I’ve had a few people ask about my custom panel in Ross Dashboard that controls Aja Ki Pro recorders using their built-in RESTful API, so I thought I would write a quick post about how that works.
AJA has done an excellent job of creating an accessible device with their API. The web browser interface is great and you can edit or control nearly every aspect of the device from there. The main reason I created the Dashboard interface was to limit that control and simplify the use for volunteers who may not want to get into the complexity of it all.
Their RESTful API takes simple parameters as querystrings and returns JSON data that can be easily parsed for the results and manipulated.
For example, if you make this request:
http://kiproIPaddr/config?action=get¶mid=eParamID_TransportState
You will get a response like this, showing the current transport state of the Ki Pro:
{"paramid":"2097217802","name":"eParamID_TransportState","value":"1","value_name":"Idle"}
My panel in Dashboard just takes advantage of this API to make all of the requests to get and set the data. By using a timer function, I am also able to keep the Dashboard panel in sync with the physical state of the actual Ki Pro deck, which is helpful in case someone manually presses a transport button or otherwise makes a change.
If you are interested in everything the Aja Ki Pro API supports, you can get a list of all available parameters by going to:
http://kiproIPaddr/descriptors
I hope this is helpful! If you would like to download my custom panel, it is available on Github: https://github.com/josephdadams/RossDashboardPanels
Tech Ministry 
Thanks for this panel! One question. When I try to go to any clip in the clip list, it always jumps to the last clip, which always says, “Invalid Selection()” regardless of which KiPro unit I select. Any ideas?
Second, your link on your page, http://kiproIPaddr/descriptors, is incomplete as there is no “.com” or anything like that. Do you have a complete link or beer instructions on how I can find these?
Thanks!
Marty Hill
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Hey Marty! Can you send me a screenshot of that?
For the descriptors page, just replace “kiproIPaddr” with the IP address of your Ki Pro within your network.
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Thanks for this panel! One question. When I try to go to any clip in the clip list, it always jumps to the last clip, which always says, “Invalid Selection()” regardless of which KiPro unit I select. Any ideas?
Second, your link on your page, http://kiproIPaddr/descriptors, is incomplete as there is no “.com” or anything like that. Do you have a complete link or beer instructions on how I can find these?
Thanks!
Marty Hill
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This is great! Thank you for sharing the Ki Pro custom panel download on Github.
Would you be able to list the steps to enter this into Ross Dashboard?
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Hey Eric! You’re welcome. You can download any of the Ross Dashboard panels that I have made available here: https://github.com/josephdadams/RossDashboardPanels
Just look for the “AJA Ki Pro.grid” entry, click on it, and then look for the “raw” button on the right. This will give you the raw text of the file. Save this to your computer and open the file up in Dashboard and you should be good to go!
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Perfect! I was able to load it and see the user interface. However, it doesn’t connect when I enter the IP of the Ki Pro. I am able to control via the web browser so I know the connection is there from the computer.
Could it be a difference in the Ki Pro model? We have the Ki Pro Ultra 12G
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I guess it could be! Make sure you click “Set” a few times. I’ve had to do that before.
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Dear Sir, we try your KiPro grid file in the Dashboard ver 9.4.1 and doesn’t open. It is possible that the new Dashboard version are not back compatible with older custom panel? Thank you
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It should work fine with the latest Dashboard, we use it all the time.
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