Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

[darkbane]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

Hi Defib!

I got a SCSI unit, so if you could kindly send it to me, I could try it!
I have a driver I found on the net, but reportedly it works only up to Windows 2k.. what machine you were using your unit on?

you can send the file to:
ilgrancaliffo -at- hotmail -dot- com

Many thanks!

[darkbane]

Rimage DTP40000

YATTA! I DID IT!

I found out that in order to work, the serial connection needs more than the usual TX,RX and Gnd, it also needs pin 4: DTR (Data Terminal Ready).. strange, but true.

The command set is the one Bohar put in page 2 of this thread (MD,MU, etc)

The only issue is that I think I killed the picker.. it is activated (as I found later, when it ceased to work) that it has an electromagnet in it that gets hot if put in the release position for more than a few seconds..I did not know that, and now it is toast (so just after issuing a drop cd command, you should IMMEDIATELY issue a pick command otherwise you'll ruin it)

..now I hope to find a replacement.. anyone with a faulty DTP* unit wishing to sell me the picker?

D.

[darkbane]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

UPDATE: Replaced the picker electromagnet and now the whole thing works..
I've made a batch script that echoes commands thru the serial port and It can do basic pick-up, move arm and open reject tray... of course since the drives themselves are not controlled by the serial commands, it would need a new layer software to open/close trays and so on..

Since my project it to use it as a backup solution, I'll have to find a burning program capable of executing external commands before/after burn (the after part is handled by many programs.. any hints for some that is capable of executing something before starting burning?)

Many thanks to everyone who helped!

[darkbane]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

@Brendan

I've been able to find both the SCSI and the SERIAL alignment utilities!
I've seen a post of yours in another forum dated a couple of years ago where you asked for it.. still need it?
It is marked for DTP1000 only tho

Let me know if it can be of any use to you!

[bhoar]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

UPDATE: Replaced the picker electromagnet and now the whole thing works..
I've made a batch script that echoes commands thru the serial port and It can do basic pick-up, move arm and open reject tray... of course since the drives themselves are not controlled by the serial commands, it would need a new layer software to open/close trays and so on..

Since my project it to use it as a backup solution, I'll have to find a burning program capable of executing external commands before/after burn (the after part is handled by many programs.. any hints for some that is capable of executing something before starting burning?)

Many thanks to everyone who helped!

db: if you pick apart my drivers for any of the robots, you'll find that all five of the commands are the same executable, they're just called with different command line options. run the command with no options (e.g. post-batch.exe) in a cmd window and you'll find you have the utility you seek, you'll get a usage statement. it was written to work with batch files too, and can handle drive tray actions as well. might be less confusing if you make a copy and rename it ulcli.exe...that's the original name. Feel free to reuse a portion of my robot driver for personal use unrelated to dbpoweramp.

Regarding burning programs, I recommend imgburn, it can be controlled via command line options via a batch file.

@Brendan

I've been able to find both the SCSI and the SERIAL alignment utilities!
I've seen a post of yours in another forum dated a couple of years ago where you asked for it.. still need it?
It is marked for DTP1000 only tho

Let me know if it can be of any use to you!

Yep, definitely useful. Please send my way.

-brendan

[lz44]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

Hi!

Does Batch Ripper work with the Rimage 2000i?
Any experiences?

Thanks!

[castor1350]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

darkbane: Congratulations on your success with your DTP unit. I have a few questions for you.

1. I have a DTP-1000 SCSI version and was wondering if you could tell me more about how to hook up my own com port? Or possibly post some pictures of your install?

2. You mentioned you found some drivers/alignment utilities for SCSI and non SCSI versions. Could you point me in the right direction of finding those?

3. I have not burned out my electromagnet, but I am very curious on how you did replace it, just in case I do burn it out someday. Where did you get the electromagnet from? If you got it from another electrical device, I was wondering if you could tell me the model of the device you took it from?

4. I was also wondering if your pictures could include a picture of the ribbon cable that goes up and down with the arm? The other day the ribbon wasn't moving with the robotic arm and ended up snapping in half on me, so I'm going to try and repair the ribbon cable (with sandpaper and tape), but wanted to verify it's correct placement.

Thanks so much.

Castor

[kretch]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

Now that I've gotten my kodak kiosks to work, I'm wondering if it's possible to hook up multiple kiosks to one computer?

Thanks
Kretch

[kretch]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

... And also, does anybody know whether the old model (Kiosk G3) will work as well?

Thanks much
Kretch

[darkbane]

@Castor

Hi
Sorry for the delay, here's a quick and incomplete guide I wrote to help you and everybody else that has a DTP4000:

Experimental SERIAL port control for SCSI DTP1000/4000
Written by Daevon (ilgrancaliffo -at- hotmail.com)
Version 0.2 18 Feb 2009

1) The HARDWARE
Since the SCSI DTP1000/4000 use a proprietary driver to send commands to the control board and since this driver won't work on machines other than Win 9x, NT4 and Windows 2000, the solutions to continue using it on newer machines are either
- Putting up a windows 2000 machine with a SCSI interface and use the rimage drivers
- connect the serial debug connector on the mainboard to a serial-equipped pc (any OS) and use the drives standalone (either the native scsi ones with a proper controller or newer, even dvd, units, connected with ESATA (preferred), or USB/Firewire to ATA/SATA. This is the way I'm going to cover.

