MS300 Advanced Users Guide
3/3/2005
Page 45 of 65
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External Control Protocol Specification
Commands and Responses Overview
Version 03.11.13.02.00
The external control protocol is standard ASCII based. ESCX is the four letter preamble
that is used for all commands. This preamble must be uppercase. The commands
provided in this protocol allow an external control system to navigate the McIntosh
Music Server, get library information to build custom user interfaces, perform transport
controls, and receive unsolicited feedback on system status.
All external control commands are made up of the preamble (ESCX), command group
(01,02,10,20,50,70), sub command (specific task), specific data (# of data items, and a
size of data packet then the actual data packet repeated for the # of data items), and a
carriage return end marker.
External Control Command Structure
DESCRIPTION
PREAMBLE
COMMAND
GROUP
SUB COMMAND
# DATA ITEMS
DATA ITEM #1
SIZE
DATA #1
DATA ITEM #2
SIZE
DATA #2
END MARKER
Bytes
4 2 2 3 4 5 4 3 1
Example ESCX 01 08 002 0005 Hello 0003 Bye
Carriage
Return
The external control commands are broken down into the following Command Groups:
01 – Command Responses
02 – Unsolicited Events
10 – Remote Button / Keyboard Commands
20 – Database Commands
50 – Status Commands
70 – Control Commands
Command Responses
All commands will cause one of the following response numbers to be issued. Some
commands, such as database commands will also send back additional responses that
contain more detailed information.
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