Serial Ports; Units - Martin LIGHTING DIRECTOR User Manual

Side note: you may enable MIDI functionality even if you do not have a MIDI card installed.
This was done to allow you to design maps that later could be used with a card.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are planning to use MIDI with the MLD we recommend
running the software from MS-DOS because Windows may interfere with normal
operation. Also, there is a box to let you select an address for your MIDI hardware.
Normally the default address ($330) is fine for the large majority of cases, it may only
be necessary to change this address, for example, if you have more than one MIDI card
in your PC.

SERIAL PORTS

If you would like the MLD to send tracking data through the PC's serial ports, choose
"Set-up" from the main screen, click on the "Serial out" button and select your
communication parameters. You can choose to send data continuously, as it is
generated by the tracking system, or on request, which means that you must "ask" the
system to send you the data every time you need it. The tracker sends position and
velocity values for all four trackers in ASCII codes. These can be used to drive
multimedia, special control systems, laser discs and other custom systems.
To configure the MLD to receive serial data, click on the "Serial in" button and select
your preferred communication parameters. You may want the MLD to receive serial
data to either load and unload maps or to request tracking data as explained above.
Appendix E contains the MLD serial output format.
IMPORTANT NOTE: if you use serial port communication please ensure that the COM
ports you select are not already been used by the mouse or other equipment. We
recommend running the software from MS-DOS to ensure that Windows will not
interfere when using serial ports.

UNITS

The MLD allows you to choose between centimetres or inches. Once you have made
your choice, all measurements will have to be entered using those units. Similarly, the
MLD will display all measurements using the chosen units. The default is the metric
system.
MLD manual 1.1 Page 43