JLCooper MCS3 USB User Manual

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Media Control Station3

USB/RS232 For Windows98/2000/XP

User's Manual

Second Edition

142 Arena Street • El Segundo, CA 90245 U.S.A.

MCS, Media Control Station, MCS3 and Media Control Station3 are trademarks of JLCooper Electronics. All other brand names are the property of their respective holders.

142 Arena Street

El Segundo, CA 90245 U.S.A. (310) 322-9990

(310) 322-0110 fax www.jlcooper.com

Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................	4
Connecting the MCS3 ........................................................	5
Installing the Software ............................................	5
Getting Started .........................................................	6
Setting the Serial Port.................................................	6
Driver Popup Menu ...................................................	6
Launching Application ..............................................	7
Shuttle LEDs ...............................................................	7
V/Stick ........................................................................	7
What Does the MCS3 Do? ..........................................	8
What is a Keyset? .......................................................	9
Keyset Selection .......................................................	10
Try it Now ................................................................	10
About the Default Keyset ........................................	11
Editing the Default Keyset .......................................	12
Restoring the Default Keyset Using Clear ...............	14
The MCS3 Editor Application ................................	15
Creating a New Keyset ............................................	16
Assigning the Keys and V-Stick ...............................	18
Hide Pointer .............................................................	22
Assigning the Jog Wheel and Shuttle Ring ..............	24
Wheel Modifier Key .................................................	25
Wheel Speed ............................................................	28
Alerts During Clicks, Drags, Scrolls .........................	29
Special Wheel Modes ..............................................	30
Additional Time Saving Hints ..................................	31
About Delete and Tab .............................................	32
Display Keyset .........................................................	33
Saving and Deleting Keysets ...................................	34
Importing and Exporting Keysets ...........................	34
Using Supplied Keysets ...........................................	34
The MCS3 Editor Application Menus.......................	35
Technical Information ..........................................	37
Specifications and Troubleshooting........................	37
Care and Service ......................................................	38
Warranty ..................................................................	39

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing the JLCooper Media Control Station3. This MCS3 is a serial device (USB or RS-232), for use with Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP.

The MCS3 allows you to create a personalized control station for virtually any application. You will find that the MCS3’s smooth, optically encoded jog wheel and transport keys make creative multimedia production and editing easier than ever.

The MCS3 wheel can play back movies, jog through sound files, scroll through event lists, and more. And the MCS3 keys can send function-key equivalents and mouse clicks.

This allows you to use your MCS3 to bring the most frequently used menu items and commands speedily within reach, providing more comfortable and creative control of your favorite applications.

The MCS3 allows you to create an unlimited number of “Keysets”. You can have a different “Keyset” for each application.

The MCS3 detects which application is active, and the behavior of the MCS3 changes accordingly as you change applications.

The included MCS3 application software and driver are required for the MCS3 hardware to operate.

Please take a moment to send in your product registration card, so we can notify you in the future about any new products or updates as they become available.

Connecting the MCS3

Locate an available serial port on your PC (an RS-232 port will be a D shell shaped 9 or 25 pin connector.

A USB port will be rectangular with a symbol such as:

Connect the MCS3 to the PC. If the MCS3 is an RS-232 unit, connect the power supply (supplied) to the power connector at the end of the MCS3’s cable.

Installing the Software

Before you run the installation program, (as with any other Windows installation program), it is strongly recommended that you first quit all other programs.

If you have previously installed a version of the MCS3 software on your computer, be sure that you unload the Driver prior to installing the software. To do this, right-click the wheel icon in the System Tray (lower right corner) and select ‘Exit’ from the popup menu to unload the driver.

Launch the Installer

Then start the “setup.exe” program on the MCS3 disk. Follow the instructions in the install routine. After the install routine has installed the software, it prompts you to restart your computer. It is strongly recommended to restart your computer at this time to finalize the installation and automatically load the MCS3 driver.

Remember that the MCS3 Driver is required for the MCS3 to operate. The MCS3 will not appear to send any commands into the PC unless the Driver has been properly loaded.

The reason for this is that the MCS3, unlike a mouse or keyboard, sends special "invisible" codes into the PC.

And it is the Driver that is responsible for "re-mapping" these commands into useful keyboard and mouse commands, such

as key presses and pointer movement.

Getting Started

Serial Port Settings

Launch the MCS3 application, either from the Windows Start Menu or by right-clicking on the MCS3 icon in the Windows system tray and choosing “Control Panel”.

From the Edit menu, select "Preferences”.

If the MCS3 is a USB version, the PC will automatically identify it on the USB bus. The driver will then recognize it. If the MCS3 is an RS-232 version, the MCS3 Driver will automatically scan the available COM ports, starting with COM1. It tries to locate an MCS3 on the first port that is currently not in use. If the automatic scan process was not successful, you will need to set the COM port manually, in the Preferences menu.

After you change the COM port you need to reload the driver. This is done by right-clicking on the MCS3 icon in the lower left of the computer monitor and select “Reload”.

If the port cannot identify the MCS3, please refer to the Troubleshooting section of this manual.

Driver Popup Menu

In the lower left corner of the screen, the MCS3 “wheel icon” appears in the system tray.

This indicates that the MCS3 “Driver” is loaded.

Right click on the icon to open the popup menu for the Driver. The first menu item opens the Application.

Enable MCS3 (Disable MCS3).

There may be times when the MCS3 is connected to the PC, but you do not want to use it. For example, you may not want to accidentally engage or terminate playback because you accidentally bumped the controller. You can temporarily disable the MCS3 by selecting “Disable” from this menu. Re-enable the MCS3 by selecting “Enable” from this menu. 6

Reload Driver

There may be times when you need to reload the driver. To reload the driver simply means to quit the driver and load it again. For example, if you change COM Port settings in the Preferences, you will need to re-load the driver. To Reload the Driver, select Reload from this menu.

