Amstrad Sky+

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:10 am

Trying to pair up my new Kameleon URC9960 with my Sky+ satellite box (Sky+ is a satellite PVR over here in the UK) -- Apparently I need to program in the code 1175, but my Kameleon doesn't recognise that code.

Have found the JP1 site, and whilst normally i'd have no trouble just buying a cable, as i'm over in the UK .. the cable costs $15 + $30shipping .. and probably about 2-3weeks delivery ... i'd rather get this all working for christmas if I could.

I'd appreciate if anyone could point me in the direction of the appropriate WAV file that I need to get the URC9960 to listen to.

Thanks.

1. Device: Amstrad Sky+
2. Type of device: Satellite / PVR
3. Remote model: One-4-All Kameleon URC-9960
4. JP1 user? don't have a JP1 cable, but can upload a WAV
5. Still have original remote? yes ... learning capacity of 9960 only allows
me to program about half of the Sky+
buttons into the kameleon
6. Checked Yahoo file section? yep
7. Checked Pronto file section (at R/C)? yep

uwereinert · Post by **uwereinert** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:18 am

There is a KM file (cable-1175) for the European 8060. You could change the button assignment for your 9960 in KM and then create a wav upgrade via IR6 RC1.

Uwe

Post by **The Robman** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 7:28 am

TheBoffin wrote:Have found the JP1 site, and whilst normally i'd have no trouble just buying a cable, as i'm over in the UK .. the cable costs $15 + $30shipping .. and probably about 2-3weeks delivery ... i'd rather get this all working for christmas if I could.

Who gave you the $30 shipping quote? I bet it wasn't either Hovis Direct or Filebug. If you can't get a better deal from either of those two, I'll sell you a cable for $15 plus $5 shipping via GPM (which usually takes 4 days) plus $1 paypal fees if appropiate.

Also, with the 9960, you need to either solder in a 6-pin connector or you need to buy yourself a pogo-pin adapter. I don't carry the adapters, so you'd need to get it from one of the 2 vendors I mentioned if you want one.

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:00 am

uwerinert - i'll have a look at that file, and see 'what *I* can do' with it.

robman - I've actually found one on eBay, and purchased it, so as soon as it comes through, I can do a proper backup of my remote, and start messing!!

Thanks both for the swift response.

Brian.

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:03 am

One more silly question .... how do you get the URC-9960 to upgrade from a WAV file ? what setup buttons do I need to press??

Thanks again.

Brian

uwereinert · Post by **uwereinert** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:09 am

I would say: RTFM

Uwe

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:25 am

LMAO, believe me, if it were 'in the manual' ... i'd not have asked such a basic question

obviously when I do get my hands on the JP1 cable all of this is irrelevant anyhow.

jon_armstrong · Post by **jon_armstrong** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:30 am

uwereinert wrote:I would say: RTFM

In this case I don't think there is any FM to read

IIRC, you need to:
1. Download IrtoWav here and unzip into a directory,
2. Make sure you have a run time version of Java installed,
3. In IR, lFile|New|select the proper remote, load the upgrade as usual,
4. then, File|Convert to wav and I assume you select only upgrades. I think IR asks for a directory to find IRtoWav.
5. Make sure to tighly wrap aluminum foil over your head ...

Post by **The Robman** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:23 am

jon_armstrong wrote:In this case I don't think there is any FM to read

I think he's actually asking what he needs to do to put the URC-9960 into "upgrade" mode. While there is some talk of upgrades on page 30 of the manual, the manual just says that the customer service rep will walk you though what you need to do. I don't remember what the procedure is with the 9960 but I will try and find out (unless someone else posts it first).

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:44 am

The best I found was this thread
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mb ... i?3880,1#2
which says:
long press of setup, press other, then enter the 997

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:05 pm

Thanks for that ... i've been looking and looking, and just not coming up with the goods!!

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:05 pm

Ok, thanks to everyone for the help along the way. I've essentially got it all working, and this is really a collaboration of alot of efforts and helpful advices from various resources. I'm listing this on this and all of the other contributing websites/forums, so hopefully anyone else going through a similar process maybe able to short-circuit the learning process.

Thanks to websites/forums on:
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk
http://www.remotecentral.com
https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/

I can wholly recommend ALL of these websites/forums to people who are bringing together technology in their living-rooms!

Ok, my problem was this: Having purchased a One-4-All Kameleon URC-9960 from eBay (its a model that is not sold in the UK), the 4-digit code that I needed to map out my Amstrad Sky+ satellite box wasn't in-built on the remote.

Actually my first problem was to identify the 4-digit code, non of the codes listed in the Kameleon manual would work, and even scanning through available codes on the remote proved to be a waste of effort. http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/member.php?u=32978 clockworks999 from digitalspy pointed out the correct 4-digit code for this device, which was 1175

Armed with 1175, I once more tried this code on the Kameleon, and sure enough, it wasn't built into my remote.

I was aware that the URC-9960 had a built in modem, and could have 'firmware' upgrades sent to it via the phone (as an audio file), or indeed as a WAV file played by your computer. So the One-4-All website seemed the next place to look....

The One-4-All website, is a pile of 'pooh' (yes its official!!), I followed every link of both the USA and UK site (which are both very different), and couldn't find anywhere to download the 'patch' for the URC-9960 and the 1175 code.

Further web-searching, brought me in touch with www.remotecentral.com and www.hifi-remote.com - Now it turns out that most of these remote controls have a set of pins labelled JP1, that you can connect a cable to and connect to your computer, and with some freely available software, you can do absolutely ANYTHING to your remote! Wow .... as a software developer this began to excite me!! (ok, i'm easily excited).

