How to set up a TCP connection using the External Communications Plugin

In this article we're going to show you an example on how to set up a TCP connection to adjust the brightness on a Novastar LED controller:

Connect the Novastar controller to your network via ethernet and go to the network settings and setup a static ip address on the network. This MUST be the same network as the playback device. ( For this example lets say the IP address is 192.168.1.135)

Go to External Communications plugin and create a new device.

Choose 'TCP' as the connection option.

Set the IP address to that of the Novastar device. In this case 192.168.1.135

Set the port to 5200 (This is the port Novastar use to communicate over TCP)

The setup should look something like this.

Save and go to the commands section of the External Communications plugin.

Create the commands you want to send to the device and name them appropriately. Example: Brightness 0% = [ 0x55, 0xaa, 0x00, 0x15, 0xfe, 0x00, 0x01, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x01, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x02, 0x05, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x6f, 0x59 ]

Save and go to the layout you wish to use this in.

Add a hidden zone and add the External Communications plugin to the zone.

Select the Novastar TCP settings we created and select the command you want to send.

It should look like this.

Save and publish the content to the device.