User`s manual

Alcorn McBride Digital Video Machine HD User’s Manual Rev 1.0

Control Interfaces

Serial Control

The Digital Video Machine HD can be controlled using the male DB-9 RS-232

connector on the rear panel. If you are interfacing to the DVMHD with a PC or other

type of controller, you will need to use a straight-through DB-9 Female to DB-9

Female serial cable. For your convenience, this cable has been included with your

DVMHD.

This serial interface operates at 9600 baud, no parity, 8 bits per character, and one

stop bit (9600,8,N,1).

All serial commands are ASCII based, and are terminated with a carriage return

(hexadecimal value 0x0D). The complete list of supported commands can be found

in the Command Protocol section as well.

For your convenience, Alcorn McBride distributes an application called AMI

Terminal, which allows you to control the DVMHD via RS-232 with the click of a

button. This free application can be obtained at

http://www.alcorn.com.

Ethernet Control

The Digital Video Machine HD is equipped with an Ethernet interface that allows you

to control the DVMHD using a standard Ethernet Protocol called UDP (User

Datagram Protocol).

UDP is a very simple Ethernet protocol that allows an Ethernet device to transmit a

generic string of data to another Ethernet device. Since UDP is such a broad

standard, UDP packets can be generated easily by a large variety of controllers and

PC applications. The UDP packet handles all of the complexities of getting the

message where it needs to go in one piece. The good news is that you do not have

to understand those complexities. As a matter of fact, you only need to know the

following information to send a UDP message.

1. Destination IP Address – This needs to be the IP address of the

DVMHD you intend to control. The default IP address of the DVMHD

is 192.168.0.254.

2. Destination Port – This value needs to be the UDP port that the

DVMHD is listening to for UDP commands. This value is always 2638.

3. Source Port - This is the UDP port the PC or controller will use to send

the UDP message. It does not matter what port you choose, as long

as it is a legal UDP port. If you have no idea what a legal UDP port is,

just use 2638.

4. Data – This is the actual message that you are sending to the DVMHD.

This message needs to be a Command Protocol message (i.e.

1PL<CR>).

All UDP commands are ASCII based, and are terminated with a carriage return

(hexadecimal value 0x0D). The complete list of supported commands can be found

in the Command Protocol section.

For your convenience, Alcorn McBride distributes an application called AMI

Terminal, which allows you to control the DVMHD using UDP with the click of a

button. This free application can be obtained at

http://www.alcorn.com.