Hog III control via Iphone

There is no official iphone app from HES yet. However a number of users have created thier own. lightdesign.from.lu/remote/ - for example, Tom Webber made this one. As these are not supported by HES, may I reccomend you try a tablem PC running H3PC on wireless network with the console and use that to remote focus?

Regards,

Joe
Where can we get that iPhone app?


Tim
The VNC programs are very straight forward. Install VNC(UltraVNC, realVNC, ect) on Window's then Mocha VNC lite on the iPhone. Find your IP address on the PC and enter it in Mocha. What are you running on your Mac? Boot camp, XP and Hogpc?

I would highly advise you speak to the designer of the App themselves, his website is: lightdesign.from.lu/ Or see his profile on here: forums.highend.com/member.php?u=98

I dont know the limitations and in's/out's of his iphone app because I dont have an iphone and dont intend to get one. I am sure Tom will be happy to take your queries.

I must stress at this point, this is not an App made by HES/Barco. I myself do not work for HES/Barco. This information is just stuff that has come up around the forums and is certainly not an official product.

Regards,

It may well work. But we dont know about any hidden effects on the console or the Hog software itself. The systems life cycle itself has a large chunk of testing no matter what sort of system you are creating. I am sure the software is stable... I just wanted to make you aware of certain things.

Regards,

i used 'snatch' by hoofien, a keystroke manager app. you can create a button, with text, color, size and a key content properties. and scroll through 4 screens. after a while, you will miss the commend line...
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I mentioned this a few weeks ago too. Every major competetor have one ofr thier product. ETC, MA, Compulite, PRG, I think even the Maxxyz has one. HES does have the ability to wireless network with H3PC, that is a powerful feature we musnt forget. I think that ability will always be better than any app. The app probably wont have every feature of H3PC, (For obvious reasons), so it really depends on the situation...

Regards,

I got the vnc for iphone working but I was using virtual box to run XP which wa running Hog III pc. There was a significant lag time in the response between iphone and the computer. This would drive you crazy trying to made position palettes, which is one of the main functionalities I would like the iphone to be able to do.
A highend app for the iphone that could be configured for a wireless router networked to the Hog III or Hog IPC running III software would be outstanding.
It could be HOG III lite with just programming functions (pan, tilt intensity, Beam parameters, etc...) and have the ability to record and update pallettes.
Also being able to remotely trigger the cue so you could see what your show looks like from the stage and from different spots in the audience.
With the proliferation of the iphone in the industry I believe thsi would be helpful and maybe even profitable. I would pay a nominal fee for this ability.

That being said is there a tutorial on how to use a windows laptop and connect via a wireless router to the HOG II or Hog IPC. That way I could control the console remotely. I do a lot of corporate meetings/theater. Most of the time the console is set up in the corner of the room some 100 feet off axis of the center line. Changing fucuses and setting levels requires me to have a good ME who knows the console to help out. Sometimes I have no such person on the call and end up running back and forth to get it right.
Or I spend 20 minutes trying to explain to the FOH sound guy how to select instruments and pan and tilt. You all can see why this would be a very useful feature in my world. I know it's not all about me but....

tahnk you all for your help. I have been a HOG guy exclusively for 15 years and am just getting into the forum for the first time.
tim

I realize everyone wants an app (I do too)....but right now, for me, it's just candy. I use a wireless router at FOH on the Hognet side of my console. I open my laptop on a roadcase onstage, roll around with my light meter and make focus and intensity changes with no issues at all.

This can be done with any laptop with a wireless card (PC or Mac running Bootcamp, fusion, etc) and a wireless router (lock it down so people don't think it's an internet connection).

One thing that can't be done with an iphone app (or blackberry, palm, whatever), is the ability to add wings. Right now, I have a roadcase with my Mac and the programming wing attached. I knock out focuses onstage extremely fast having the physical encoders, trackball, etc.

Now...all that being said, yes, I want an iphone app. I'm all for it. Even with the iphone app, you'll still need a wireless router setup properly in order to access it....and possibly Hog3PC running on a server of some type (not sure...just guessing). So all it is really doing is adding in a platform to let you see it on your small phone as opposed to a 13, 15, 17 screen (whatever size your laptop is).

Just wanted to throw those thoughts out...

