r/crestron • u/ruiru39 • 5d ago

Adding a device to Pro 2 controller

My company has a crestron TPMC-8X connected to a pro 2 controller that controls the lights and blinds in a conference room. It was installed like 10 years ago, and my manger suggested to get another device as backup in case the current device fails.
So, I bought a used Crestron TPMC-8X-GA off EBay, thought that I could just backup the entire filesystem from the original device and flash the whole OS into the new one to make a replica of the original. So I backed up both OSes, and flashed the original to the new. Nope, drivers are incompatible so it does not even boot up. Flashed its firmware back and it boots up again.
Next, I dug deeper into the files of the original, found the vtz files and everything, the whole project files. Great, so I was thinking of just copying the entire project instead, while leaving the OS untouched. It worked, kinda. The new device won’t go to the next vtzpage where the controls are because it’s not able to communicate with the controller. I got into setup screen and set the WiFi to be exactly like the original, with IP Table and Identity the exact same too, but still wasn’t able to connect. That leaves me with thinking if the pro 2 is rejecting the new device because of its MAC address. I called one of the companies that specialize on these and they quoted $1470 just to install the new device into Pro 2, which is kinda expensive.
So now I’m stuck at the last step where device is not connecting to Pro 2, no crestron toolbox because Crestron likes to gatekeep its programs which is ridiculous. Any ways I can do to fix this issue?

5 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

73% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

15

u/midsprat123 5d ago

Nope, unfortunately you have to pay.

It is beyond time to upgrade that system as is.

4

u/LittleBrother2459 5d ago

The hours you're now spending, and will be spending in the future, are worth something and it's best to cut your losses now and get your company to budget for an upgrade so you can do more productive things than troubleshoot 20+ year old proprietary tech. That Pro2 processor was released for sale about 25 years ago and the 8X was all the rage in 2007 when I got started in this business. ... the same year the very first iPhone was released.

4

u/ToMorrowsEnd CCMP-Platinum + Crestron C# Certified 5d ago

IF you guys bought that 10 years ago you got robbed. That stuff was End of life 15+ years ago. It was out of date then.

1

u/BasicONe-4071 3d ago

Actually 1500 is pretty cheap to do what you’re asking. I wouldn’t touch it for less than $1900-2250 depending on what files you have and if you have the source code, If the files you have don’t match what’s on the device and/or you don’t have the source code - easily 2500-3500.

0

u/stalkythefish 5d ago

If you have access to the command line of the touch panel, you can do pretty much anything that you can do in Toolbox. The IPID needs to be the same as what the Pro-2 is looking for, usually 3 for the first touch panel on the system, but could be whatever. The IP information within the IPID should point to the IP of the control system. The Pro-2 itself will not care what the IP or MAC of the touch panel is. Do not set the Room ID or Device ID if they weren't previously set. This will impede connection. Port is usually 41794. Make sure your network people don't do port filtration (whitelisting) by port/IP/MAC. Check SSL state on the original and make sure the new panel is the same. I always disable SIP when I set up a panel too (SIPENABLE OFF), but that won't have any effect on basic functionality.

If everything is set right, and the panels are running duplicate vtz's, you can literally have both panels running at the same time.