Controlling Philips BDM4065 monitor via RS232

pipi

Hi

Do you have definition of the connector for the monitor side? I got a monitor without official cable.

thestormdragon

Hi Pipi

No, I haven't got that but I have just tested my cable for you - however, I make no guarantees that your's is the same or that it's even possible to make it (the cable might have some smarts in it but I don't think it does).  As always, the risk is yours and I accept no liability

The monitor end has a 4 segment 2.5mm plug on it
The PC end has a female 9 pin serial port on it

They are wired as per the attached.

Personally, I never had any joy trying to make up my own 4 segment plugs so I suggest you buy a pre-made cable and chop the other end off but you might well be better than me

Good luck and kind regards

David

pipi

Hi David

Thank you very much!

I've searched around and have no luck finding a commercially available conversion cable. And there's no 9 pin serial port on my computer. I'm trying to assemble one with USB to RS-232 cable and 2.5 plug part. Thanks again for the information.

Regards

Zerreth

For some reason I cannot download any of the attachments in this thread, which is making it difficult for me. /Edit couldn't download because this sites detects adblock and disabled attachments


I'm using a ugreen usb to RS232 cable but minicom doesn't seem to do anything. ( 9600 8N1 N ) Nor Putty in windows with the same settings.

Could it be the normal RS-232 wiring is not compatible ? The manual does call for a straight cable, likely because of the 2.5mm trrs connector. Diagram: The Difference Between a Null Modem and Straight Through Serial Cable - National Instruments

The Ugreen Cable I have is probably a Null-Modem cable with handshake. No wonder it doesn't work.

vast1983

Probably. My control device uses terminal block style outputs, so I literally just used 3 conductor speaker wire, and used a terminal block to 2.5mm  adapter on the monitor side.

Zerreth

Well I got the new cable in (Startech ICUSB232V2), it's basically the same story. Minicom reports it as offline & putty doesn't seem to do anything either. So I installed visual studio so I could run the C# project on github. Worked fine on both cables. I have a friend who has the same screen so I can resell one cable to him since he's also interested in remote control like us. And he's a C# programmer by profession.

It just turns out I have no idea how to communicate via the serial apps like minicom & putty. When you start it and stare at the black screen, how are you supposed to send a command ? Now I'm more at home in programming environments anyway so the C# project will be a great reference. Will report back when I've got something to show raspberry, android or win10 wise.

Personally I would like a service to run on a raspberry, win10 device or android TV basically serving as the bridge to the screen. And having a control app on android & windows.

FYI I recommend the startech cable because it is nice and extra short   it has the female screw in points for the philips provided rs232 cable to screw into. The UGreen cable has the screws so you cant screw them down and is very long.

vast1983

As far as communication protocol for this, it is pretty straight forward. Sending a valid command, will execute that command and return a string. Sending an invalid command will return the command not recognized response. There is no initialize precursor command (looking at you sharp). A few of us on this forum have had good luck with using realterm. And copy pasting commands from the spread sheet.

Oh and pro tip, some of the checksums on that doc are incorrect. But, the first page has examples with the formula in the cells.... So copy and paste and you have yourself an easy checksum calc.

tcboy

i really hate there is no remote for this monitor.
I am using it for PC and also chromecast.
Whenever my pc goes to sleep, but chromecast is still awake, it will switch the input to chromecast and will not dim the light.

Fma965

So i used Andy's code as a base and have added global keybinds

So the reason why i added global keybinds is actually a bit of a special use case. i have a MCE (RC6) Remote Sensort which with a program called "AdvancedMCERemoteMapper" i can map keyboard presses to buttons on the MCE Remote. So with my Logitech Harmony universal remote i can map on screen buttons such as "DP" to "Green" on the MCE Remote and then map "Green" on the MCE Remote to Numpad2

GitHub - CyanLabs/BDM4065ControlApp: Control Philips BDM4065 monitor via its RS232 interface

BDM4065ControlApp

Control Philips BDM4065 monitor via its RS232 interface
Heavily based on the code from GitHub - andy-w/BDM4065ControlApp: Control Philips BDM4065 monitor via its RS232 interface

Features of my version
Global Keyboard Hooks (full list below) to allow commands to be sent from any active window Runs in background when launched Set com port by adding argument to launch, e.g "BDMControlApp.exe COM1"

Keybinds
Keys.Add //Volume Up
Keys.Subtract //Volume Down
Keys.NumPad0 //Power Toggle
Keys.NumPad1 //VGA
Keys.NumPad2 //DP
Keys.NumPad3 //MiniDP
Keys.NumPad4 //HDMI
Keys.NumPad5 //HDM

tcboy

Do you mind taking a short video of using your remote to control the monitor?
Also how much does the controller cost?
It seems ranging from 40 to 200.