[quote=timmercer;37915]
That being said is there a tutorial on how to use a windows laptop and connect via a wireless router to the HOG II or Hog IPC. That way I could control the console remotely.
tim

Tim,

Please see our training section for information on connecting via a wireless laptop:
www.highend.com/support/training/wholehogtutorials.asp

This page has links for both wired and wireless connections.

thanks Brad.
I will try this Friday on the IPC.

Hello,

did not have the time to reply earlier, but here I am.

About the application which I wrote, which You can see on the page (lightdesign.from.lu/remote/). Yes it is working, I used it a few times, there should however be some changes on the layout of the buttons, some of them are too small and so on.
It is working this way. if you press a button on the iphone, it is sending the command to a Windows pc, where hog3Pc is installed. I wrote a small application, which runs on the same PC, and is listening on the network. Here it gets commands from the iphone application. In fact these commands are single words like "undo", "next", "1", "thru". The application on the PC has a file which maps the commands to keystrokes. These keystrokes are then sent to Hog3PC which executes them.

This is working pretty well, might be enough for some applications. But the major Problem is that You have no feedback on the iphone about where the desk is about. If You are on stage with the iphone, and typing "1 tru 20 enter", you have no clue if the command line is empty or not, so you keep on pressing backspace on the iphone to be sure.

This is in fact the main Problem why I did not release the application yet, because I am not happy with the result. And the Problem (beside other cool feature which could be done, but at the current stage are not possible (pan tilt control f.ex)) is that I am not able to get a feedback from the Hog3PC application in any way. I am sending keystrokes to it, this does work, this is a standard Windows behavior. The Hog3PC Application is not written using standard Windows Components (because of the code reusage for Linux), otherwise it would have been possible to read-out the command line, and sending this back to the iPhone.

So this is where we are at the moment. Perhaps HighEnd could give me a hint how to readout the command line, and to simulate the rotation of the 4 Wheels thru an external Programm, we could create a Non-High-End remote in the meanwhile (which I understand, I guess they have so many features in the Pipe) which would be usefull (at least a lot better than the current version).

It would be a pleasure for me to finalize the application, and release both the application as well as the Windows Programm for free to the Hog Community, and surely listen to the remarks and suggestions to enhance the Program. Also, if HighEnd would like to reuse my sources, to have a look at them, or to reuse some work already be done, sure no Problems either.

Would be cool if we could find a way to finalize this one, because in fact we are already close to the finish-line :)

Best Greetings from Luxembourg

Tom

[quote=aphylotus;38132]give me a hint how to readout the command line, and to simulate the rotation of the 4 Wheels

Tom,

you're right, accessing properties of Qt objects requires nothing short of dll injection into the desktop process, which i do not recommend.

while 2PC does not use Qt, it presents a similar challenge. i found that grabbing the Device Context to get an actual image was far more useful than getting text; setting a timer to call user32's GetDC(), ReleaseDC() and gdi32's StretchBlt() allowed me to perform very efficient screen grabs and to detect changes before sending to an RFU. having an image of the command line to display encoder assignments and immediate values makes a huge difference while on stage:


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rotating the wheels (also in this example, touching the 2PC touchschreen) is a dead-simple FindWindow(), FindWindowEx(), and then SendMessage() or PostMessage() WM_LBUTTONDOWN, WM_MOUSEMOVE, WM_LBUTTONUP.

also attached to this post is a class diagram of my 2PC RFU project, with the desktop application on the left, the ppc application on the right, and code shared between the two at the top; you might be able to pull some ideas from it.


feel free to e-mail me, any time.

Hi Quinn,

not a bad idea about the Screen Capture. I will look into that, cool.
Also about the spin wheels.

Thanks a lot for the inspiration, will keep You posted about this soon

Tom

Quinn, I am blown away by your posting man!! I mean really, top quality!

Tom, the app looks great. I wont be getting an iPhone. I do not like Mac. I am happy with a laptop + programming wing on a flightcase with wheels connected to the netowkr via a wireless router. If the show is big enough for wirless remote focus, it can afford a programming wing hire aswell. :) However I think the users around here that have iPhones.. (and there is quite a few), will be very pleased with this!

Keep up the good work. Tom if your at Plasa, it would be nice to have a chat :)

On a Mac laptop running windows how are people getting around the lack of a Pause/Break key? I've got my wireless network running great but without the Pause/ Break key I can't use any of the keyboard shortcuts.

Joe