NovaStar MX40 Pro Control Protocol, HTTP API & Integration Guide

The MX40 Pro control protocol stack is bigger than most integrators expect: the NovaStar MX40 Pro 4K LED display controller — $8,868 in stock can be driven by an HTTP API on port 8001, a central control protocol over TCP port 5200 (or UDP 5201), RS232 serial through its AUX connector, and SNMP for monitoring — on top of NovaStar's own VMP software. This guide maps out every control and integration path on the MX40 Pro, with the exact protocol documents to use for each, so you can wire it into Crestron, Companion, a show-control system, or your own code without guesswork. Everything here is taken from NovaStar's official COEX protocol documentation (we host the current revisions and link them below); where a detail depends on your firmware revision, we say so instead of guessing.

The MX40 Pro control surfaces at a glance

VMP (Vision Management Platform) — NovaStar's Windows/macOS software and the primary tool for configuration, color, and monitoring. The COEX Series is managed by VMP, not NovaLCT.
HTTP API on port 8001 — a JSON REST-style API for reading device state and controlling brightness, presets, display state, and more. The documented integration path for third-party software.
Central control protocol on TCP 5200 / UDP 5201 — a compact fixed-byte command protocol for room-control processors and show controllers.
RS232 via the AUX connector — serial central control for racks where IP control isn't available.
SNMP — standards-based monitoring (Get + Trap) of temperatures, voltages, fans, and receiving-card status.
Art-Net — NovaStar lists Art-Net protocol support for lighting-console workflows alongside SNMP and central control in the MX40 Pro specifications.
Front panel — the 3.5-inch TFT touchscreen and knob for standalone operation.

The MX40 Pro carries two dedicated Gigabit Ethernet control ports (separate from the 20 Ethernet output ports that feed the wall). They support TCP/IP in a star topology, have built-in network switching so up to 20 MX40 Pro units can cascade on one LAN without an external switch, and accept connections from VMP and central control devices alike.

MX40 Pro HTTP API — port 8001

NovaStar publishes an official COEX Series Interface API for the MX40 Pro and its COEX siblings (CX80 Pro, CX40 Pro, KU20, MX30, MX20). The essentials, from NovaStar's API documentation:

The API speaks HTTP only, on port 8001 of the controller's IP address. Data format is JSON unless an endpoint says otherwise.
Requests follow normal REST conventions — GET to read, PUT/POST to change state. Example from NovaStar's manual: GET http://192.168.0.10:8001/api/v1/device/hw returns device hardware information.
Screen-level operations (brightness, display mode, presets) generally require screen or cabinet IDs that you first retrieve from the corresponding query endpoints — plan a read-then-write flow in your integration.
Device lock caveat: while VMP holds a connection to the controller, the processor only accepts API commands from that same machine — other clients get a "device locked" error. Close VMP, or run your API client on the computer that's running VMP.
NovaStar's interactive API reference at api.coex.novastar.tech documents the endpoints with try-it tooling, and the PDF manual (COEX Series Interface API User Manual) is on NovaStar's official site.

If you're writing your own client, the community-maintained TypeScript library @novastar-dev/coex on npm wraps this HTTP API (targeting COEX firmware V1.5+), and is a useful working reference for request shapes even if you code in another language.

Central control protocol — TCP port 5200

For show controllers and room-control processors that prefer raw sockets over REST, NovaStar publishes the COEX Central Control Protocol Instructions (V1.5.0, PDF) — we host the current revision for download. Verified from that document:

TCP: the PC or controller sends TCP packets to port 5200 on the MX40 Pro.
UDP: alternatively, UDP packets to port 5201.
Applicable products: single-card controllers MX40 Pro, MX30, MX20, KU20, CX40 Pro and card-based controllers MX6000 Pro, MX2000 Pro, with VMP V1.5.0 — one command set across the whole COEX family.

