RMIR v2.14.0 is now officially released..
Version 2.14.0 of RMIR is a major update to the last official release, which was v2.13.2. It adds support for two new processors, the TI CC2533 first seen in the URC3220 and the GP565 first seen in the URC2135BC0. Support of the GP565 has required substantial changes to the way that .rmir and .ir files are written and read. The formats of these files allowed little flexibility for the addition of new data such as that required by the GP565. These formats have now been extended to give much greater freedom for new additions in a manner completely compatible with earlier versions of RMIR. Files in the extended formats can be read by such earlier versions, but as features dependent on the additional data will be absent from those versions, the additional data will simply be ignored.
Support for legacy JP1 remotes that used EEPROMs for data storage has been improved, now that the JP1 EEPROM Adapters that allowed these remotes to be used with JP1.x interface cables appear to be no longer available. The installation folder now includes a JP1EEPROMSupport subfolder that gives full instructions for using an Arduino board as a complete interface for legacy JP1 remotes, no JP1.x cable being required. The folder includes the Arduino sketch (Arduino's name for its programs) needed for this purpose. Any Arduino board can be used, though the instructions are primarily written for the Arduino Nano, including clones and the newer version called the Nano Every. Another legacy interface is JP1.1 which was used for a few remotes that had an SST processor. These can be used with a standard JP1.x cable by connecting pins 3 and 5 on the remote together, see this post for more information and full details of other ways that JP1.1 remotes can be supported.
The extended file formats and the Arduino support have both required updates to the jp12serial library, with jp12serial v0.32 being included in this new RMIR version. Support for controlled macros, a feature introduced in RMIR v2.13.2 that is supported by certain remotes, has been substantially improved. A number of bugs have been fixed, RDF, map and image files have been added for a few new remotes and some additions and corrections made to the protocols.ini support file.
The supported platforms continue to be 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, together with experimental support for Raspberry Pi. This version, like the others since 2.09, requires Java 8 or later. All later Java versions are supported, the current one is Java 17. Oracle has recently changed the way Java is licenced and distributed, as described in this informative article.
RMIR supports all currently known types of UEI remotes, including XSight and Simpleset remotes. UEI has closed down the EZ-RC.com website that provided support for XSight and similar remotes. RMIR provides complete replacement support for these remotes, including the ability to upgrade the firmware to the last version that UEI issued. XSight users new to RMIR, especially ones who have been directed here from the legacy page at EZ-RC.com, should read the Wiki article Getting started with XSight and Nevo for further information. No special action is needed to perform a firmware upgrade on an XSight remote. Just do a download in the usual way. If a firmware upgrade is available it will be offered. You may install it or not, at your choice, and if you choose not to install it, you are given the opportunity not to be offered the upgrade again in future.
RMIR incorporates IrpTransmogrifier by Bengt Martensson (Barf). This is a program for decoding, analyzing and rendering IR signals that is used by RMIR but is entirely separate from it. Command-line access to IrpTransmogrifier itself is available if required through the command files irptransmogrifier.bat (for Windows) and irptransmogrifier.sh (for Linux and Mac OS X) in the RMIR installation folder.
The XSight and Simpleset remotes are supported by RMIR directly via their USB interface, without the need for any cable other than the USB lead supplied with the remotes. Other remotes are supported through their JP1 6-pin connector with JP1.x interface cables. A few remotes, however, have an external 5-hole connector rather than the 6-pin connector in the battery compartment that is common in UEI remotes. These need an adapter to convert the 5-hole connector to the standard 6-pin one. Detailed instructions for making such an adapter are given here. Previously, strong advice has been given to use only interfaces with a genuine FTDI chip. The current jp12serial library is believed to work, for all remotes, with all available USB-to-Serial converters that have TTL-level voltage outputs and in particular with those with a Prolific chip whose use was previously discouraged, though some cables have counterfeit FTDI chips and these should be avoided.
Remotes that support the Bluetooth UEI phone app can access RMIR through their Bluetooth interface, in several ways. All supported OS platforms can do so with a BLED112 Bluetooth dongle. Windows users have two additional access methods. One uses the Bluetooth stack that is built in to Windows 10, but the remote needs v2.00 of the Bluetooth extender installed and this installation requires a one-off use of a JP1.x cable. The other is available both for Windows 10 and some earlier Windows versions (but so far only tested on Windows 8.1) and does not require this use of a JP1.x cable, but needs the installation of the BlueSoleil Bluetooth stack. See the Bluetooth thread Bluetooth is coming to RMIR for more details.
To upgrade from v2.12 or later without losing your settings, delete everything in your installation folder other than the RemoteMaster.properties file that contains your settings. Then unzip the new installation package into that folder and you are done. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your earlier installation and port your settings to v2.14, follow the installation instructions below and then copy the RemoteMaster.properties file from your earlier installation to this new one. In this case, however, you will need to use the menu item File > Set Directory to change the locations of the RDF, Images and AddOns folders from being in the old installation folder to the new one.
