Polycom Vortex EF2280 Operating instructions

Installed Voice Business Group
RS-232 Command Set:
Vortex EF2280 Programming Guide
Copyright © 2003 Polycom, Inc.
Polycom  and the Polycom logo are registered trademarks of Polycom, Inc.
ASPI, Vortex, VS4000, Viewstation, and iPower are
registered trademarks of Polycom, Inc.
All other brand names, product names, and trademarks are the
sole property of their respective owners

Vortex EF2280 Programming Guide
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. RS-232 Hardware
3. Programming Tips
3.1. Initialization
3.2. Wildcard Characters
3.3. Using Acknowledgements
3.4. Macros and Presets
3.5. Automixer Dependencies
4. Command Structure
4.1. Device Type
4.2. Device ID
4.3. Command Name
4.4. Command Data
4.5. Command Terminator
4.6. Examples
5. Status Messages
6. Command Types
6.1. Boolean Commands
6.2. Integer Commands
6.3. Channel Commands
6.4. Matrix Commands
6.5. Miscellaneous Commands
7. Command List
8. Command Reference
8.1. ACKMOD -- Enable or Disable Acknowledgment Mode
8.2. AEC -- Enable or Disable Acoustic Echo Cancellation
8.3. AECMODE -- Set Amount of Double Talk Suppression used in the AEC.
8.4. AGC -- Enable or Disable Mic/Line Input Automatic Gain Control
8.5. AGCMAX -- Set Maximum Allowed Mic/Line Input AGC Gain
8.6. AGCMIN -- Set Minimum Allowed Mic/Line Input AGC Gain
8.7. AGCRATE -- Set Ramp Rate of Mic/Line Input AGC
8.8. AMASGN -- Assign Inputs to an Automixer
8.9. AMAUTO -- Select Automatic or Manual Gating for each Automixer Input
8.10. AMBUSID -- Set Automixer Groupings for EF Bus
8.11. AMCHAIR -- Enable Chairman Mode for Specified Automixer
8.12. AMCHNUM -- Set Chairman Mic for Specified Automixer
8.13. AMDECAY -- Set Decay Time for Automixers
8.14. AMGATEC -- Set Automixer Gating Control Mode
8.15. AMGATER -- Set Automixer Gate Ratio
8.16. AMGATET -- Set Automixer Gate Threshold
8.17. AMGNOM -- Set Global Maximum Number of Open Mics for Bus Automixer
8.18. AMHOLD -- Set Automixer Hold Time
8.19. AMLMM -- Set Last Mic On Mode for Specified Automixer

8.20. AMLMN -- Set Microphone That Will Remain On in Manual Last Mic On Mode
8.21. AMNOM -- Set Local Maximum Number of Open Mics for Automixer
8.22. AMNOMAT -- Select NOM Attenuation on Each Output
8.23. AMOFFAT -- Set Off Attenuation for the Specified Automixer
8.24. AMPRIOR -- Set Gating Priority for the Specified Mic
8.25. AMREFB -- Set Automixer Reference Bias for the Specified Automixer
8.26. AMREFE -- Enable Automixer Reference for Specified Automixer
8.27. BAUD -- Set Baud Rate for RS-232 Port
8.28. BLAUTO -- Enable Automatic BLDATA Messages
8.29. BLDATA -- Request Level Information
8.30. BLINFO -- Select Information to be Reported in BLDATA
8.31. BROAD2 -- Broadcast Arbitrary Command Strings to RS-232 Port
8.32. BROADA -- Broadcast Commands to Other Connected Devices
8.33. BUSREF -- Set Which AEC Reference is Placed on EF Bus
8.34. CGATE -- Query Camera Gating Status Information
8.35. CGATEEN -- Enable Automatic Camera Gating Messages
8.36. CGATET -- Set Camera Gating Hold Time
8.37. DELAYO -- Set Output Delay
8.38. DELAYOE -- Enable Output Delay
8.39. DSPAUTO -- Enable Automatic DSPLOAD Status Messages
8.40. DSPLOAD -- Query Percentage of Variable DSP Resources Used
8.41. ERROR -- Enable or Disable Error Messages
8.42. FADERGIL -- Set Fader Gain of Line Inputs as a Group
8.43. FADERGIM -- Set Gain of Microphone Inputs as a Group
8.44. FADERI -- Set Input Gain Fader
8.45. FLOW -- Set Flow Control Mode for RS-232 Port
