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7 Replies Last post: Dec 26, 2008 9:22 AM by mjrtoo

Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia

Nov 17, 2008 3:21 AM

Click to view HST's profile HST 86 posts since
Jan 22, 2008

Hello!


Anybody played with these yet?

http://www.crestron.com/tools_and_resources/programming_and_integration_resources/integrated_partner_modules/default.asp?manufacturer_id=27

Most important additions is the use of Instance ID Tags, hopefully also some bugfixes.

HST

Click to view HST's profile HST 86 posts since
Jan 22, 2008
1. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Nov 19, 2008 11:05 AM
OK, first test results:

These new V7 modules look very similar to the Biamp V6 versions not officially endorsed by Crestron so I have to assume there was some communication going back and forth!

  • One BIG plus against the older V5 official modules is the fact, that the whole startup routine is now spread out over time instead of thrown at the controller in one big junk which did not scale very well beyond 50 modules or and stopped working with 200+ modules in a single project.
  • Although not officially mentioned in the docs, the modules do indeed work also over Ethernet and not only over RS-232
  • The whole architecture is now much more programmer friendly, especially when doing serious copy/paste work to setup multiple modules.
  • Ramping up and down volumes does not clog up the Crestron controller anymore. The Crestron stays way more responsive to other tasks going on during fades.
  • Processor load came down quite a bit because the code runs more efficient; the older modules were done by people "not very familiar" to the inner workings of a Crestron controller or maybe they were very good in hiding their wisdom ;-)

So thumbs up for the moment from over here for V7!
HST
Click to view Raphayo's profile Raphayo 15 posts since
Jun 12, 2008
2. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Nov 19, 2008 6:23 PM
in response to: HST
  • One BIG plus against the older V5 official modules is the fact, that the whole startup routine is now spread out over time instead of thrown at the controller in one big junk which did not scale very well beyond 50 modules or and stopped working with 200 modules in a single project.+

Do you mean that we don't need to do a stepper to get all your module polling after a processor reboot or if you want to resync the system ?

Click to view HST's profile HST 86 posts since
Jan 22, 2008
3. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Nov 21, 2008 6:58 AM
in response to: Raphayo
Hello!

NO, this is not what I wanted to say and YES, you still have to use a stepper or such to sync.

The change I was referring to was the fact, that the V5 modules had some internal housekeeping code, which was running directly after startup. So if you had many modules at startup every module wanted to run a piece of code at the very same time.
Now with V7 almost all of this startup code is triggered in the first module only. When this module finished its code it triggers the next module which triggers the third etc...
So it does not happen anymore, that 200 processes=tasks fight for the same CPU during startup, which was traced down as the main problem while debugging a big system over here recently.

Bye
HST
Click to view MAS's profile MAS 1 posts since
Nov 27, 2008
4. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Dec 16, 2008 2:08 AM

Hi,

I've to report a pretty nasty bug in the V7 BIAMP Modules.

If you use for example a crosspoint Mixer with more than 9 columns you can't poll the crosspoint from 10 to what ever bigger number you use in that row. The CPs >10 can be switched on and off but you don't get any feedback, so the toggle also isn't working.

Same goes for the crosspoint level value and with volume faders with more than 9 faders in the DSP Block.

The module to blame is the new Command Processor which seems to react (only) to the first cipher it gets back from the Audia/Nexia.

For instance if you Poll CP 1.1 you get back the following from the Audia:
GETD 1 MMMUTEXP 2 1 1 0

now the Command Processor processes this input and sends it to the coresponding Module (Module 1 in this case)

If you now poll CP 1.10 you get back:
GETD 1 MMMUTEXP 2 1 10 0

Guess what: the Command Processor sends this also back to Module 1 which has no Idea what to do and ignores it.

Can someone confirm this issue?

greetings

Martin

Click to view HST's profile HST 86 posts since
Jan 22, 2008
5. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Dec 16, 2008 1:42 PM
Hello!

Martin did a great job digging into the code and we are certain now, we found and debugged it without breaking anything else.
After some final testing we will forward our findings to Biamp and Crestron. Hopefully they will spit out an updated version soon.

In the meantime simply avoid indexes bigger than 9. An an example do use two 6-channel faders instead of a 12 channel fader.

Bye
HST
Click to view HST's profile HST 86 posts since
Jan 22, 2008
6. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Dec 23, 2008 12:47 AM

Hello!

Just a note so everybody is informed. We sent out YESTERDAY a bug fix which was tested inhouse here in MOCOM land to both Crestron and Biamp so feel free to bother them for an official update of the V7 modules.

Bye

HST

Click to view mjrtoo's profile mjrtoo 15 posts since
Aug 7, 2008
7. Re: Crestron posted new V7 modules for Nexia & Audia Dec 26, 2008 9:22 AM
in response to: HST

I just found this issue the other day, glad it's fixed.

I also notice that Crestron did update the v7.0 modules on their site on the 24th.

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