[UPDATED] Tutorial - Control your projector using PJLINK

Juriaan

ARE YOU AN ISADORA 3 USER ? Go download the official plugin at
https://troikatronix.com/plugi...

Did you ever had the wish to control your beamer from the ground, close the shutter perhaps during scenes that have to be 100% dark or even get a notification when you should replace your projector lamp ? In this tutorial we are going to explain how to use PJLINK with Isadora.

What is PJLINK ?

Controlling projectors using TCP connections is not a new practice. All of the more high-end models supported it in the past, but all with their own way to parse the data and their own control software. Until a group of manufacturers came together and tried to solve the issue once and for all by creating a unified standard known as PJLINK. The first products with this unified standard came on the market in 2009, so if you have a mid-end product that came out after 2009 and it has a LAN port, then you have a big chance that PJLINK is enabled.

PJLINK knows two versions, Class 1 (2009) and Class 2 (2016). Class 2 adds more commands that we can use.

Preparing your equipment

First of all, we need to have a projector with a LAN port.

Check or your projector is supported by visiting http://pjlink.jbmia.or.jp/engl... or by downloading the manual for your projector.
Connect an Ethernet cable to the device, and plug it in inside a Router / Switch.
Add your PC / Laptop to the network
Download the manual of the projector, and set the Network connection as stated.
Write down the IP of our projector (Most of the time you can find this inside the menu of our projector, or you can find it inside the admin panel of your router)
If a password is required, write it down

Oh no, my projector is not supported !

:( If you still want to test it out you can download the PJLINK Test Software, that can be found here (http://pjlink.jbmia.or.jp/engl...)

Sending commands

Download PJLINK EXAMPLES.izz
Fill in the required information. IP address, Password (if needed)
Press Activate, if the Actor works as expected you should see Cmd response = "[YOUR PROJECTOR NAME]", connection state to 2
Let's find out who the manufacturer is ! Fill in our command field "INF1" and press our 'send' trigger.

Q : Hold on, when I press send I don't see a response !

A : That means that your connection has expired. All connections will timeout after 30 seconds, as required by the projector. Just press 'activate' again and you should be all set ! Make sure that our 'Connection state' (output) is never 0 or the command will not be send. (If it is 0, press active and it becomes 1 or 2)

Q: Alright, alright. So I can get stuff, but what if I want to turn off the projector ?

A : Great question ! The command is POWR, our body should be either a 0 (off) or 1 (on), just replace the body with either of those, activate your connection and send it away :)

Great.. but can I do "X" ?

The answer is, can you ;) On a more serious note, check out the PJLINK specs (Class 1 and Class 2) have different documents !

CLASS 1 : http://pjlink.jbmia.or.jp/engl...

CLASS 2 : http://pjlink.jbmia.or.jp/engl...

I still have questions..

I'm here to help ! Reply on this forum thread, send me a Direct Message, or send me an email at hello@juriaan.me !

- Juriaan

Last updated on 5/30/2018 19:22

Juriaan

Hi there all,

Please use the new official plugin for Isadora 3 instead :) Works as a charm, Mark did a fantastic job on it with the input of the community.

https://troikatronix.com/plugi...

The OP will be here for Isadora 2.6.x users.