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This chapter describes how to control Pandoras Box via TCP/IP. For other input protocols, please refer to the main chapter.

The built-in TCP/IP interface allows to send basic commands to control the Pandoras Box sequence via Ethernet. The Sequence acts as a TCP Client that can connect to an external TCP Server and receive commands from it. In case you would like to use the (discontinued) Serial Link interface for that, please refer to the chapter Input Protocols > Serial Link.

To control a Sequence, please start a TCP Server on your external device first. The TCP/IP port must be set to 23 and cannot be changed in Pandoras Box.

Then go to the Pandoras Box master and open the Sequence Inspector. Enter the IP address from the control device (which should now show that a Client is connected) and change then the so called "Serial port" to "1".

Before sending the command to control the Sequence, the header information is requested. The header consists of the three bytes "FFh 00h 00h" followed by a forth byte that refers to the just mentioned serial port (or virtual port) which derives from the four Serial Link ports. If PB is set to "1", the hexadecimal value to address it would be "00". If it is set to the maximum port "4", the hexadecimal value is "03". In other words, you can control up to four Sequences via TCP. To make the following examples easier, we assume that the serial port in the Sequence Inspector of PB is set to "1". This results in the following hexadecimal values for the header:
FFh 00h 00h 00h

Once the connection is set up, the following commands are valid to control the Sequence:

In this example, the header and the control command "Play" is sent. If sending several commands, you can send the header once and then your commands stand-alone or you can always include the header. The examples are based on the scripting commands TCPSend and TCPSendHex from Widget Designer. The command arguments are enclosed by round brackets. The first "1" refers to an internal ID for a TCP Server connection that was set up beforehand. The string to be sent is enclosed by quotation marks.