Anybody get LG AN-WL100 to work on non-LG TVs

Hi!

Did you ever get the LG wireless HDMI working with a non LG tv. If so can you please share?

Regards,

I want to do this as well...sorry for the old bump

anyone get this to work?

nothing?

your google-fu is weak!

yes it works with any other display with hdmi input, however there are some limitations.

this guy made a video and explained the basics.... ive got a few tricks up my sleeve since i have this working and noticed a few things in the process

https://plus.google.com/u/1/101948760925084043079/posts/btdqMZqCzEA

ok ive figured out how to switch inputs without needing an LGTV or pressing buttons on the front panel.

i made a serial cable out of these parts:

any 3.5mm stereo TRS jack or cable
db9 serial cable or connector (only need 3 wires)
paperclip + conductivity tester w/ leads or probes to test cable

connect tip of 3.5mm to pin 3 of db9
connect ring of 3.5mm to pin 2 of db9
connect sleeve of 3.5mm to pin 5 of db9

connect TRS side to "service-only" port on rear of an-wl100 main base unit (where devices connect), and db9 to serial or usbTTy device.
set baud rate to 115200 / 8bit / no parity / stop bit 1 / flow control off
turn unit on

you will not get interactive output during bootup (or when pressing enter) but when you issue the following commands you should get acknowledge and input switch:

xb 00 10 = TV ??? Very odd. I get static audio as if this thing would be capable of NTSC tuning!
xb 00 11 = DTV ??? Wonder if it can tune ATSC?
xb 00 20 = AV1
xb 00 21 = AV2
xb 00 40 = Component1
xb 00 41 = Component2
xb 00 60 = RGB/VGA
xb 00 70 = HDMI1
xb 00 71 = HDMI2
xb 00 72 = HDMI3
xb 00 73 = HDMI4

hope this helps someone!
Edited by erihp - 10/29/12 at 11:17pm

Has anyone else gotten the inputs to change through serial commands?

After having no success changing inputs through any of the ways posted on the various forums I was hoping this would work for me.

No dice.

What exactly doesnt work? Do you not get data transferring back after sending a command?

Can you describe your setup and method for issuing commands?

Are you sure your serial cable was built as described above?

When i first went down this road everything i saw said the serial port should be configured as 9600 but that did not work for me, so i tried different baud rates until i found 115200 to work. Might be worthwhile to try 9600 as well.

For clarity the client sending the commands was a winxp machine using hyperterminal. after the unit was fully booted I simply typed each command as shown above (with spacing) and pressed enter after the last value.

I used the same setup you did - WinXP machine with Hyperterminal (as you know, it's hard to find a serial port now days). After that I tried a USB-Serial adapter on the same machine and a Win7 machine. Did you use any special emulation in Hyperterminal?

After putting together the communication cable I ohmed it out and all connections were good.

I'll try different baud rates as you suggested. I really appreciate you sharing your info.

Will try to grab screens of my hyperterminal setup in case there are any deviations in our configurations. FWIW I'm using a real serial port.

Ok, I went home for lunch and quickly tried it out and at 9600 baud I get a response.

Bad news is I didn't get the same thing you did. Lucky me

I didn't have much time so I didn't write down all the responses to commands but to give you an idea of what I got:

When I sent:

xb 00 70

I got back:

b 01 ok70x

I had a pretty good suspicion that there was something different about my two devices compared to others because they act differently with regard to trying to manually select the input channel and this confirms that suspicion.
I feel like all is not lost though because, for the first time I ave actually gotten the darn thing to do something.
Now, if I can figure out the correct commands for my particular device I might be in business.

Where did you get the commands you listed above? Maybe there is another set of commands for my particular variation. The people who were telling you to use 9600, maybe they know something?

Also, I get the same result whether using a virtual serial port or a real one.

The 9600 came from a random forum post about other LG products that support rs-232 control. There was mention that some models/units use 115200 for some communications, so when 9600 didnt work i tried this as well, and blamo! I saw no direct successes or references specifically to the an-wl100 so i just used this as a starting point.

The original source of the commands and hints to desired functionality came from the an-wl100 service manual, linked here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/61052286/An-WL100-Us-Service-Manual

Unfortunately it only points out the commands required to switch to two input types. I simply took those values and iterated through the possible combinations of the 3rd set of hex octets to find the rest of the values. BE VERY CAREFUL trying undocumented commands! You may brick your device unintentionally!

