Panasonic PT-D Projector Shutter Control

vvvv beta question
1

Hello World

Posting my first public patch - any/all feedback welcome!

What it does is: remote shutter control for Panasonic PT-d series projectors,
but could probably be easily adapted to other beamers with
RS232 control. Could also be used to control any other binary function (lamp on/off etc…)

Useful for those that need a total blackout.

Grab it from my user page

2

hello derformer,

nice first! small and clean :)
remember that you are also invited to add your modules to the User Modules if you like.

3

Wowie, one insane beamer :)

Can you controll it via a slim Ethernet cable, or does it only work with the fat RS232 plug?

4

This version only works via RS232.

However I did look into the ethernet option briefly - theres either some kind of web browser control (which prob isn’t fast enough to do a show) but also this new thing called PJLink. Only a few projectors have it now (mostly Panasonic?) but it could become a widespread standard.

It sends commands over TCP, with a call/response structure fairly similar to RS232. However it seems like there is only a limited amount of commands you can send - including a video mute command.

As I didn’t have the units until I got into the space I didn’t know whether that would just blank the screen digitally or activate the shutter, so I decided to go with RS232 instead.

It also doesn’t seem like there is the capability of adjusting focus or zoom - which is what I want to do next.

Specs are here if anyone is interested.

Could be useful if they expand it in future though…