Macro and Keymove Solutions

[vickyg2003]

Every once in a while someone brings up the idea of a best macro solution. Those posts never seem to go anywhere and are always very confusing because everybody is adding there own two cents.

I'm getting ready to make some changes to the JP1 Tool, and thought that it might be nice to put together a list of your macro solutions.

So if you think this is a good idea and you'd like to share, let me know.

[The Robman]

I'm not clear on the subject, solutions to what? What do people think is wrong with macros currently?

[vickyg2003]

Oh I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that there was anything wrong with macros or keymoves.

I meant posts on how people tamed their home theater systems.

When I first came to the boards, I had some very simple macros and you guys showed me how to use keymoves to solve some issues. I was so happy with those solutions I didn't go any farther. When I started extender writing, Elizabeth gave me an IR file to figure out what went wrong. When I finally figured out what she was doing, I was utterly amazed at what a macro could do. Since I knew enough about how a remote works, to port extenders, and I yet was totally clueless at how elegant a macro solution could be, I figure lots of newbies out there would benefit from seeing these solutions.

This way people could show off their solutions, as simple or as complex as they may be.

I know that mdavej posted a macro solution for someone that just blew my socks off too, and for the life of me I can't find the post.

[The Robman]

Oh, I see what you mean now, you want good ideas on what to program into a macro.

Well, here are some simple ones that I use.

I use the shifted device buttons as "power on" macros. Each of these macros fires up the system and gets everything ready for the device which is controlled by that device button.

I use the shifted POWER button as an "all off" macro button.

I have set aside a specific button (the 1S learning button in my case) as a global audio input select button. That means that this button will always select the right audio input on my stereo for the device controlled by the current device button.

If you have a video selector, you could use another button as the global video input select button.

I have two ReplayTV units in my system, so I have a couple of macro buttons that we use to switch from one unit to the other.

[R2-M0]

Aside from power on/off macros like Rob, I have one other brain dead simple macro that still makes my home theater use a lot nicer for me.

My Scientific Atlanta DVR has three fast forward/rewind speeds. Only the third is fast enough to really be useful. So I created a device specific macro to triple tap the FFwd button. Saves a lot of wear and tear on that one button while zipping through commercials.

[pH7_jp1]

The Scientific Atlanta DVR also has a skip forward 30 sec command that makes it even easier to skip through commercials. It is in many of the update files.

[R2-M0]

Unfortunately, a lot of cable companies (including mine) disable 30 sec skip.

[mdavej]

Try some of the skip codes. You may be surprised. They usually just take them off the remote but the box still responds to the codes.

[jeajea]

My system currently has 8 devices
Using a URC 10820N remote

Code: Select all

TV	Panasonic HDTV
AUD	Onkyo AVR
DVD	Pioneer DVD player
CBL	Scientific Atlanta 8300HD Digital Video recorder
AUX1	PC running Beyond TV with firefly mini remote and Monprice HDMI switch
PVR	Samsung DVD recorder
VCR	Sony VCR

Power to the HDMI switch comes from the AVR
To select a source the TV, AVR and switch must be on and you must select the correct TV input, AVR input, and HDMI switch input.
Volume/mute punch through is to the AVR for all devices and the TV speakers are turned off in theTV setup menu.
M1 turns on/off the AVR and TV and sets the 3 inputs for the PC
M2 turns on/off the AVR, TV and 8300 and sets inputs for the 8300
Shift M1 turns on/off the AVR and TV, sets the inputs for TV and sets the TV to channel 9 (24 hour cable news channel)
Shift M2 turns on/off the AVR,TV and DVD and sets input for DVD

Shift TV, shift DVD ,shift CBL ,shift AUX1,shift PVR and shift VCR macros set the inputs for the source but don’t change any power settings. Using the shifted device key eliminates the two second delay before the macro starts

The last step(s) in each macro are for the source device so it is left selected.

Example
All devices off
Shift M2 gets you ready to play a DVD
To temporarily go to cable when playing a DVD

Code: Select all

Pause
Shift CBL
Power (if the 8300 is off)

To turn off the DVD and switch to cable when playing a DVD

Code: Select all

Power
Shift CBL
Power (if the 8300 is off)

I am unable to create a master power off macro because most of the devices don’t have a discrete off.

[ElizabethD]

Vicky, here's a classic thread by Capn Trips - "Nodbody asked me, but..."
https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewt ... body+asked
there was another one, older, over at yahoo, if I find it, I'll post a link.

[Duane]

I keep thinking that someday I will post the method that I use for extending the time before sending the next command in my macros. My TV needs more time than is available before going to the next command during a macro. I insert more device button pushes. IE (TV,TV/VCR,TV,TV,TV,TV/VCR,TV,TV,TV,TV/VCR,TV,TV,TV,TV/VCR) for going to the next video input.
Then the pause protocol was written, which I have yet to play with.

[AllForOne]

Just discovered JP1 a week ago.
Just built my first interface (transistor).
Here's my first attempt at a 2 minute commercial mute (mute=pause button on the original ROKU remote) macro using the $01FB protocol.
Works like a charm....hope it helps someone.
JP1 ROCKS!

