Updated Extinstall - what would you like to see

[unclemiltie]

Hi Bill..

I have the feeling that the notes' transport feature doesn't work properly yet, at least on my setup and converting my current 9960B01 Ext101 file to the latest Ext103 using your latest .hex file for the extender and the RDF you provided..

It seems that, instead of carying over the notes, it carries in the notes sections some small parts of the device or the protocol itself, but don't quote me on this.. see for yourself, as I'm not ashamed to declare that I am not able to read anything from the code!

it appears to me that the extinstall part still is functioning properly but the comments did get a bit messed up. I think I know where I went wrong.

The "numbers" that you see in the comment fields are the comment idenifier that tells IR which device/protocol/advance code the comment is for in the IR file. So seeing $4001= in the comment means that I somehow got the identifier as part of the comment. I'll have to chase that down, but I think your IR file should still work fine.



edit: Just looked at the code and found that although on the Advance codes I made sure that I didn't put any blank comments into the comment field, on upgrades I didn't check. Thus, it was putting blank comments in since the HEX file doesn't have comments associated with the devices/protocols that are built-in. I'm pretty sure that this is what is causing the problem, but...

could you verify that the remote still functions as you had designed it and all of your upgrades work properly so that I can fix anything there before I post a new version.


thanks

-bill

[unclemiltie]

I just updated the ZIP file in the main topic to fix two bugs in the previous version.

1: if there was no comment on the general tab, a blank comment was inserted in the IR file with a tag of $0000=. I think this could have caused the next comment to be ignored in some circumstances. Now if there is no general comment the general comment tag is not included

2: the bug reported here earlier where if there was no comment on a device, a blank tag was also inserted. This caused some oddities in the way that IR parsed the comment list.

Both of these have been fixed. I have run the file that joedaring sent through the previous (non-comment) version and this version and they are identical in the data portion.


enjoy and keep that feedback coming!

[ElizabethD]

When RDF files not in the IR directory where extinstall is, it wants to speak hieroglyphics

Loading 7800EXT5.HEX data and comments
RDF not found for 7800EXT5.HEX, Signature: C7L0X7L5¿∞╔√☺

Loading 8910ex1.hex data and comments
RDF not found for 8910ex1.hex, Signature: CPT0CPx1Å╠╣ƒ☺

When things don't fit, as they don't for my one 8910 file , It said

Couldn't fit upgrade ID 0x11F (287)
Couldn't fit upgrade ID 0x109 (265)

These two look like protocols to me, not upgrades.Devices came through fine. None of the keymoves got transferred.
When it fits, everything is good. Can't test comments here, as this file was built before Notes existed.

7800 conversion baffles me. None of the keymoves got transferred. Errors were

Data missing at 800
Data missing at 801
Data missing at 802
Data missing at 803
Data missing at 804
Data missing at 805
Data missing at 806
Data missing at 807
Data missing at 808
Data missing at 809
Data missing at 80A
Data missing at 80B
Data missing at 80C

7800 ends at $07ff.

6131 went through fine (other than that pause). Comments got included, all in correct places - general, keymoves, macros, devices, I had none on protocols. Thanks, it's really nice!

[vickyg2003]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was something wrong with the 7800 extender RDF. I was really flying blind when I was working on that one. That's where I would look first.

Edit: I looked at this this morning and I think changing this line

AdvCodeAddr=$400..$7FF
AdvCodeAddr=$400..$790
should be done to the extender rdf. and this may just cure the 7800 extInstall woes too.

[joedaring]

Hellò Bill,

I'm sorry of having NOT being able to respond to your request for feedback in the latest posts...

I wasn't at home and could not try anything in time..

You were quicker than me with your fix!

I'll go ahead and test your latest release in a few moments, then I'll let you know...

Thanks again and ciao!

Pippo "Joe Daring"

[joedaring]

Hi Bill,

Just made some tests...

While most (..read further for what "most" mean..) upgrades do work and the remote's behavior is what I actually "designed" it, there are a couple of things I have noticed:

- Notes eventually accompanying the original devices and protocols that make-up the extender are "lost in translation" . I had actually added notes to the various devices and protocols in your extender, to help remember what actually each of them was... I believe that notes are not actually lost, but they are simply missing in the .hex file I'm using for the new extender, and it's not too much trouble to copy them over from my previous set-up, but I preferred to let you know this, just in case something could be done in next releases.

