mcw@wet.UUCP (Martin Warnett) (10/09/89)
I posted a query to the net a week or so ago about connecting a
Pioneer consumer model laser disk play to the RS232 port of my
Amiga. Thanks to everyone who responded. I replied to you all
individually but some mail bounced. As many people expressed
interest and some of the posts to the net said it couldn't be done,
I thought I'd let you all know how things worked out.
It is indeed possible to hook up a Pionerr consumer model laser
disk player to an RS232 port. In fact any Pioneer component that
supports it's SR system can be controlled from the computer. Here's
what I ended up with.
Hardware: SIA-III
Visual Database Systems
614 Bean Creek Road
Scotts Valley
CA 95066
(408) 438-8396
$200
The unit is a small black box with it's own power supply, it
has two cables, one to connect to the RS232 port the other
to the control port of the laser disk player (or any other
Pioneer component with the SR system). The hook-up to the
3030 is a little weird, the control cable must be plugged
into the control out jack and a small grounding cable
connected to the control in port and the right analog output
jack. There is a slight hum when the unit is connected.
I presume the grounding cable was designed to prevent this.
It didn't, in fact I am not sure what it's for as it did
not seem to make a difference whether it was connected or not.
I was able to run an extension cable and move the unit 25 feet
from my Amiga. I made the cable with a couple of RS232 to
telephone jack connectors and a telephone modular cable. All
available at Radio Shack. There are versions available for
the Amiga, IBM-PC and Apple Macintosh. There are also
adapters to allow you to hook it up to the older Pioneer
laser disk players that have the DIN-8 connector, e.g.
CLD-900 and the 24 pin models, e.g. LD-V4000.
Service:
The guy on the phone at VDB was very helpful and answered all
my questions. He said he would try to ship the day I called
and it arrived the next morning via UPS. He told me to call
back if I had any problems.
Software:
I understand that the IBM and Mac versions come with software
the amiga version doesn't. (Actually the Amiga version is
the IBM version without the software). Even without the
software it's easy to use, just fire up your favorite
terminal program and set it to 4800 baud, 8-N-1. The commands
are actually hex codes which can be entered as /nn. The more
common codes can be entered as a single character and will
be translated by the unit, for example P is play, O is chapter
input, S is search. The sequence O6S will play chapter 6.
Writing ARexx EXEC's to interface with the SIA-III is a
breeze. The manual includes all the codes for Pioneer
components (LD, amps, tuners, VCR's, etc.). I am going to be
investigating the use of Hypercard type software on the Amiga,
CanDo, UltraCard etc., with the SIA-III. As long as you can
write to the serial port, you shouldn't have any problems.
There are some commercially available hypercard stack products
available for the Mac. Hopefully someone will come up with a
way to get these to the Amiga.
Summary:
If you are looking for a way to control any Pioneer SR
components from your computer, the SIA-III does a very
good job. I can sit at my computer and change tracks on my
CD's, adjust the volume on my amplifier and position a
laser disk at a specific frame all ready for digitizing
with DigiView. The laser disk player responds instantly to
the command, the second I press Q (for pause) the player pauses,
there is no delay. The price is a little steep but I am having
a lot of fun. I intend to develop software to control my
player for use with DigiView. I am also thinking of building
a database of all my CD's, my favorite cuts and playing
sequence and let the computer program it. Now if I could
only figure out a way to get my Amiga to pull the CD off the
shelf and load the player!
Disclaimer:
My opinions only, I have no affiliation with VDB.
--
+====================================================================+
| Martin Warnett | uucp: ...sun!claris!wet!mcw |
| San Francisco, CA | claris!wet!mcw@ames.arc.nasa.gov |
+====================================================================+