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Was it not intended to connect a B&O TV to the TV/Aux port of the BM and play the sound over the connected speakers?

It was intended indeed. In an option 0 (TV) / 2 (music system) setup. In that case the TV would not receive any IR commands but only the music system (where also the speakers are connected). So the music system would power up by it's regular IR commands and then forward everything TV related over the DL / aux port to the TV. So this setup cannot be used for spying" on a special command. What pilatomic does in the other thread is simulating a tape deck or a CD player. They have those separate connectors and are speaking the older DL protocol. So when pressing the play button on the CD player it sends a command to the master device which then switches on. Without muting its output. The downside is that using this port you only have limited functionality available. I think the MCL and the TV/AUX connector do carry the same data signal. So when the enable signal comes in through the MCL port it makes perfectly sense to not enable the local output. I'm just curious if this can somehow be overruled with a special command. Easiest fix would probably be just simulating an activation from the CD player or the tape deck using the DL80 port. Once the system started (unmuted) just use the DL86 protocol on the other connector to switch to the actual source you want.

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It was intended indeed. In an option 0 (TV) / 2 (music system) setup. In that case the TV would not receive any IR commands but only the music system (where also the speakers are connected). So the music system would power up by it’s regular IR commands and then forward everything TV related over the DL / aux port to the TV. So this setup cannot be used for “spying” on a special command. [...] I think the MCL and the TV/AUX connector do carry the same data signal. So when the enable signal comes in through the MCL port it makes perfectly sense to not enable the local output. I’m just curious if this can somehow be overruled with a special command.

Thanks for clearing things up! I also checked the BM 6500 schematics again and like you mentioned the Datalink pin of the TV/AUX port is directly connected to the MCL and Powerlink Datalink Pins. I can imagine that B&O has left the door open to control or mute the system via a future iteration of innovative speakers like the Penta series. So maybe there is this special command. But that's crystal ball gazing... :D

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What pilatomic does in the other thread is simulating a tape deck or a CD player. They have those separate connectors and are speaking the older DL protocol. So when pressing the play button on the CD player it sends a command to the master device which then switches on. Without muting its output. The downside is that using this port you only have limited functionality available. [...] Easiest fix would probably be just simulating an activation from the CD player or the tape deck using the DL80 port. Once the system started (unmuted) just use the DL86 protocol on the other connector to switch to the actual source you want.

I get how pilatomic is achieving control and I also understand your solution approach. I guess for my personal project this would be just fine, as I could connect another pin of the Arduino to a DL80 port, just for sending the missing" commands. Many thanks for the inspiration! Having your "MasterDataTool" project and the use of DL86 in mind , this would unfortunately compromise the elegant plug-and-play solution...

I also want to comment on your previous post from another thread:

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What I would try first is just sending it a virtual volume or mute key stroke. So similar to this https://github.com/toresbe/datalink/blob/main/datalink86-captures-new.txt#L26 But instead of the 0x09 at the end (digit-9) give it a try with 0x60 (volume up) or 0x0d (mute toggle). Maybe it will then leave the muted state it started up with.

So as mentioned I also tested your suggestions without success (no unmuting of Powerlink Ports). And while I tested, I also compared them to the Datalink'86 documentation: The Datalink'86 document states, the transmitted commands can be split into 4 blocks. And following Figure Fig. 2045-4 gives an example of a complete data transmission" I assumed the Header is always 14 bits long:

• Start
• Header
  • Format [4 Bits]
  • Address (to) [5 Bits]
  • Address (from) [5 Bits]
• Data ["... may be commands or ASCII codes"]
• Stop

Assuming that 0x60 is the usual command for "increase volume" and following your suggestion to start with the input from the Github link: S 0000 00001 00001 001 E. Then replacing 0x09 with 0x60 already leads to an interference with the address information of the header. Maybe I misunderstood you here? However, confused by this, I tested several options:

1. Following your suggestion: S 0000 00001 00001 100000 E No response by the BM.
2. Following the DL86 documentation (sending 0x60 as data): S 0000 00001 00001 1100000 E No response by the BM.
3. Sending a command from my own findings when testing the MCL Sensor: S 0000 00001 01100 000 E Success - BM is increasing the Volume by 2.

