ProAudio: IMPORTANT - Updating your Control4 Driver for ProAudio

Modified on Tue, 15 Jun, 2021 at 1:05 PM

In March 2021 Zektor transitioned into the Pulse-Eight. As a result of this any new Control4 Drivers for ProAudio are under the Pulse-Eight name. If you have a ProAudio system that was purchased from us, prior to this date, you may find that when you update your firmware you have a conflict with the new name of the driver. If your current install is using a Zektor branded driver, you will need to set an option in the ProAudio switch to point it to the older driver, otherwise it will attempt to use the new Pulse-Eight branded driver, which will not be found.

Before replacing the ProAudio, check to see if your current Control4 driver contains "zektor" as part of its name. For instance the name of the ProAudio16 driver before rebranding was called:

avswitch_232_ip_zektor_AUD1600.c4i

For reference, our new Control4 driver for the ProAudio16 is now called:

ProAudio16_pulse-eight.c4i

"Zektor" will also be displayed as the company name in Composer, if using the old driver.

If you are currently using a Zektor driver, then you have two options:

You can delete your old driver and download the new Pulse-Eight branded driver. You will have to rebind all your inputs and outputs. This is recommended for all new installs (where the bindings have not been done, or if you are already planning on redoing the bindings).
You can send a command to the new switch that will make it compatible with the old Zektor driver. This is recommended when a ProAudio switch is being replaced in a currently working installation. It causes the switch to use the older driver, and things will continue to work without any changes.

The command to send is: ^OPT 1,247$

If you have chosen option #2, you will need a terminal program like PuTTY to send the command. The command can be sent using a serial port cable, or be done over TCP/IP.

You can download PuTTY at: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

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See below for how to do this with a serial cable, and further down for how to do this with TCP/IP

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USING A SERIAL CABLE TO SETUP THE SWITCH

To use PuTTY over a serial connection, connect a serial cable or a USB to serial cable to the ProAudio, and your PC.

If you use a USB to serial cable, you will need to use Device Manager to determine the COM port that was created when you plugged in the USB cable.

Once the COM port number is determined, open PuTTY and setup the serial connection using your COM port number, and 19200 as the baudrate:

Now click on "Terminal" in the Category window and set the Local Edit and Local Echo options

Press "Open" and a PuTTY window will open. Type:

^OPT 1,247$

and press enter. You can now install the switch normally, and it will connect to the Zektor branded driver.

To use the switch in a future product, use the above procedure to send this command:

^OPT 0,247$

After this command, the switch will return to using the Pulse-Eight branded driver.

USING TCP/IP TO SETUP THE SWITCH

To use PuTTY over the network, you should start by unplugging the Control4 Controller from the network. This prevents it from connecting to the new switch before we set the option to use the older driver.

Plug the ProAudio switch into the network and turn it on. Wait for a minute or two for it to connect to the network. You will need to scan the network for the ProAudio switch to determine its IP address. It should advertise the MAC address as a Pulse-Eight product. If for some reason it doesn't, look for a MAC address that starts with: 00-15-82-

Once the IP address is found, open PuTTY and setup an IP connection using the RAW protocol and a port address of 50005: