Strand 300 Fader Panels

[IRW]

Hi All,

I know that there will be a fair amount of people on here who will have or had a Strand 300, with associated control and fader panels, and indeed, potentially some that were involved in the development?

 

Like me, you probably have a fair number of these panels sat on a shelf somewhere gathering dust, and for my next trick, with OSC becoming so prolific and flexible now (especially with regards to EOS systems which most of us strand folk will have now moved onto), I'd love to get a bit more life out of my old fader panels by getting them talking to a computer.

 

"Can't be done!", "Impossible", I hear you cry...well maybe so, but I'm giving it a damn good try!

 

With the use of a CanBus to RS232 converter, hours of tweaking settings, and analysing packets byte by byte, I've got some of the way towards making this a reality. The problem is there are some bits in the middle that I've got no idea how to interpret.

 

Where I am at the moment, is I've got a fair idea of what packets to look for to interpret a given event happening on a given fader panel- I've even got some way towards making the bump buttons/fader leds light up- this sort of stuff I can interpret with relative ease.

 

The problem that I'm up against is that when you power the console on with the faders attached, there seems to be some sort of discovery/handshaking going on- obvious really, as the console needs to know how to address all of the bits of modular hardware attached to it, and this is where I'm a bit stuck.

 

So this is a shoutout for anyone who might be able to shed some light on this. Back when I was still working with 500-series consoles, I did a lot of digging into how the entire Strand (of old) ecosystem worked, and if my understanding of how they did things is correct, I don't think this should be particularly complicated at this point that I'm at, but I just need a nudge in right direction from someone in the know if at all possible.

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

[alistermorton]

Interesting sounding idea - we also have a spare 300 fader wing in the store. Never occurred to me to use it in that way.

 

I suppose the lighthack arduino project could be used as a base to add it to an EOS based system.

[Ynot]

I have a handful of 300 desk fader panels.....

If anyone ants to give them a try :)

 

 

 

 

[Kazeja]

Hi Ian.

 

Not sure if this is what you're after but at the end of the 220node.cfg file there is a section for the 300 panel IDs. Where as the Brain has 4 can bus chips, each of the panels has it's own individual single ID chip for identification purposes.

 

In console mode it was possible to configure the order of multiple panels by holding down either the first, second or third bump button depending on which range of subs you wanted to control on that panel.

 

Well that's what I remember from my days at Strand.

 

K

[IRW]

Hi Ian.

 

Not sure if this is what you're after but at the end of the 220node.cfg file there is a section for the 300 panel IDs. Where as the Brain has 4 can bus chips, each of the panels has it's own individual single ID chip for identification purposes.

 

In console mode it was possible to configure the order of multiple panels by holding down either the first, second or third bump button depending on which range of subs you wanted to control on that panel.

 

Well that's what I remember from my days at Strand.

 

K

 

Thanks Andy- the way the console references the panels is the bit I'm a little stuck with. I know about the section in 220node.cfg, and the pressing bump buttons to 'set' panels, but I think these are more to do with Genius Pro's 'internal dialogue', rather than actual hardware interface.

 

After a bit more packet analysing tonight, I've picked up on a couple of packets that contain the panel ID codes (the same ones as in 220node.cfg) that are sent as part of, let's call it, the handshake routine, but these particular numbers are not sent when, for example, a fader is moved, so I'm still trying to work out the relationship between these separate events, and how the console knows which panel the fader move has come from. Somewhere there must once have been some sort of guide for the developers as to how this stuff talked, and, knowing how closely related the incredibly comprehensive 'advanced midi commands', serial strings and GeniusPro era shownet was, through previous 'projects', I'd be willing to bet it would probably turn out to be really simple and modular!