8.46. FPLOCK -- Lock/Unlock Front Panel
8.47. FPPSWD -- Change Front Panel Password
8.48. GAINGIL -- Set Gain of Line Inputs as a Group
8.49. GAINGIM -- Set Gain of Microphone Inputs as a Group
8.50. GAINI -- Set Input Gain
8.51. GAINO -- Set Output Gain
8.52. GATE -- Query Gating Status Information
8.53. GATEEN -- Enable Automatic Gating Messages
8.54. GMUTEO -- Mute All Outputs
8.55. ID -- Set Device ID
8.56. LABEL -- Set or Query one of the Device Labels
8.57. LAGC -- Enable or Disable Line Input Automatic Gain Control
8.58. LAGCLINKAB -- Enable or Disable Stereo AGC Linking on Inputs A and B
8.59. LAGCLINKCD -- Enable or Disable Stereo AGC Linking on Inputs C and D
8.60. LAGCMAX -- Set Maximum Allowed Line Input AGC Gain
8.61. LAGCMIN -- Set Minimum Allowed Line Input AGC Gain
8.62. LAGCRATE -- Set Ramp Rate of Line Input AGC
8.63. LI -- Query State of Logic Inputs
8.64. LIA -- Assign Action for when Logic Input is Activated
8.65. LID -- Assign Action for when Logic Input is Deactivated
8.66. LIH -- Assign Action for when Logic Input is Held
8.67. LIEN -- Enable Automatic Logic Input Status Messages
8.68. LIG -- Configure Logic Input Pins Into a Group
8.69. LIK -- Delete One or All Logic Input Pin Commands

8.70. LIM -- Mask Logic Input Pins
8.71. LIN -- Assign Command to Logic Input Group
8.72. LIP -- Set Polarity for Logic Inputs
8.73. LO -- Query or Set Status of Logic Output Pins
8.74. LOA -- Define Behavior for Logic Output Activated State
8.75. LOD -- Define Behavior for Logic Output Deactivated Status
8.76. LOEN -- Enable Automatic Logic Output Status Messages
8.77. LOK -- Delete One or All Logic Output Pin Commands
8.78. LOM -- Mask Logic Output Pins
8.79. LOP -- Set Polarity for Logic Outputs
8.80. MACROA -- Add Command to Current Macro
8.81. MACROK -- Delete One or All Macros
8.82. MACROL -- List All Commmands in a Macro
8.83. MACROQ -- Execute Macro Quietly
8.84. MACROS -- Start a New Macro
8.85. MACROW -- Write Macro to Non-Volatile Memory
8.86. MACROX -- Execute Macro
8.87. METER -- Select which Signal is Displayed on the Front Panel LED Meter
8.88. MGAIN -- Set Crosspoint Gains in Main Matrix or Submatrix
8.89. MGATE -- Select Gated or Ungated Microphone Signal in Matrix
8.90. MIC -- Enable Microphone Gain Stage on Inputs 1-8
8.91. MINI -- Enable Modem Initialization String
8.92. MINISTR -- Set Modem Initialization String
8.93. MMUTE -- Mute Crosspoint in Main Matrix or Submatrix
8.94. MUTEGIL -- Set Mute Status of Line Inputs as a Group
8.95. MUTEGIM -- Set Mute Status of Microphone Inputs as a Group
8.96. MUTEI -- Mute One or More Inputs
8.97. MUTEO -- Mute One or More Outputs
8.98. NC -- Enable Noise Cancellation
8.99. NCL -- Set Noise Cancellation Attenuation
8.100. NVINIT -- Reinitialize Non-Volatile Memory
8.101. NVLOCK -- Lock/Unlock Non-Volatile Memory
8.102. NVPSWD -- Change Non-Volatile Memory Password
8.103. PEQIA -- Set All Parameters for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.104. PEQIB -- Set Bandwidth Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.105. PEQIE -- Set Enabled Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.106. PEQIF -- Set Frequency Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.107. PEQIG -- Set Gain Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.108. PEQIS -- Set Slope Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.109. PEQIT -- Set Type Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Input Stage
