JP1 Remotes

[The Robman]

I've never used MutliMacros myself, but from reading the text in the pop-up, my understanding is you can "stack" many macros on a single button, then when you use the button, it alternates between them, like this:

• Press 1 = macro 1
• Press 2 = macro 2
• Press 3 = macro 3, etc

Obviously (hopefully), if you only program one macro on a Multi button, it will execute the same macro each time, which is what you currently have.
_________________
Rob
www.hifi-remote.com
Please don't PM me with remote questions, post them in the forums so all the experts can help!

[dtrump]

Speaking from experience with MultiMacros on the 3660 and 3680, that is correct. After playing with them for picking different genre of channels, I went back to a single macro on each button. The problem with the rotating sequence of macros is that you may not remember where you are in the sequence ( possibly used hours before), and you are likely to end up with the wrong one until you press multiple times to arrive at the desired macro.

Another annoying part is that it requires a long press to activate that macro(s). A short press ends up with the bound function, sometimes undesirable.

[Jim978]

dtrump,

Thanks for the explanation of multimacros, and the drawbacks of using them.

If I finally understand how they work, I could create a multimacro using On Demand (or F1 or F2) with a single macro imbedded. That macro would launch with a short press every time I pressed the Bound Key. In other words, I would have a Normal macro using one of the keys that are not available if I had selected the Normal option. Have I got it right?

Thanks
_________________
Jim

[mathdon]

[Jim978]

Graham, thanks!
_________________
Jim

[dtrump]

Jim (& Graham)

Either I'm not following the process you described - or your Atlas remote works very differently than my 3660 - or I'm misunderstanding the resulting operation.

My desire was to work around the requirement to use a long press to execute a macro on one of the 4 colored buttons on my 3660. Those buttons are not available as the Bound key on anything but Multi-DSM Macros.

First, I created a normal macro on a normal button (Shift-Left for my test).
Using the Shift-Left directly, my macro works just fine. I then created a Multi-DSM macro on the Red button that calls the Shift-Left as its only command.

The result is that nothing happens on the Red button whether short or long press.

Have you had success with a similar process on the Atlas remote, presumably using the OnDemand, Macro1 or Macro2 as the Bound key?

[jmezz13]

[Jim978]

dtrump,

I had created a multimacro using one of the permitted keys as a test. When I was able to create that macro I simply assumed (because I could see each command listed right there on the screen) that it would work as intended. I never tested the macro ... until now.

Since I already had a macro on the On Demand key (created using 2.08), I created a new macro on the F1 key using RM 2.14. That macro toggled the tv power key. I then tested the macro, and it worked using a short press. The Atlas doesn't function exactly like remotes I have used in the past. For some time I was using OFA 8820 remotes. Those remotes had some support for long presses. The Atlas doesn't, so there is no way for me to test with anything but a short press.

By the way, in creating the test macro I noticed something that I had missed earlier. It appears that macros bound to F1, F2, and On Demand can have F1, F2, and On Demand as Definition Keys! A recursive macro might be a bit problematic, I would think.

Hope this helps more than it confuses.
_________________
Jim

[dtrump]

Responding first to jmezz13

A MultiDSM can be created in the Special Functions tab (at least with RMIR 2.14.16). When starting a new macro, you can select DSM, RealTimeDSM or MultiDSM. My understanding is that the DSM forces a macro to be executed using the Device that it was created with and will not be executed unless that Device is active, either by selecting it directly or is part of an active Activity.

I tried creating a standard MultiMacro on the Red button with the Shift-Left as the only action in the macro. The Red button failed to execute the Shift-Left macro with either a short or long press.

Now to respond to Jim

It sounds like there is indeed a difference between how the Atlas and the 3660 behaves with these special keys. I doubt that it is a difference between RMIR versions, but I could be wrong. I have never tried a recursive key, but I suspect you are right that it would be problematic.

Dick

[jmezz13]

[jmezz13]

Ok. So, I got a macro on a short press on the red button working, but it's a strange workaround that is very similar to what is discussed on page 13 of this thread.

Instead of deleting the activity segments as described there, the idea is to edit the segment type 02 (Multi Macro)and make it a type 01 (Standard Macro) and then delete the third byte (which defines the number of multimacros assigned to the button which is not needed for regular macros). In my test, after putting a MultiDSM on the Red Key, there was a segment 02 with the following bytes:
07 29 01 05 07 3F 41 0D 3F

After checking "Preserve Original Data", I edited the Type from 02 to 01. Then I deleted the 01 so the Data field was:
07 29 05 07 3F 41 0D 3F

Then I clicked "Apply" and uploaded to the remote. After that, a single short press of the red key in TV mode executed the 3 keys (it was really 5, but two of them were device keys and so have no output) I had assigned in the MultiDSM. This probably makes absolutely no sense reading it the first time. I am really putting this out there for Graham because there seems to be a way to assign regular macros to the color keys on the 3660 and he can probably explain it better than me.

If desired, I can put out a better step by step description of how to do this kind of like the process HamburgerHelper1 developed (one my posts had my process based on that) to override the activity keys.

Edit: After looking at the RDF, 29 is indeed the Red button, Just for reference the color buttons on this remote have the following button numbers (may be useful if trying to locate the correct Segment Type 02 entry)
Red = 29
Green =2A
Yellow = 2B
Blue = 2C

[dtrump]

jmezz13

Thanks for the exploration and solution to that. I'm away from home at the moment but will give that a try later. I'm attempting to make the programming a little more wife friendly. We have Harmony remotes for our primary TV spread among seating positions. She is used to those, but their demise made me revisit JP1 capabilities for our soon to be finished family room in the lower level. If these work out well, I'll probably replace the Harmony remotes with 3660 or 3680s.

Dick

[dtrump]

Excellent

That does exactly what I was hoping for.

What seemed odd to me is that downloading into RMIR from the remote after the changes have been made reverts to the original Segment type with the number of macros set to 01 again. That is - until I set the "Preserve Original Data" option. So I assume that whenever editing this configuration in the future, I'll need to set that option.

But knowing that this is a valid operating mode, it would be nice if RMIR could recognize that and make it a directly selected mode for macros.

Thanks again for that research!

[jmezz13]

I just realized that another way to get short press DSMs on the color keys would be to delete the entries in the RDF for the 3660 under [MultiMacros]. It would avoid all the segment editing and strange upload method.

I'm not sure if editing the RDF is frowned upon, but it seems like a workaround for this functionality.

[The Robman]