How To | Testing/Verifying ECP messages from your PC
Find out how to send and receive External Control Protocol (ECP) messages quickly from your computer.
Procedure
ECP is one of many ways to control a Core from an external 3rd party controller. A method to check if messages are being received by the core is to send a command to the core using a terminal program such as Telnet or Putty. As these can sometimes be difficult to navigate, an alternative app like Packet Sender can also be used for verifying communication with the Core. The example below uses Packet Sender to send a Status Get command to a Core.
- Open packet Sender
- Disable UDP and SSL server on the bottom right of the app.
- Add IP address to the address field.
- Add port number (1702 for ECP)
- Make sure the send protocol is set to TCP
- Add command to the ASCII file. Don't forget to add End of Message. In this case is a new line or \n
sg\n7. Click the send button.
In the bottom of the app there is a field for sent packets and responses. The screenshot below shows what should be seen when a properly formatted message is sent to the Core.
Other messages can include a Control Set Value This can set the value of a button or a fader.
Example
csv Gain1 -10\ncsv = control set value
Gain1 = Named Control on the core you are trying to reach ( note: that name can be anything but is case sensitive)
-10 = Value of target control
\n = the End of message ( notice there is no space after the value)
When this command is sent, it also return a response telling you the controls “Gain1” was set to -10
Other commands can include Control Set String or css and Control Trigger or ct. Just to name a few .
For more information, see the ECP and ECP Commands topics in Q-SYS Help.