8.110. PEQOA -- Set All Parameters for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.111. PEQOB -- Set Bandwidth Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.112. PEQOE -- Set Enabled Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.113. PEQOF -- Set Frequency Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.114. PEQOG -- Set Gain Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.115. PEQOS -- Set Slope Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.116. PEQOT -- Set Type Parameter for Specified Parametric EQ Output Stage
8.117. PHANTOM -- Enable Phantom Power on Inputs 1-8
8.118. PING -- See Which Devices Are Present
8.119. PRESETK -- Delete One or All Presets

8.120. PRESETL -- List All Commmands in a Preset
8.121. PRESETP -- Set Which Preset Will Be Activated At Power-Up
8.122. PRESETQ -- Execute a Preset Quietly
8.123. PRESETW -- Save a Preset
8.124. PRESETX -- Execute a Preset
8.125. REFASGN -- Assign AEC Reference to Input Channel
8.126. REFGAIN -- Set Reference Output Gain
8.127. SGGAIN -- Set Gain of Signal Generator
8.128. SGMUTE -- Mute Signal Generator
8.129. SGTYPE -- Set Type of Signal Produced by Signal Generator
8.130. SSDELAY -- Set Delay Between Screen Saver Screens
8.131. SSEN -- Enable or Disable Screen Saver
8.132. SSSTART -- Set Idle Time Required for Screen Saver to Start
8.133. SSTEXT -- Set Text to be Displayed by Screen Saver
8.134. SWRESET -- Perform Soft Reset of System
8.135. SWVER -- Query Software Version
8.136. VTXMODI -- Enable VTX Mode on Specified Inputs
8.137. VTXMODO -- Enable VTX Mode on Specified Inputs
1. Introduction
This document describes the command protocol that is used to communicate with the Vortex EF2280 via its RS-
232 port.
2. RS-232 Hardware
The communication between the Vortex and a host controller is conducted via the RS-232 port on the back panel
of the Vortex. The Vortex's RS-232 port operates at the following settings:
●Bit Rate (bps): 9600 (default), 19200, or 38400
●Data Format: 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (8N1)
●Flow Control: none (default) or hardware (RTS, CTS)
Note that although the flow control setting is user selectable to none or hardware, hardware flow control must be
used when updating the firmware of the Vortex. This means that while a 3-wire RS-232 cable (RX, TX, GND) is
acceptable for control of the Vortex, the minimum cable for updating firmware should contain 5 wires (RX, TX,
RTS, CTS, GND).
3. Programming Tips
3.1. Initialization
During power up of the Vortex device or initialization of the host program, electrical fluctuations on the RS-232
lines may cause the Vortex to receive spurious data. After initialization, the host program should send a few
carriage return characters (^M, ASCII 13) to the connected Vortex to flush out any spurious characters it may
have received. Failure to do this could result in the Vortex ignoring the first command received after initialization.
As part of the host program initialization, the host will want to synchronize the status of its controls with the
current status of the Vortex devices that are being controlled. The host could initialize its controls to default

values and then send commands to the Vortexes to set them to the same state. This approach has significant
disadvantages since initializing the host program could undo settings made by other host programs or by the
front panel controls of one of the linked Vortex devices. A better approach is to query the linked Vortex devices
for their status and set the host program controls based on the return values.