IR summary....

MACROS:
Target Key
M1

Macro Keys
AUD;Pause;VCR;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;
Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;
Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;
Phantom1;AUD;Pause

DEVICE BUTTONS:
Device
# Button Type Code Note
4 VCR VCR/DVD 0000 (Tied to delay protocol $01FB )
8 AUD AUD 1023 (ROKU SoundBridge)

SPECIAL PROTOCOL FUNCTIONS:
Target
# Device Target Key Type Function HexCmd
1 VCR Phantom1 Pause 15.938secs $FF $B5

UPGRADE DEVICES:
Device
VCR/DVD: 0000

UPGRADE PROTOCOLS:
Protocol
Protocol: $01FB

[Capn Trips]

Just discovered JP1 a week ago.
Just built my first interface (transistor).
Here's my first attempt at a 2 minute commercial mute (mute=pause button on the original ROKU remote) macro using the $01FB protocol.
Works like a charm....hope it helps someone.
JP1 ROCKS!

IR summary....

MACROS:
Target Key
M1

Macro Keys
AUD;Pause;VCR;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;
Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;
Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;Phantom1;
Phantom1;AUD;Pause

DEVICE BUTTONS:
Device
# Button Type Code Note
4 VCR VCR/DVD 0000 (Tied to delay protocol $01FB )
8 AUD AUD 1023 (ROKU SoundBridge)

SPECIAL PROTOCOL FUNCTIONS:
Target
# Device Target Key Type Function HexCmd
1 VCR Phantom1 Pause 15.938secs $FF $B5

UPGRADE DEVICES:
Device
VCR/DVD: 0000

UPGRADE PROTOCOLS:
Protocol
Protocol: $01FB

Well, if it works for you, then God bless you! The beauty of JP1 is that a user can make the remote what he/she needs/wants it to do.

Having said that, I cannot EVER imagine being able to leave the remote properly pointed for those two minutes so that the last "unmute" signals gets sent with ANY reasonable chance of actually hitting my amp!

Plus, your remote is unusable during that 2-minute period while it is processing all of those steps in the macro.

[AllForOne]

Having said that, I cannot EVER imagine being able to leave the remote properly pointed for those two minutes so that the last "unmute" signals gets sent with ANY reasonable chance of actually hitting my amp!

Plus, your remote is unusable during that 2-minute period while it is processing all of those steps in the macro.

OK Capn...I'll bite

I have a Roku internet radio on my nightstand which I listen to at bedtime. When that particularly obnoxious advert comes on the station I listen to most, (it's usually louder than the regular programming as well) it's nice now to just reach over (usually in the dark) and nuke it without having to give it any more thought. Nice average time too...pops me back into regular programming more often than not. The learning function on this remote happily learned the codes for the Roku remote which was icing on the cake. This remote sits flat on the table too, which makes for easy one-hand key presses without rolling over. All that convenience for $14.99!

[pH7_jp1]

The last 3 remotes I have set up have used this philosophy. A simple press of any device button is an activity. That is, TV means “Watch TV”, DVD means “Watch DVD”, etc. The activity button will power on the necessary devices, power off the unnecessary devices, and select the correct inputs for each device that requires it. The Power button toggles the entire system ON/OFF. If the system is OFF, I have a default activity (usually “Watch TV”) and that is the one that is selected. The activity buttons work correctly whether the system is off or another activity is in use. If any activity is in use, the Power button will turn everything OFF.

I chose to have a simple press of a device to mean the activity, because that is the function used most often and the one meaning that makes the most sense for my users. A SHIFT-device button press will put the remote in that device mode with no commands sent. I am the only one that will ever need this function and I seldom need to use it, so the extra shift key press is pretty much a non-issue. The Power button system toggle makes sense to all my users. It is easy to teach them that the power button turns the system off. Making it a toggle that can turn on a default activity just makes it more sensible for them. As much as I like LKP, it has not gained the acceptance of my users, so I avoid it unless it is a function that only I will be using.

This IR file https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=8273 is one of the simpler examples. The system consists of 2 devices, or 4 depending on how you count. One device is a Panasonic HTIB that I treat as 3 devices – VCR, 5 disc DVD, and Surround sound receiver. The receiver is used for sound only for the DVD, CD, VCR, and Radio activities. The TV sound is used for cable viewing and video games.

Most implementation details are documented in the example IR file. Here are a few that are not: The AUX device (the X-Box) has nothing that the remote controls, so I appropriated the power functions to track the whole system power toggle. For the whole system and for each device I use the Check and Uncheck buttons as a higher level discrete ON and discrete OFF. Even though both devices have discrete ON and OFF commands, I use toadtog to track the current state. This allows me to do appropriate pause times when a device transitions from OFF to ON to allow the necessary delay before sending commands. When a device actually has discrete power commands, the toadtog bits almost never get out of sync. (Unless one of my users needs their hand slapped for pressing the power button on the device.) I used Check and Uncheck because these buttons had no use for any of the activities and this made it easier for some of my testing. Normally, you would want to use two Phantom buttons for this purpose.