The RMIR menu item Help > Check for updates checks for new builds as well as new versions. If a new build or version is available then this menu item displays a message containing a hyperlink that will take you straight to the download for the update. This works in any build from v2.11 on, but not with versions earlier than v2.11 due to a change in the SourceForge website that maintains the distributions.
To install RMIR for any OS, first unzip the installation package to a new folder that is not read-only. For a Windows OS this means, in particular, that it should not be unzipped into a subfolder of the Program Files folder. After unzipping it, do the appropriate one of the following:
- If your OS is Windows then run Setup.vbs by double-clicking or otherwise. This will create three shortcuts, one each for RMIR, RMDU and RMPB. They will be created in your installation folder, but they are also copied to Start > All Programs > Remote Master if you are running a Windows version that has a Start menu. You may copy them to your desktop, or any other location, as you wish. Setup.vbs also creates file associations to open .rmir files in RMIR, .rmdu files in RMDU and .rmpb files in RMPB.
- If your OS is Linux then run setup.sh from Terminal as a shell script. If the current directory in Terminal is the RemoteMaster installation directory then the command "sh setup.sh" will run the script. It creates three .desktop shortcuts, one each for RMIR, RMDU and RMPB. They will be created in your installation folder, but they are also copied to your $HOME/.local/share/applications folder to ensure that they appear on your Dash. setup.sh will also add you to the dialout group of users, if you are not already in it. If you need to be added, then it will ask you for your sudo password as this step needs to be run with root privileges. This step is needed to enable RMIR to access USB serial ports without RMIR itself being run as root.
The distribution also contains a text file linux_xsight.rules. If you have an XSight or Nevo remote, you may need to copy this to the directory "/etc/udev/rules.d/". It may be re-named if desired, provided the extension .rules is kept. This file provides a user-friendly name for the XSight as a USB device. Some users have found that Linux systems cannot find the XSight/Nevo remote unless RM/RMIR is run as root, even after running setup.sh, unless this file is present. - If your OS is Mac OS X then there is as yet no special installation procedure.
When using XSight remotes (and similar ones such as Nevo) with Windows 8.1 or later, Enhanced Power Management needs to be disabled for access to the remote through the USB port. Changing this setting affects only the connection for that specific remote, leaving other devices accessed through USB ports unaffected. RMIR v2.14 checks for this and displays a message giving instructions for disabling it if it finds that this setting is still enabled.
RMIR is available only as a Java file and from version 2.09 onwards has required a Java 8 or later runtime environment, either 32-bit or 64-bit. Versions from 2.04 through 2.08 required Java 7 or later, version 2.03 and earlier only required Java 6. The release package includes the following support files:
- DecodeIR v2.45 as library files for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), Linux and Mac OS X.
- jp12serial v0.32 as library files for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), Linux, Mac OS X and Raspberry Pi.
- digitmaps.bin with digit maps up to number 749.
- protocols.ini which is a database of protocol executor data.
- RMIR.sys that contains the data needed by RMIR to perform firmware upgrades of the XSight remotes.
- The RDF File Specification, Version 4.
- The RDF File Specification, Version 5 as revision 18 of an Addendum to Version 4.
Please visit the JP1 Community Wiki for information about how to use RMIR. A link to the Tutorial in the Wiki is also included in the Help menu. Please note that as this project is supported solely by volunteers, the Wiki may not be up to date. This version of RMIR contains many new features required to support the newer types of remote. At the time of its release, these are not covered by the help files contained in the Wiki. RMIR itself, however, shows notes and tooltips (the text shown when you hover the mouse pointer over a button or table entry) designed to make its use as self-explanatory as possible.
The download package is available in the following folder. Just click on it to start the download. Please see above for installation instructions.
Links:
The RemoteMaster project home page.
IrpTransmogrifier manual.
JP1 Community Wiki
Tutorial (part of the Wiki)
Getting started with XSight and Nevo (also part of the Wiki)
Nevo and XSight Remotes (thread specific to these remotes)
Bluetooth is coming to RMIR (announcement thread for the new Bluetooth interface)
RF Support in RMIR (announcement thread for RF support through RF4CE)
jp12serial latest version (includes information on the various hardware interfaces supported by the jp12serial library)
Delcom and Prolific on Windows 10 (among other things, how to use a Delcom cable for JP1 remotes with Windows 10)
RMIR XSight Support (development thread)
RemoteMaster on Raspberry Pi with Raspian (development thread)
IrpTransmogrifier: new program/library for IRP protocols (development thread for IrpTransmogrifier)
Guide to Java Versions and Features (guide to the recent changes in Java availability)
How to install Java 8 on Windows XP (YouTube video and written instructions)
RM/RMIR v2.13 available (announcement thread for last official version)
. The use of the Phantom button as a bound button in a macro should be unchanged. The change that removed it from the Buttons tab was simply to remove buttons whose assignments need to be implemented as key moves in remotes that do not support key moves. Nothing else was affected.
But no worries.