Serial/RS-232 control of RealPresence Group 500

[Anonymous]

I use iPad based control system called iRule in my conference rooms and I'm having trouble integrating the Group 500 into my system. According to the integrators manual, the code for remote control commands (button #, button camera, etc.) is exactly the same as the HDX8000 which I have working perfectly in a different conference room.

I tried simply copying of my control templates from the HDX8000 and those didn't work, so to rule out my automation software, I tried sending the commands straight from a laptop to the Group 500 and I don't get any response on the terminal. I'm using the official serial adatper, verified the baud rate on both devices and tried a regular connection and a null-modem adapter that's normally required with the HDX8000.

Has anyone else experienced simliar issues?

RS-232 mode: control

Hardware Version: 10
System Software: Release - 4.1.5-180072

[Anonymous]

The Group series codecs need to do a login process over serial before you can control themI believe.  That how I control it with Crestron anyway.  You will need the user name and admin password for the codec.  Unfortunately, some admins wont be terribly happy about giving those details out. The command being sent is probably fine, but without logging in first, it wont do anything.

[Anonymous]

Also,  the baud rate in the Group Series is selectable in the codec.  I did firmware recently on a 700 and it defaulted the baud rate to 9600.  I normally use something much higher.  Have you checked rs232 settings in the 500s web configuration?

[Anonymous]

I did check the baud rate which matched up, but I wasn't aware of the user/password authentication over RS232. I'll try that out and report back.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Just a query on this, as we may wish to do something similar - can you turn the login OFF over Serial?

We currently use a lot of CIsco C series CODEC that utilise logins on the RS232, however, I do know that this can be switched off.

Cheers

Chris

[Anonymous]

After going back and looking, I verified that you should be able to turn off the login for RS-232 which I had already set, so I'm still unclear why I can't communicate with the Group 500...

 Chris, I've attached a screenshot of the GUI setting where you can change this serial login option.

-Sean

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Also, I can confirm I got this working today without any user/password authentication. My solution was the following software settings on the Group 500:

• BAUD RATE - 19200 (this should be anything that matches your system, but it didn't work when it was set to 9600 on my devices)
• WEBSETTINGS_RS232_LOGINMODE - none

Also, unlike the HDX8000 units I'm used to working with, I had to connect it to my automation controller without a null-modem adapter.

Thanks,

Sean

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know the syntax for the command to enter the RS232 Password?