To access the DTP main board you have to slightly unscrew the two screws on the top-right of the unit. Remove the side panel. You'll see the board in the lower left corner, with the scsi cable connected to it.

Looking at the main board, at the top there's an unused 5 pin connector named J13 that looks like this:



J13 5_/////_1



If you're lucky and it is still there, you can re-use the printer cable connector: it goes from the back of the unit (near the 3 scsi ports) to the lower part of the mainboards. It has 6 pins, but it will fit nicely on the serial one.. of course you'll need some basic soldering skill.

Connect the pins this way:


J13 Connector-> Female DB9
1-------------->2
2-------------->3
3-------------->4
4-------------->Not Connected
5-------------->5


Now you should have a working serial connection.

2) THE SOFTWARE
Once you have hooked it, open your favorite terminal program (I suggest PUTTY) and configure it to the appropriate COM port with the following settings:


COMx (The serial port your DTP is connected to)
19200 Speed
8 Bits
N No parity
1 Bit stop
P Hardware parity or no parity at all.


Power on your unit, you should read some (brief) test, like:

Firmware revision 4.0A

The basic commands are:


MD ----> Move Picker all the way down
MDxxx -> where xxx are hex values from 1 to 2000 (dec 1 to 8192) moves the picker downwards by the specified amount eg. MD88C
MU ----> same as MD, but upwards.
MUxxx -> same as MDxxx, but upwards.
MH ----> Moves the picker to the topmost (home) position
OI ----> Open lower drawer (ie, switch to the second position)
CI ----> Close lower drawer
OI ----> Open Reject drawer
CI ----> Close Reject drawer
P -----> Drops the CD (WARNING: ISSUE A "R" IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS! See notes)
R -----> Returns the picker hand to the normal position


(If you happen to discover some other command,like the one that senses it the picker has a disk, please let me know!)

EXAMPLE: To pick up a cd, simply issue an MD command,wait for the arm to reach the lowemost position, then issue an MU200. Your picker should have a cd now!

###You need to wait for each command to complete before issuing the following one, or it will get ignored. Since there are no return codes on the SCSI units, you simply have to look at the unit and wait for the issued command to complete

EXAMPLE: Now try to issue an MH, followed by an OR, P, R, DR.
If everything is working correctly, the CD it has picked before will be dropped in the reject drawer and the drawer will close.


3) MISC FINDINGS
a)The range of the picker seems to be around 6800 (1A90 hex). IE: It will go from 0 (home) to touching the lower cassette if you issue an:

MD1A90

b)The picker is not very precise at all.
ie: if you input:
MDFF
MDFF
MDFF
MDFF
MDFF
MDFF
MDFF
MDFF
MU800
(wich means: go down eight times by 256, then go up by 2048, wich is exactly 256x8) it WON'T return to the same position it started in. It will be close enough tho.

4) THANKS to:
Bhoar (Brendan) at the dbpoweramp forum for the IMMENSE help he gave me: without him this guide would not have been possible.

The guys (and gals!) at the dbpoweramp forum for sharing their findings and wisdom

This guide is an early attemp at reverting an old DTP4000 to functionality. It most likely full of errors, mistakes, misconceptions and so on... please bear with me and if you have more detailed infos.. share them!

Btw, I take absolutely no responsability if your DTP makes an horrible death based on what you did read here..

Now Have fun with your DTP unit!
-Daevon

[darkbane]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

UPDATE: I somehow made the rimage drivers work in Windows XP via SCSI: basic arm movement and calibration, and above all, Disc detection. A shame I can't tap in the scsi bus (any idea) to know wich commands are sent to the DTP.
I'll update my guide as soon as there are news!

Daevon

[bhoar]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

Now that I've gotten my kodak kiosks to work, I'm wondering if it's possible to hook up multiple kiosks to one computer?

Yes.

... And also, does anybody know whether the old model (Kiosk G3) will work as well?

I have not tested it, so I do not know.

-brendan

[castor1350]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

Darkbane: Awesome guide man. I successfully soldered on my own com port with your instructions and it's working great!

Not sure if anyone else has ribbon cable issues... but I did repair my ribbon cable using 220 grit sandpaper and some tape. I also figured out proper positioning of the ribbon, which is the slack hanging down below the arm, wrapped around the very tiny post of the small metal sliding piece which moves up and down with the tension of the slack).

Thanks again bhoar and Darkbane for all of their hard work!

[darkbane]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

@Castor

I'm glad you got your DTP connected.. but this is just the beginning!

In order to have a full working unit, we're still missing:

Some of the serial commands (namely, the command to store the calibration data and the command to inquiry if there is a cd at the picker or not)

A burning software that natively support robots (Prassi PrimoCD for Rimage used to, but I've been unable to make it run, it just crashes for me, but it is very old software anyways)

Great work with the repair of the flat cable: I had tough it would not be possible to repair it but you did it: impressive!

D.

[CaryB]

Re: Discussion of Automated CD Loaders

Looked through all the posts and didn't see this mentioned.

http://www.dextimus.com/index.html

Anyone have info on this device, and what it will cost, and most importantly, can it be used with this software?