Command Interface

A command interface is available via a network port. There are two types of message that can be sent. Newfor subtitle messages and MRG style ATP620/DTP620 commands. The default port number is 5570.

To enable the command processor, vbit2 needs the config file to set enable_command_port true. You can also supply the port number using command_port which defaults to 5570 if not specified.

So where is the config file? By default it is in the same location as the teletext pages and is called vbit.conf. However, you shouldn't touch vbit.conf but instead put additional settings in a new file called vbit.conf.override. You need to set

enable_command_port=true
command_port=5570

For subtitles the Newfor protocol is used. This is detailed in the Polistream Nufor document. See also my project newfor-subtitles for a client code example.

For MRG style inserter control, the commands are simple text strings. These allow a client to create, update and delete pages. Telnet, Putty or netcat can be used as terminals. Very little of the command set is implemented.

Using Netcat

nc Using netcat on a local terminal you could use

nc 127.0.0.1 5570

Type Y to get the version information.

Applications

The interface can be used by a client for managing all aspects of the inserter operation. The original client was called TEDScheduler and served as the interface between the TED editor and an inserter. It could transfer pages to and from the inserter. It could also do inserter configuration. It could also run schedules to upload pages at particular times, change the header, run backups and archiving. The aim is to get the command interface to be able to run with TEDScheduler but in the meantime you need to write your own client. What could you do? You can create, edit and delete pages. You can access individual lines and update them so you can put your own data in live. You don't need to update the whole page so you can update banners without having to rewrite the whole page. You could drop your own data in from sensors such as the gyro on an astro Pi shield. It could take a data feed from Twitter, economics indicators, weather. You could link wxTED editor to show updates as you type.

Summary

See the command reference for more details

P<mppss>

Page Identity. Takes up to five digits, all of which can be wildcarded with *. Trailing digits default to 0. This is used to select a page or page range for the other commands to use.

MD

Delete pages

L<rr><text>

rr=two digit row number text=teletext text up to 40 characters. Set row rr to text.

R<rr>

Read back row rr from the first selected page.

Examples

; This sets line 1 of page 100

P100
LI01This is some text on page 100 row 1

; This deletes all of magazine 2

P2****
MD

; This reads row 8 of page 200

P200
R08

; This returns the device model number and software version.

Y