Updated iMON (Soundgraph) LCD Driver (2 Viewers)

[Pretoriano]

hi Cybermage,i've followed your installation instructions but i can't make this work.All required files are in place but i'm still having errors with both imon usb drivers(screenshots attached).
I'm using Vista Ultimate(UAC disabled)and Imon UltraBay LCD.You can count on me for further testing too.

 

[chemelli]

Pretoriano,

copy back SG_VFD.DLL in MP install dir and retry you should then have the same error I have.

Simone

 

[dust_ag]

Thanks Cybrmage for this new release. Here is my experience with it :

The plugin now uses a copy of the SG_VFD.dll that is installed the Antec or SoundGraph software. During plugin setup, the installed software is located, and the installed DLL is copied to the MediaPortal plugin directory.

The first time I followed your instructions, it didn't work on my system when SG_LCD.dll are deleted from media portal dir. There is a red warning at the left of the driver list in external display config panel (message is "required file SG_LCD.dll is not installed") and the OK button is disabled. (see attached pict & configuration.log). I have to copy the DLL manually (under name SG_LCD) under the media portal directory.
The second time I deleted the DLL, it worked and the config tool copied DLL to the media portal directory under SG_LCD.dll and to the plugin directory under SG_VFD.dll.

This copy is then used instead of the DLL in the MediaPortal directory. Although chemelli's idea of using a modifed both SG_VFD.dll and SG_LCD.dll should have worked, extensive testing has shown that the renamed SG_LCD.dll causes problems with the iMON software. Apparently, the SG hardware driver thinks that the driver using the renamed DLL is a seperate instance of the iMON software, and will not allow communication with the hardware. Also, If the MediaPortal driver starts before the iMON program, the iMON program will not start and the remote will be unusable (This is the problem that cricri31 was experiencing). The new "experimental" method used by this version of the driver appears to aleviate these problems.

So, why SG_VFD.dll is still copied in MediaPortal dir under SG_LCD.dll ?


Last but not least, the new core.dll makes my MP gui to crash (maybe due to my version 0.2.3 RC3 that is not the last SVN).

Thanks again for the job !

Best regards.
dust_ag

 

[cybrmage]

chemelli and Pretoriano: As I've said... I don't use Vista... so, although the attached pictures are very pretty, they are useless... please post your mediaportal.log and configuration.log files.

Thanks Cybrmage for this new release. Here is my experience with it :
There is a red warning at the left of the driver list in external display config panel (message is "required file SG_LCD.dll is not installed") and the OK button is disabled.

I missed a reference to the old DLL in the setup code....

So, why SG_VFD.dll is still copied in MediaPortal dir under SG_LCD.dll ?

It shouldn't be... the driver doesn't use that DLL any more... I'll check your logs (THANK YOU!!!) once I get off work...

Last but not least, the new core.dll makes my MP gui to crash (maybe due to my version 0.2.3 RC3 that is not the last SVN).

Sorry... I expected that would happen... I'm trying to get the changes to bassaudio.cs put into the SVN.... You will probably have to wait till the next MP release to see the equalizer...

Replace the Core.dll file with the backup you made and all should be well....


I'll post a new version of the driver later today...

 

[dust_ag]

Replace the Core.dll file with the backup you made and all should be well....

Already done ! Everything else seems to work really fine !

If I can make a suggestion , a very pretty ehancement (for me) would be to turn off LCD backlight when playing a movie (the LCD luminosity is higher than the one of my beamer!) In this case I could avoid putting a sheet of paper in front of my Antec case each time I'm watching a movie !
But it's not really a nightmare of course.

Good end of day !
dust_ag

 

[chemelli]

cybrmage,

here the logs one with the SG_VFD.DLL in place, one without any DLL in MP dir.
Take care that the exception comes up in a disalog so I don't thing is in a try/catch handler and it doesn't get recorded in the log.

