How to control Russound CAM6.6 from iPod Touch

[icellama21]

I guess i am a little daft - I just re-read this thread and see that it does need a serial to ethernet adapter to work - are we able to use any serial to ethernet adapter like the cheaper ones from Wiznet?

You will need some way to connect your amplifier to the network that the iPhone/iPod touch connects to. An IP->RS232 adapter is great, but I'm open to other ideas too. I've tested it with the ELK-IP232 and it generally works, although there are some quirks with connection delays that I haven't had time to work through.

 

[smckay79]

I guess i am a little daft - I just re-read this thread and see that it does need a serial to ethernet adapter to work - are we able to use any serial to ethernet adapter like the cheaper ones from Wiznet?

You will need some way to connect your amplifier to the network that the iPhone/iPod touch connects to. An IP->RS232 adapter is great, but I'm open to other ideas too. I've tested it with the ELK-IP232 and it generally works, although there are some quirks with connection delays that I haven't had time to work through.

What about some kind of opensource patch for say an openwrt router - You can pickup an asus router which has a usb port (then use a usb2serial adapter) to control the device... kind of like recreating the russound TCH1 - however for simplicity i like the Ethernet to Serial adapter... my concern is more price wise.. the elk-ip232 adapter is around $150 the ones from wiznet, take a look at the WIZ110SR their site is ewiznet (dot) com (sorry i guess being a newb here means i cant post urls....)
Thanks
Scott

 

[icellama21]

What about some kind of opensource patch for say an openwrt router - You can pickup an asus router which has a usb port (then use a usb2serial adapter) to control the device... kind of like recreating the russound TCH1 - however for simplicity i like the Ethernet to Serial adapter... my concern is more price wise.. the elk-ip232 adapter is around $150 the ones from wiznet, take a look at the WIZ110SR their site is ewiznet (dot) com (sorry i guess being a newb here means i cant post urls....)
Thanks
Scott

In theory the app should work with any IP interface, but it has very limited testing. Let me know what your experience is and I will try to make it work. Some of the cheaper IP bridges do not handle the protocol well which can lead to lots of dropped connections and delays. If it works with a basic TCP socket, it should work.

 

[smckay79]

What about some kind of opensource patch for say an openwrt router - You can pickup an asus router which has a usb port (then use a usb2serial adapter) to control the device... kind of like recreating the russound TCH1 - however for simplicity i like the Ethernet to Serial adapter... my concern is more price wise.. the elk-ip232 adapter is around $150 the ones from wiznet, take a look at the WIZ110SR their site is ewiznet (dot) com (sorry i guess being a newb here means i cant post urls....)
Thanks
Scott

In theory the app should work with any IP interface, but it has very limited testing. Let me know what your experience is and I will try to make it work. Some of the cheaper IP bridges do not handle the protocol well which can lead to lots of dropped connections and delays. If it works with a basic TCP socket, it should work.

is there any chance you could add me to Beta Provisioning Profile for the app.. I would love to be able to test this and would send you my device id to get a profile from you

 

[smckay79]

hey never mind, i see its in the app store right now!! yeah!

 

[icellama21]

hey never mind, i see its in the app store right now!! yeah!

I figured the best way to do a beta was via the AppStore. Send me a PM with your email to be on future betas.

 

[smckay79]

I wanted to mention as well, for anyone wanting to try this without the need of purchasing any other hardware they can use VPSE program for free from http://www.eterlogic.com/. This is the same program that another Russound hacker John has used in his sqzruss software (a Russound/Squeezebox Interface Program) . You guys should take a look at it. Basically in a nut shell his software sends meta data from a squeezebox to the russound keypads - and it works great! John has been a tremendous help getting my system up and going.


you can read more about sqzruss here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1230633

He is following this thread, and late last night sent me this.

Scott,

I took a quick look at the LlamaPanel app referenced in the thread. You don’t need a separate ethernet to serial adapter – you already have what you need! The VSPE program you’re using with SqzRuss is a software-based ethernet to serial adapter. In the LlamaPanel audio controller network settings, just enter the host name or IP address of the machine running VSPE and enter 5555 as the port number. I tried it and it works fine!

