Nevo: Review a newbie's attempt?

[vickyg2003]

Finally took a look at this. Looks pretty good. Only have a couple of comments in addition to Vicky's excellent advice.

- Gaps in soft buttons are ignored, so go ahead and pack them together as best you can

I see that the built in setup codes left gaps too. When there were fewer than 6 soft buttons the remote did seem to honor the position. #2 was blank on all the built in devices that I tried.

I was thinking of leaving the first soft keys 2-7 blank on all viewing type devices in order to get to aspect ratios so moving devices would be easier. My equipment is always rotating. If I leave 2-7 blank when I plug the upgrade into another Nevo I would have room for the TV keys and device selection keys that may be necessary with that TV and or Audio Receiver. I intend the soft1 button to be CC/Subtitle on any device that supports subtitles. I expect to put TV aspect ratios as my next soft keys, and the proper TV source, Zone1 Source. and Zone 2 source before the soft keys that I need for the device itself. So for the sake of consistency I'm planning on blanks. When the Nevo does squish them all together, the support keys that I access ALL THE TIME would be right there on the top.

- Double click the icon box on all your devices and activities. Gives a few more visual cues making remote easier to use at a glance with out actually reading the words. I also like to use icons for individual functions. Just looks nicer IMO

Double Click! So that's the trick.

But you could make a dummy device with a some soft buttons labeled "System Off. Press Activities button to continue" or something like that.

I missed this when I read it, but I did that too. I made a dummy device called Master Power put it as the last device on my device list . Press Device and then move to the left puts you there, and then it has the power buttons for everything, TV power, DVD, power, DVR power, Zone 1 power, zone 2 power, Antenna Power......

Half of my equipment is toggle only. Even with the devices that have discrete on/off, the power on and wait x seconds would never work for my most demanding user. Half the time the devices are already on anyway, and the waiting is the hardest part.

[pH7_jp1]

Half of my equipment is toggle only. Even with the devices that have discrete on/off, the power on and wait x seconds would never work for my most demanding user. Half the time the devices are already on anyway, and the waiting is the hardest part.

In my activity macros, I just send the power on for all devices, no delay and then send the input switching commands for all devices. If the right things are on, or come on fast enough, things work fine. If one or more devices needed power and didn't have it soon enough, my primary user only has one rule to apply, "If it didn't work the first time, try the same activity button again." By the time anyone recognizes that we have this condition, the same activity macro will now work because every thing is powered up. Surprisingly this works almost always on the first button press and the same rule applies in many other cases as well.

My "power on" in the above statement will translate to toadtog where necessary, or invoke a workaround for the TOAD.

[vickyg2003]

Hello Irimi-A1

I'm sorry I hi-jacked your thread, but I'm a newbie to this remote too. Hopefully you will find the answers to my questions helpful too. Getting back to your issues....

1. The discrete Power Off appears to actually be a Power Toggle...can't find a discrete power off in the code search, remotecentral.com, etc. The discrete power code was included in the closest upgrade I could find (Philips BDP-2985).

If it is a real discrete power Off, that is if you press the button over and over when it is Off and the unit doesn't turn On, then you can just use it twice in the macro to insure the toggle was in the correct position.

If its a toggle and you use the power twice and its an RC6 toggle issue, you would have unpredictable results. Sometimes you get two operations, sometimes one.



If it turns out to be a Power toggle and you still want to use it in a macro, you might find a customized learn might help. The following pronto hex sends two Power signal Device 70, 171 (your " Discrete Power off" which may be a power toggle) in rapid succession. The first toggle bit is set to 0 the second is set to 1. They are so close together that if the remote is going to react to the first one, it should be too busy to process the second signal. The number 03DD in the middle of the signal is the amount of time between frames. If it is still sometimes doing two operations make that number smaller.

Add a new learn and select pronto Hex as the data format and paste the pronto hex

Code: Select all

0000 0073 001F 0000 0060 0020 0010 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0020 0010 0020 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0010 0010 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0010 0010 03DD 0060 0020 0010 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0030 0030 0020 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0010 0010 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0010 0010 0BDD

Often times we use the Play button, Stop as a discrete On on DVD players, Blu-Ray Players, CD Players..... You need some time between the Play and Stop. That's where it falls apart for me, nobody here will point the remote at the device long enough to get the stop. If the unit is RC6-toggle sensitive you may have to use Play twice in order to get the unit to respond.

[mdavej]

Vicky, I took your Master Power combo device approach on a friend's Nevo. That's a good solution.

Another trick I use is taking advantage of the fact that paging through screens wraps back around when you get to the end. So I put my most used commands on the 1st, 2nd and Last pages since I can page backwards to go directly to the last screen. So, power and inputs go on my last page and other commands go on my first two pages. I remember to go backwards if I need to fix power or input and forward if I want to access other functions.

I don't care for Assist myself because of the screen real estate it takes up, but it can actually be useful if you frequenty have to run your activity multiple times. It presents you with whatever power and input commands you've configured so you can just resend the offending commands, one at a time.

Thanks to Graham's breakthrough on the firmware updates, I just ordered 3 more Nevos. Auction was best offer, so I offered $13 each for 3 ($40 total) and the offer was accepted

[vickyg2003]

]In my activity macros, I just send the power on for all devices, no delay and then send the input switching commands for all devices. If the right things are on, or come on fast enough, things work fine. If one or more devices needed power and didn't have it soon enough, my primary user only has one rule to apply, "If it didn't work the first time, try the same activity button again." By the time anyone recognizes that we have this condition, the same activity macro will now work because every thing is powered up. Surprisingly this works almost always on the first button press and the same rule applies in many other cases as well.

My "power on" in the above statement will translate to toadtog where necessary, or invoke a workaround for the TOAD.

