As some forum members might know John and I do a lot of live event work, many times using a Panasonic MX50. I know a few members have or are using this. We were talking about some ideas and mods:
There is a tally mod http://www.knr.net/tally.htm wonder if anyone has any experience with ANY tally mods
The is what may seem as a strange idea but here goes:
Since HD live mixers are very very expensive we were wondering about upgrading to HDv camcorders, taking the sd output and feeding it to the MX50 with the usual setup, but putting tapes in the HDV camcorders and recording the event. This of course gets back to the time taken to capture, use multi cam versions of the software and edit it all etc.
The MX 50 has a rs232 422 port on the back that is typically used to control the mx 50 from an editor, BUT my understanding is that it also transmits a data stream during its live use.
Does anyone have a manual that describes this data stream?
What we were thinking of was a program that would capture the data stream, add a time code to it and then creating some sort of edl that would do the basic cuts. When we saw the scripting software for Vegas it got us thinking.
Sharyn
The pin in/outs for the RS232C are on page 39 of the manual - PM me if you want a copy.
HI
I have the pin in and outs, the issue is if anyone know what the data stream looks like, for instance how does it show that input 1 on buss a has been selected, or the wipe or the time of the mix etc. I have seen references to programs that could control the mixer via this port, but a saw a mention that during operation the mx 50 actually outputted the command data stream, so I wondered if anyone had any documentation re what this actually looked like. Might be in some sort of service manual etc OR be in the manual for a panasonic edit controller that can control the mx50 via this port
THANKS
Sharyn
I have a pc program that can control the mx50 ( in theory ) ( sends/receives edl to from controllers )
I also have a manual for the ag800 controller that i use to control the mx50.
will see what i can put together for you.
i remeber setting a pc up as a terminal ( hyperterminal ) with data rate identical to mx50 and then having them talk to each other ...... i'll try tomorrow morning at work ...... if i can find a pc with a serial port on it .....
THANKS Gary
I had always assumed that the mx50 only accepted the commands, then I saw a mention on google by a guy from Columbia University a few years ago where he claimed that the mx50 transmitted the commands back out based on physical actions *might have been done so that the controller can verify what has been done or for some reason*
We are not by our mx 50 so don't have a quick way to check
Our thinking was to have a program that captured these commands, and at the same time picked up or generated timecode. then after importing these forinstance into vegas, use some of the multicam scripting type stuff to semi automate an edit.l With HD mixers being sky high might make for an interesting alternative
Cheers
Sharyn
Just tried it.
Cannot read anything out of the mx50 , but can download/upload edls to/from the ag800 controller.
one major mistake i made was that the ag800 controls the mx50 thru rs422 , not rs232 , which may explain why it accepts input from the controller , but doesn't show anything on it's output when in rs232 mode.
i can certainly forward the progs i have , they are hidden on panasonics website , one is the edl downloader/uploader to ag850 remote controller , but talks to ag800 too , the other is dll's to control rs232 svhs decording decks.
THANKS
do any of these show the various commands for the MX 50 via the 422 port? I know there are the dip switch setting to select the mode and that there are simple converters for 422 to 232 signal levels. Not sure if you might have one of them around that you could try?
THANKS
Sharyn
I am away from the technology until Monday.
Will have another look then.
I have mx50 mixer the rs232 port can you hook tally out to it ,if you do not use a controlleror do you have to add to it. thanks
I never had tally running from my mx50 , but the manual should be able to tell you if it's possible ( mine is 150 miles away from this computer )
I used the rs232 input to control the mx50 from the ag800 switcher which was used as a svhs 3 machine edit desk controller
Thanks I have find out what to do to make tally lights work, with out a lot of expense. I do video for my church, the pastor bought a mx 50 from ebay, then wanted tally lights to work on the cameras. If I had know that I would have ask him to buy a datavideo switcher with tally controls. Terry
any chance of posting haow you do it here? or pm'ing me? It'd be very handy!!
I would like to control the Panasonic WJ-MX50 mixer from the computer with the rs232 serial connection. I haven't found the specification for the protocol. What commands does the mixer understand? Where could I find this information?
The specification is in a download from panasonic ( or was ) where they had a software controller to mimic a 850 switcher ( i think )
I would need to go dig out my notes.
I would really appreciate if you could find the document. At the moment I am pretty much stuck with the project.
isn't the 232 protocol in the back of the book?
http://www.usersmanualguide.com/panasonic/digital_av_mixer/wj-mx50
page 39
Thanks for the tip, but the page specifies only the protocol for the serial communication: BAUD rate, parity, etc. This is needed just to get a connection between the mixer and computer.
What I'm looking for is the set of command that are used to control the functions of the mixer.
I managed to reverse-engineer the commands that I needed from the source code of devserv, which is an application for remote controlling the WJ-MX50.
Every command starts with the control character STR(hex 0x02) and ends with ETR(hex 0x03). In principle: [STR]command[ETR]
To select the sources for the A and B channels you use the "VCP" command. For example "VCP:A2" selects the source number 2 for channel A.
To switch or mix the channels you use the "VMP" command. "VMP:xx0000" where xx ranges from 00 to FF, sets the wipe lever position remotely. So "VMP:000000" shows only channel A, "VMP:FF0000" shows only channel B and "VMP:7F0000" would be a half blend. This works with transitions, too.
"POF" powers down the mixer.
Found another source for that devserv program since the above link is dead: http://web.zcu.cz/ftp/pub/network/mbone/mmrz/devserv/
this might help somebody as well: http://eww.pass.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/content/guide/EN/hmx100_rs232_eng.pdf
ping me if dead. I have saved a copy.