ProAudio — Setting Up Paging / Doorbell Using PuTTY (Serial/TCP Commands)

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If your control system's driver has no built-in support for paging or doorbell chimes on a ProAudio switch, you can configure it directly by sending commands over a serial or TCP/IP connection using PuTTY (or another terminal program) — or as part of an initialisation string, if your controller supports sending raw ASCII strings.

Prefer a graphical tool over typing commands? See ProAudio — Setting Up Paging Using the Config Tool for the same process without the command line.

Connecting to the Switch

You can connect either through the switch's serial port or over the network — use whichever is convenient for your setup.

Serial Connection

Setting	Value
Baud rate	19200
Data bits	8
Parity	None
Stop bits	1
Handshake	None

TCP/IP Connection

Setting	Value
IP Address	Determined by scanning your network, or from your controller's configuration
Port	50005

How Paging Works

ProAudio supports two independent paging "presets" (1 and 2), so you could use preset 1 for a front doorbell and preset 2 for a back doorbell, each with its own source and volume. When a page is triggered, every zone switches to its preset source and volume; when the page ends, zones return to their previous state.

Every zone's Do Not Disturb flag defaults to 1 (ignore paging). Until you explicitly set a zone's flag to 0, that zone won't respond to a page — even after you've configured its source, volume, and mute settings. This is covered as its own step below, since it's easy to miss.

Step-by-Step Setup

The steps below configure paging preset 1 across zones 1–16. Adjust the zone range and preset number to match your system.

Set the source each zone switches to during a page
^pASZ 1,@1:16,15$

Sets all zones to source 15 during page preset 1 (e.g. a door chime generator connected to input 15). Change 15 to whichever source your chime or paging microphone is connected to.

Set the paging volume
^pVPZ 1,@1:16,40$

Sets the paging volume for all zones to 40% during preset 1. Change 40 to your preferred level.

Make sure zones aren't muted during the page
^pVMZ 1,@1:16,0$

Un-mutes all zones for preset 1, so they'll actually be audible when the page triggers.

Allow zones to respond to the page
^pADNDZ 1,@1:16,0$

Without this step, zones ignore the page entirely regardless of steps 1–3 (see warning above). Setting the flag to 0 allows the zone to respond fully — see "Do Not Disturb Flag Values" below for the other available options.

Configure the back-panel trigger

(if wiring a physical button or the doorbell transformer)
^pDSW 1,1,1,0$

Sets the DB1 back-panel connection to trigger paging preset 1, staying active for as long as the trigger is closed/present.

The full command syntax is ^pDSW switch,action,preset,time$ — four parameters. The trailing ,0 for the unused time value is a placeholder and hasn't been confirmed against real hardware yet. Bench-test this before rolling it out, or check with engineering first.

Save the settings
^SS 4096$

Backs up all paging parameters so they survive a power loss. Without this, your paging setup will be lost the next time the switch loses power.

Do Not Disturb Flag Values

The pADNDZ command used in Step 4 accepts three values, giving more control than a simple on/off:

Value	Meaning
0	Zone responds fully to paging (switches source, volume, and mute as configured)
1	Zone ignores paging completely (default for every zone)
2	Zone mutes/lowers volume during a page but does not switch source — useful when you want a zone to go quiet without playing the chime itself

This is also how you temporarily exclude a zone from paging — for example, muting paging in a child's room while they're asleep, without undoing the rest of your setup:

^pADNDZ 1,@5,1$ — do not disturb zone 5 (change 5 to whichever zone you want)
^pADNDZ 1,@5,0$ — re-enable paging for zone 5

Triggering a Page

If your controller can send raw ASCII strings, you can trigger paging directly instead of wiring a physical contact closure to the back panel:

^pSET 1$ — trigger paging preset 1
^pSET 0$ — end the page and return to normal

Or trigger a page for a fixed duration:

^pSET 1,4000$ — trigger preset 1 for 4 seconds (4000ms). The switch automatically reverts to normal after the time elapses, so you don't need to send ^pSET 0$.

Pages are hard-limited to a maximum of two minutes regardless of trigger method. If a page is left active (e.g. a held contact closure) without a pSET 0, it will automatically time out and return to normal after two minutes.

Quick Command Reference

Command	Purpose
`^pASZ preset,@zone,source$`	Set the source a zone switches to during a page
`^pVPZ preset,@zone,percent$`	Set paging volume as a percentage
`^pVMZ preset,@zone,flag$`	Mute/un-mute a zone's volume during a page
`^pADNDZ preset,@zone,flag$`	Set Do Not Disturb behaviour for a zone (0/1/2)
`^pDSW switch,action,preset,time$`	Configure a back-panel trigger input
`^pSET preset,time$`	Manually trigger or end a page
`^SS 4096$`	Save all paging settings so they survive a power loss

ProAudio — Setting Up Paging Using the Config Tool

Need help with your paging setup?

Our support team can help troubleshoot commands or connection issues.

UK: 01202 413 610 | US: (858) 748-8250 | support@pulse-eight.com

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