- I don't know if the above is also the reason for my second little problem:
The Other Settings in the General Tab don't get carried over to the new file, and they must all be set again manually. Again, not too much of a hassle, but better note this.

Lastly, and I believe this is not a problem of ExtInstall and have to resort to Rob's help again, I have one protocol (belonging to an upgrade that Rob has helped me to define to command lights in my TV room via a IR Commander and IR Switch sold here in Italy by bTicino, a big firm that makes wall mount devices for house appliances) that don't get carried over to the new file, and anyway it doesn't work even if I copy it by hand from the original file. I didn't notice this at first, but then I realized that the problem is asociated to the fact that the protocol that Rob created for me has the same PID (01FF) as the Brightness Special Protocol in your Extender.

Now I need to ask somebody how to change the PID in the IR Switch's Protocol, as I ignore the implications of doing so arbitrarily...

I think Rob is the right person, but maybe somebody else here can suggest what's best to do.

I have created a new zip containing the new Source and Output files for evaluation.. they are at the same URL as before, since I edited my previous post in the diagnosis are trying not to crowd it too much:

http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=4897

Again, any help is welcome

Ciao to all and good sunday!

Pippo

[unclemiltie]

All of what you describe is the "expected behavior" of the extinstall.

1: I am going to release the extender with the "notes" for the special protocols built in so that they carry over. Since those devices/protocols come from the HEX file and not the IR file, those protocols and devices are what are installed, and they don't have notes. You could manually add them to the HEX file or wait a bit till I put them in the HEX when I distribute the next version of the extender.

2: your problem with the 1FF protocol is also expected since Extinstall believes that if a protocol exists both in the extender and in the original that it should use the version in the extender.

3: I'll bet that some of the general settings are coming in the extender file since I set them during debug. (like the device numbers, etc). I'll have to take those out of hte extender file since again, if the data is in the extender file Extinstall believes that it should put it in the output file.

Can you tell me which settings are the ones that are getting clobbered so that I can remvoe them from the extender on the enxt release?


thanks

[unclemiltie]

When RDF files not in the IR directory where extinstall is, it wants to speak hieroglyphics :)

Code: Select all

Loading 7800EXT5.HEX data and comments
RDF not found for 7800EXT5.HEX, Signature: C7L0X7L5¿????

Loading 8910ex1.hex data and comments
RDF not found for 8910ex1.hex, Signature: CPT0CPx1Å??ƒ?

Liz, this is something weird that I can't figure out how to deal with in C. I tell it to print 8 characters (actually lengthof(sig) which is 8) and it wants to print more. It's something that I need to chase down when I get some time to think about the "clean up phase" of this code.

When things don't fit, as they don't for my one 8910 file , It said

Couldn't fit upgrade ID 0x11F (287)
Couldn't fit upgrade ID 0x109 (265)

These two look like protocols to me, not upgrades.Devices came through fine.

Extinstall treats both device upgrades adn protocol upgrades as "upgrades" and thus you would get this message if things won't fit. Remember, I have not yet gone in and figured out how to deal with the "extra upgrade" stuff that IR does these days.

None of the keymoves got transferred.
When it fits, everything is good. Can't test comments here, as this file was built before Notes existed.

7800 conversion baffles me. None of the keymoves got transferred. Errors were

Code: Select all

Data missing at 800
Data missing at 801
Data missing at 802
Data missing at 803
Data missing at 804
Data missing at 805
Data missing at 806
Data missing at 807
Data missing at 808
Data missing at 809
Data missing at 80A
Data missing at 80B
Data missing at 80C

7800 ends at $07ff.

6131 went through fine (other than that pause). Comments got included, all in correct places - general, keymoves, macros, devices, I had none on protocols. Thanks, it's really nice!

can you email me the HEX and input IR file to my home address. I'll try to run through this one while in debug mode and see what's happening. In genral, when you get the "data missing" error you're running into the length of the keymove not getting set right and trying to copy data that isn't there.

[unclemiltie]

Hi Bill,

The Other Settings in the General Tab don't get carried over to the new file, and they must all be set again manually. Again, not too much of a hassle, but better note this.

if this is anything other than the initial HT device settings (the extender sets them all to CBL in the HEX file) I'd like to know about it. Given the wider distribution and the fact that Extinstall now works with this extender, I'll take this out of the extender in the next release ( which I am working on right now, it saves about 60 bytes of upgrade space by shrinking the special protocols)

-bill

[joedaring]

Hi Bill,

Ok, I suspected that these were not malfunctions but side-effects of the way ExtInstall works..