Perhaps you could update the thread to let other people know.



Regards… John

Hope this helps someone!

Scott

 

[someonewho]

icellama,

John here. Very nice work on the app! Thanks very much for your efforts on this!

If you follow the SqzRuss link above you'll find a lot of code I've written to interface with the Russound controllers. Please feel free to use any parts that may be helpful. Also, I'd be glad to try to address any questions you may have. I've found the RNet protocol to be not quite as straight-forward as it first appears (that and the documentation is not complete).

The only problem I'm having right now is that changing sources sometimes throws the application off and source changing freezes. This may be because I'm using VSPE as the Tcp serial interface. I'm not sure if the Elk works this way, but with VSPE you need to use a Tcp receive timeout to close the Russound buffer to process the messages. This sometimes leaves a message split between one buffer and another, which may be causing the app to drop the message.

In any case, excellent work and I look forward to any new versions you may come up with. I have a few suggestions functionality-wise if you're interested.

Regards...

 

[someonewho]

All,

If anyone's interested, the following hex strings (without the colons) can be entered for the custom remote buttons to turn all zones off or all zones on.

All zones off:

F0:7E:00:7F:00:00:71:05:02:02:00:00:F1:22:00:00:00:00:00:01:0F:F7

All zones on:

F0:7E:00:7F:00:00:71:05:02:02:00:00:F1:22:00:01:00:00:00:01:10:F7

If anyone wants the hex strings for other control functions (e.g., DND, party mode, etc.) just let me know.

Regards...

 

[icellama21]

Hehe, patience ... I'm working on a ton of subviews for different functions(like tuner presets, party mode, all on/off, etc), but it will take some time. I'll have a beta ready in a few days. First I've got to work on the TCP connections bit, opening/closing sockets like crazy is killing a lot of stuff. Glad someone is using it.

 

[someonewho]

icellama,

I'm not at all familiar with iPhone/Touch app development, but why do you need to open and close sockets frequently? Can you not maintain/assume a persistent connection with this app stuff? I'd love to see how this differs from normal client apps.

Regards...

 

[icellama21]

The issue with mobile devices is connection reliability. The network signal can die, the device can go to sleep, or packets can just get dropped somewhere in never-wherever-land. There is no reason to open and close sockets repeatedly. Since this app is a hobby it was built in a scattered fashion. I'm fixing that now. I've got a new beta with some more controls available if anyone is interested.

 

[smckay79]

new beta is working great, just some little bugs that i emailed out but will list here so you don't get repeats.

bugs
1)Source button does not change source past the initial change, for example, when on source 3 and you hit the button it changes to source 4 but nothing after that.

Suggestions)
1) when holding the volume key down, have it repeat the command out to the controller, instead of having to press it multiple times
2) add favs to the controller (f1 and f2)
3) ability to hide sources / rooms not used


more will come as i keep playing with this.

Thanks!

 

[icellama21]

I have received a lot of requests to create a version that has limited email support for setup so I have split the product into 2:

1) Llamapanel - a paid version with limited email support. FREE to Cocooners who PM me for a promo code.
2) Llamapanel Lite - a free version that handles most basic keypad events.

The newest Llamapanel has an added screen for bass, treble, TOV, party mode, etc and some enhancements to the network communications. It should be much more reliable once it has connected to the RNET system as it will maintain that connenction(instead of breaking/making). There are still some startup delays with various bridges due to the time it takes to open a socket that doesn't immediately close. I'm trying different ways around this, but it seems like some IP->RS232 bridges are just a bit flaky.

Please send me any feedback and I'll update it as soon as I can.

 

[icellama21]

Suggestions)
1) when holding the volume key down, have it repeat the command out to the controller, instead of having to press it multiple times
2) add favs to the controller (f1 and f2)
3) ability to hide sources / rooms not used

Thanks!

1 will be in the next version of Llamapanel Lite and Llamapanel
2 is in the newest version of Llamapanel Lite and Llamapanel.
3 is in the newest version of Llamapanel, simply name a zone "skip" to remove it from the view. Source skipping will be implemented in the next version.

The next version is almost ready for beta, let me know if you are interested.