The response you got back seems OK, and i will confirm what im seeing when i get home. It -looks- correct to me. What happens after you get the response? With nothing connected you should see the source change in the top left of the screen, and (at least on the HDMI ports) youll get the bouncing LG logo. Did you have something connected to the input you switched to when testing? In your case HDMI1?

You MAY need to enter ADC adj mode with command: aa 00 00

Will confirm when i can.
Edited by erihp - 11/2/12 at 1:01am

Here are my hyperterminal settings and output i get back when switching inputs:




In ascii settings you can enable to echo local input, i have it disabled.

I dont think these exact steps matter either, but for the sake of documenting what I did...

Base station and receiver plugged in (but not yet turned on) input device connected to HDMI4 with serial cable connected
Configure hyperterminal settings
Power up base station, hdmi device, and hdmi display.
Begin call w/ hyperterminal (enter a few times)
Issue input switch command 'xb 00 70'
Receive acknowledge 'b 01 OK70' and OSD on HDMI display shows HDMI1
Issue input switch command 'xb 00 73'
Receive acknowledge 'b 01 OK73x' and OSD on HDMI display shows HDMI4
The resulting output in hyperterminal:




Thats... pretty much it. My plan is to build a circuit/adapter for the serial port to translate discrete IR codes to serial commands so i can plug in a dongle and plug in a harmony RF-IR bridge so i can issue these commands as part of an activity and not require a PC.


I have a second base station unit. I'll see what baud rate it uses...

Edit: OK, I've observed a couple of things. First, the devices appeared to be married somehow. I tried to swap just the base stations but the wireless light would not go solid, despite having previous worked with the old base station. i power cycled both units a few times, no avail. As soon as i connected the receiver that shipped with the other base station, it lit right up.

Have you ever seen the wireless light go solid on your base station?

After attempting to issue commands at 115200 nothing happened. I switched to 9600 and re-ran above procedure, and everything is working as it was on the other unit(s). At this point not sure how or what causes the baud rate to change but at least for the commands work, either way. Perhaps it has something to do with if it has ever been connected to an LGTV? Its possible that it issues control commands to bump the baud rate up after initial configuration? Just speculation, otherwise i would attribute/expect a different serial command to change this value. Maybe we can find a commonality with some more input from others..
Edited by erihp - 11/2/12 at 1:19am

I have my Hyperterminal settings exactly the same as yours except for the baud rate and the echo.

I also have two of these devices and noticed the same thing about one base station being 'married' to one receiver. Makes sense considering the fact that you could own two of these and you would't want your pairings to move around on you.

I have always gotten the solid 'wireless' light on both my units once the base and receiver are turned on - I just don't get anything else. Once the HDMI handshake completes I always get a solid green screen. It happens on both my units with every TV or monitor I've tried. No bouncing logo, no ability to switch inputs using any of the methods posted.

I'm pretty stumped.

I have seen a green screen once, however it was only tinted green, I could still see the video output underneath. During this time i could still switch inputs and faintly see the OSD in the top left.

I power cycled the base station and it was back to normal.


FWIW I'm testing all of this using an atrix lapdock as the HDMI display.


Perhaps re-order the power up of the devices when you test?

I have started things up every which way that's possible and I have always gotten the green screen. Never once anything different.

I know the HDMI handshake is taking place because it does the "normal" things like the screen goes from the default (most screens default to blue) to a blank screen then after a few seconds the screen turns green. That wouldn't happen by accident and I believe the unit is actually sending the green. It pretty much has to be sending it because the default color for my TV is blue. Same exact thing for the other LCD monitors I tried it with.

As far as I can tell, I'm the only one posting on any of the forums that this is happening to.

I've tried VGA out from a laptop, HDMI out from an XBOX 360, HDMI out from a Roku. Different HDMI cables and different power supplies. Same result.

At this point I need to back off before my head explodes - it doesn't make much sense and I really, really wanted this thing to work.

... and BOTH units you have do this?

Yes, both of the units I bought do the exact same thing.