Simone

 

[JoeDalton]

cybrmage,

Take a look at the code of my LCDHypeWrapper. I faced more or less the same problem over there. Each of the LCDHype drivers has the same methods but the DLL has another name.

So, I wrote a driver generator for that. It generates a class on-the-fly with correct PInvoke method declarations for each LCDHype driver.

You could use the same mechanism to generate an iMon driver with PInvoke declarations that point to the correct folder. That way you wouldn't have to copy no DLLs anymore...

Joe

 

[cybrmage]

[QUOTE-dust_ag]If I can make a suggestion , a very pretty ehancement (for me) would be to turn off LCD backlight when playing a movie (the LCD luminosity is higher than the one of my beamer!) In this case I could avoid putting a sheet of paper in front of my Antec case each time I'm watching a movie !
[/QUOTE]
That should be relatively simple to do (famous last words?!)... I'll see what I can do...

cybrmage,

Take a look at the code of my LCDHypeWrapper. I faced more or less the same problem over there. Each of the LCDHype drivers has the same methods but the DLL has another name.

Actually... I already did.... and I umm... borrowed (yeah!!! thats the right term) the code to load the SG_RC.dll on the fly to aid in hardware detection... (THANK YOU!!!!)....

But... for the SG_VFD.dll... If it is loaded dynamically, it interferes with the iMON software.... If the iMON software is run first, the MediaPortal driver won't work... and If the MediaPortal driver runs first, the iMON software won't run (It give an error saying that it is already running!)...

BTW... How is the best person to contact regarding additions to the BassAudioEngine portion of Mediaportal??? The IPlayer interface implimentation is incomplete... It doesn't impliment the CurrentAudio Stream property... and that is required for the Equalizer (Spectrum Analyzer) function of the driver...

 

[chemelli]

cybrmage,

please take also care that we need SG_VFD.DLL version 3 for the VFD to work properly and it's not on my system actually;-(

I understand that you have more than one display, so please test the IMON_VFD_DEMO.EXE from Soundgraph with all version of the dll. My VFD ( fw 0x80 from Silverstone ) works fine only using the 3.x version that come with the demo itself. I did the test copying in a empty dir both SG_VFD.DLL and IMON_VFD_DEMO.EXE and run the exe.

So I suppose that you need to have the SG_VFD.DLL v3 in MP base dir for VFD users and instead load the one in C:\Program files\Soundgraph for LCD users (copying it in %TEMP% for example to fix Vista security issues). This will help with the renaming dll issue, will not interfere with imon and also VFD users will work with the integrated drivers.

In the hope that they will add to SVN you audio bass changes ( I would contact hwahrmann on IRC or PM ) soon to have the EQ work.

Thanks again for your time and ideas ;-)

Simone

 

[cybrmage]

cybrmage,
please take also care that we need SG_VFD.DLL version 3 for the VFD to work properly and it's not on my system actually;-(

Ok... This is 100% incorrect!!! I run the VFD every day with v5.1.0.1201... It even works with the v6.2 beta.

My VFD ( fw 0x80 from Silverstone ) works fine only using the 3.x version that come with the demo itself.

The demo is hard coded to work with the v3 DLL only.... It was created when the v3 software was the current release.... It is NOT a good test of functionality... (after all... it is almost 3 years old!!)

If your display only works with the v3 DLL, then it is time for you to delete the really old device driver and install a more current version.

In the hope that they will add to SVN you audio bass changes ( I would contact hwahrmann on IRC or PM ) soon to have the EQ work.

I'll do that. Thanks!





And here is a new version of the driver.

Added: Option to shut off the display while watching a video. (under Advanced in the setup menu)
Fixed: driver could not be enabled if the SG_LCD.dll was deleted.
Changed: added exception handling for file based operations to allow the driver to run on Vista without crashing MediaPortal.
Note1: I have not yet been able to work around the underlying cause (UAC in vista) of this issue. If you use Vista, you will need to place a copy of the SG_VFD.dll from your VFD/iMON program directory into the MediaPortal\plugins directory.