Updated iMON (Soundgraph) LCD Driver (1 Viewer)

[globaldonkey]

I must precise that it seems that multiple instances of imon manager appear in the taskbar as soon as the CyberDisplay plugin is loading.

May be a clue !

Those are just the relics of cybrdisplay stopping and starting iMON. If you hover over them the ones that are actually closed disappear.

I will try something else if I have a bit spare-time : I will try to program a kind of Imon manager (if it can be seen as a standard HID device, there is a chance to do something).

Yes it is a standard HID device. The source code for cybrdisplay is now in SVN, so if you are a programmer and want to look at that, see here.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/312944-post627.html

The soundgraph IR receiver driver's behaviour is undocumented and varies from version to version, and the symptoms are all different with different versions of firmware too. Some people never had a problem running 6.x drivers and getting both the display and the remote to work with cybrdisplay. I was not one of those people, and only recently got it to work properly with 7.40.

Specifically for me, with the 6.x version, I could do the workaround I described above (ie basically start and stop frontview manually after MP started). Under 7.2, I got the same as you do now. As soon as cynrdisplay started, no remote at all, and manually resetting frontview had no effect either, so 7.2 was a complete dud for me.

Another weird symptom with earlier drivers was that when MP itself started (no cybrdisplay), the PAD would be reset to mouse mode. Just check this is not what your problem really is (hence my suggestion to force keyboard mode). Double check that no other keys on the remote work as well as just the movement keys. The tendency when testing is to just check if you can scroll up and down in the home menu, and this may not work if the driver has been kicked into mouse mode (and you've hidden the mouse).

 

[metagrobolis]

I'm using an MCE remote to drive MP via iMON. With Cybrdisplay disabled, the remote works perfectly. With it enabled, the remote fails to work in MP at all. Checking the frontview enable/launch options in the plugin config has the effect of blanking the LCD once MP is launched ... still with no remote.

Any thoughts? Hoping for a quick fix/workaround.

After starting MP, go to windowed mode (ALT Enter) and check how frontview is set in iMON Manager. It should be set to "always". If it set to "always" try setting it to "never" (apply) and then "always" again.

Try turning on "Force Manager to use KeyBoard mode for iMON PAD"

Try turning on "Delay driver startup" (and wait a good 20 seconds after MP starts up to see if remote / display are working).

I tried this workaround (always-never-always), and it does indeed get both the display and remote working. However, while the display depicts all the expected information, it exhibits a periodic (about once every few seconds) flashing of random LCD fields. This is very distracting.

Also, the fix doesn't span an S3 sleep cycle. In other words, once the machine comes out of an S3 standby, the workaround needs to be applied again. This is a deal breaker in terms of the WAF.

Hoping for a more stable solution.

 

[globaldonkey]

Yep, can understand the WAF bit.....

All I can suggest, if you want to stick with iMON driving the remote, is to try different versions to see if any of them work properly with your display. It seems to be a bit of hit and miss depending on your version of firmware and type of display.

The other alternative would be to try IR Server Suite to drive the remote. This means you can basically turn off the iMON software altogether.

 

[waskol]

Yep, can understand the WAF bit.....

All I can suggest, if you want to stick with iMON driving the remote, is to try different versions to see if any of them work properly with your display. It seems to be a bit of hit and miss depending on your version of firmware and type of display.

The other alternative would be to try IR Server Suite to drive the remote. This means you can basically turn off the iMON software altogether.

Thank for you support, for the moment, the way I configured the LCD is fine for me. I really appreciate the time you spend for all of us, really !

So, just for info, the firmware of my LCD is 0x38 (or something like that).
I gave a try to IR Server without success...
It seems that there is a lot of different imon VFD and LCD out there : different hardwares, different firmwares, different drivers and thus different behavior. It is the lottery. I understand then why you are using the VFD dll in your plugin (I gave a closed look at your sources) : you would probably be obliged to manage in your code as many configurations as there are different iMon displays in order to get rid off the iMon manager.

