Radio Shack 15-100 Extender

Post by **mathdon** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:18 am

Compatibility update

The situation has changed since my last post. I think I've cracked the compatibility problem. See my latest post here. I haven't posted Beta 6 yet - it needs more testing and I would like to get some reactions to what I have proposed before I post it - but I'll do so in the next few days if reactions are favourable.
__________________

Graham

adamwh · Post by **adamwh** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 7:36 am

I just got my remote modified over the weekend and installed the extender. Seems to work really well with the things I usually program into my remotes (mostly LKP/DKP stuff, nothing really complicated). The only odd things I've noticed so far is that the Check/Uncheck buttons seem to be reversed, and the Power button seems like it is in the V group (I can't turn on/off any of my components that have volume set to the receiver... it only turns on/off the receiver).

On an ergonomic note... is there a way to get the clock to show up while the light is on? From what I can tell the only way to get the clock to show up is to hold down the light button, which turns off the light. It also toggles the light on/off setting even if you're just holding the button down to see the clock. Ideally, I'd like to see the clock on the second line of the LCD all the time, instead of the device type (I know you haven't gotten into the LCD part yet, just making a suggestion!). My clock also seems to be off by 12 hours with auto-set enabled.

Thanks for all your hard work!

pH7_jp1 · Post by **pH7_jp1** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:24 pm

The problem is with the RDF, see this thread: http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10684

I think these have been fixed, so you may just need to download the corrected RDF. Otherwise fixing the RDF yourself is easy.

unclemiltie · Post by **unclemiltie** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:51 pm

adamwh wrote: On an ergonomic note... is there a way to get the clock to show up while the light is on? From what I can tell the only way to get the clock to show up is to hold down the light button, which turns off the light. It also toggles the light on/off setting even if you're just holding the button down to see the clock. Ideally, I'd like to see the clock on the second line of the LCD all the time, instead of the device type (I know you haven't gotten into the LCD part yet, just making a suggestion!). My clock also seems to be off by 12 hours with auto-set enabled.

Thanks for all your hard work!

The LCD is a serious challenge. First I need (someday) to really figure out how it works since all of the bits are clocked in serially. But more interesting is that what goes into each display is in a table that I really can't change. I doubt that given that this remote is not that heavily used as a JP1 remote and the time is a serious investment, I wouldn't count on it.

As for the backlight and the clock, yea that's annoying. I haven't been able to figure out how to get around it, especially since the extender isn't processing the light button (that's the only button that the extender doesn't process, the remote deals with it before the extender gets called)

unclemiltie · Post by **unclemiltie** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:18 pm

I've built a new version of the extender but have not had time to test it. If anyone is interested, PM me and I'll send it to you for testing.

This version is intended to be the release version.

IR8 setup code validation
IR8 extender version display

This version requires IR 8, beta 9 at least

If I can get some testers then I'll be able to release this sooner, otherwise it'll have to wait until I get through all of the stuff that I'm working on including rebuilds of all of the JP1.3 remotes

adamwh · Post by **adamwh** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:32 am

pH7_jp1 wrote:The problem is with the RDF, see this thread: http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10684

I think these have been fixed, so you may just need to download the corrected RDF. Otherwise fixing the RDF yourself is easy.

Thanks!

Figured out my volume problem as well; just the lack of an x_cancel where I needed one.

unclemiltie · Post by **unclemiltie** » Fri May 15, 2009 11:16 am

see base topic, V1.00 has been released

microhof · Post by **microhof** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:52 am

Hi, and thanks for making this extender. I'm new to extenders, and I'm having a problem with the latest available version of this one on my 15-100 remote. The problem is that my profile works fine ... for about a day. Awhile later, if I run a DSM that was working fine the previous day, it "crashes" halfway through (the screen activates all segments for a few seconds and the light blinks). Most functions remain intact after the crash, but running the same DSM again reproduces it. I discovered that removing & inserting the batteries makes it work as expected again, until the next time it decides to stop working.

I have a slightly different IR profile that I was using before this one, which I had thought didn't crash. I put that back in the remote, but after about a day again, a DSM caused a similar crash -- though that time, after I ran a few other DSMs, I couldn't reproduce it immediately anymore.

Any ideas about this would be appreciated.

If I can help troubleshoot or debug in any way, I'm game. I'm a software engineer, just a n00b to extenders. I can upload the profiles later (I'm at work now). They include 7 custom devices, some fairly simple DSMs (that make use of delays), and a few ToadTogs. To fit all of my devices, I removed the multiplexer and LDKP protocols.

Some other notes:
I bought this remote pre-modded with a header.
I've noticed that my clock time doesn't update with either profile in the remote.
When the crash occurs, I start having trouble reading/writing to the remote in the form of a "Jpi2" error (or something like that). Actually it seems to be reading that is the trouble, because if I write a different profile, it seems to receive it OK and then the error is just that the data read back doesn't match the data written -- then if I try some more it starts behaving.

Post by **vickyg2003** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:02 pm

Microhof, nearly all your problems sound like bad batteries or loose batteries.

the data read back doesn't match the data written

Every time I get that message its a symptom of weak batteries.

The same thing when a macro stops working, and then works better after a rest.

I had batteries that would shift in one of my older remotes, and that would cause my macros to go haywire too.

unclemiltie · Post by **unclemiltie** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:00 pm

Vicky beat me to it, but this sounds like batteries.

i find taht on my Atlas I'll have some stuff work then go haywire depending on how many buttons I've pushed recently. I'd try new batteries, if that doesn't help then we can communicate directly and I'll try and load your config into my remote and see what happens.

-bill

microhof · Post by **microhof** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:40 pm

Thanks for the quick responses, guys. I will try brand new batteries and let you know if it happens again. Any ideas on why my clock would remain stuck at the time I downloaded from IR? (Not that it matters to me as I don't use the clock for anything, I just wondered about it when considering whether that could be an indicator that something was wrong with my profile or the download).

unclemiltie · Post by **unclemiltie** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:40 pm

microhof wrote:Thanks for the quick responses, guys. I will try brand new batteries and let you know if it happens again. Any ideas on why my clock would remain stuck at the time I downloaded from IR? (Not that it matters to me as I don't use the clock for anything, I just wondered about it when considering whether that could be an indicator that something was wrong with my profile or the download).

There is (or should be) nothing in the IR file that can change the functioning of the clock. The extender reads the value dropped into the IR file during upload and then loads it into the clock registers, but if it's not changing then the remote is not updating the clock. I'd have to go back and look at stuff to see what happens when the battery voltage drops (there is a low-voltage sensing circuit in the remote and the remote stops doing certain things, updating the clock display may be one of them)

-bill

microhof · Post by **microhof** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:51 am

After replacing batteries, my problem has gone away. False alarm... However, the clock still refuses to update.

unclemiltie · Post by **unclemiltie** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:09 am

did the clock update in the non-extended remote? (i.e. if you set the clock would it then keep proper time?)

I really don't do anything to the clock other than update the time and tell the remote that the time doesn't have to be set on startup.

microhof · Post by **microhof** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:19 pm

I didn't check the clock behavior before I downloaded the extender so I can't say if it worked normally or not. Not really an issue for me, I always thought a clock on the remote was useless to begin with. If you say it isn't likely be the extender's fault, I believe you.