Luup Plugin: Panasonic TV Control over RS-232/Serial

[strangely]

Nice, i might see if this works on my V10

[guessed]

I can see the support call now...

Um, is this Panasonic?
    Yes
Um, How do I reflash my Viera V10 with new Firmware?
    Why...
Um, well, I followed some instructions on HackADay.com
    <click>

there is, after all only one letter difference with "Viera" and "Vera"  ;-)

[strangely]

I'd like to find out what extra you would gain by doing this but on second thoughts i think i might give it a skip

Guessed, after you...?

[guessed]

@strangely, Mine is model before the V10's.  The Hex-offsets will be all different, and whilst I love hacking things, this is probably going a little too far... esp since the "gain" is unexplained in the site.

There are times I don't mind being a crash-test-dummy, but this is not one of those times 

[denix]

As the message says - "unlocking several new settings menus, or bricking your entertainment centerpiece" 

[strangely]

@strangely, Mine is model before the V10's.  The Hex-offsets will be all different, and whilst I love hacking things, this is probably going a little too far... esp since the "gain" is unexplained in the site.

There are times I don't mind being a crash-test-dummy, but this is not one of those times 

Just look at it this way, if you brick it i can get you a nice big discount on a new one with all the nice Skype or 3D features etc
Seriously though, i wouldn't even risk it with mine which is probably much closer to the G10 series.

[strangely]

. That's why I include test URLs for Volume Up/down as it's fairly non disruptive to test... Once you have the cabling in place of course...

Hi guessed, have you tried any of the recent software releases to see if the STX ETX bug was fixed? i updated to 1.1.307 and volume still doesn't appear to work and was wondering if you had heard anything about it?

[guessed]

@strangely, it's not an STX-ETX [Protocol] bug that's stopping Volume-Up and Volume-Down from working.  There's a problem with how Vera handles duplication ACTION elements in the Plugin descriptor.

In this case, the Plugin implements both of the serviceIDs:

•     urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:MenuNavigation1
•     urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:Volume1

each of which contains an ACTIONs called "Up" and "Down".  It looks like Vera will always fire the "second" definition if there are dups, so I filed Findvera tech support Ticket #2106 on Apr8th to get that fixed.

... I have the same problem with my Onkyo Receiver plugin so I kinda need it fixed to move forward with using SQRemote correctly.


If you want to work around it, and don't mind "losing" the Up/Down "cursor" (MenuNavigation1) keys, you can change the text on the following lines:

http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_panasonic-tv/browser/I_PanasonicVieraTV1.xml#L367
    Change <name>Up</name>
    to <name>Up1</name>

http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_panasonic-tv/browser/I_PanasonicVieraTV1.xml#L312
    Change <name>Down</name>
    to <name>Down1</name>


These are the Up/Down from the MenuNavigation1 serviceId.

[strangely]

I'll give that a go but I'm also perhaps wondering if my TVs command structure might be a little different? Does anything on yours work apart power on on off? I couldn't get the mute to work either, and wouldn't have thought this would've been a duplicated action with anything else.

[guessed]

@strangely, I just re-tested the Panasonic's "Mute" function and it's working correctly on my set.  I normally mute via the Amp/Receiver, but I manually configured a Remote page to "press" the Mute key on the TV Plugin and it's working correctly.

It's possible that your TV has different codes.  I hope not, but it's possible ;-)


I did notice that one of the Panasonic models has discrete codes for Mute On/Off, which wouldn't be handled by the Volume1 API (it assumes toggle-Mute)

Any chance you can chase down the "codes" for your specific model?  Then we can compare notes.

[strangely]

I suppose its about time to try and pull in some favors, and see if i can get the docs for this!

[guessed]

@strangely, I just published a new version of I_PanasonicVieraTV1.xml that attempts to work-around the Problem with Volume Up/Down not working, the diffs are here:

    http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_panasonic-tv/changeset/2

Basically, I "sacrifice" the Cursor Up/Down actions, in order to get the Volume Up/Down actions working (a code re-order to work-around Ticket #2106).  I figure Volume Up/Down are more important than cursor movement... at least until MCV and team have a chance to fix the issue on their side.

[strangely]

Ok cool, i'll give it a try!

I contacted somebody on our consumer entertainment side yesterday at Panasonic who said they would email the RS232 commands for my TV but it never turned up in my inbox
 

[strangely]

Thanks, that works for me too; so it looks like Volume is the same on mine at least. Who needs mute anyway!

[wseverino]

Anyone know where to find the commands for a Samsung LED TV? I just noticed in Vera that my TV shows up under the upnp devices since its ethernet connected to my network.