Gilderfluke&Co old Smart Brick Manual - Manual (Page 133)

- PIONEER LaserDisk Commands -
The Pioneer LaserDisk players all share a common command format. A full description of the com-
mands can be found in the technical publications available from Pioneer Communications of America.
They can be reached at (408) 988-1702.
LaserDisks used with the Standard Smart Brick Brain must be recorded in the CAV format. This allows
up to 1/2 hour per side. The Rack Smart Brick Brain supports both CAV and CLV format disks. CLV disks
can hold up to 1 hour per side. Not all players will support the commands needed for using CLV disks in
an animation control system. The player must be able to position the disk to a frame (and pause on that
frame if it is to be used in a multiple LaserDisk installation).
The LaserDisk player must be configured for 9600 baud, 8 bit data, and 1 stop bit (4800 baud can
also work in some applications). On the LD-V8000, you also must set the ÔTxD TerminatorÕ to Ô<C/R>Õ.
Other data rates can be used, but lower baud rates canÕt get the data across fast enough for the Brick
Brain while a show is running. Whatever the data rate used, you must set the Brick Brain, LaserDisk player,
and the terminal or computer you are using to configure the system to the same speed. If parity is used,
then you need to set the data word length to 7 bits, and the parity to ÔoddÕ. You must also set the Brick
Brain to recognize ÔoddÕ parity as well. Connections are made as follows:
Pioneer LaserDisk
DB-15 SIGNAL SIGNAL FROM/TO BRICK BRAIN
2 DATA OUT - serial data in to Brick Brain (GREEN)
3 DATA IN - serial data out from Brick Brain (BLACK)
1, 11 or 15 GROUND signal ground (BLUE or WHITE)
The electrical output from PC¥MACs is at RS-422 voltage levels rather than the RS-232 that these
LaserDisk players really want to see. If this causes a problem, or it the wire runs between PC¥MACs and
the LaserDisk player are long, then you may want to add a RS-232 to RS-422 converter to the LaserDisk
player.
In general, you send a command to the LaserDisk player as two ASCII characters (with occasional
variables), followed by a <carriage return> character (0D). The LaserDisk player will then respond when it
has completed the task with a upper case ÔRÕ followed by a <carriage return> character (0D). A number
of different commands can be stacked together and then followed by a single <carriage return> char-
acter (0D) to get them all rolling. The LaserDisk player will go through all of these commands in the order
they were entered and then return a ÔRÕ followed by a <carriage return> character (0D) when it has fin-
ished the last command. This can save a lot of string space if you are sending complicated strings to the
LaserDisk player.
The majority of commands which you might need to use are all pretty simple two or three character
ones. The one complicated ÔsearchÕ command is handled transparently to you when you insert a
LaserSearch (01) character in the string being sent to the LaserDisk player (the Brick Brain must be told it
is running a Pioneer player in the configuration screen). This string only performs a search for the starting
frame of the show on the LaserDisk player. For this reason it is normally followed by a ÔPLÕ (play) com-
mand in the same string.
A typical start string for a LaserDisk show is:
LaserSearch PL <CR> (R) (<CR>) end-o-string
Translated into HEX ASCII, this string becomes (this is what you would enter)
01 50 4C 0D D2 8D 00
and it would be displayed on the String Setup Menu as:
G ILDERFLUKE & C O .¥ 205 S. F LOWER S T .¥ B URBANK , CA 91502 ¥ 818/840-9484 ¥ 800/776-5972 ¥ FAX 818/840-9485
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