I posted a message on remotecentral.com hoping someone with a URC-9960 would have the means to create a WAV file for me - but in the meantime, I got hold of the JP1 software to see what could be done WITHOUT having a JP1 cable (maybe i'd be able to do something!).

The JP1 software is ALL available here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1/
I downloaded the following files, and installed them to C:\Kameleon
IR600RC1.ZIP .......................... latest version of IR.EXE
DEVICES.ZIP ........................... required
DEVICES4.ZIP .......................... required
IRTOWAV.ZIP ........................... converts codes into WAV format
RDFs_for_IR_and_RM_Version_1.17.zip ... Latest RDF's
KEYMAP-MASTER.ZIP ..................... latest version

With a little bit of reading, and alot of playing, I realised that IR.EXE is the main tool which *IF* you have a JP1 cable, will allow you to plug your remote-control into your computer, back it up, mess with its configuration, and send it back to the remote. Fortunately this software also interfaces with IRTOWAV.EXE, and allows you to build WAV files that only contain the changes you make.

The important thing with IR.EXE is to start with the 'correct' RDF (Remote Definition File) for your remote. There were 4 RDF files that looked like they were to do with the URC-9960 :
KASAKAS0 (URC-9960 B01 One For All Kameleon).rdf
NAK0NAK0 (URC-9960 One For All Kameleon).rdf
NAKxNAK2 (URC-9960 One For All Kameleon Extender 2).rdf
NAKxNAKx (URC-9960 One For All Kameleon Extender 1).rdf

Not sure what the Extender versions are, but the B01 version didn't work for me at all - so I used the NAK0NAK0 version.

A message I posted on www.hifi-remote.com was answered by 'uwereinert', and he pointed my to a KM (KeyMap Master file) for a 1175 device (the Sky+ box) for another One-4-All remote called the 8060. His suggestion was to "You could change the button assignment for your 9960 in KM and then create a wav upgrade via IR6 RC1." ... simple eh!! ??

The link to the KM file is here: https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... ile_id=968

The next step of my journey, was to load up the Keymap-Master-v8.31.xls spreadsheet (with macros enabled), to load the KM file i'd just downloaded, and to select the remote type as URC-9960. Within the Keymap-master spreadsheet, you can also re-map/reassign buttons/functions - at the point of writing this I didn't bother (for me the import step was to get the URC-9960 to have receive the code 1175, so I could assign it to the satellite button ... anything else I could play with later).

Now that keymap-master has 1175 loaded, and the correct remote-control selected; fire up IR.EXE, select NEW, and select the correct RDF file (in my case NAK0NAK0). Switch back to KeyMap-master, select the COPY icon in the protocol box (this just copies the protocol codes to clip-board) ... switch back to IR.EXE, select the PROTOCOL tab, and ADD, then paste the clipboard into it.

Switch back to keymap-master, select the COPY icon in the Upgrade/Keymove codes box (this just copies this code into the clipboard). Switch back to IR.EXE, select the DEVICES tab, click ADD, and paste the keyboard buffer. You'll end up with a new 1175 device as an upgrade.

You can now use IR.EXE to Export the Upgrade to a WAV file. As I didn't start off with a FULL backup of my URC-9960 I only wanted to upload the change .. i.e, the new device code 1175 (and its keymappings).

My next problem was how do I get the URC-9960 to listen to the WAV file. johnsfine on www.hifi-remote.com came to my rescue pointing me to the following thread:
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mb ... i?3880,1#2

The procedure is fairly simple.
Hold SETUP down for a few seconds,
press OTHER
enter 997, wait for the remote to go blank
play-back the WAV file, positioning the remote by the computer speaker

Thats it. Now to assign the new 1175 to the Sat/Cble button. Hold SETUP down for a few seconds, press DEV Set, press Sat/Cble button, enter 1175, it should flash twice to say the code is recognised, select OK, press HOME twice and thats it.

Thankyou to everyone who helped along the way. I now have on order a JP1 cable, and I will further optimise my Amstrad Sky+ button mappings over time.

Now, to program my other devices!! (and find the codes for them!!)
TV: Hitachi 36" Widescreen code: 0145 seems to work ok
DVD: MX 5700D code: ????
VCR: Sony SLV-SE700 code: ????

Brian Dukes

floodster · Post by **floodster** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:23 am

TheBoffin
I want to be able to control my Sky+ box with a one for all controller & your post gives me the details but I was being lazy & wondered if you had anything that would help me do this a lot quicker & also can you advise me.

Do I need a cable.
Do the new 2nd Gen 6-in-1 controllers work??

I'm not a techy so step by step instructions are REALLY good for me.

thanks

TheBoffin · Post by **TheBoffin** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:19 am

The only things that I have that will help you are what i've already detailed above.

In theory if you follow my instructions, which should be 'none technical', for your model of remote control; then you will end up creating a WAV file; which you can play on your PC, and get your remote-control to listen to - thus upgrading it.

If its a UK spec remote, I'd suggest calling the OFA tech support number thats printed in your manual - I didn't go that route, because I have a US spec remote, and because I am technically minded, it didn't seem too difficult for me to create the files needed.

That said, if you can get yourself a JP1 cable, they're a whole lot easier to configure and upgrade ... but you still won't really get away from needing to know a little!!

My best advise is call the OFA support line, thats what they're there for.

Hope that helps.

Brian.

JP1 Remotes

Amstrad Sky+

Amstrad Sky+

Re: Amstrad Sky+

Thankyou everyone - Here's the solution:

can you help me out