3.2. Wildcard Characters
The use of the wildcard character, '*', can make programming the host controller much easier. Be careful when
using wildcards, however, since they can generate a lot of traffic on the digital bus.
3.3. Using Acknowledgements
It is a good idea for the host program or control system to make sure that all connected Vortex devices have
acknowledgment mode enabled (see the ACKMOD command). When acknowledgment mode is on, a Vortex
device will send an acknowledgment for each command it receives. Proper use of acknowledgments makes the
host program more robust and makes supporting multiple hosts effortless. The rest of this section describes how
to use acknowledgments to achieve these goals.
As a convenient example, let us imagine a host program with a graphical user interface (GUI). The user presses
buttons on the GUI to enable or disable features of various linked Vortex devices. The buttons on the GUI reflect
the current status of the corresponding feature.
When the user presses a button on the GUI to enable or disable a feature, the host program should send the
corresponding command to the selected Vortex device. It may be tempting to update the status of the GUI
button at this point, but this can cause problems if there are transmission errors or if there are multiple host
controllers. The proper way to handle this is to only update the GUI controls based on acknowledgments
received from the Vortex device.
To implement this, organize your code so that the functions that send commands are totally separate from the
functions that receive responses from the Vortex devices. This also enables your host program to support the
presence of multiple host controllers. For example, consider the following sequence of events.
1. Another host sends a command to a Vortex device.
2. The Vortex device responds with an acknowledgment that is broadcast to all of the other hosts.
3. Your host program receives the acknowledgment and updates the status of the corresponding control.
The result of this programming model is that all hosts and linked Vortex devices will always be synchronized.
For simple on/off features, your host program can make use of the toggle arguments to some commands (e.g.,
'SSEN2'). By sending a toggle command when a button is pressed, and updating the button based on
acknowledgments, your host program will not have to keep track of the status of the button.
In a similar fashion, many of the integer commands (such as gains) can be controlled by incrementing or
decrementing them by a specific amount. For example, the command 'GAINIA>1 ' increments the input gain on
channel A by 1 dB. The acknowledgment for this command will return the actual value that the gain was
incremented to. Thus, to implement a volume control, your control program can send a command to increment
the gain by 1 dB when the "up" button is pressed and decrement the gain by 1 dB when the "down" button is
pressed. The control can update its level indicator based on the acknowledgment that is received.
3.4. Macros and Presets
Although macros and presets are similar, there are times when using one is better than the other. Presets store

the absolute values of all of the non-global settings of the device. This includes, but is not limited to, input and
output gain settings, matrix settings, algorithm settings, parametric EQ settings, and automixer settings. See
Section 7 for a list showing all the commands and which are saved to presets.
Presets should be used when you really want to change all the settings in a device. One example would be when
you want to have one unit be able to control different rooms. In this case, having a preset for each different
room is the easiest solution.
Macros are like mini-presets. You can define them to change only the settings you are interested in. One
advantage of macros over presets is that macros can make relative changes in addition to absolute changes. An
absolute change is something like "set the input gain to -3 dB". A relative change is something like "raise the
input gain by 3 dB". One example of using macros for a relative change is stereo volume ramping. If you have
two outputs setup to have left and right program audio, then you could build a macro that contains two
commands: one to increment the left channel by 1 dB and the other to increment the right channel by 1 dB.
Then, by calling that macro, you can ramp the stereo outputs. A similar thing can be done with decreasing the
volume.
Another thing to consider when using macros and presets is to use the MACROQ and PRESETQ commands instead
of the MACROX and PRESETX commands. Both the Qand Xversions execute the macro or preset, but the X
versions produce acknowledgements for the settings that change, while the Qversions don't. If your control
system updates its status by looking at the acknowledgements that come back, then you'll probably want to use
the Xversions. Another option would be to use the Qversions and then manually query the values you're
interested in. If your control system does not need use acknowledgements, or if you are manually querying the
values you're interested in, using the Qversions is better since it doesn't generate acknowledgements and thus
reduces RS-232 traffic.
