URC-6440/OARUSB04G Extender 1.04 now available

[mathdon]

I'm following the instructions to install the extender

1: downloaded the remote and saved the default configuration in RMIR format
2: rename and copy the bin file to the remote via the USB Mass Storage connection
3: open the saved default configuration in RemoteMaster
4: install the hex file as extender

This is where it fails, I get an error message :

Ext install error

EEPROM area is located differently in extended and base remotes, Extinstall terminating.

This is a bug in RMIR that affects extender installation only in the OARUSB04G 4000 (signature 257604). This is the original version of the remote. The bug does not affect the later version, known in RMIR simply as the OARUSB04G (signature 257601), or any version of the European equivalent, the URC-6440.

I have posted a development build 15 of RMIR v2.04 that fixes this bug. This consists of just one file, a RemoteMaster.jar to replace the one in build 14.

[blabes]

Just wanted to say thanks to mathdon (do we go by usernames here?) for developing, documenting, and releasing the extender for the OARUSB04G. It's working great for me, controlling a bedroom setup consisting of a fairly ancient Panasonic 42" TH-42PWD6 plasma TV, a somewhat less ancient Pioneer VSX-818V AV receiver, and a brand new DIRECTV Genie Mini.

Because the older components don't do CEC (or even HDMI in the case of the TV) the DIRECTV remote wasn't cutting it, and playing remote "Go Fish" was the only way to get the receiver to power on/off, and to get access to the TV and receiver "sleep" functionality.

Anyway, after reading, watching (shout out to The Grok Shop for his series on using RMIR with the OARUSB04G), buying, downloading, and playing around, I now have the extender installed, a couple of LKP functions for system discrete power on and off, and a macro for system sleep.

For the record, my remote did turn out to be the older OARUSB04G 4000 so they're still out there in original packaging.

[mathdon]

Many thanks, blabes, for the nice comments. It's always good to get thanks rather than bug reports . I hope you found build 18 in the development folder and used that, as build 15 has been superseded and is no longer there. As you will also see there, we are still hard at work on further developments, with the latest build for us developers being the very experimental build 35 .

[The Robman]

shout out to The Grok Shop for his series on using RMIR with the OARUSB04G

And nice find on that "how to" video.

[blabes]

Yes, I'm using RemoteMaster v2.04 build 34 so I guess I'm close to the bleeding edge. I did notice some weirdness when working in the Functions tab of the Device Upgrade Editor using the Pioneer 4DEV protocol, as in values in the OBC 2 column auto populating inappropriately. Is that worth reproducing and reporting, or not really related to the recent builds?

[mathdon]

That behaviour is worth reproducing and reporting, yes, as the development work should not have affected that area. But it may get low priority in debugging, if it reveals a bug, as the current development work is pretty intensive at the moment.

[davecs]

I wish I'd read this thread sooner! A year ago, when my URC8910, posted all the way from the USA (thanks Robman!), started to give up the ghost, I bought a URC7980 for my 7 devices. It works, but there's no extender for it, and some of its workings, which I can't change, can be a pain in the neck!

As soon as I read that there is an extender for the URC6440, which also allows up to 12 devices (more with Multiplex), I had to send off for this one. And may I say that Graham (mathdon)'s work on this is wonderful.

The only hiccup so far is that I cannot transfer the extended settings.bin file to the remote using Linux though I have no idea why, but I noticed that someone had the same problem in the Amazon Reviews. The virtual disk in the remote is FAT12 which shouldn't present a problem. I had to fire up Virtualbox with Windows 7 (for emergencies only) in order to copy it over. Having done that, RMIR can and does write to the remote via Linux so I don't need to do that again.

That done, this is a beauty. A quite prosaic remote handset turned into a real turbo-charged monster!

Thanks to all the people who make this possible!

[yaworski]

@davecs, the mass storage device in the remote is purely emulated in the firmware and is not robust at all. It only accepts a file named settings.bin and nothing else.

