Cynical Denon - Denon and Marantz AV Receiver control

I'm pretty certain that the plugin isn't actually talking to the Denon. It's talking to "telnet configuration mode" inside your Startech, whatever that is. The question is (1) what is that, (2) what triggers it, and (3) how do you disable it?

You might want to reset the Startech, telnet to it, send it a TFHD? command, and see if you get the "configuration mode" reply or not. Yet another data point...

And I've got to ask - are you spending more of your valuable time debugging this, than it would cost to buy a known-good serial interface box that you can return if it doesn't work? It's an interesting investigation, but you must have been at this for weeks now... and much of your problem, it seems to me, stems from a hardware device whose documentation is both Windows-specific and clearly incomplete.

Cheers
-- perry

Perry,

One small thing worth mentioning....

Throughout this whole thread, the plug in was never actually talking to the Denon.

Even so, the debug messages print out:

Cynical Denon Denon Receiver is now standby


I know it's a nit, but maybe you would want to print out a different message if you never get any message back from the receiver during probing...

Mike

Good point, Mike, although I cannot say it was a factor in solving my problem. I think the plugin is great and I really appreciate it. Perry, one suggestion I would make for an incremental improvement would be to make the action list output less terse. When I build an action list, I include multiple devices: lights, thermostats, etc., plus Russound, and Denon. The Russound and Denon actions show up in the action list with terse labels like "audio", "none", "zone", "volume", etc. Not a huge deal, but when reviewing action lists, it is nice to be sure what the line items are without having to open the action. I would like to extend my appreciate, once again, for the outstanding efforts that went into the Denon and Russound plugins. My next area of focus will be to seek control of the Roku. That will have to wait until next summer as I head home from the summer house back to CT on the day after Labor Day. By next sumer, the world will be totally different. I will continue to write about that in my blog at patrickweb.com.

Perry,
One small thing worth mentioning....
Throughout this whole thread, the plug in was never actually talking to the Denon.
Even so, the debug messages print out:
Cynical Denon Denon Receiver is now standby

Yes - a silly little bug, that. The next version of the plugin will explicitly post an error in this case.

Cheers
-- perry

I have had initial success with connecting this plugin to a Marantz NR1602.

I just wanted to double check that this plugin is providing the framework and I have to setup all the individual actions to control the Marantz NR1602 i.e. there isn't a simple player defined anywhere Just wanted to make sure I didn't reinvent the wheel so to speak

I will report back on what functions work but so far with minimal testing, I have got the following to work: power on, power off, mute and set volume to -40db to work.

Thanks for a great plugin

I just wanted to double check that this plugin is providing the framework and I have to setup all the individual actions to control the Marantz NR1602 i.e. there isn't a simple player defined anywhere Just wanted to make sure I didn't reinvent the wheel so to speak

No, you've got it. This is an Indigo plugin; it teaches Indigo how to make things happen. It's up to you to tell it what you want to happen - through schedules and triggers and control pages. Shiny pre-made dancing pulsing App not included.

Cheers
-- perry

Perry - thanks for this plugin! I just got Indigo and am quickly adding all kinds of devices to it. I installed your plugin and now have my X10 wall switch turn on the Hue lights in the ceiling, turn on my Marantz 5007 receiver, set the volume low, and then switch the input to the TiVO. The "off" side of the same switch turns off the lights and the receiver. Works great!

Wish my Sony TV had IP control.

Perry - thanks for this plugin! I just got Indigo and am quickly adding all kinds of devices to it. I installed your plugin and now have my X10 wall switch turn on the Hue lights in the ceiling, turn on my Marantz 5007 receiver, set the volume low, and then switch the input to the TiVO. The "off" side of the same switch turns off the lights and the receiver. Works great!

Oops - spoke too soon. Every few hours, the plugin stops working. I get messages like these in the log:

Code: Select all

  Cynical Denon Error             Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room unavailable: no response from device
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room connecting to host
Feb 22, 2014, 1:59:11 PM
  Cynical Denon Error             ignoring set_main_power action for unready device Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room


If I select the menu Plugins->Cynical Denon->Reload, it works again and shows these log messages:

Code: Select all

Feb 22, 2014, 9:32:41 PM
  Reloading plugin "Cynical Denon 1.5.1"
  Stopping plugin "Cynical Denon 1.5.1" (pid 33579)
  Cynical Denon                   shutdown sensed
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room stopping
  Stopped plugin "Cynical Denon 1.5.1"
  Starting plugin "Cynical Denon 1.5.1" (pid 59617)
  Started plugin "Cynical Denon 1.5.1"
  Cynical Denon                   mapping device "Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room" 686120383(avreceiver)
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room starting
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room connecting to host
  Cynical Denon                   plugin starting asyn operation
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room is now exploring
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room enabling idle probes
  Cynical Denon                   zones M, 2
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room is now on