Every command is a short fixed-format byte string: [Packet Header][Protocol Content][Checksum], with a two-byte checksum calculated as the sum of the protocol-content bytes plus 0x5555, transmitted little-endian. As a concrete example straight from the document, setting brightness to 0 sends:

55 aa 00 00 fe ff 01 ff ff ff 01 00 01 00 00 02 01 00 00 55 5a

The byte at offset 0x12 is the brightness value (0x00–0xFF, where brightness ratio = value ÷ FF), and the final two bytes are the checksum. The controller answers each command with a response packet so your integration can confirm success.

The documented command set covers the operations a control room actually needs:

Display control — brightness adjustment, receiving-card black screen, freeze, unfreeze, and normal display
Preset switching — recall any saved preset by number (the MX40 Pro stores up to 128)
Output control — enable/disable low latency, enable/disable 3D, select 3D left/right eye
Working mode — switch between All-in-One controller mode and Send-Only controller mode
Sending-card display control — black/freeze/normal per output card or all cards
Layer source switching — route an input to a specific layer by layer number, input card, and interface

Grab the PDF for the full byte tables — do not work from third-party forum posts, because the checksum rules and register addresses must match your firmware's protocol revision exactly. NovaStar added central control protocol support to the MX40 Pro line in the V1.5.0 firmware/documentation cycle, so if your unit runs older firmware, update it first (see our MX40 Pro setup guide for the firmware workflow).

MX40 Pro RS232 — serial control via the AUX port

The MX40 Pro does have a serial path: per the official specifications, the rear-panel AUX connector is an auxiliary port for connecting central control devices over RS232. That's the port to use when your rack's control processor speaks serial rather than IP. The command payloads follow the same central control protocol family as the TCP/UDP path; use the central control protocol document above as your command reference, and contact us (or NovaStar support) for the pinout/cable detail for your firmware revision — we'd rather hand you the current official document than have you solder from a forum diagram.

MX40 Pro SNMP monitoring

SNMP on the MX40 Pro is for monitoring, and it's genuinely useful in fixed installs and NOC environments. NovaStar publishes dedicated COEX SNMP Protocol Instructions (current public revision V1.4.0) covering the MX40 Pro, MX30, MX20, KU20, CX40 Pro, MX6000 Pro, and MX2000 Pro. Verified highlights:

Enable it on the device: from the front-panel main menu, choose Communication Settings > Network Settings and toggle SNMP on.
Get requests retrieve monitoring items — the MX40 Pro's hardware monitoring covers fan speed, module temperatures, voltage levels, operational status, and per-Ethernet-port receiving-card connection status. Each item has its own OID under NovaStar's enterprise tree.
Traps push fault and alarm information to your trap server on the standard port 162; the protocol document walks through setting the reporting target and trap period via SNMP SET.
One documented quirk: some receiving-card connection-status items are uint64 values, which generic MIB browsers that assume int64 will display as −1. Your NMS should treat them as unsigned.

Pair SNMP with NovaStar's cloud option below if you'd rather not run your own NMS.

Crestron, Companion, and control-system integration

Queries for a "Crestron module" for the MX40 Pro come up a lot. As of this writing, we're not aware of an official NovaStar-published Crestron module — but you don't need one, because the controller exposes two integration-friendly protocols any Crestron, Extron, AMX, or Q-SYS processor can speak:

HTTP/JSON on port 8001 — use your control system's HTTP client to call the COEX API directly (brightness, presets, black/freeze, display mode). This is the cleanest path on modern processors.
Raw TCP on port 5200 (or RS232 via AUX) — send the fixed byte strings from the central control protocol document. Because commands are static byte sequences with precomputed checksums, they drop straight into a Crestron TCP/IP client or serial driver as literal strings — no parsing logic required for one-way control.

For broadcast and live-event workflows, the open-source Bitfocus Companion module novastar-coex targets the COEX HTTP API and has been tested extensively with the MX40 Pro — presets, brightness, and display state from a Stream Deck. (Known limitation per the module docs: input selection currently applies in Send-Only working mode.) If you're building a custom integration and want the protocol documents plus a sanity check on your command strings, call us — we stock and support this controller daily.