The issue with Linux is related to really strict timings when writing to the remote and Linux caches all writes to USB mass storage devices breaking the timings expected by the remote.

Making it work on Linux in RMIR was one of the reasons why RMIR had to switch to newer version of Java, which has better support for file system operations and that allowed to overcome this problem (that and of course the original patch provided by user tidklass).

[davecs]

Thanks for your work with Linux, yaworski. The latest RMIR works just fine with this remote. It was merely the transfer of the extended settings.bin file via the file managers (and yes, I had renamed the extender version to settings.bin), that required windows. That's done now.

It would be nice if there was a way of copying over the settings.bin file from Linux, but that will be for the next guy because mine's been done!

[davecs]

I sent this review to amazon, let's see if they print it:

This arrived yesterday, and I'm already extremely pleased with it. When another very old OneForAll handset started giving up the ghost, I bought the URC7980, because it had 8 devices. Sadly, you have to rotate through them by pressing the Device button repeatedly, a real pain. I was reading some stuff about remotes and I read about an "extender" at the JP1 site, which released the true potential of this URC6440 control!

Firstly, you need this program to edit the contents of the remote, called RMIR. It runs on all operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac) as long as the Java Runtime Environment is installed (which it normally is): https://sourceforge.net/projects/contro ... urce=files

You can find the extender here, the zip file contains files and instructions which are worth reading first before you buy the remote, so that you can decide if you can do the stuff described: http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=13500

If you find the extender intimidating, there is also some information in its document about using the remote without the extender and/or RMIR, which will give you access to more stuff in the remote, that OneForAll decided not to put in the instructions. For example, changing the device keys so you can have 2 set top boxes instead of 1 and an "Extra".

With this all installed you can control 12 devices and you are not restricted by device types. The List key becomes a shift key, and these will select three different devices:

TV
List, TV
List, List, TV

Each button can have three functions per device, by just pressing it, or pressing it after once or twice pressing List. For example, on the TV, "List, 4" switches on my amplifier and "List, 5" changes its input to the one the TV plugs into. (I could have done this more smoothly by a macro, but the amp takes a long time before it's ready to receive the next signal).

You can also allocate more than one meaning to each button, for example, I have allocated the Text button, during TV operation, to call Text on a short press, and Subtitles on a long press.

In short, this is a good £16 remote, but if you want to download these programs to push it as far as it can, you can turn it into a "Logitech Harmony" beater, and at this price it's not a big risk, when you think of the cost of the Logitech!

[davecs]

They didn't allow me to post that review with the links in it, so I've posted shorter version. Hopefully someone will post a comment on it asking how to get the programs!

From tidklass's post earlier in this thread, I've put a file in my /usr/local/bin file, called copy2remote. I can run it from a terminal with the directory pointing to where my bin files are stored. The file is:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

#usage
#copy2remote yourfile

dd bs=512 conv=notrunc,fsync oflag=sync of=/media/OFA\ REMOTE/settings.bin if=$1 

Saves having to type it out every time...

[bobocher]

URC6440 is discontinued and can no longer be bought in Europe. That's very unfortunate.

I was wondering if maybe (just maybe) it would be possible to adopt the extender to URC6430 (which continues to be sold)? Thank you.

[mathdon]

I was wondering if maybe (just maybe) it would be possible to adopt the extender to URC6430 (which continues to be sold)?

Sorry, it would not be worth the great deal of effort it would take me to do that. If the URC6440 is discontinued, I would expect the URC6430 to follow very soon.

[bobocher]

I was hoping that they are built internally similar but apparently not similar enough.
Thank you for the quick reply!

[mdavej]

In my experience, discontinued JP1 remotes can remain on the secondary market for many years, even decades. Here's at least one source I found in the UK. If you like this remote, I suggest you stock up.
https://www.studio.co.uk/shop/en/studio ... -4-with-ba