In Delphi it is pretty simple to catch the IR events of my imon IR/LCD : it works well as long as the frontview is not disabled. I still have to figure out wich field is modified then in the HID event.

Thus, that leads to say that the iMon software do not relay the IR events when the frontview is turned off (stupid !)

Anyway, if I succeed to setup something for my use (I think about a special VFD dll that replace the original with the same export functions used by your Cyberdisplay ), I am not sure at all it will work for other people.

Well, well... thank you anyway for your fabulous work

 

[globaldonkey]

Yep, stupid just about sums up the soundgraph software.

In all honesty, you're probably better off buying an MCE remote and receiver and using that instead. That's what I've just done, mainly out of interest in seeing the difference in behaviour. I know you buy a HTPC case for the integrated IR, but sadly, the iMON gear is just not open enough for other applications to use it with ease. It's closed source, no API, and tailored to run with iMedian.

BTW, its not my code. You need to thank Cybrmage for all the hard work. He's the guru behind this plugin.

 

[chemelli]

I'm using IRSS for remote and CybrDisplay for VFD/LCD and everything works like a charm.

What I would suggest is to leave the cfg of the CybrDisplay as "autodetect" after deleting all Cybr*.xml files. This should work even with very old VFD firmware ( mine is 0x30 ) if iMON 7.40 is installed. Before this iMON Manager release I was forced to enable the "use V3 dll" flag.

Simone

 

[waskol]

chemelli : I am happy for you if everything is working for you. But in my case and for some other with more recent hardware, it soes not work.

@All others, globaldonkey and Cybermage :
on the soundgraph forum, somebody has just posted a little thing extremely interesting :

Date: 10/28/2008 12:48 PM Topic Subject: RC API workaround.

Hi,

While it is impossible for us to buildup stand-alone apps which support SG IR receiver,

I suggest the next free tool to capture IR signals under runnig iMON.

http://www.imonplugin.com/download/rc_api.zip

(CRT library+sample inside)

Cheers

Wich means that we could have a separate solution for displaying (with Cyberdisplay and Imon Manager) on one side and working remote control on the other side, so that if Frontview is disabled for Cyberdisplay, the remote control should continue to work.

I will give a try this evening and this week end in order to create a standalone Remote Control application (a kind of iMon Manager just for the remote control part).

Stay tuned.

 

[chemelli]

waskol, interesting finding. Anyway why not try using IRSS and CybrDisplayPlugin with iMON manager closed ?

If it's not working, please post both IRSS and MP logs...

Simone

 

[waskol]

waskol, interesting finding. Anyway why not try using IRSS and CybrDisplayPlugin with iMON manager closed ?

If it's not working, please post both IRSS and MP logs...

Simone

Well, as I explained above, the problem is that the IRSS does work, but it stops working as soon as the iMon manager start (configured with Frontview set on "never").
And it is impossible to maintain iMon manager closed since as soon as the Cyberdisplay plugin starts in MP, it starts the iMon Manager

I hope that this "RC plugin" I found will manage the IR receiver part , even if the iMon Manager starts and its Frontview is set to "never".

At that time, I am in front of my PC coding my Remote Manager.
Kids are watching a DVD ("Lord of the rings") on my brand new HTPC powered with Mediaportal : Thus, I will give it a try when it will be available again.

 

[chemelli]

waskol, interesting finding. Anyway why not try using IRSS and CybrDisplayPlugin with iMON manager closed ?

If it's not working, please post both IRSS and MP logs...

Simone

Well, as I explained above, the problem is that the IRSS does work, but it stops working as soon as the iMon manager start (configured with Frontview set on "never").
And it is impossible to maintain iMon manager closed since as soon as the Cyberdisplay plugin starts in MP, it starts the iMon Manager

Please enable extensive logging in CybrDisplay and attach a log, it's not a normal behaviour that iMON is restarted.

Simone