3.5. Automixer Dependencies
The commands AMASGN, AMCHAIR, AMCHNUM, AMLMM, AMLMN, and MGATE have dependencies on each other
and can cause errors (ERROR#040 through ERROR#045) if an assignment attempts to break one of these
dependencies. See the descriptions of the above commands and the ERROR command for more information on
these dependencies.
The dependencies in these commands can cause a problem when trying to build macros. For example, your
macro may use the above commands to set the automixer to a certain configuration. The problem is that
although your commands would put the automixer in a valid configuration, one of the intermediate
configurations might be invalid. If this happens, the invalid command(s) will not execute and the automixer will
not be in the configuration that you intended.
For example, assume that we start with all inputs assigned to automixer group "none" (AMASGN), chairman mode
(AMCHAIR) is disabled for both automixers, chairman mic (AMCHNUM) is set to 1 for both automixers, last mic
mode (AMLMM) is set to off for both automixers, and last mic number (AMLMN) is set to 1 for both automixers.
Now, suppose your macro executes the following commands in the order shown.
AMASGN*ààààåååå
(assign inputs 1-4 to automixer 1 and inputs 5-8 to automixer 2)
AMCHAIR11
AMCHAIR21
AMCHNUM11
AMCHNUM25
AMLMM11

AMLMM21
AMLMN25
In this case, the AMCHAIR21 command and the AMLMM21 would not get executed. They would produce
ERROR#044 and ERROR#042, respectively. The AMCHAIR21 command causes an error because we try to turn
on chairman mode for automixer 2, but automixer 2's chairman mic is set to 1, whic belongs to automixer 1.
Similarly, the AMLMM21 command causes an error because we try to set last mic on mode to manual for
automixer 2, but automixer 2's last mic number is set to 1, which belongs to automixer 1.
There are many other ways that these dependencies can cause problems. Fortunately, there is a way to avoid
them. In you command sequences and macros, follow the following sequence when dealing with the automixer
paramters.
●turn off chairman mode (AMCHAIR) for both automixers
●set last mic mode (AMLMM) off for both automixers
●ungate all matrix crosspoints (MGATE) that correspond to inputs that you will be changing
●Now, execute your automixer commands in the following order:
4. Command Structure
A Vortex command consists of a series of ASCII characters with the following structure.
Description Number of Characters Range of Values
Device Type 1 0-9, A-Z, *
Device ID 2 0-9, *
Command Name 1-7 0-9, A-Z
Command Data 0-64 ASCII characters
Command Terminator 1 ^M (ASCII 13)
4.1. Device Type
A single alphanumeric character is used to indicate the device type. The devices in Polycom's EchoFree family
have the following device types.
Device Device Type
EF200 A
EF1210 C
EF2280 F
EF2241 B
EF2211 S
EF2210 Q
EF2201 T
Device type '*' can be used to send a command to all device types simultaneously.

4.2. Device ID
Two numeric characters are used to indicate the device ID. The Vortex can be configured for device IDs from
'00' to '07'. Note that even though the device ID is less than 10, the leading '0' must be included. Device ID '**'
can be used to send a command to all device IDs simultaneously. Some examples of using wildcard characters
are given below.
●'F**' broadcasts to all EF2280 devices that are linked together.
●'*07' broadcasts to all devices with device ID 07 (this format is not commonly used).
●'***' broadcasts to all devices that are linked together.
4.3. Command Name
The command name can be from 1 to 7 characters long. Command names will be specific to device types. In
other words, the EF2280 has its own command set, which is different from the EF2241's, which is different from
the EF1210's, etc. There are some commands, such as 'PING', that are common among all the various command
sets.
