The Cambridge Audio Azur series HDMI receivers (it seems pre HDMI receivers do not have them) have RS232 serial ports that can be used to control most if not all of the functionality. After doing the work on Azur receivers, I started working on controlling my LG TV and later a Pioneer TV that was lying around at work. If interested in doing some coding, read HACKING
rs232server splits hardware support into loadable modules. I've listed the hardware I've used the modules on and hardware I believe they should work on:
Azur1 Service: CA receivers like the 351R (and maybe others) require padding for some of the codes and seem to be very strict on this. They however have way way better response codes so I made a seperate azur1 service and will modify that to support the 351R as best as I can. The codes are also a bit different between this series of amps and the 340R since there is tvarc inputs etc... Currently it's very very basic.
Azur Service: All CA receivers should work apart from the 540R v1-2 (v3 should work) as they do not have an rs232 port. Azur 340R (tested on SW version 1.3, protocol version 1.1) Azur 640R (tested on SW version 1.5, protocol version 1.0)
Lgtv Service: LG M2762DP (UK model)
Pioneer Service: KRL-32V
Arcam Service: AVR300
Personally I use the 340R (upstairs) and 640R (downstairs). The 340R uses miniclient with a bash script and the HTPC with the 640R uses the xbmc plugin. Both systems are fairly reliable, and I run git HEAD. Please send me any issues/improvements/comments you may have! I'd love to hear if you are using the SW even if you disliked it ;-)
The program runs in two parts. A python daemon runs in the background and responds to queries from the cli using dbus. The hope is to decouple the two sufficiently so that other clients can be written. The hope is to eventually have the script listening to the users media player in order to switch on when neccessary, replace alsa as the volume controller, etc...
Just like a standard python module use:
sudo ./setup.py install
or to install it locally, use:
./setup.py install --user
The miniclient uses autotools (urgh) so just use
cd miniclient
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install
Modify rs232.conf.example with your favourite text editor to map to your serial devices.
sudo cp rs232.conf.example /etc/rs232.conf
sudo cp uk.co.madeo.rs232server.conf /etc/dbus-1/system.d/
sudo cp rs232server.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl start rs232server
The script requires python2, python-pyserial and dbus
To connect the Amplifier (Azur 340R), use a null modem cable to a serial port or USB->serial controller
The rs232server can be started like any python program just run ./rs232server. Run ./rs232server --help for further info. A tty can be set if ttyUSB0 is not what your amplifier is connected to.
You will need to place rs232.conf in /etc and configure the correct ttys for the services. To disable a service simply comment out the service in the .conf
Also provided is an xbmc (eden/11.x) service addon (see https://github.com/arfoll/service.madeo.rs232server)
Tom Carlson - original creator of the python script to control Azur 340R Jon Smith - blog post on lgtv serial communication Suan-Aik Yeo - developer of libLGTV_serial Sander Jongeleen - Initial arcam service work Rob Sharp - For testing & mapping out features on arcam service