Welcome to my new and improved Projects page for the Centurion DiscHub and Centurion CD/DVD carousels.
Firstly, Firstly, a little disclaimer... While I've updated the site, the same can't really be said about the software I have written and posted below. It follows no specific coding practices, and is only checked for the most obvious errors. Attempting to use it improperly will almost certainly result in program crashes and weird things happening. I therefore urge you to follow the instructions for use carefully, as well as reading the extra notes I post with each program, as these will explain any known bugs. Now thats out of the way, on to the projects!
At the moment, I have not made any code public. If anyone does want to look at it, and try and improve it, feel free to contact me on the Digistore Solutions Forums.
For a bit on the hardware inside the Centurion CD, take a look at the video embedded below, where I rebuild a unit after replacing some damaged phototransistors and infrared LEDs.
MediaTRACKER Exporter
Current Version: 0.1a (04/11/2010)
Requirements: Installed copy of MediaTRACKER, Activated installation of Microsoft Excel
Link to download: Media Tracker Exporter 0.1 (alpha)
Environments Tested:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, MediaTRACKER 2.1.3 Professional, Excel 2007
Windows XP SP3, MediaTRACKER 2.1.3 Professional, Excel 2002
Known Bugs/Quirks/Undocumented Features:
Instructions for installation and use:
Download the ZIP file and unzip to a location of your choice. When unzipped, you should have five files:
MediaTracker Exporter.exe
office.dll
Interop.mediatracker.dll
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll
Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.dll
Run MediaTracker Exporter.exe. This will bring up a command prompt window (or DOS window, if you prefer to call it that...) with the following text:
MediaTRACKER Exporter 0.1a (alpha edition) by Red_Wolf_2. This is alpha grade software, which means things almost certainly will break.
Use caution and back up your MediaTRACKER database prior to using this tool.
I take NO responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
Do you still wish to continue?
(Y/N):
Press y to continue or n to quit. If you chose y, the following will now be displayed:
Moving on...
Please enter an output file path (eg. export.xls, d:\export.xls, etc)
Output Path:
Type the full path where you wish to save the Excel spreadsheet of the contents of your Centurion CD or DiscHub units. Keep in mind you MUST have access to where you are trying to save the file, or an error will occur when saving and you will have to go into Task Manager (taskmgr.exe) to terminate the leftover Excel session. For Vista or Windows 7 users, just typing a filename, such as "export.xls" will put the file in the default save location used by MS Office, which is usually "My Documents".
If you are happy with the path specified, press y, otherwise press n and you may specify a new path.
Putting the extension on the file IS important. This program will not do it for you, so if you leave it out, your file may be unreadable. If you forget to put it on, renaming the file and adding .xls will fix this.
Once the filename has been confirmed, the program will copy the known contents of each Centurion CD or Centurion DiscHub to an Excel spreadsheet, split into separate worksheets for each attached unit. The final worksheet in the Excel workbook will contain names of volumes that are currently checked out.
DiscHub ISO Bulk Burner
Current Version: N/A
Requirements: Installed copy of MediaTRACKER, IMAPI2 (Default with Windows 7 and possibly Vista, requires hotfix from Microsoft for XP), optional ImgBurn
Link to download: N/A
Environments Tested:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, MediaTRACKER 2.1.3 Professional
Known Bugs/Quirks/Undocumented Features:
Not ready for general release.
Only works with a single DiscHub at this point
No way of measuring burn progress due to limitations of Interop.IMAPI2
Disk status codes need further work, as do reaction methods based on returned codes.
Requires better method for loading list of ISOs and associated DiscHub volumes.
The DiscHub ISO Bulk Burner does exactly what its name says, burns a whole stack of ISO images to disks stored in a Centurion DiscHub. This is great for those times where you have 50+ ISO images generated from backups and want to burn them all to disk, but don't want to be manually changing disks all the time. So far I have made two variants, one which works with IMAPI2 burning methods, and one which uses ImgBurn (although IMAPI2 is still used to detect disk mounts). This is still a work in progress, although I have managed to burn and verify about 40 disks in a single run with no user intervention.
MediaTRACKER Status Gadget (04/21/2010)
Current Version: 0.1
Requirements: Installed copy of MediaTRACKER, Windows 7 or Vista, .NET Framework 3.5
Link to download: MediaTracker Status Gadget 0.1
Environments Tested:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, MediaTRACKER 2.1.3 Professional
Known Bugs/Quirks/Undocumented Features:
None known.
This program displays a simple screen gadget suitable for Windows Vista or Windows 7, which displays the number of connected Centurion CD and DiscHub units, the number of free and used slots in total, and the number of checked out volumes. There is also a progress bar which graphically displays the current capacity of the connected units (the more filled the bar is, the higher the number of filled slots). An extra warning will also display if you have dropped below 20 free slots or if you have more volumes checked out than will fit in the connected units.
Instructions for installation and use:
Download the ZIP file and unzip to a location of your choice. When unzipped, you should have two files:
MediaTracker Status Gadget.exe
Interop.mediatracker.dll
Run MediaTracker Status Gadget.exe
This will display a little window with details on the overall status of the connected units. This can be clicked and dragged to a position on the screen of your choice.
The refresh rate for updating the values on the gadget is set by default to three seconds. This can be dropped to a minimum of one second, however this may degrade performance of MediaTRACKER, and is not recommended. To alter the refresh rate, right click on the gadget and choose "Refresh Speed".
MediaTRACKER Stack Monitor (05/24/2010)
Current Version: 0.1b (beta)
Requirements: Installed copy of MediaTRACKER, Windows 7, Vista or XP, .NET Framework 2.0
Link to download: MediaTracker Stack Monitor 0.1b (beta)
Environments Tested:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, MediaTRACKER 2.1.3 Professional
Known Bugs/Quirks/Undocumented Features:
None known.
This program displays simple interface with two pages. The first page contains a graphical list of connected Centurion CD or DiscHub units, while the second page displays a list of volumes, their status and the unit they are currently checked in to. This program is most useful for people with multiple organisers who want to know which unit their disks are in, and how many slots are used or free in each unit.
Instructions for installation and use:
Download the ZIP file and unzip to a location of your choice. When unzipped, you should have two files:
setup.exe
MediaTracker Stack Monitor Setup.msi
Run setup.exe
Follow the various prompts. Its a standard install wizard, so figuring out how to use it should be no big deal...
Using the program is simple. It can be launched from the MediaTRACKER folder in the programs menu. Hover the mouse over each unit on the Organisers tab to display how many slots are free and how many slots are used in that organiser. Select the Volumes tab to display a full list of volumes, their status and the organiser they are currently checked in to.