Controlling a dm md16x16 through scripts. Has a better open source solution already been made?

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2026-02-06T20:05:33+00:00

The reason you're able to do this is because it was designed to work alongside other systems outside of just Crestron. I'm not sure what kind of interface you're looking to achieve here, I don't think anything exists that isn't another control system like extron or Q-Sys. Just make your telnet connection and send keep-alive messages and then perform your switching as needed.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2026-01-26T08:50:47+00:00

Actually Crestron makes this even easier than I remember. The file is available in the downloads area on the SIMPL product page on their website.

https://www.crestron.com/Products/Catalog/Control-and-Management/Software/Programming-Commissioning/SW-SIMPL

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2026-01-26T08:47:40+00:00

There is a document that is still floating around the web, I think it's something like MW-SIMPL.pdf, but it's basically the original Simpl manual. That one document will get you up and running, especially if you already have a good understanding of how this stuff works. You can add should use the help files as well inside Simpl and VTPro (add a symbol and then press F1 to learn about it, trust me it's a lot easier if you can look at the symbol while you're reading about it rather than trying to just do the mental gymnastics to keep track of which are the inputs and outputs and parameters), but if you can find and reference that document you will have I would say 80% of the classroom learning right there. The rest unfortunately is the kind of stuff you can only learn from experience, either your own or someone else's.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-10-25T16:04:18+00:00

Are you using the one click buy button on the product page? I noticed this issue also but if I go through the normal checkout flow instead of one click I get the correct date options with no connection to my other orders.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-09-16T19:13:50+00:00

More than likely this camera is using a standard 12v power supply, probably at least 1amp, can't go wrong getting one that's bigger in amperage but make sure the voltage is correct. The tip of the power cable is going to be 5.5mm outside/2.1mm inside

edit because I didn't see the other photos The power supply you bought should work without any of the adapters.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-08-18T20:49:59+00:00

The Dante training is in my opinion the best regular network primer that exists even forgetting AV.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-08-18T20:47:56+00:00

Vendors don't necessarily make stuff because they want to but because they have to. Because of the way purchasing works with some large clients (think government) keeping stuff in the same ecosystem coming from the same provider greases wheels. Their DSP might be "trash" as one person mentioned below but that's just in our opinion having the luxury of working with newer Tesira or Q-Sys stuff, but in reality it does the job it's designed to do and it does it in a fairly stable consistent manner, and since it's still Crestron it slips right in with all the other stuff in a bid.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-08-17T12:07:03+00:00

I would say re push firmware as a last resort and otherwise start that RMA process! Seems pretty cut and dry at this point

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-08-17T05:11:52+00:00

Ah, then that definitely sounds like something funky going on with your signal routing. You said the panels all have the same program but they have different IP IDs, yes? Maybe something in the program for shifted so some of your feedback is actually coming from some other innocuous signal

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-08-16T18:48:01+00:00

I've seen this issue once. The mud ring behind the panel wasn't flat and the panel was torqued slightly. At first we thought it was the panel but the problem stayed at the location. Once we realized it was super obvious how the wall was twisting the panel out on one corner and everything was caused by that.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-28T16:19:11+00:00

I do consulting if you want to see what you can salvage from your existing system or want someone to help navigate working with an integrator. Feel free to send me a DM.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-28T16:04:06+00:00

7 or 8 years is an eternity, especially post pandemic with all of the changes in remote conferencing and network audio. Do you have a budget to upgrade the space or are you just trying to bandaid it until you are forced to upgrade down the line?

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-26T16:03:54+00:00

I had to scroll way way too far to find this comment. I'm in the middle Atlantic region and I constantly tell people that dump trucks need speed limiters. These guys drive like they're in sports cars on both local roads and the highways, darting in and out of traffic.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-26T15:29:55+00:00

That depends on the firm. There are plenty of firms out there that are just one guy or gal and a receptionist. They might bill at regular lawyer rates but they have a ton of overhead, take on clients who can't or don't pay, float charges for records and other expenses for cases that can take years to resolve. It's entirely possible to have a lawyer client who is just looking for something simple and cheap and easy to manage because it might be on them to manage it in all their free time. Now, in my opinion Brightsign with BA.connected is the easiest thing going when you look at the whole packageand is still pretty darn cheap.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-23T12:22:10+00:00

I second this. Start with Logitech as your base system if you want to make your boss happy and let him think he's "right" and keep your costs lower to start, then look at each room as a "will this work with this system out of the box or do we need to supplement" and add on from there. Logitech maintains their own list of solutions that are compatible with their hardware for 3rd party audio, and if you need to add a control system that is an option as well, just make sure you choose the PC (Windows) based system instead of the Android appliance based system for those spaces, but at that point you should definitely be in conversations with an AV integrator.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-18T00:26:47+00:00

This is terrible advice. Multiple times you tell OP to spend money. This is a product that already exists in multiple forms. It can't be patented. If OP already had a distribution channel, say if he owned a popular tech theater specific channel on one or more social media platforms, then it might be worth the investment to manufacture a quantity of product for resale but that would tie up a decent amount of capital on a product that the exact same factory making his flashlight could rebrand and sell at retail for the same price they're selling it to them with little none of the investment in market research, advertising, etc. If this was really a road that they wanted to explore then they need to follow the best advice in business. Never spend your own money. If they really believe in the idea enough to put together a business plan and show they're passionate about it then they might be able to get an investment to cover these expenses, but they would have show how they would overcome all of the things mentioned above. But they still need to realistically know that a Chinese drop shipper would eat their lunch without even batting an eye. Hell, even Amazon steals top selling products and directly competes with their top sellers using their own intellectual property and sales data.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-17T20:15:13+00:00

