BVM-20F1U & BKM-10R help

[kardus]

Had a couple of BVM-20F1U & BKM-10R in storage for a while, just set them up again and I cannot for the life of me get it to recognise these remotes. It is plugged in. Screen is showing a picture. Everything was working fine prior to storage. Not sure what is going on, perhaps I am overlooking something obvious.

[RebeL9]

What do you mean that they don't recognice the remote? Can't you access the system menu when you press the menu button on the 10R?

[kardus]

What do you mean that they don't recognice the remote? Can't you access the system menu when you press the menu button on the 10R?

No, the 10R is totally non-responsive (no lights on the remote and the buttons/knobs aren't doing anything). Tried multiple 10R with multiple monitors.

[h1ghju1ce]

Do you have more than one cable to try ?

double check continuity of each of the pins/wires in the cable ?

[RebeL9]

Yeah sounds like an issue with the cable. Try another cable

[kardus]

Checked the continuity with a multimeter and everything seemed fine, will just see if I can find or buy another rs232 cable and give it another go

[SuperSpongo]

Also, check the voltage supply. One of the pins should be 5V.

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.p ... start=5100

[kardus]

Tested the old cable for continuity it seemed fine, not sure if it was a little spotty or my hand shaking so I just bought a new cable, didn't work. Tried measuring for the 5V on the first output directly from the monitor didn't seem get anything. Don't know if was a fluke but did seem to see a fluctuating voltage going a little over 4V on remote port 2 but that didn't work either. Will have to investigate further I guess. Everything was stored in good conditions for the last couple of years so that is disappointing if it's the remote boards or some other problems starting to fail downstream.

[Dochartaigh]

Had a couple of BVM-20F1U & BKM-10R in storage for a while, just set them up again and I cannot for the life of me get it to recognise these remotes. It is plugged in. Screen is showing a picture. Everything was working fine prior to storage. Not sure what is going on, perhaps I am overlooking something obvious.

Tested the old cable for continuity it seemed fine, not sure if it was a little spotty or my hand shaking so I just bought a new cable, didn't work. Tried measuring for the 5V on the first output directly from the monitor didn't seem get anything. Don't know if was a fluke but did seem to see a fluctuating voltage going a little over 4V on remote port 2 but that didn't work either. Will have to investigate further I guess. Everything was stored in good conditions for the last couple of years so that is disappointing if it's the remote boards or some other problems starting to fail downstream.

Owning several of these as well (and sold a ton more), and knowing them well, just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything...

To confirm you're talking about using MULTIPLE different BVM's and MULTIPLE different controllers, right? How many of each? Also MULTIPLE different cables, right? That means different serial cables like you already mentioned, as well as different power cables, different power strips, different outlets on a completely different circuit -- just to rule out EVERYTHING.

The odds of ALL of them working before, then being broken at once literally probably beats the odds of winning the lottery... so I must be missing something here which is why I'm asking. Was the storage area flooded? In a high humidity (i.e. possibility of massive rusting/corrosion) and/or high-temperature-fluctuation (cold solder joints) storage area? Were they stored plugged-in (possible power surge?)? (even those latter three are way, way, far-off possibilities to make MULTIPLE units not work... just grasping at straws here to try to narrow this down).

[kardus]

Had a couple of BVM-20F1U & BKM-10R in storage for a while, just set them up again and I cannot for the life of me get it to recognise these remotes. It is plugged in. Screen is showing a picture. Everything was working fine prior to storage. Not sure what is going on, perhaps I am overlooking something obvious.

Tested the old cable for continuity it seemed fine, not sure if it was a little spotty or my hand shaking so I just bought a new cable, didn't work. Tried measuring for the 5V on the first output directly from the monitor didn't seem get anything. Don't know if was a fluke but did seem to see a fluctuating voltage going a little over 4V on remote port 2 but that didn't work either. Will have to investigate further I guess. Everything was stored in good conditions for the last couple of years so that is disappointing if it's the remote boards or some other problems starting to fail downstream.

Owning several of these as well (and sold a ton more), and knowing them well, just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything...

To confirm you're talking about using MULTIPLE different BVM's and MULTIPLE different controllers, right? How many of each? Also MULTIPLE different cables, right? That means different serial cables like you already mentioned, as well as different power cables, different power strips, different outlets on a completely different circuit -- just to rule out EVERYTHING.