Exit

Selecting Exit Unloads the Driver. If you select Exit, the Driver will unload and the icon will go away. To reload the driver and begin using the MCS3 again, you will need to Restart the computer.

Launching the MCS3 Software Application

The application is launched either from the Windows Start Menu or by right-clicking on the MCS3 icon in the Windows system tray and choosing “Open MCS3 Editor”.

MCS3 Shuttle LEDs

Normally, on power up, the shuttle ring LEDs will not light until the shuttle ring is centered.

After that, the shuttle ring LEDs will light depending upon the direction of rotation from center. Both LEDs are on when the ring is centered.

V/Stick

The V/Stick is located to the upper right of the jog/shuttle control. It is a soft, four position switch.

The switch is activated by applying pressure either left, right, toward you, or away from you. (It is not necessary to press down or rotate the control.)

Like the other MCS3 keys, it can be assigned to send a key press or a mouse click.

Typical assignments include arrow keys, home and end keys, page up and page down, etc.

What Does the MCS3 Do?

When you press a key or turn the wheel, the MCS3 behaves like a PC keyboard or mouse.

The MCS3 gives you the ease and convenience of using a conventional tape recorder style transport control, which will improve the speed you are able to work .

The MCS3 also provides a way of remotely controlling your computer when seated at a location other than directly in front of the monitor.

Key Press Emulation

The MCS3 can send a variety of commands, including simple keystrokes, like the letters “a”, “j”, symbols such as “@”, and function keys such as “F1”.

The MCS3 can also send keys with modifiers. Pressing a single MCS3 key can send the equivalent of a cluster of keys, for example, Control-Alt-A.

The simplest example is this: Many applications will play back previously recorded music and or movies when you press the keyboard’s spacebar. So, you might want the MCS3 Play key to imitate a spacebar. When you press the MCS3 Play key, the PC “thinks” that you have pressed the spacebar, and the software begins to play back music and or movies.

Mouse Emulation

The MCS3 keys also send mouse clicks. Pressing the MCS3 key can produce a mouse click at specific, user-selected location within a window.

Most software applications have some on-screen buttons or icons for which there is no key-equivalent at all. Again, the MCS3 gives you single-key access to those buttons and icons.

The Jog Wheel and Shuttle Ring

These can send repeated key characters, (such as arrow keys for playing movies).

The jog wheel and shuttle ring are also capable of performing horizontal and vertical mouse click and drag.

The rate of pointer movement or repeated key presses is set by a Speed Slider, which allows the user to personally customize the wheel response.

Certain applications allow even more control from the MCS3 wheel, including features such as video or audio jog or shuttle.

What is a Keyset?

The MCS3 has five keys called “Transport” keys.

They’re called Transport keys because they are labeled with the standard “tape recorder” transport icons for rewind, fast forward, stop, play, and record.

There are 6 keys along the top, F1 through F6.

There are 7 keys around the jog/shuttle wheel, W1 through W7. There are four switches built into the "V/Stick".

All of these are user-definable. Each key can send a different command. That is a total of 22 commands.

In addition to Jog and Shuttle, one key may be assigned to be a wheel modifier. The wheel can send different kinds of commands depending on the state of the wheel modifier.

The 22 key commands, plus the wheel commands, and the shuttle commands, are collectively called a “Keyset”.

Keyset Selection

One Keyset may be created for each application.

The MCS3 automatically senses which application is running, and selects the appropriate Keyset.

For example, say you've already configured the MCS3 to control a certain application.

Now suppose you click on a window in the background, and make a different application active.

This immediately “re-configures” the MCS3 with a completely different Keyset, with 22 different commands and different jog/shuttle assignments.

When you return to the previous application, its associated Keyset is instantly and automatically restored.

For example, suppose that one application plays a movie when you press the spacebar, and a different application plays a song when you press the return key.

You can set up the MCS3 so that the MCS3 Play key will always cause the movie or the song to play.

The MCS3 will keep track of which application is active, and "know" whether pressing the MCS3 Play key should send a spacebar or a return key.

Try it Now

Launch the MCS3 application.

Select "About Media Control Station".

Rotating the wheel causes the "movie" to go forward and also makes the picture of the wheel slowly rotate.

The transport keys on the MCS3 make the movie rewind, stop, play, and go fast forward.

About The Default Keyset

The first time you use the MCS3, the so-called "Default Keyset" is automatically selected.

The Default Keyset is ready to use and should have some functionality with certain applications.

The wheel sends left and right arrow keys, to playback QuickTime™ movies one frame at a time. The QuickTime™ application will also recognize the Play and Stop keys to toggle between play and puase.

Play and Stop keys send a space and return, respectively.

F1 through F6 send function keys F1 through F6.

The V-Stick sends up, down, left and right arrow keys.

The W keys have no assignment. They will not send any keyboard commands or mouse clicks unless you edit the Default Keyset.

Any time you open an application, if you haven’t yet created a Keyset for that specific application, the Default Keyset will be automatically selected.

Editing the Default Keyset

You can edit (that is, change) the Default Keyset at any time, using the MCS3 application. Here are two simple examples of how to edit the default Keyset:

Example of Changing What the Wheel Does

Presently, the wheel sends left and right arrow keys at a medium speed.

Turning the wheel will play a movie in a QuickTime™ related application.

Suppose you are editing a movie, and you want to use the wheel to easily view the movie frame by frame. You may want to slow down the response of the wheel, to make it easier to find a specific frame.

We will use the Wheel Speed slider. First, select the Wheel. Rotate the wheel a little in either direction. Alternately, you may click on the picture of the wheel.

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