RMIR: Prototype IR function in RM

[mjthompson]

I don't know if I should create a seperate topic(s) for these so I'll start here and see how it goes....

I'm using parallel JP1 with two 8810s. I tried RMIR but had several problems. I switched versions of RMIR several times and didn't keep track of the problems I saw very well. I'm going to retry RMIR and will try to be better about documenting what I find but I have a few comments/questions from my earlier attempts...

1) Which version of RMIR should I use when I try this all again? 1.98beta6a or some other more "stable" version?
2) Should IR and RMIR coexist on my system simultaneously? It seemed that once I used RMIR that IR would start getting "Priviledged instruction" errors. If I uninstalled RMIR then IR would work fine again. Also, I found somewhere that PORTTALK.SYS driver may be required to get rid of the "priviledged instruction" error so I loaded it. It seemed to get me around the problem for a while but tnen the error returned.
3) Uploads to my remotes didn't seem to work but didn't give me any errors. If I uploaded an upgrade via RMIR, closed RMIR, downloaded via RMIR, I didn't see the upgrade I had previously uploaded.
4) When I opened my existing IR files in RMIR, I got a dialog that the remote in my RDF had multiple matches and had me select one. If I selected the wrong one, RMIR got in a weird state where any buttons I clicked wouldn't do anything until I restarted RMIR.
5) When I clone a Key Map that has two hex pairs ($FF $F7) only the first pair ($FF) is reflected in the cloned Key Map. Is that WAD or is it a bug?

I really like the RMIR interface so hopefully I can get it working. Also, I have used KM/IR for many years and absolutely love my JP1 remotes. Thanks to all of the developers/testers/users who make its use possible, I really appreciate it!

[The Robman]

My advice, if you want to get people to start using RMIR more often, is to stop treating RM and RMIR as separate applications, I think you need to make them separate tabs in the same GUI, so whenever people fire up RM they will see that there's a separate tab for RMIR.

Then, the next step is to take advantage of that link. When people are done formatting an upgrade in RM, they should be able to just click a button to get the upgrade added to the IR image that they already have loaded into RMIR.

When they download from their remote and look at the list of upgrades in the memory, if they click EDIT they should be taked straight to RM. RM and RMIR should have some sort of tracking system so that when people add upgrades from RM to RMIR RM retains a link between the upgrade and the RMDU file, so that when they edit the upgrades as I just described, RM is clever enough to import the original RMDU file, so they have all the good function names and not just generic button names.

For situations where the upgrade was added using IR.exe, so there is no link, RM should give the user the ability to link an upgrade that's in the remote's memory to an upgrade file (either a KM file or an RMDU file). It should first load the upgrade into RM in the normal fashion, then it should change the selected remote to the one that's being used in RMIR, then it should re-do the button assignments to match the one in the remote's memory (using the function hex codes).

If there's ever a GUI version of Protocol Builder, you should be able to click EDIT on a protocol upgrade and have it switch to the GUI editor too.

Finally, one of the main reasons that I use IR.exe is to look at signals people have learned where a new executor is needed and for that I need all the tools that IR provides, starting with the rounding function but also including the Times Summary and Code Summary sheets.

There are several other cool features in IR that it would be nice to see in RMIR, such as the Delete All and Clear Device buttons, along with all the new Pronto stuff. Hopefully, as these have been written using DLL modules, you can re-use them, but I don't know if that's possible in a Java app.

[xnappo]

My advice, if you want to get people to start using RMIR more often, is to stop treating RM and RMIR as separate applications, I think you need to make them separate tabs in the same GUI, so whenever people fire up RM they will see that there's a separate tab for RMIR.

Rob,

This is already done. If you load RM-IR, everything is completely integrated.

The way you start using RM-IR is to load your .ir file in, then go to the devices tab and hit edit on each of your custom upgrades. Then load the upgrade to get all the details and hit okay on each.

From then on, you never load RM again - everything is done through RM-IR and stored in the .RMIR file.

It is really much much easier to use than a two tool solution. It just takes a while to get used to NOT having to think about what is an upgrade/keymove, what protocol is being used etc...

xnappo

[mathdon]

Now xnappo has pointed this out, I will try to get to grips with trying RMIR. It doesn't work with my main remote, the URC-7781 (the Devices tab won't open), perhaps not surprisingly as it and its predecessor the URC-7780 have some unique features. But I have also had trouble on the occasions I have tried it with my URC-7940, a more mainstream remote. I can't download its present setup to RMIR, neither can I load a .ir file containing that setup. It goes through the download or loading motions, but to no effect. The state of RMIR remains unchanged. I have, however, just found a file with an earlier setup for the URC-7940 that does load and have been able to see this integration at work.

I sm puzzled by why some .ir files load and others do not. The URC-7940 is used entirely for testing purposes and all the devices are usually ones with upgrade protocols. Is RMIR doing some sort of check on the protocols that could be causing these problems?
______________
Graham

[The Robman]

Sounds good, so walk me through how it works. Let's say that I've downloaded my remote's memory using RMIR and now I want to add an upgrade that I found in the file section. What is the step-by-step process whereby I can open that upgrade and add it to the remote's memory without having to do the cut&paste operation needed when using IR.exe?

[xnappo]

Sounds good, so walk me through how it works. Let's say that I've downloaded my remote's memory using RMIR and now I want to add an upgrade that I found in the file section. What is the step-by-step process whereby I can open that upgrade and add it to the remote's memory without having to do the cut&paste operation needed when using IR.exe?

