User guide

Br-miniBrick8 Serial Port Commands
The Br-miniBrick8 can be accessed through the serial port from any computer running just
about any modem program. The computer you are using doesnʼt even need to have any
PC•MACs software installed on it. This is a feature that most users should never need to use.
We prefer to use our own ʻmodemʼ program, GilderTerm. If you donʼt have or canʼt down-
load a copy of GilderTerm, then you can use just about any other terminal program. Typical
modem programs you can use are Terminal.exe (which comes with Windows 3.1) and Hyper
Terminal.exe (which comes with Windows ʼ95, ʼ98, W2K and XP). If you can, find a copy of
Terminal.exe, as it is a better program than the later Hyper Terminal. You can not download
files to a Br-miniBrick8 when using Hyper Terminal.
To use the Br-miniBrick8 with a terminal program, just connect it as you would normally
with a straight nine position male to nine position female cable. Configure your terminal pro-
gram for 9600 baud, no parity, eight data bits, one stop bit and ʻxon/xoffʼ handshaking. Gil-
derTerm defaults to these settings.
If the Br-miniBrick8 is not currently running a show, it will be printing the character ʻ.ʼ about
once a second. This is the ʻheartbeatʼ that you can see on the ʻheartʼ LED on the Br-
miniBrick8. When running a show, it will print the name of each show as it is started, and the
frame number on each frame update. If you do not see any of these characters, then there is a
problem with your physical connection or configuration.
Reset ʻj5AA5ʼ
This command will erase the EEprom on the Br-miniBrick8. The Br-miniBrick8 will
also determine the type and quantity of memory chips installed and report this and the
software revision number when it accepts this command.
Status ʻiʼ
When it receives this command, the Br-miniBrick8 will respond with the following
information on the Br-miniBrick8 (It will also print this information out when the Br-
miniBrick8 is first powered up or after a successful AutoDownload):
a) Firmware revision number and copyright.
b) Running status: Whether the Br-miniBrick8 is running, looping or stopped. What
show it is (or was) playing and the frame number into that show the Br-miniBrick8
is on.
c) Input status: Whether each input is opened (ʻOʼ) or closed (ʻCʼ).
d) Thirty-two byte header and name of the AutoDownload file that has been down-
loaded to the Br-miniBrick8.
e) One sixteen byte show header for each show that is loaded in the Br-miniBrick8.
AutoDownload ʻsA5A5ʼ nn
This is the format of the file that the Br-miniBrick8 will receive and load into its EE-
prom memory.
An AutoDownload file is a binary file. Any AutoDownload file that has previously
been saved can be sent to a Br-miniBrick8 by selecting the ʻsend binary fileʼ on your
modem program and selecting the AutoDownload for sending. You must be sure that
the modem program has not been set to ʻgobbleʼ any special characters (carriage re-
turns, line feeds, etc.).
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • fax [phone]
Br-miniBrick8 v3.+ Manual / 8/17/12 / page 14 of 36