# GRAND MA to trigger powerpoint



## samm1234 (Sep 2, 2011)

Hello I am a new member. How would I use a GRAND MA to trigger a POWERPOINT presentation.


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## derekleffew (Sep 2, 2011)

Any chance of finding the discontinued Rosco Keystroke? See http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/multimedia-projection-show-control/19339-rosco-keystroke-doa.html .

Significantly more involved would be a DMX-to-RS232 converter, such as DFD DMX2232 or DecaBox.

If all you need/want to do is press the space bar to advance the slides, see http://bruce.pennypacker.org/2010/01/21/controlling-pcmac-software-from-a-dmx-console/ .


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## metti (Sep 3, 2011)

You could also use midiStroke with MIDI from the GMA.


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## ruinexplorer (Sep 3, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> Significantly more involved would be a DMX-to-RS232 converter, such as DFD DMX2232 or DecaBox.


 
Would you really need that? I haven't used the MA consoles, but I understand that they have ArtNet built in (which really is a subset of RS232). I would assume that it could do this on its own. I will bug one of my MA programmer friends to see how they'd do it.


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## Chris15 (Sep 3, 2011)

ruinexplorer said:


> ArtNet built in (which really is a subset of RS232).


 
Huh???

RS232 defines an unbalanced bidirectional full duplex serial coomunicatiosn protocol.
Art-Net is an ethernet based protocol carried over TCP/IP.

Fundamentally they are protocols operating at different layers of the OSI model.

More practically the DMX-RS232 device DL referenced is not just spititng out DMX levels on RS232, it's using DMX channel levels to trigger the issuing of command strings to an RS232 controlled device so access to the data stream a la ArtNet will still need software of some description to do the translation of DMX value on channel x to something useful...


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## ruinexplorer (Sep 4, 2011)

You are correct (I really shouldn't write when tired). What I intended to imply is that Artnet is speaking translating a version of RS23, as a TCP/IP protocol. The electrical standard of DMX-512 is RS485, a superset of RS422, which if I remember correctly is essentially the same as RS232, but also carries power. Ethernet is the electrical standard by which data is transported on TCP/IP.

The point which I intended is that the Artnet protocol which is embedded in the MA consoles can communicate to computers and potentially trigger the presentation. I currently run a program that receives the values from a DMX console using an external Artistic License box. It is a unidirectional stream from the console to the computer. However, I cannot direct the OP exactly how to use Artnet to trigger the presentation.


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