And then my trigger to control the receiver works:

Code: Select all

Feb 22, 2014, 9:33:08 PM
  Received X10                    A3 on
  Trigger                         Family Room: a3 on - receiver on / TV
  Schedule                        Family Room: a3 on - receiver on / TV (delayed action)
  Schedule                        Family Room: a3 on - receiver on / TV (delayed action)

  Received X10                    A3 off
  Trigger                         Family Room: a3 off - receiver off
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room is now standby


But then a few minutes later, it's broken again:

Code: Select all

Feb 22, 2014, 9:43:42 PM
  Cynical Denon Error             Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room unavailable: no response from device
  Cynical Denon                   Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room connecting to host

Feb 22, 2014, 9:46:51 PM
  Trigger                         Family Room: a3 off - receiver off
  Action Group                    Family Room - all lights off
  Cynical Denon Error             ignoring set_main_power action for unready device Marantz 5007 Receiver in Family Room


What's going on? How do I fix this? I saw some old messages about the Network settings on Denon. I checked this on the Marantz and it's set to "Always On", not "Off when standby".

Thanks,

David

First, let me know how your Marantz is hooked up to your Mac - USB serial, network adapter (which one), or how? Double-check that you've got the latest version of Indigo and the plugin.

"No response from device" means that the plug-in was sending its periodic "are you still there?" message and didn't get an answer. So it assumes that you've got some network problem and resets the Indigo device. That isn't going to plan, so the device stays offline (which is where the "ignored" message comes from).

In the plugin configuration dialog, in the Debug Modules field, enter denon.avr. Then reproduce the problem (complete with at least one "ignoring" message and what happens when you manually reload) and send me the log.

Cheers
-- perry

First, let me know how your Marantz is hooked up to your Mac - USB serial, network adapter (which one), or how? Double-check that you've got the latest version of Indigo and the plugin.

The Marantz and the Mac Mini are both connected to the same Ethernet switch (along with TiVO, Blu-Ray player, and connection back to router).

Indigo shows version 6.0.10 - latest according to the website.
Cynical Denon version 1.5.1

"No response from device" means that the plug-in was sending its periodic "are you still there?" message and didn't get an answer. So it assumes that you've got some network problem and resets the Indigo device. That isn't going to plan, so the device stays offline (which is where the "ignored" message comes from).

In the plugin configuration dialog, in the Debug Modules field, enter denon.avr. Then reproduce the problem (complete with at least one "ignoring" message and what happens when you manually reload) and send me the log.

Done. I attached the log file. For some reason, this forum software wouldn't let me attach .rtf, .pdf, or .zip files! So, I saved as .rtf in textedit and added .txt to fool the software. You should rename it on your end.

Thanks,

David

Hi,
I have just started to try to use your plugin. Unfortunately I did not get far.
Just one clarification. I am using a Denon AVR-3312EUR. I am currently able to control it with the Denon plugin for Vera. I have started to work with a transition to Indigo, and I was hoping to move AVR control to Indigo.

After I have entered my ip adress and created a device I get the following error:
Denon unavailable: (61, 'Connection refused')

Any Idea what might cause this?

regards

Ok,
Feeling a bit stupid now. I disabled the Denon Plugin on Vera. And now it works.
Thanks for the work on the plugin.
regrads

I am using the plugin with my Denon AVR-3806 but the box is aging and the HDMI out does not work. I see the Denon AVR-S900W 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi has a network port. Will the plugin work with this Denon?

Hi Guys

I'm back with AVR 4308 Denon again.........all has been working perfectly with my 4308 and the Plugin until a few days ago.....I keep having to "Reload" the plugin to get it to connect, the AVR is on a Static ip address and I haven't changed anything.....it just seems to be losing its connection all the time.

Any help would be appreciated as I said its been working perfectly and i've also created a nice (well I think so) control page.......gutted if it can't be fixed....

please help,

Thanks,

Dave

I am considering purchasing an Epson 5030e home theater projector. I would like to be able to perform basic controls of it with indigo including on/off and source select . The projector has an RS-232 port and Epson provides a list of the control codes for the various functions. I have two questions I hope someone could help me with:

1. Is there an existing plug-in that could work for this?

2. If not, where can I find documentation to learn how to create a plug-in? I found the plug-ins for dummies introduction page, but could not find any subsequent pages.

Cynical Network plugin (http://www.cynic.org/indigo/plugins/online/network.html) and a Global Caché or iTach IP-to-Serial device such as http://www.globalcache.com/products/itach/ip2slspecs/ should handle it.