About the Other Settings not caried-over, they are all the "Initial" keygroups settings (Which you already told me are set into the Extender .hex), then the Shift and XShift Keycode and, finally, the HT Keycode...

Nothing that could not be taken care of manually, but it would be better if the settings in the source file were kept...

Of course, I understand this is happening because my source file is already extended...

Hope this reply is in time for your next release, Bill..

About my double PID=01FF protocol... do you have any hint about what should I do? Or should I better summon Rob, The Master of All Protocols for this task?

I'm sure it's not big deal to change the PID in the Upgrade for the IR Switch and commander, but I'm not sure I can do this arbitrarily... I need advice on this...

Ciao Bill.. thanks again for all the efforts...
Pippo

[unclemiltie]

you can edit both the device and the protocol to change the PID of your lamp setup (or the brightness control) to something else.

In the device tab, double click the device that uses that protocol. The first byte in the upgrade device box (the top large box with all of the hex code in it) -is the low portion of the protocol ID, so if you change that from FF to FD you will change the protoco to 1FD. (I'm not going to go into where the 1 comes from right now, it's not relevant)

In the protocol tab, double click the protocol and the protocol ID will show up in a box. Change it to the same as the other one (in this example, 1FD)

you'll be all set. The extender doesn't use 1FD so this should be good for you. I think you want to stay away from 1FE for some reason, but can't remember why.

On the Shift, Xshift and HT keycodes, those are always going to come from the extender since they are embedded in the code that does the extender and I can't "leave those out" like I can the HT setup. The next release of the extender has the HT defaults out, but if you like you can edit the HEX file with Windows Notepad and take out the line that looks like this:


01B: 00 00 00 00 00 00
(for those using the 6960B00, this line starts with 017: )


and then Extinstall will work without messing up your HT configuration.



-bill

[joedaring]

Hi again, Bill...

thanks for all the info... now I have all the tools to make things work with my setup,

But I want to share with you Rob's thoughts on the matter... I asked him about the double PID in another thread, and this is his comment:

$01FF is the PID that the UEI folks often use for one-off protocols, which means it's unlikely to ever be used as an official PID.

Therefore, I use this PID all the time for custom execs that I create.

To answer your immediate question, yes, you can change the PID in KM to whatever you like. But, I think it would be a better idea to ask Bill to use a different PID for the special protocol, due to the fact that I have already created many upgrades using this PID and I will continue to use it as the PID for custom execs.
_________________
Rob

As I said, I'm all set now that I have all the info about the matter of changing PIDs, and I may just change my IR Switch Upgrade's protocol's PID to 01FD as you suggested or, as I don't use the Brightness Special Protocol anyway, I may just leave that out....

I report Rob's comment for completeness' sake only.

I'm always amazed seeing how you all JP1 folks are commited to help us with all these powerful remotes in our hands and NO knowledge of the "JP1 Way"

As a tyre ad used to boldly say here in Italy: "Power is NOTHING without control"

Ciao all! Thanks a Ton
Pippo

[ElizabethD]

Edit: I looked at this this morning and I think changing this line

AdvCodeAddr=$400..$7FF
AdvCodeAddr=$400..$790
should be done to the extender rdf. and this may just cure the 7800 extInstall woes too.

Thanks, Vicky. Good idea. The change made no difference, but should be made, regardless.

[ElizabethD]

can you email me the HEX and input IR file to my home address. I'll try to run through this one while in debug mode and see what's happening. In genral, when you get the "data missing" error you're running into the length of the keymove not getting set right and trying to copy data that isn't there.

Done.
Bill, the source file 7800std has 3 keymoves at the end, or more, that I would not really expect extinstall to be able to translate at all. It could be the cause of those 'data missing' errors. Devices 1206, 1207, 1208.

[ElizabethD]

The 7800 errors I saw

Data missing at 800
Data missing at 801
Data missing at 802
...

were user error. Bill's extinstall works perfectly. I used a wrong, therefore nonexistent, unextended RDF

This is a major breakthrough in that we can now carry over the Notes. Thanks, Bill, for your work on it!