Harman/Kardon HK-3490 for URC-8910

[The Robman]

I wonder, then, if they make the universal remote manufacturers sign a NDA before getting the codes?

They don't give the codes to universal remote companies, the universal guys "take" the codes by learning the signals themselves.

Regarding the URC-8910, regardless of how cheap it was, it's long since been discontinued, so replacing it might not be so easy.

[matt_garman]

HERE's an upgrade learned from harmony. Let me know if it works. Number 0 was a guess since it was wrong on the harmony.

Works for me! At least, I can do all the things I want to do, which is turn the unit on, change volume, and change inputs.

Thank you very much!

[The Robman]

If there's anything in the upgrade that doesn't work as advertised, could you please let us know. And, if there are any buttons on the original HK remote that are not included, could you please let us know that also.

We try to keep our upgrades as complete and as accurate as possible, because the next guy might need those missing functions.

[matt_garman]

If there's anything in the upgrade that doesn't work as advertised, could you please let us know. And, if there are any buttons on the original HK remote that are not included, could you please let us know that also.

No problem, although I might need a little hand-holding. This was literally my first time using the IR and RM programs. At least on my URC-8910, there appears to be some missing functionality. Due to the newness of all this, however, I don't know if it's an actual problem with the RMDU that mdavej provided, or if something happened between the RMDU and the remote. (Given my inexperience, the latter I think is more likely. )

What I did to load the device into the URC8910 was, after installing RM and IR and all the needed support files, follow the instructions here.

A couple examples off the top of my head (I don't have the remote in front of me right now):

• No power off button (the HK-3490 native remote has separate buttons for power on and off, not a single "power" button)
• No way to select all the different sources. My URC-8910's L1 button got assigned to CD, L3 to Video 3; L2 and L4 went to the the tuner and XM radio (I think). But there's no button for Phono, Video 1, Video 2, Tape Monitor or The Bridge.

I can play with it some more later and get you more info.

Please note, however, that the HK-3490 native remote is designed to be somewhat of a (semi-) universal remote in its own right. That is, it has buttons that are for a CD/DVD player (play, pause, stop, forward, rewind, etc). This is for the case when you buy the whole Harman/Kardon collection of products. I only have the receiver, so can't test these extra buttons...

...unless, I can use the LIRC tool suite. Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems that I ought to be able to use my USB-UIRT to capture any IR signal, and log what was received. I could then press every button on the native HK-3490 remote, then repeat with the re-programmed URC-8910. Thoughts?

Also, as a side note, I went out and bought an RCA RCRP05B. I have a JP1.x cable from Tommy Tyler on order. Except for the lack of LCD, I think I actually prefer the look and feel of the RCA remote. But it also does not support the HK-3490 out-of-the-box, so I can't use it until I get my JP1.x cable.

-Matt

[mdavej]

In RM on the Buttons or Layout tabs, you'll see all the button assignments for the missing functions. Power off is on shift-Power and the other sources are on the transport keys. Of course you can put any function on any button you like. My assignments were mostly arbitrary. Do confirm 0 as well, since that one was a guess. To power off, press and release the setup button then the power button.

It would be most helpful if in RM you went to the Keymap tab, printed it, and verified every function.

I'd also recommend you buy a JP1 adapter from Tommy and return your parallel cable. Then you can use one cable for all via USB on any PC.

[The Robman]

...unless, I can use the LIRC tool suite. Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems that I ought to be able to use my USB-UIRT to capture any IR signal, and log what was received. I could then press every button on the native HK-3490 remote, then repeat with the re-programmed URC-8910. Thoughts?

I've never used LIRC myself, so I can't walk you though the process, but if you have the ability to learn the HK buttons using LIRC, we have the knowledge to decipher the results. There's no need to learn the signals from the URC-8910 as we know what that is sending.

However, I would suggest that you follow the steps outlined above by Dave so you can test the functions that are included in his upgrade. Then, if you find that there are some that are missing, you could try learning the missing buttons from the HK remote using the URC-8910 (hopefully you will have better luck than you did with the volume buttons). Once the buttons are learned, you can download the memory using your JP1 cable to get the code values (we can help with this if you don't know what you are doing).

[matt_garman]

I got my JP1.x USB cable from Tommy Tyler. So now, unless otherwise noted, I'm talking about the RCA RCRP05B.

In RM on the Buttons or Layout tabs, you'll see all the button assignments for the missing functions.

Ok, that's actually pretty straightforward if I actually take the time to look at it! Anyway, I went ahead and made sure every function was programmed to a button.