So I can't help but notice that 0x60 is part of the option 3 command and also the length of the command is the same as those from the Github Link, but it seems to be filled from the back, overwriting parts of the header. This left me completely confused about the DL86 protocol and unfortunately, I can't figure it out. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding something from the documentation... Anyway, I'm curious what your take is on this ?

Yes, it is a bit confusing. There are full and short messages. The full messages are described in the DL86 pdf. So far I could only read them but sending didn't do anything.

Sniffing data between a 1611 converter and a BC9500 I found out that there are also short messages transmitted that are very similar to the Beo4 IR codes. The 1611 sends out such a command e.g. for activating the radio source or for next/prev commands.

Those short messages just contain the "to address" and the command. The command can be any Beo4 command.

Thank you very much for the explanation of the "short" messages!! I noticed the same behavior for "long" messages while testing with the MCL Sensor. I could imagine the "long" messages are the response from the BM, providing the status after receiving the "short" command? However that may be... With the understanding of the "short" messages, I did what you suggested:

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As the messages are short enough one could set up an automated test and just iterate through every possible command.

And success! I found the secret" commands to unmute/mute the Powerlink speaker:

• unmute - 0x1C
• mute - 0x1D

Prerequisite is an already running Beomaster.

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And success! I found the “secret” commands to unmute/mute the Powerlink speaker: unmute – 0x1C mute – 0x1D

Really cool!! Thanks a lot for sharing that! Could reproduce it on a BC9500. Works!

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You can then activate the Beomaster in a muted state via the datalink’86, and then afterwards unmute it also with datalink’86. Is that correct?

Yes, all through the AAL / AUX connector. So that brings some really nice remote control capabilities. :-) BTW some time ago I made two little helper python tools for Linux & DL. As bit-banging from userspace is something you should avoid you can instead use LIRC in raw mode for that. This tool converts a DL86 command to a lirc.conf snippet for raw mode (there is also a full lirc.conf example file). For example python3 dl-lirc-gen.py 011c will generate the unmute command. The other one uses lirc's mode2 tool to decode incoming DL86 messages on-to-fly and will print out hex values.

Hi all, I'm new to B&O, and I've been working a bit on the side trying to do much of the same thing, but with detailed status.  In essence, I'm looking to create an IoT MCP, so I can control - and equally important to me -query system status on my BM7000.

My first thought was to graft an Arduino into an old MCP that I purchased.  Button-press implementation appeared straightforward, but it seemed a bit daunting to decipher the incoming IR without a suitable logic probe, so I largely went the route as described in this thread - monitoring the DL80 and DL86 channels for messages, and mapping them to a status matrix.  It's been a bit of a learning curve on the DL80 ports, but now that I have that work largely complete, I've turned my attention to DL86 piece, broadcast on the Aux channel.

As described above, there are at least two types of DL86 command structures - one for things like incoming short Beo4 commands which don't monitor return status, and another is the longer outbound messages containing status.  What I'm seeing on the outbound packets differs somewhat from what I'd expected, as shown below.  I'm using the DL86 packet example as shown in the 9-page DL86 manual to count the bits as 4-bit localAddr, 5-bit toAddr, 5-bit fromAddr, rest is data.

Source  Data

Radio:   DL86.Local:0011 toAddr:10111 fromAddr:10000

Tape:     DL86.Local:0011 toAddr:10111 fromAddr:10100

Phono:  DL86.Local:0011 toAddr:10111 fromAddr:10100 (same as tape?)

Tape-2: DL86.Local:0011 toAddr:10111 fromAddr:10101

CD:      DL86.Local:0011 toAddr:10111 fromAddr:10100  (Same as Tape & Phono)

So unless I'm counting bits wrong, it looks like the source-status-info must be in the data field, in order for it to appear on a Penta display (for example).  Before I go too far down the rabbit hole and, I'd like to ask if anyone already has deciphered outbound DL86 status data and has posted it somewhere.  If not, I'll do my best with decoding it and post results. Any guidance would be a time saver, and greatly appreciated. I'll of course post what I come up with on GitHub as my contribution to the solution. Thanks in advance!