Is there an MX40 Pro SDK?

People searching for an "MX40 Pro SDK" are usually looking for one of three things, and all three exist — just not under the name SDK:

The COEX Interface API manual — the official HTTP API reference (the closest thing to an SDK document NovaStar publishes for COEX).
The central control protocol document — for socket/serial command integration.
Community libraries — e.g. the @novastar-dev/coex TypeScript package that wraps the HTTP API.

NovaStar does not, to our knowledge, publish a compiled binary SDK/DLL for the MX40 Pro the way some vendors do; the HTTP API is the supported programmatic surface. If your project needs something beyond it, contact us and we'll get the question in front of NovaStar's engineering support.

Does the MX40 Pro have a web interface?

Not in the sense the VX Pro series does. NovaStar's VX Pro processors (like the VX2000 Pro) ship a built-in browser configuration page ("Unico"); the MX40 Pro's official control surfaces are the front-panel touchscreen, VMP, and the HTTP API on port 8001. That API is a web interface in the programmatic sense — it answers JSON over HTTP — but it's not an operator-facing configuration page you browse to. If you want browser-based operation of an MX40 Pro, the practical route today is a Companion instance or a small web app calling the port-8001 API.

VMP software — and the NovaLCT question

The MX40 Pro is a COEX-series device, and the COEX series is configured and operated through VMP (Vision Management Platform) on Windows or macOS: device discovery, screen topology, layers and presets, color processing and calibration, firmware, and monitoring all live there. Two compatibility points that save support calls:

NovaLCT does not manage the MX40 Pro. NovaLCT remains the tool for many other NovaStar families (MCTRL senders, VX processors' receiving-card work, Taurus players), but for COEX controllers the receiving cards, cabinets, and controller settings are all handled in VMP. If you're hunting for the MX40 Pro in NovaLCT's device list, that's why it isn't there.
V-Can does not apply either. V-Can is NovaStar's companion software for the VX/N-series video processors; the MX40 Pro is not a V-Can device. VMP fills that role for COEX.

Keep VMP and controller firmware in step — NovaStar versions them together (V1.5.x pairs with V1.5.x), and the protocol documents above are themselves versioned against those releases.

VNNOX and the MX40 Pro

Two different NovaStar cloud products get mixed up here. VNNOX Standard/AD is a cloud content-publishing CMS for asynchronous players (the Taurus TB/TU series and VPlayer) — the MX40 Pro is a synchronous controller and is not a VNNOX media player, so you don't publish content to it through VNNOX. VNNOX Care, on the other hand, is NovaStar's cloud monitoring service, and synchronous systems like COEX are exactly what it monitors: screen status, temperatures/voltages, fault detection with email alarms, and remote diagnosis. If you want the MX40 Pro's health data in the cloud instead of (or alongside) your own SNMP NMS, VNNOX Care is the NovaStar-native route — ask us about current registration steps for COEX devices, as the binding workflow depends on software versions.

Protocol documents and downloads

COEX Central Control Protocol Instructions V1.5.0 (PDF) — TCP 5200 / UDP 5201 byte-level command reference
MX40 Pro Specifications V1.5.1 (PDF) — connector-by-connector detail including the control ports, AUX/RS232, and Genlock
MX40 Pro User Manual V1.5.1 (PDF)
NovaStar's COEX Series Interface API User Manual and SNMP Protocol Instructions — published on novastar.tech; we can supply the latest revisions with a purchase or on request

Buy the MX40 Pro from a distributor who answers protocol questions

Olympian LED is a stocking US NovaStar distributor. The MX40 Pro is $8,868 and in stock with free US shipping — and when you buy it from us, "how do I make Crestron recall preset 3" is a phone call, not a support ticket into the void: 321-747-3220. New to the platform? Start with our MX40 Pro setup guide, or see how it compares to the MX30 and the VX2000 Pro all-in-one controller.