Good advice. I have never included power on in my device selection macros until this week. I just did a revision to my 8810's , to deal with the added wrinkle of having an AVR in the mix. My family room is very unforgiving if your aim is off. The ceiling is vaulted and camel color. It just doesn't reflect the signal back if your aim is off, and its hard to hold the remote pointed at the needed angle. Funny I read about the ceiling color being an issue back when John S Fine was posting. I didn't think of that when we had the ceiling painted the same color as the walls.

In FL we got new cable boxes, and they were huge. I stuck mine under the dresser and ordered an IR repeater. The new box runs so hot that I was worried about it catching fire so I put it on a shiny white tile I had on hand There is no line of site. As it turned out I don't need a IR repeater. I point the remote at the ceiling towards the TV the IR reflects off the ceiling and the white tile for a perfect transmission every time. So if your decorator suggests a ceiling color other than white, you might be in for a remote surprise.

Another trick I use is taking advantage of the fact that paging through screens wraps back around when you get to the end. So I put my most used commands on the 1st, 2nd and Last pages since I can page backwards to go directly to the last screen. So, power and inputs go on my last page and other commands go on my first two pages. I remember to go backwards if I need to fix power or input and forward if I want to access other functions.

That sounds good too. I like having a sound plan when I'm going in. .

I just ordered 3 more Nevos.

Well RMIR still has a way to go. I crashed RMIR hard and it was during a file save, and it corrupted my RMIR file. I have to start over from scratch. I never even got to Activities, so I still haven't seen all there is on this remote, but I'm impressed. But I just put in my order for more Nevo's too.

I wasn't really interested in the Nevo until just recently when I hit a wall on the AVR. I've had a Nevo for 20 months and hadn't put batteries in other than to make sure it fired up after I cleaned it. I've always been pretty anti any remote you had to look at to operate. I only bought one to see what you guys were talking about. So little interest until now. These are way ahead of the Kameleon in usability. Everthing still is a hard button on these. I like the angle that it shoots its signal at too. Its much more natural than my current remotes.

[The Robman]

Auction was best offer, so I offered $13 each for 3 ($40 total) and the offer was accepted

Does he have more available? Now that we know what he'll accept!

[mdavej]

Not sure. It was redtea1991. Never bought from him before, so condition is unknown.

[The Robman]

Here's his listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221755585578

[vickyg2003]

He is my seller. He had 100 pieces on hand as of last week. I've been attempting to buy a lot of 10, so far communications has been an issue.

[vickyg2003]

A couple more questions from a newbie.


1) On the NEVO general screen there is a Volume Lock On or Off for each device. How does that work for this remote? Normally when I see that I've been able to specify which device has the volume lock, not so on this as far as I can see.

2) On the devices screen there is a really confusing option. Specific to Device I've made the mistake of touching that column and it makes things extremely confusing and hard to recover from. It must be there for some reason, I just can't figure out what to do with it, other than avoid touching it at all costs.

[mdavej]

1) Pick a Master that will be your vol control device, i.e., AVR, then set every other device to On if you want vol locked to the Master for that device, Off otherwise. Vol key group device in each Activity overrides this.

2) I have no idea what you're referring to. Can you post a picture?

[vickyg2003]

1) Pick a Master that will be your vol control device, i.e., AVR, then set every other device to On if you want vol locked to the Master for that device, Off otherwise. Vol key group device in each Activity overrides this.

Yes, I can't figure out how to pick a Master. Its different than what I would do with my other JP1 remotes.

2) I have no idea what you're referring to. Can you post a picture?

Yes here are some moving pictures. Sorry about the sound quality, I left my microphone headset in FL.
https://youtu.be/A_D8PXjJgo4

[mdavej]

Ahhh, I see what you mean. Thanks for the video. Yes, got to leave that alone at all costs. I guess I learned to avoid it years ago and forgot it was even there. Another one to avoid changing there is the device type.

On Volume lock, you should have 3 choices in the drop down - Master, On and Off. I think you can also change this setting on the remote itself and download if you want to see how it correlates.

Also changing soft button function assignments after you've written macros using those buttons will mix things up.

[vickyg2003]

On Volume lock, you should have 3 choices in the drop down - Master, On and Off. I think you can also change this setting on the remote itself and download if you want to see how it correlates.

Ahh, my mistake, I typed "O" and it flipped to On/Off, I never saw the dropdown with the Master.

Ahhh, I see what you mean. Thanks for the video. Yes, got to leave that alone at all costs. I guess I learned to avoid it years ago and forgot it was even there. Another one to avoid changing there is the device type.

So Specific to Device is just useless choice that hurts you if you touch it.
I had changed device type without incident, maybe this is something that has been fixed or maybe it was just luck on my part.

Also changing soft button function assignments after you've written macros using those buttons will mix things up.

Yeah I bet that could mess it up. I guess adding macros is way down the list after you've tested the device and you are happy with the way the soft buttons display on the screen.

I have a question about FAVORITES too. I see that you can enter up to 8 digits, but I can't see a way to use this with subchannels. When I saw the _ under Enter button, I thought that was the place to enter the underscore or dot, but now looking at it, it probably indicates using it as a space for the alphabet.

Because I'm using a mix of boxless cable and OTA, I have lots of areas where I need to use the 999.99 or 99.999 formats.
I have a spot on my website where I keep a phone friendly list of the channel numbers for my Magnavox DVR. It sure would be nice if I could look the favorites up on the remote.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one left in the world using subchannels and that its a forgotten technology.

[xnappo]

Just a tip (as an owner of WAAAYYY too many of these) - if you get one with soft rubber - do NOT scratch it. Rub it with baby powder, wait 5 mins, wipe off with a wet towel, pat dry. Repeat 4 times. Good as new.