Cynical Caché Plugin
Download Cynical Caché (Release Notes)
This plugin deals with Global Caché devices, particularly for sending and receiving Consumer Infrared (CIR) signals - those ubiquitous remote controls. Supported devices include
- GC-100 network devices
- iTach network devices
- GC-IRL serial infrared learner
- GC-IRE serial infrared extender
Overview
- Install GC-100 or iTach devices normally. Use their web interface to configure their device ports as you wish; Cynical Caché will read the configuration off the devices as needed.
- Create an Indigo device for each of them. Make sure the devices are powered up and operating.
- Create an Indigo IR Emitter device for each device port that is configured to be an IR transmitter (whether it's a transmitter bug, a blaster, or a GC-CGX adapter).
- Install any GC-IRE or GC-IRL devices by plugging them into either a local serial port on your Macintosh (using USB adapters or whatever else you have handy), or into a serial port on a GC-100 or iTach device configured earlier. Remember to set the serial ports to 4800bps.
- Create an Indigo IR Receiver device for each of them.
- Have your way with actions and events for these devices.
Cynical Caché does not currently support sensor or LED-dimmer ports, because I don't have any in my hardware arsenal. Serial ports can be directly used for GC-IRE or GC-IRL devices only, but the serial port is easy to access with the Cynical Network plugin - the first serial port is port 4999 at the GC-100 or iTach address.
The network database feature is a work in progress. Ask me if you're curious.
Working With IR Symbols
IR Emitter devices let you send IR codes, and IR Receiver devices let you recognize them when they arrive. In the air, they are modulated light waves, but inside Cynical Caché, they are stylized strings delimited by angle brackets that look like "<NEC:74b2/2f>" or "<generic:00F2 723B ...>". You can, and probably should, treat these strings as magic cookies whose meaning you don't need to understand. But how do you get them into the dialog fields?
The easiest way to figure out an IR code string is to learn
it: pick a supported IR receiver device, make it the learning device in the plugin preferences, and use the Learn button in an action or event dialog. This way you don't need to understand these strings at all; you just pull them off your remote. Note that Indigo imposes a ten-second timeout after you click the Learn button, so be ready.
If you can't do that, you can search the Internet for the hex code of the desired IR symbol. That's a string with lots of digits and letters in groups of four, like so:
0000 006d 0022 0002 0156 00aa 0016 0015 ... 0156 0055 0016 0e38You can take this string from anywhere (a website, some text document, etc.) and drag or paste it directly into the IR symbol fields of action and event dialogs. Cynical Caché will automatically convert it to its preferred form.
Devices
Network Device
This is a GC-100 or iTach network device of some kind. These devices can have all kinds of interface devices attached to them. Cynical Caché automatically figures out the kind and capabilities of the device.
IR Emitter
This is an interface on a gcnet device that can send infrared signals. It works with all types of emitters - normal bugs, blasters, and GC-RGX adapters.
IR Receiver
This is a GC-IRE or GC-IRL device that can receive infrared signals. The hardware has a serial interface. IR Receiver supports both local serial ports on the computer running the Indigo server, and serial ports attached to any GC-100 or iTach device on the network as long as you have defined it as a Network Device in Indigo; just pick it from the popup list.
Actions
Send IR Signal
This action tells an IR Emitter device to send an IR signal you specify.
Events
IR Symbol Received
This event triggers when the specified IR Receiver device detects an infrared signal that matches the specified symbol. This is the way you can make Indigo do things when the user presses a button on an infrared remote, anywhere in sight of a receiver device.
If you leave everything blank, this event will fire whenever any infrared signal is received on any active receiver device. You will usually want to refine this. Specify a particular receiver device to restrict the event to only signals received by that device. Enter a particular IR Code to restrict the event to only receipt of this particular code. (It doesn't matter how long you hold down the button.)
The text in the IR Code field can be anything understood by Cynical Caché.
Release Notes