If I only had one unit and it was doing this I would automatically buy another one just hoping the first one was a bad one. In fact, when I connected the second one I fully expected it to act differently than the first one and was just sitting in stunned silence when the second one did the exact same thing (that NOBODY else was getting). Then, when the serial commands were getting through I figured there would be some way to enable the video output but the only thing that happened was one time I got back a weird character from the first unit I bought and it has never responded to serial commands since then. This is not mystery science for me... I'm an electrical engineer.
Edited by dublus - 11/5/12 at 9:00am

Well.... at this point you.ve got me stumped, but it makes me consider what else is unique about your setup.

How are you powering the receiver side? I'm using this @ 18.5V setting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027BUS0M/

I agree 100% with your conclusion that it must be something I'm doing different than everyone else (and I truly appreciate your work in publishing the serial codes and letting me cry on your shoulder).

I am well known where I work for being undeviatingly devoted to going "wherever the data takes me" and when everyone except me has this working one way and I have it working (with two different units) another way, as much as I would like to believe otherwise, I MUST conclude it is something about my setup. But what?

I have a 4 channel (2 variable, 2 5VDC fixed) power supply set at 18.5 VDC @ 0.5 Amps. HDMI handshake, green screen.
I have a few leftover laptop supplies that are all "around" 19 VDC. HDMI handshake, green screen.

In every case I have been using the thicker black wire as ground and the thicker red wire as supply. Other than that, what else is there to do differently (I could try the thicker white wire as supply)? At the very least, I should be able to just connect the receiving unit to a monitor (with the sending unit off) and get the bouncing logo. That's pretty much where everyone else "starts" and I can't even get past that point.

So, you can see where I might be a little frustrated... I am more than willing to accept that it is something I'm doing "wrong" but, as far as I can tell, there isn't anything else I can do different than what I've already done.

I understand that must be frustrating... your wiring to red and black is what I'm doing as well. i would keep it like that and not use the white wire.

Im glad you tried another PSU even if it was at 19V, because the only thing left to rule out is the amperage of your PSU. Perhaps during the receiving it requires more juice than 500ma?

I know spending more money (when it sounds like you have what you need) seems like a bad idea at this point, but if you really want to clear the air, i would recommend putting the $10 toward that variable PSU on amazon, if nothing else you can use it for something else later?

I thought maybe this newly found info would be a success for someone, but you appear to be the only one who cares other than me.

FWIW, from memory I do not get the bouncing logo with no signal text without the transmitter box wired up on a source with no input.

Id be curious to know what the command was that made your device stop talking serial... perhaps it changed/reset the baud rate?

I am still quite surprised that nobody else seems to have seen the serial commands you posted as a huge breakthrough.

As for the variable supply, at first I set it all the way up to 2 amps and it didn't make any difference and never drew more than about 400 mA. I will set it back to 2 amps in case the lower current limit could have been a problem. I might go ahead and buy the supply you and others have mentioned.

So, just to clarify, if you only power up the receiving unit and connect it to a monitor, what do you see?

If this means the price of the kit remains bottomed out on ebay and other places online, frankly I'm ok with that. Just odd that even the OP or any others who seemed to want this functionality are mysteriously gone. Whatever. Thanks for the thanks


Will test this and report back ASAP.

Ive been able to successfully reproduce the 'green screen' in a reliable/repeatable way. More to come, with some suggestions, but more pressing things at hand right now. Just wanted to leave this note so you know I have something for you to go on, hope is not lost! Will add and explain my findings soon.

Thanks, can't wait to hear what you've got.

OK. Here's what I observed when using a Motorola Atrix Lapdock as an HDMI display (I can also test this with a Samsung LCD soon):

[Wireless Ready Dongle (WRD) OFF / AN-WL100W Base OFF]
Any time WRD is power cycled flow begins back at the top. Red is good!


1. HDMI cable is connected to screen and lid is opened (or already open).
2. The display shows "no signal" then goes to sleep.
3a. Turning off display (closing lid) and reopening causes #2.
3b. Powering WRD while in either sleep or no signal mode causes #2.
4. Closing and reopening lid OR removing and reseating HDMI causes #5.
5. GREEN SCREEN!
6a. #4 repeated here causes #5.
6b. Disconnect HDMI then close lid then reconnect HDMI then open lid.
7. Black, lit-screen mode. Lack of lapdocks own "no signal" message, yet unlike sleep mode where screen backlight is completely off.