The odds of ALL of them working before, then being broken at once literally probably beats the odds of winning the lottery... so I must be missing something here which is why I'm asking. Was the storage area flooded? In a high humidity (i.e. possibility of massive rusting/corrosion) and/or high-temperature-fluctuation (cold solder joints) storage area? Were they stored plugged-in (possible power surge?)? (even those latter three are way, way, far-off possibilities to make MULTIPLE units not work... just grasping at straws here to try to narrow this down).

2 different BVM-20F1U (different manf. years I believe)
2 different BKM-10R (different years on these as well)
1 original cable + the other straight rs232 cable I just bought

I tried each remote with each BVM. When I bought the 2nd cable I went through the same process with the new cable and also checked continuity a second time. Both sets of monitors and remotes and the original cable were obtained from a studio that took pretty decent care of the stuff. I got over 20 monitors from them including these. I have about a dozen monitors remaining from the same batch (other PVM mostly) and all of them were tested with the same 2 power cables and virtually all of them were working fine. At least of 1 the of these BVMs are displaying a picture fine (I will test the other soon) although I cannot do anything with it since I cannot connect the remote. They had not been used or powered up in 5-7+ years but were stored in my room back home in a residential setting with family, probably at 18-22 deg C with normal air conditioning etc, zero flooding and so on. The dozen monitors (PVMs with built in controls) were stored all in identical conditions and everything seemed to work fine when I tested them yesterday although my back is a bit sore. On top of that both BKM-10R and the cable were sealed in a plastic storage container for that entire time as well, so I am baffled.

[kardus]

I have a serial to USB adapter that I was planning to use for a project to remote control the monitors via computer although I never got around to doing that. I've seen some alternative controller projects using microcontrollers and so on made since then, I'm wondering if there is any software out there already written that I can use or modify so see if I can perhaps see if I can control it that way?

[kardus]

Out of curiosity I fired up an A20F1U that I have never tested due to not having an input board for it (it only has SDI). Stored right on top of those other BVMs. It has a BKM-15R (albeit that controller has its own internal PSU) that was stored in the exact same box with the other controllers as it too has a similar control board. Both seem to be working completely fine, it is only the 20F1Us or BKM-10R that I'm having trouble with out of everything.

[Dochartaigh]

I have a serial to USB adapter that I was planning to use for a project to remote control the monitors via computer although I never got around to doing that. I've seen some alternative controller projects using microcontrollers and so on made since then, I'm wondering if there is any software out there already written that I can use or modify so see if I can perhaps see if I can control it that way?

If you search around there's some Github projects to do this, supposedly fully written and functional although I've never tried any of them. Also the RS (actually 485, but 232 cables work just fine in my experience) commands are all mapped out if you want to do it from a computer directly (many variants of the github projects which can use everything from an IR remote control, to a Raspberry Pi micro? I think, to an Android phone, etc).

Also, for the BVM-D20F1U which displays a picture, fyi w/out a controller they'll display their last input I believe, so that's prob. why that one shows a picture, where the other BVM might not have been setup to something you have plugged into now so it won't display a picture.

Also, since you've confirmed the BVM-A's BKM-15R controller works, don't know if this will work but I would try to loop that through to one of your BVM-20F1U's just to add one more controller to the mix (the BVM-A has a serial parallel port on the back). I forget the compatibility between all these TBH when you loop them together, but know there's some forward and backwards compatibility between controllers and different model BVM's (like the 15R can control most features of the first LCD/LED/whatever BVM's which came after the A-Series for instance; and a 10R can control a BVM-20F1U or the later D20/24/32F models and even some simple things on a PVM-20L5).

Besides that, don't know what to tell you – could very well just be double bad luck with 2x bad controllers or who knows what else.

[kardus]

perhaps I am overlooking something obvious.

You would not believe that I had post-it notes over the controller ports on both monitors. I forgot they existed. Of course if I had read the nice user and service manuals I had printed and bound for all of my monitors maybe I would have figured it out sooner. I was plugging into the remote control card instead. I knew it was going to be an obvious oversight since everything was working flawlessly before

[SuperSpongo]

D'Oh!
Well, at least it's solved now