But some buttons on the RCA remote don't seem to send anything. I assigned all functions to buttons in RM, copied the device into IR, then downloaded to the remote. All the buttons that actually send a signal work as intended. But I can't figure out why some buttons don't do anything. (Three signs that no signal is sent: the device buttons don't flash on the remote; the HK3490 does nothing; and my USB-UIRT doesn't flash [it flashes whenever any IR signal is in flight].) For example, neither the number buttons nor the "Input" button sent anything.

It would be most helpful if in RM you went to the Keymap tab, printed it, and verified every function.

Did that. I tested all functions. As I mentioned before, some of the functions I had to test with the URC-8910, since the RCA wasn't sending any signal.

The following functions I could not test:

• menu
• select
• left arrow
• right arrow
• clear
• auto preset
• fm mode *** see note below

Except for the noted one, all those buttons did nothing, however they also do nothing with the original remote. My suspicion is that those buttons are only used when another Harman/Kardon device is available.

Zero definitely works as expected.

FM Mode got assigned to "Input" on my RCA remote, but "Input" didn't send any signal (as noted above). And I'm not sure where it landed on the URC-8910. Soon as I figure out why some buttons on the RCA don't do anything, we should be able to clear this up.

Finally, it appears that two functions are missing from the RMDU: up arrow and down arrow.

I've never used LIRC myself, so I can't walk you though the process, but if you have the ability to learn the HK buttons using LIRC, we have the knowledge to decipher the results.

Let me play with it a bit and see if I can come up with anything. Hopefully I can confirm correct programming for the buttons that don't appear to do anything even with the original remote.

Thanks again guys,
Matt

[mdavej]

It sounds like you just need to turn off Cable lock on the General tab. That's why some of your buttons won't work. Post the RM and IR files you're using with the RCA if that doesn't do it.

[matt_garman]

It sounds like you just need to turn off Cable lock on the General tab. That's why some of your buttons won't work. Post the RM and IR files you're using with the RCA if that doesn't do it.

That was the case. I didn't see anything about cable lock in the general tab. Howver, I was able to remove the cable lock using the remote directly.

Anyway, I used the irrecord program from the LIRC suite to create a LIRC configuration file for the HK-3490 remote. Do these files have enough information for you?

Note that I didn't capture all the HK-3490 remote buttons; just a few known ones as reference. The others I captured are ones I couldn't test with the receiver directly.

Code: Select all

begin remote

  name  test.txt.conf
  bits           16
  flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  header       8889  4294
  one           602  1547
  zero          602   448
  ptrail        601
  repeat       8879  2058
  pre_data_bits   16
  pre_data       0x10E
  gap          104449
  toggle_bit_mask 0x0

      begin codes
          KEY_SELECT               0xB24D
          KEY_LEFT                 0xF807
          KEY_RIGHT                0x7887
          KEY_C                    0xF00F
          KEY_F                    0x38C7
          KEY_P                    0xD827
          KEY_0                    0x02FD
          KEY_1                    0x8877
          KEY_2                    0x48B7
          KEY_3                    0xC837
          KEY_4                    0x28D7
      end codes

end remote

KEY_C = "clear"
KEY_F = "fm mode"
KEY_P = "auto preset"

For whatever reason, I couldn't capture the "menu" key, nor the "up arrow" and "down arrow" buttons. Those buttons have no effect on the receiver, and irrecord gives an error every time I try to capture them. Also interesting is that my USB UIRT light doesn't flash when those buttons are pressed. So maybe they are broken on my original remote?

Let me know if this LIRC config file is useful to you, and sufficient to verify those unknown buttons. Also, let me know if you have any thoughts as to what we can do about the up, down and menu buttons.

Lastly, assuming the LIRC file is useful, here's the command I used to create the config file with the USB UIRT (hope this is useful for future reference):

Code: Select all

irrecord --driver=usb_uirt_raw --device=/dev/ttyUSB0  test.txt

From there, the program will walk you through what needs to be done. Pretty straightforward.

-Matt

[mdavej]

The settings in question are there, but I couldn't remember what they were called. Just make sure on the General tab - Other settings that all have the right value, i.e., AUD Chan Dev = AUD, etc.

Anyway, I don't know the first thing about LIRC (maybe Rob does), but since you have a JP1.3 cable and a learning remote now, it's much easier to just learn the missing functions and IR will tell you exactly what the codes are. The beauty of the JP1 tools is they decode learns automatically so you can quickly build upgrades in RM with very little effort. You can delete the learns after you've gotten all the data.

The harmony didn't have any menu up/down functions. It had tune up/down on those keys. Does tune up/down function as up/down?

To learn on the RCA, hold setup for 2 blinks, press 975 then the button to learn. 2 blinks for each successful learn. You can learn one button after another, and when you're done press setup for 2 blinks.