center, it works, flawlessly, every time. Consequently, I've never looked into what the parameters are, or could be. Certainly, EIA-422 would have been the more appropriate point to point solution, however half-duplex EIA-485 (a multi-drop serial network) may have been the best choice considering that there is only one pair of wires available in the cable.

If you do get it to work the way you are doing it, please let us know. Everyone on this board is very interested in unique solutions like this.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

I guess we're all looking for an alternative to homeruns in this Networked world!

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
                                                                                        - George Bernard Shaw

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

phils wrote:

I guess we're all looking for an alternative to homeruns in this Networked world!

I did some work for IED(don't hate me), and they had some cute paging stations probably similar in application to a Station 10. Its sole connection was Ethernet(PoE too!!). Control data sent over the network to their controller, mic audio routed via Cobranet.

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

So let me see if I understand this, you have a paging station(Station 10) very far away from the thing it needs to plug in to(Command Center). You have a CAB near by, hence your attempt to try and ship the RS485 via CobraNet bridging. If you have a CAB near, I can also assume that the paging station is close to network connectivity, Ethernet, and maybe even some dark fiber. Folks have also tried shipping the RS485 over Ethernet via standalone converters without success. What about using a non-Ethernet RS485 long haul solution? If you have fiber, maybe something like this:

http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.a … p;Trail=34

You'll have to provide power locally, but you'd have to do that anyway. The trick is going to be the bus arbitration timing. You might be able to get an idea of this with a scope, but any help from Peavey engineering would be all the better.

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

phils wrote:

I guess we're all looking for an alternative to homeruns in this Networked world!

Indeed!

jvalenzuela wrote:

I did some work for IED(don't hate me), and they had some cute paging stations probably similar in application to a Station 10. Its sole connection was Ethernet(PoE too!!). Control data sent over the network to their controller, mic audio routed via Cobranet.

Wait. What? You've just been dis-barred from these parts, Mister!!!

Yeah, okay, not really... we've all gotta eat... so we understand.

One day I'm sure MediaMatrix will have a networked paging station too. When? Good question... I'd certainly prefer to have a networked paging station rather than having to do home run cables for each station... and PoE would make it awesome!

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

Dear jvalenzuela

Thanks for the help

i tried somthing like that , but it will not work properly , the cause is the timming between the sender and the reciever , after trying this kind of converter and connect it to the page matrix controller , the led of the station become green and start flashing , but nothing happen even if i push the push to talk button , or select the zone from the hard bottons , note that when the same station is connected directly to the controller , it will work perfect ! as my experience in the serial communication ( i am control system programmer & microcontroler programmer certified from microship ) its parcing time issue , please note that the station-10 using a X-tal osilator with the AVR microcontroller + Max485 decoder .

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Re: Station-10 Rs-485 Configuration

Marselle,

We tried something similiar a while back using 485 to ethernet convertors and were highly unsuccessful across several brands.  If memory serves, there were several reasons;

1) the Station 10 is a 9 bit format and most convertors (and Windows drivers) are 8 bit based.  There are ways to interpret the 9th bit from the stop or parity bits however most convertors we've seen did not support this well.

2) The latency through the convertors was well beyond what the Stations require for a heartbeat.

Based on our experience, I suspect what you are trying to do is not possible (using the Station 10 or Station 4) through a convertor.  If you want to keep trying I suspect you may have better luck through the CAB but only if you can get the serial bridging variables exactly correct.

FYI, the MWare frames had dynavar devices which easily allowed configuration of tx/rx subnets.  That might make a nice test bench if you have access to one.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,

Joe