Turning a projector on and off

[sodapop 11]

I have my projector connected to COM1 on my server and can turn it on and off by sending three characters (00! to turn it on and 00" to turn it off). Right now we have to go into the closet, turn on a monitor, and select the appropriate shortcut on the desktop, turn off the monitor, etc. The wife thinks this is too much trouble - I told her she could always get a ladder and push the power button on the projector instead. Needless to say the response wasn't appropriate for all audiences.

 

I'd like to find a way to have the computer send these commands by using the tablet we have that controls WMC/MBC.

 

I've seen a couple of android apps that have the ability to control the mouse or act as a remote desktop but this is too difficult for the family to operate.

 

In a perfect world the app would show two buttons - on and off. Select 'on' and the computer echos the on command to the projector, select 'off' and the computer echos the off command to the projector.

 

 

 

[mguebert 9]

try eventghost, it has a plugin that can send serial commands. You could tie it to a task creation. IE when Emby Theater launches it sends a serial command to the projector to turn on. Vice versa for projector shutdown.

[sodapop 11]

Thanks for the reply. The problem with connecting the task to anything on the WMC system is we cannot see what is displayed since the projector is off. This might work to turn the projector off except WMC is always running.

 

I have the process down to two batch files and two desktop icons. They set the mode on the com port and then echo the appropriate three ASCII characters - no flow control, no handshaking.

 

I tried a few remote desktop apps but they require the current user to be logged off to take control of the computer.

[ebr 14935]

Doesn't your projector respond to IR commands?

[sodapop 11]

I bought the projector used  from a video equipment retailer, they has it hanging from their ceiling as a demo unit. I didn't get the remote, they lost it, so I don't know if it's IR or RF. I made sure the serial port worked and that was good enough.

 

After more digging and installing/uninstalling about two dozens apps it looks like I may have stumbled across the perfect solution.

 

The app is call Remote Launcher. There is a server piece and a client piece. You configure the server with a path to any application, or in my case a batch file, that you want to launch and the entry pops into the display on the client, in my case a tablet. I have it running on the same system that controls my X10 lighting system and the MediaBrowser server.

 

The server part is in Java, it runs from a jar file, rather than an executable which I guess this make it more portable.

 

Edited March 21, 2015 by sodapop