4.4. Command Data
The command data is a series of 0-64 characters containing payload data for the command. Obviously, the
command data will be specific to the command type. note that the maximum number of payload characters for
the EF200 and EF1210 is 32, but the Vortex devices support up to 64 characters in the payload. This increase
was necessary to accommodate the matrix gain and macro/preset commands.
4.5. Command Terminator
The command terminator is a single character indicating the end of a command. ASCII 13 (^M) was chosen as
the terminator to allow manually typing commands using a simple text terminal.
4.6. Examples
In the following examples, Vortex commands are enclosed in single quotes, 'like this'. Also, the terminator
character is not explicitly shown, but its presence is implied.
Consider the command '***PING'. The device type and ID for this command are wildcards, thus the command
will be sent to all devices. The command name in this case is 'PING', and there are no data characters (payload).
Note that the 'PING' command is supported by all of the Vortex devices, thus broadcasting the command to all
devices makes sense.
Consider the command 'F**GAINIA10'. The device type for this command is 'F' and the device ID is a wildcard,
thus the command will be broadcast to all EF2280 devices linked together. The command name in this case is
'GAINIA' and the command data (payload) is '10'. This command sets the gain on input A of all connected
EF2280's to 10 dB.
Command Effects
***PING Requests PONG response from all linked Vortex devices.
F**GAINIA10 Sets the gain on input A of all connected EF2280 devices to 10 dB.

5. Status Messages
The Vortex sends status messages via RS-232 and EF Bus any time one of its internal parameters changes. This
means that the host program does not need to continually poll the Vortex in order to detect status changes.
Status messages are in the same format as the commands used to set the corresponding parameter.
For example, suppose you send the command 'F**GAINIA10' and there are two EF2280's linked together with
device IDs 3 and 7. The EF2280's will respond with 'F03GAINIA10' and 'F07GAINIA10', respectively. Now,
someone uses the front panel of the EF2280 set to ID 7 to decrease input A's gain by 1 dB. When this happens,
the EF2280 will respond with 'F07GAINIA9'. This example illustrates that status messages can be sent as the
result of an RS-232 command or as the result of some other change in the Vortex device such as front panel
adjustments, logic inputs, etc.
Status messages can be turned off via the ACKMOD command. ACKMOD refers to acknowledgement mode since
the term status message and acknowledgement are synonymous for our purposes.
6. Command Types
Many of the Vortex commands have similar formats. The main formats are described here in order to provide a
better understanding of the command set.
6.1. Boolean Commands
Boolean commands take one of the three following arguments.
●'0' indicates that the parameter should be turned off.
●'1' indicates that the parameter should be turned on.
●'2' indicates that the parameter should be toggled (i.e., '0' becomes '1' and '1' becomes '0').
Parameters associated with boolean commands can be queried using the '?' character. For example, if input A is
muted, and you send 'F04MUTEIA? ', the EF2280 will respond with a status message of 'F04MUTEIA1 '. When a
status message is generated for a boolean command, the command data will either be a '0' or '1', since '2' is
obviously not a valid state.
6.2. Integer Commands
Integer commands can take one of two types of arguments. The first argument type is absolute, meaning that
the parameter will be set to the specified number. For example, 'F04GAINIA10 ' means that the gain on input A
will be set to 10 dB. In this case, the device will respond with a status message of 'F04GAINIA10 '.
The second argument type is relative, meaning that the parameter will be incremented or decremented by the
specified amount. The increment character is '>' and the decrement character is '<'. For example, 'F04GAINIA>3
' increments the gain on input A by 3 dB. If the input's gain was previously set to 6 dB, then it would now be set
to 9 dB. In this case the device would respond with a status message of 'F04GAINIA9 '.
The numeric part of both the absolute and relative arguments can contain a '+' or '-' to indicate the algebraic
sign of the argument. If no sign is given, '+' is assumed.
The parameters associated with integer commands have maximum and minimum values associated with them. If
you try to set a parameter above its maximum or below its minimum, the parameter will be set to its maximum