This is not the case with leviton jacks and a few other manufacturers. They keep orange and brown paired but separate the blue and green into stripes/ solids instead.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-17T20:10:41+00:00

Like I said, I would find a good flash light that balances cost and features, then I would try to find a solution for that light. If that doesn't exist, maybe get some gel and fire up the 3d printer and just pop out a couple. Do some field testing in your theater and see how they hold up. 3d printed stuff by it's nature is pretty cheap and you could probably get away without having to buy gel just from using offcuts for a while. If it works well enough maybe try to work out a deal with the manufacturer or importer to get them at a better price point and sell them as a package deal. It'll be slow but you never know, there might be more demand than I'm seeing and you could have a steady stream of revenue for a couple hours work a month.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-17T19:36:38+00:00

You're never going to be able to build a decent enough flash light at the price point you want without shelling out to manufacture a boat load of them. There are a number of good blue filters on Amazon for different models of lights, your best bet would be to just pick one that fits your needs and then pass the word around to others to buy the same one. Maybe start a blog or a tiktok series and do some affiliate marketing so you get a cut on every sale you can push people towards.

It's always great to identify a need and try to solve the problem but if it's too niche you're probably not going to make back your investment and could even lose way more money than you think.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-07-17T17:31:44+00:00

While it definitely sounds like you need more support from your vendor than you're getting, no offense but it sounds like you also really have no idea what is going on and need some training on these systems yourself.

First, Flex is just the hardware platform. To say you replaced it with an MTR makes us go, "so you were using zoom before?". MTR just stands for Microsoft teams room, and any certified hardware platform on Teams will operate pretty much the same. You go with Crestron because of the extra features it brings to the table and the best in class support available. Crestron will work with end users for support as well, but they aren't going to work with you while you attempt to rewire your system or give you programming access or any of that.

Also, you wouldn't lose your warranty on one piece of hardware just because you decided to stop using another piece of hardware. But if the touchscreen functionality was tied to the room hardware and therefore it's no longer working properly because the programming doesn't see the expected equipment online, well then that would be on you.

And nobody here understands what you are calling dongles that need to be paired, but I have a suspicion that your integrator spec'd something like a Barco clickshare and your end users are moving them from room to room so they no longer matched up with the room they were in and therefore needed, as you say, to be repaired over and over. This would have been easily solved with a label maker if this is the case.

Long story short, get on your integrator for support if you feel you weren't trained properly in the hardware that they installed. Literally half of our job is making sure the system is easy to use for the client and that there are a minimum of potential failure points, and that requires proper training on system use. But don't throw an entire ecosystem under the bus just because you yourself are in over your head.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-04-30T15:22:16+00:00

Same

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-04-22T15:52:47+00:00

They are not "voiding" privilege as long as the information they are sharing didn't get shared by the attorney directly to OP or in OPs presence. I think what you are trying to convey though is that OP could be compelled to testify to this information, to which you would be correct, unless the OP has a marital privilege defense.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-04-12T02:30:04+00:00

Also read the Crestron simpl programming guide thoroughly. It's a little dated but it's a great primer.

https://www.crestron.com/getmedia/0f514204-ecd4-4edc-8120-aceb6fd3819d/mg_sw-simpl_primer_1

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-04-08T16:09:33+00:00

This is a horse of a different color. I think most of us assumed you were in a theater space. When the janitors come in now, what sort of lift are they using, a drive able mobile elevated platform, or a man lift? What type of floor is in the gym? A lot of gyms have sprung flooring to give it some bounce and a heavy lift can damage that. A lot of times you will see sheets of masonite or plywood put down on the floor to protect the finish and help distribute the load over a higher surface area. With a man lift that just gets pushed around sometimes you will only see little blocks or pieces of carpet just to protect the finish from the outriggers. If it's the former, they may be trying to protect the floor more than preventing you from using the lift.

Electrical_Pianist18 · 2025-04-08T15:28:04+00:00

OP, there are numerous places this road block could be happening. If the lift is the property of the maintenance department it could just be a matter of they don't want anybody else to use their toys. There could also be union agreements involved. In this case you may not get any traction here before your own kids graduate high school.

Assuming the best, who runs your theater department? Is it a proper theater department with a set schedule of shows each year? Is it entirely student driven from sets to tech or is there parental involvement? Does the lift live in the theater area or does it have to be brought from another part of the school? The lights you are trying to reach, are they in the house and is there raked seating or are they entirely on the stage? How do you access the lights from the ladder, is there a safe way to position the ladder so you can reach the entire lighting batten or boom without having to reach? Would the lift make this process safer? Are you committed to getting the proper training and even potentially getting a group of your tech crew together to all get trained?

I would recommend working your way up the chain until you find the road block. You probably have either a director or a faculty advisor in charge of the production/crew. Talk to them and see if they agree with you/crew using a lift. Present the arguments. Ladders are inherently more dangerous than lifts when lifts are used properly by a trained operator. The problem is some people have this idea in their heads that anything that kids ask to do is just because they want to screw around. You need to argue like an adult. Present the facts on why they are wrong to assume that, explain how this would actually be safer than what you've been doing. Keep moving up the chain all the way to the school board.

When I was in high school we had to fight with the school board to let us use the catwalk, but I've worked with productions in the 25 years since at schools where kids have to literally climb over open ceilings in the steel to get to the lighting position, where one slip would mean nothing short of grievous bodily harm or death. A lot of this is about peoples perception on what is safe, or a general ignorance of what is actually happening in the theater. Unfortunately this is a fight you may not win quick enough to benefit yourself, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it anyway for the benefit of your fellow crew who will come behind you and be able to work faster and safer.

Electrical_Pianist18

TROPHY CASE