[Wireless Ready Dongle (WRD) ON / AN-WL100W Base Unit ON / Display ON / Source connected optional]
Again any time WRD is power cycled flow begins back at the top.
Only tested with HDMI. Red is good!

1. Power on Base Unit, WRD and open screen lid. (The order in which this occurs does not matter).
2a. When set to incorrect input, display shows bouncing LG "No Signal".
2b. When set to an active input, that source is displayed.
3a. Closing and reopen lid or remove and reseat display's HDMI cable causes #4.
3b. Power cycle Base station causes #2a and #2b.
3c. Removing and reseating source's HDMI cable causes #2a and #2b.
4. Displayed image (LG or active source) has a GREEN hue applied.
5a. #3a here causes #4.
5b. #3b here causes #2a and #2b.
5c. #3c here causes #2a and #2b.
5d. #3d here causes #4 NOT #2a and #2b.
5e. Power cycling WRD causes #2a and #2b.

It may be a bit confusing... but i tried to cover every possible case. The incremental numbers represent a new step or scenario, and each number with a lowercase letter represents the next possible path and its outcome in that context.

If I missed something, or something you are doing in your steps is not in the workflow above, please share! I did test any implied variations in the ordering of power on and cable removal possibilities in each step, but only resolved them if they were the last step (or looped back to a previous state), non-notable (expected) behavior was omitted.

I may run some of the above tests and poke around at the serial interface to see if i can clear the "GREEN SCREEN" problem. It seems like as long as you don't break the HDCP chain from the WRD to display after it has video transmitting, once transmitting you can power cycle either end of the wireless link and expect #2a and #2b.

It would be nice to not have to worry about power cycling the Base Unit or WRD when switching to and from its output on a matrix switch in a multi-display setup. Some matrix switchers may be able to handle this for HDCP link for you and may not exhibit the same problem. I own two (same model, different density) monoprice HDMI matrix switchers, I can re-run these workflows with that in the chain sometime.

I know the lapdock monitor is a bit of a wildcard here, however it has always played nice as a normal HDMI display with a wide input resolution range and HDCP support. What display are you using, do you have an AVR/receiver in between??
Edited by erihp - 11/8/12 at 7:15am

Wow, very nice descriptions of your experiments. I have not tried passing the signal through it yet but we might have the same monoprice matrix switch. Mine is a 4x2 but I'm not home and don't remember the model number. I have tried passing the signal through my receiver though. For monitors I've tried my 73" Mitsubishi DLP, a Dell LCD, and an off brand (don't remember the name) LCD.

I am struck by the ease with which you (and others) can select the input you want. That seems to be the key difference. If I've never connected the WRD to a monitor that plays nice with it could that be the reason I have never been able to change channels even by means of the serial commands? I know you mentioned that when you've selected an inactive input you get the bouncing logo and when you select an active signal you get that signal (not counting when you've done something that causes the green screen). Could it be that you have to get a channel, any channel, selected once in order to activate some multiplexors inside the base unit and until you do that you will always get the green screen no matter what you do?

I suppose that is possible, I've already toyed with the one factory sealed i obtained, so i cannot with confidence reproduce the factory-state scenario.


I did notice last night that the initial selection is more tricky than i remember. My approach is to connect power and turn it on once to identify where the HDMI button you want active is located exactly. Then remove and re-seat power keeping your finger in place and ready to press the button repeatedly as fast as possible as soon as you can after pressing I/O button to turn the device on. This might take a couple of tries but your hypothesis could very well be true.

If it IS true, once you do this successfully once it should clear up the -always- 'Green Screen' issue, and at least expose the above paths to #2a or #2b.

I would attempt prototyping with as simple of a configuration as possible. No extra switches or AVR in between to rule out any HDCP complexities/anomalies. Without the base station on, you are much more likely to get stuck in a Green Screen scenario, depending on how you monitor might handle no input, with regard to HDCP.

I will retest with a more traditional LCD and Plasma display.

I will do as you suggest and remove anything in the HDMI signal path that isn't absolutely necessary.
I should have done this earlier but after my original investigation (and failure) it was just too easy to connect to the front HDMI port of my AVR.

Who knows, I could just be extremely unlucky and by coincidence all of the combos I've tried so far would never have worked anyway and by directly connecting things I will find a setup that works.