Sure:
1. Open RM-IR and the .ir file
2. Go to the 'Devices' tab
3. Hit 'New'
(you are now in an RM-like screen)
4. Hit the 'Load' button and select the upgrade
5. Modify for your remote as usual (all keymoves should be done here too, forget that you know anything about the upgradable/non-upgradable keys'
6. Hit 'Ok'

From then on, if you want to change that device's mapping, you go to the devices tab, select the device and hit edit.

When you save the file as .rmir, all the information (upgrades and memory) are in one file. To share upgrades, you use the 'export' function from the 'Devices->Edit' window.

I will do a quick YouTube video tonight...

xnappo

[xnappo]

I sm puzzled by why some .ir files load and others do not. The URC-7940 is used entirely for testing purposes and all the devices are usually ones with upgrade protocols. Is RMIR doing some sort of check on the protocols that could be causing these problems?
______________
Graham

There were quite a few bugs fixed in the latest version - do you have the latest RM and the latest RDFs?

The rmaster.err file may (or may not) give you some idea of what it is upset about. For me(Atlas 1056) there were RDF errors that needed to be fixed before it would work.

xnappo

[The Robman]

OK, looks good so far. I selected NEW, then selected IMPORT but that didn't work, so I tried LOAD and that worked, however I forgot to change the remote from the one that was in the original file to the remote that I was programming in RMIR, then I clicked OK and it added it anyway. It shouldn't add the upgrade unless it has been reformatted to the current remote. Also, the upgrade had some keymoves defined, but those didn't get imported. It would be nice when you click OK if it were to ask you if you want to assign the upgrade to a device button.

[xnappo]

OK, looks good so far. I selected NEW, then selected IMPORT but that didn't work, so I tried LOAD and that worked, however I forgot to change the remote from the one that was in the original file to the remote that I was programming in RMIR, then I clicked OK and it added it anyway. It shouldn't add the upgrade unless it has been reformatted to the current remote. Also, the upgrade had some keymoves defined, but those didn't get imported. It would be nice when you click OK if it were to ask you if you want to assign the upgrade to a device button.

My bad on the 'Import' vs. 'Load' .

When you go back via 'edit' had it automatically changed the remote for you?

The key moves ARE there. This takes a while to get used to - but the Keymoves tab ONLY shows key moves that are not tied to an upgrade. That is what I was getting at with 'forget you know about upgradable/non-upgradeable keys' this is hidden from the user. While disconcerting to those who have used IR for a long time, it is really much better this way. The whole interface is set up not to duplicate information between the 'IR' window and the 'RM' windows - and really that is the way it should be in an all-in-one program. You will notice that protocols are the same - they are not displayed in the IR window because the 'upgrade' is considered to be a discrete piece of information.

xnappo

[The Robman]

I only have 7 bytes of keymove/macro space left in the IR file that I'm using, so it shouldn't be able to add the keymoves, but it's not telling me that it can't. Anyway, I just deleted a bunch of keymoves so there's now 52 bytes of keymove memory free and I re-added the upgrade, which has 2 keymoves, and the keymove memory didn't change. Which makes sense as I haven't assigned the upgrade to a device button. Next, I manually assigned the upgrade to a device button and it still shows 52 bytes of keymove memory available, so I don't see how it can be adding the functions, even behind the scenes.

And when I click EDIT on the upgrade that I added, it still shows the other remote, not my remote. So, now I change it to my remote and click OK and now the keymove memory is decreased.

So I see what's happening, as long as the upgrade is for the wrong remote, the keymoves are not programmed.

I just started over with the full keymove memory and this time I did change the remote and it didn't complain when I added the upgrade, but it did complain when I tried to assign the upgrade to a device button.

Btw, how do you start RMIR? The only way that I know how to fire it up is to create a BAT file which contains "java -jar RemoteMaster.jar -ir" but doing that always leaves a DOS window up, so I'm guessing there's a better way. If I close the DOS window, it closes RMIR too.

[xnappo]

Btw, how do you start RMIR? The only way that I know how to fire it up is to create a BAT file which contains "java -jar RemoteMaster.jar -ir" but doing that always leaves a DOS window up, so I'm guessing there's a better way. If I close the DOS window, it closes RMIR too.

If you install the 'Windows' version of RMIR it will create a shortcut for you in the Start menu. If you are using the Java version, then the only way I know of is what you said...

The non-checking of the remote type definitely sounds like a bug or at least an enhancement request.

xnappo

[mdavej]

To run the java version without a BAT file or DOS window, make a shortcut with this target:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaw.exe -jar "C:\InsertRMPathHERE\RemoteMaster.jar" -ir

Start in: "C:\InsertRMPathHERE"

I've written this up and made custom icons for RM and RMIR HERE.

[mdavej]

Setup.bat didn't create any start menu entries for me (using java version). All it did was make bat files with generic icons. Running the bat files still open a DOS box. That's why I had to make my own shortcuts and icons.

[xnappo]

Setup.bat didn't create any start menu entries for me (using java version). All it did was make bat files with generic icons. Running the bat files still open a DOS box. That's why I had to make my own shortcuts and icons.

Right - only the Windows 'Excelsior JET' version of RM makes the start menu icons for you.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/control ... e/download

Still doesn't have pretty icons though. I would suggest Windows users use that version - it is just a normal executable. It has an installer and seems faster to me. With it, you simply have a shortcut to '...RemoteMaster.exe -ir'

xnappo

[mdavej]

Thanks. I still prefer the java version since it's much leaner (the jar is less than 1MB).

You should try my pretty icons.