Sirius and MJS

randomjohn · 01-19-2006, 10:18 AM

I didn't want to threadjack the thread about TimeTrax, but in it Mitch said

Quote:

I use SIRIUS with MitchJS USB interface, and it is cheaper and it works flawless with hibernate -- I use it every single day.

What about Mitch's serial interface?

If I'm listening to Sirius (or anything else) and turn off the car, my headunit and Sirius power down but the computer stays on (I'm using a DSATX). Sirius is powered off the same switched line as the DSATX. When I turn the car back on, I get no sound from Sirius. I have to exit out of RR and restart it and it works fine. Anything I can do about this? My electrical wiring skillz are extremely limited so it's a miracle I've gotten this far. Is there any way to just "cycle" roadrunner without exiting out of it? What does it do different when it starts up that kicks the Sirius back into gear? Is it possible to make RR do that every time I go back into the Sirius page? I'm using LSX skin.

guino · 01-19-2006, 10:30 AM

First question: HOW DOES YOUR COMPUTER STAY ON ?

I mean, if you don't power it off, it must drain the hell out of your battery..

Anyway, the whole deal is that RR will only "START" the sirius receiver when either STARTING or RESUMING FROM HIBERNATING/STAND BY... this is so that when you switch from Music to Sirius and such the switch is very quick and doesn't reset your sattelite playlist... plus it allows RR to cache the sattelite playlist while playing music/videos etc.

As far as I know, there should be no difference in the way the USB and the SERIAL interface work (the USB is a VIRTUAL serial port anyway), and the Serial port version should work better if anything since there's no need to wait for the USB device to be redetected by windows when resuming -- now if you're using a USB-Serial adapter, than that may be your problem right there.

randomjohn · 01-19-2006, 12:48 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by guino

First question: HOW DOES YOUR COMPUTER STAY ON ?

I mean, if you don't power it off, it must drain the hell out of your battery..

It's got a shutdown timer. So it would power off after 20 minutes. In the meantime, the computer is just plugging along not aware that the monitor and HU are off and the only thing it knows about the car is that it's off and starts counting down to shutdown. So it doesn't even get to hibernate. I'm talking about the situation where I park, go buy beer, return to car, open beer [optional], turn on car, re-start RR.

Quote:

Anyway, the whole deal is that RR will only "START" the sirius receiver when either STARTING or RESUMING FROM HIBERNATING/STAND BY... this is so that when you switch from Music to Sirius and such the switch is very quick and doesn't reset your sattelite playlist... plus it allows RR to cache the sattelite playlist while playing music/videos etc.

Is the above situation really uncommon or could this feature be built in and enabled optionally? (Like I (and others) would have to enable some option in rr.ini to have it "start" the receiver when the sirius button is pressed or even to add a button to the sirius screen to "start" sirius?

Quote:

As far as I know, there should be no difference in the way the USB and the SERIAL interface work (the USB is a VIRTUAL serial port anyway), and the Serial port version should work better if anything since there's no need to wait for the USB device to be redetected by windows when resuming -- now if you're using a USB-Serial adapter, than that may be your problem right there.

Yeah, it's straight serial. Hopefully I've explained it better so it's not that off-the-wall.

randomjohn · 02-02-2006, 01:06 PM

*bump*

Is this such a strange situation? Is everyone just keeping constant power to the ALP-1 or do you just go into hibernate much faster than I do? Is it feasible to implement this?

(To recap: I have occasions where my PC stays on but my ALP-1 loses power and I want to have the ability to get RR to "wake up" the ALP-1 as necessary from an onscreen button or hotkey)

jcaesar625 · 02-02-2006, 01:37 PM

Did you plug in the switched power into your ALP-1? I had this same exact issue. I never hooked up that little cable that mitched provided to go into the power cable that was provided with the ALP-1 that hooks to your switched power. I just had the constant power hooked up. The switched power will "wake up" the ALP-1. As soon as I hooked up the switched power too, it worked fine.

guino · 02-03-2006, 06:12 PM

I can add a command to "RESET" the sirius receiver (like when RR starts up), but I can not guarantee this will solve your problems.. it really would depend on when exactly you run such command. Let me know if you'd like that.

randomjohn · 02-06-2006, 01:00 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by guino

I can add a command to "RESET" the sirius receiver (like when RR starts up), but I can not guarantee this will solve your problems.. it really would depend on when exactly you run such command. Let me know if you'd like that.

Yes, please. I do in fact have the switched power line hooked up.

I'd use it to wake up Sirius when the sirius receiver has been shut down but the pc kept running. I'd just add a button to a skin

guino · 02-06-2006, 01:09 PM

I've added commands to reset both Sirius and XM (next release).. but haven't had a chance to test either since I only have SIRIUS and its in the car. But I'm basically performing the same process done during the Hibernate/Resume events so it should work.

maxxell · 03-02-2006, 11:06 AM

May I suggest that rather than running the switched line to turn off the Sirius receiver from the car so that it turns off with the key, you could run the switched line from a 12v coming from the computer. That way it will turn on and off when the computer turns on and off.

Just an idea I had, I dont know whether that would solve your problem, but it seems like it might.

jcaesar625 · 03-02-2006, 03:06 PM

That makes a lot of since Maxxel. Mine is running off my ignition switch and performs fine, but it makes since to have it being on and off the same as the PC.

jcaesar625 · 03-02-2006, 03:07 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by guino

I've added commands to reset both Sirius and XM (next release).. but haven't had a chance to test either since I only have SIRIUS and its in the car. But I'm basically performing the same process done during the Hibernate/Resume events so it should work.

I do not think the reset function is working on the Sirius. On the XM you can tell it is resetting it, because it reloads the list, but the Sirius list doesn't reload. But again mine works fine the way it is currently configured.

Jeff D. · 03-08-2006, 10:42 AM

I also sometimes reboot and do not have and sound when I turn on the Sirius.
I fiddled around with it and found if I hit the RR button to switch to my mp3 player (Winamp) then return to the Sirius screen the sound returns and I may not have a problem again for days at a time. I have my carputer and the Sirius ALP1 w/the RS232 interface both running to a 800 watt inverter in the trunk. I have a remote switch for both the inverter and the computer. Sometimes I just power down the puter and leave the inverter & the ALP1 on. Upon reboot I rarely have any problems. If I'm going to be out of the car for an extended length of time I power everything down. I can't say I have seen this lack of sound problem at a specific time. It seems random and since I figured out that switching back and forth between Sirius and Winamp fixes it I haven't worried about. Is there a specific fix for this?

Thanks
Jeff