LG TV controller
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@Smurphen said:
I'm currently doing that. When my TV turns on, the light behind my TV also turns on. But because I don't want to spam my TV with requests, there can be up to 30 seconds delay before Domoticz knows that the TV is on or not. But there is also a USB port behind my TV. I have noticed that there is only power in the USB when the TV is on. So I thinking of connecting the USB port to my Arduino to check if the power is on or not.
Why not have the Arduino keep polling the TV to see if it's on, and then only when it is on, then send some signal to your controller (Domotics) that the TV just came on. Then Domotics could do whatever (turn on/off other lights, etc...)? Power (battery) is not a concern on this node, as it's powered by USB.
@TRS-80 For some reason, if i'm sending request too frequently the response from the TV get mixed up and unreadible. Sometimes it takes few seconds for the responses too arrive.
If I'm also changing volume or maybe channel via arduino and that is happening at the same time as arduino is checking power status, it will get som weird response. But this is only a problem when the TV is on, so you have point. I should be able to change the frequens when the power is off to maybe 5 seconds and keep 30 seconds when the power is on.
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@TRS-80 For some reason, if i'm sending request too frequently the response from the TV get mixed up and unreadible. Sometimes it takes few seconds for the responses too arrive.
If I'm also changing volume or maybe channel via arduino and that is happening at the same time as arduino is checking power status, it will get som weird response. But this is only a problem when the TV is on, so you have point. I should be able to change the frequens when the power is off to maybe 5 seconds and keep 30 seconds when the power is on.
@Smurphen said:
@TRS-80 For some reason, if i'm sending request too frequently the response from the TV get mixed up and unreadible. Sometimes it takes few seconds for the responses too arrive.
If I'm also changing volume or maybe channel via arduino and that is happening at the same time as arduino is checking power status, it will get som weird response. But this is only a problem when the TV is on, so you have point. I should be able to change the frequens when the power is off to maybe 5 seconds and keep 30 seconds when the power is on.
Perhaps further debugging and/or careful programming and error trapping between Arduino and TV could alleviate some of those problems? And/or, once TV is set to on, have Arduino check less frequently?
I still would prefer the former solution over the latter, to make it more nice, faster response, and higher WAF as well as "show off to friends" factor. I mean, let's get our priorities straight, that is at least partly why we do this, right? :)
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It seems the link to the RS232 to TTL converter went stale. I am ordering this one instead: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/RS232-To-TTL-Converter-Module-COM-Serial-Board-MAX3232-MAX232CSE-Transfer-Chip-atmega16/1920204765.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_2_10037_10077,searchweb201603_1&btsid=af8a76b1-c9b5-4ea7-9c5b-209cdc11d1f1
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I am going to have to try this. I have a 60 inch Sharp Aquos TV that has a 9 pin serial port. I have ordered one of these: RS232 TTL converter It is a china version, but I couldn't beat it at $0.73 with free shipping. The other nice thing is that in the manual for my TV on page 51 it shows the complete serial protocol and command set. If I can in some way combine this with the IR sender and receiver project to control my cable box too, this would be a well rounded solution.
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So I received my serial converter the other day and did some testing. I connected the converter to one of my FTDI adapters and to the TV. I found out how to send the commands to the TV. The TV will respond with OK if the command was successful or ERR if it wasn't. The one thing I can't get from the TV is feedback such as power on and other commands. It would be nice to be able to tell when it is turned on and off manually, but I will work with what I have.
Vera Plus running UI7 with MySensors, Sonoffs and 1-Wire devices
Visit my website for more Bits, Bytes and Ramblings from me: http://dan.bemowski.info/ -
So I received my serial converter the other day and did some testing. I connected the converter to one of my FTDI adapters and to the TV. I found out how to send the commands to the TV. The TV will respond with OK if the command was successful or ERR if it wasn't. The one thing I can't get from the TV is feedback such as power on and other commands. It would be nice to be able to tell when it is turned on and off manually, but I will work with what I have.
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@Smurphen, that is a good point.I could wire the 5 volts from that to an input on the nano and check for a state change on that. I have seen USB cables that are basically a short usb extension with another pigtail coming off to pull power for a device. Can't remember what it was from though. If I could find one of those, I could keep the functional use of the USB port (if needed) while still pulling power for this.
My next step is to write the sketch needed to do the control from MySensors. Part of my problem in this is that I am currently running Domoticz which I am seeing doesn't work well with this. Some of the functions I may have a hard time implementing. I am looking at possibly getting a Vera controller soon though which may be more flexible in this regard.
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@tbowmo said:
Just out of curiosity, which parts is hard to implement in domoticz?
I guess I was just thinking about things like setting volume level and channel number. With my Sharp Aquos TV I have to send 2 parts, the command and the parameter. An example would be for volume, on the node side I need to send the command "VOLM" and a number from 0 to 60. I would need 2 parts in Domoticz. Somthing to tell it to use the volume command, and something else to send it the level (the 0 to 60).
I was thinking of somehow controlling it with my Amazon Echo which I was reading up on and seems a bit tedious to integrate. I would like to be able to say things like, "Alexa, change the channel to 43", or "Alexa, set volume level to 20".
Some of what I am planning with this node is not only control of my TV, but also IR control of my cable box. This is going to make my node more complex. I don't think it is going to be that hard to do some of the basic stuff in Domoticz, like power on/off and channel up/down, but like for volume, there is no volume up/down command. And for changing the channel, I do that on the cable box. I don't use the internal tuner on the TV. Some of this I would program the node to handle, like when a channel change is sent, do that with the IR to the cable box, whereas a power command would control both the TV and cable box.
These are some of the things that I think are going to be a bit difficult with Domoticz.
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Just an idea, use a dimmer in domoticz for the volume, when you receive a value from the controller, then send VOLM and the value.. There is no need for the controller to know how to set the volume (the VOLM command)
For IR commands, that's probably another story, Haven't looked that much into it (yet).. Right now I have a logitech harmony elite, integrated with domoticz, so that I (from domoticz) can turn on different scenes.. But I can not send an individual command to the tv, or the radio..
