An old college project to leverage my computer as an AMX touchpanel for an old system via serial control
The old AMX systems could be controlled via serial. Since dorm space was limited, it was much easier to create a touchpanel on the computer than it was to find an old touchpanel. Figured it might help someone who is ever caught in the same position, on how to create a fake AMX panel if you have a computer, a serial port (COM1 in this example), and a bit of Linux know-how.
Controlling the AMX system via serial is very straight forward. The "sample_without_executable.sh" script demonstrates how to use push button 156 as a mute.
The remaining C code files can be easily compiled via GCC, and they accept arguments which are converted to serial commands that represent push buttons or analog signals. There are sample join numbers in here, they would have to be modified for the user's specific AMX program. In addition, there are bash scripts that leverage the zentity suite of controls, which can help automate or skip the screenlet to access a direct
You can install "screenlets" and add the widget to the panel. This is usefull for having a GUI interface to the executables right on the desktop. The TVControl screenlet written in Python allows the user to press buttons on the widget layer which send a message to the C executables that allow the user to control the AMX system. Some sample channels have been included.
