[gn2]

Hi I have an Extron Matrix Swticher. Extron was kind enough to tell me that it was an early model that they shipped with NO CONTROL SOFTWARE DEVELOPED!! They were also kind enough to tell me that they could fix me right up with only $350 US in charges. WOW ! I thought, what a great deal! ONLY around $700. CAn when all the exchange and shipping was sorted out, just to get this working the way it was supposed to out of the box! Needless to say, I was not amused by the joke that is Extron support. I guess if you're a multibillion dollar corporation, this is great support. If you're an individual end user, this is just a HUGE RIP OFF!! If anyone has a program that will allow me to control this switcher, I'd really appreciate it, thanks in advance, and beware of good deals on Extron stuff, they will take every chance to charge you and discourage use of anything but current products.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Does is support their SIS protocol? If so, then my CQC system should support it very soon. I just got a couple of Extron switchers in and I'm working on the driver right now. The only thing that concerns me, if I remember the SIS protocol stuff I was reading the other day, is that might not work for matrices, just switches, but I'll have to go back and read up on it again. If that's the case, that would 'splain why they have no software for it, because it couldn't be supported by their standard protocol.


Which model is it, so that I can go read up on it a bit?

 

[Mark Glover]

Hey Paul,


Does the switcher use hex or ascii strings?


I have been crusin the net for the last week looking for a control program to run my DVS-150 scaler and my Marquee 8000. I have looked at AMX and Crestron ($$$) and key2serial and this GUI program:

http://ace.honesoftware.com/


Dan at honesoftware is very helpfull. Naturally I cant wait for Deans program to get rolling.

 

[DPincek]

gn2,


It is very disturbing to me that you received this type of support. What was the sales person offering you for $350? I can't image what he/she was giving you for that. If you remember his or her name, can you please Private Message it to me?


If you'd like a PC based control program for the switcher, you can download it free at

http://www.extron.com/download/control.asp?type=file


If you would like a manual, you can download it free at

http://www.extron.com/download/downl...lang=1&curr=40


I'm very sorry for the poor support you received. All I can think of was maybe they were offering you a front panel controller. But the fact that they told you it was too old to support erks me.


I hope the information above helps.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Quote:

Its an Extron Matrix 200 RGBS 8X4 with no front panel controller. Its apparently about 7 years old, and by the tone of voice of the engineer I talked to at Extron, that is so ancient as to be considered obsolete and not worth the time or effort.

Oh, I misunderstood your original post, sorry. I thought you meant it just came out and there wasn't any software for it yet, not that it was so old that there isn't any. Some of their switchers had a kind of contact input type of external control, and you have to buy an external RS-232-to-contact converter to use serial control on them, which might have been what he was trying to sell you?

 

[Dean Roddey]

Well, we can all argue about relative time scales, but I'd be willing to bet that very few folks on this forum (and in general) have any component that is seven years old. That would be considered ancient in home theater terms. I'm not taking their side necessarily, but nonetheless I wouldn't argue with anyone who referered to a seven year piece of HT equipment as ancient.


Its not unusual for companies to provide no (or very rudimentary) control software for their products, given that most people would choose to use a more comprehensive control product. So I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't provide any, and would be more suprised if many people really used anything that they did provide. Most folks wouldn't want to have to deal with 3 or 4 or 5 different programs to control their various pieces of equipment, and would prefer to use a Crestron (or hopefully my CQC system) and get unified control of all of their controllable devices.

 

[gn2]

Thanks for the replys.