JP1 Remotes

mathdon wrote:

sirjp1 wrote:Is there an easy way to make a device upgrade from learned signals? I've seen some mentions of a patch that introduces a button on the Learned Signals tab, but I don't see it in 25c alpha.

You need to select the menu option Options/Advanced/Learned to Upgrade Conversion. Once this is selected, it remains selected each time you start RMIR.

Very nice, thank you. I could not have discovered it on my own.

tranx wrote:In the general tab, when the 7th device is selected the 'edit' button remains greyed out. This doesn't happen in the devices tab.

I cannot reproduce this issue. Are you sure there is a device upgrade for this 7th device? Download the remote to RMIR and press the "Create missing upgrades" button on the General tab, if it is not grayed out, to make sure. If you still have a problem, post the .rmir file for me to look at.

tranx wrote:In the device edit> layout tab, once a function has been removed from all buttons, I don't think it always reverts to being coloured red

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Things that happen only sometimes are difficult to trace. I tend to wait till someone can give me a reproducible case that I can investigate. Can you tell me how to reproduce this?

Now for a situation update. I have shifted activities fully working and am ready to look at the question of making macros work in combo modes. A few thoughts have occurred to me as to why UEI may have decided to prevent this (I think there were some earlier remotes with activities in which macros did work in combo mode).

A macro is interpreted strictly as a series of keystrokes, so if there is a device key in the macro, it will take the remote out of combo mode and leave it with that device selected. I haven't experimented with what can be put in a macro (with the remote, as RMIR may by-pass any limitations and I want to know what UEI intended) so I don't know if a combo key can be included. It would only put the remote back into a particular combo mode, though, not restore the mode it was originally in. Which leads to the question of combo-specific macros, I suppose, but then it is getting very complicated. I presume that keys in the macro would be interpreted as keypresses in the combo mode in use, so would go to whatever device the combo mode uses for that key.

It is making me wonder whether macros would actually be any use in combo mode. In the light of this, do you still want me to go ahead and try it, tranx?

mathdon wrote:

tranx wrote:In the general tab, when the 7th device is selected the 'edit' button remains greyed out. This doesn't happen in the devices tab.

I cannot reproduce this issue. Are you sure there is a device upgrade for this 7th device? Download the remote to RMIR and press the "Create missing upgrades" button on the General tab, if it is not grayed out, to make sure. If you still have a problem, post the .rmir file for me to look at.

This is how it was http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12888
You were right. It looked ok as if the 7th device had been allocated, but in view of your comment I tested that 83i device and found that none of its buttons lit up when pressed. Reloaded it, allocating it again to EXT2, and that sorted the problem http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12889

mathdon wrote:...am ready to look at the question of making macros work in combo modes. A few thoughts have occurred to me as to why UEI may have decided to prevent this (I think there were some earlier remotes with activities in which macros did work in combo mode).

A macro is interpreted strictly as a series of keystrokes, so if there is a device key in the macro, it will take the remote out of combo mode and leave it with that device selected. I haven't experimented with what can be put in a macro (with the remote, as RMIR may by-pass any limitations and I want to know what UEI intended) so I don't know if a combo key can be included. It would only put the remote back into a particular combo mode, though, not restore the mode it was originally in...

If a combo key could be included the user could decide, without needing combo-specific macros?

I presume that keys in the macro would be interpreted as keypresses in the combo mode in use, so would go to whatever device the combo mode uses for that key.

I think you here refer only to the hypothetical 'combo specific macros', because you did say earlier that "A macro is interpreted strictly as a series of keystrokes, so if there is a device key in the macro, it will take the remote out of combo mode and leave it with that device selected."

It is making me wonder whether macros would actually be any use in combo mode. In the light of this, do you still want me to go ahead and try it, tranx?

Yes please, in case it might allow the Combo Buttons to provide extra 'more useful than combo modes' alternative modes (each having its own different set of DSMs, on unshifted buttons), but I see this depends on whether combo key can be included.

Even otherwise, if macros in combo modes could only refer to keys in that combo mode, perhaps chained commands could still be useful? I thought that e.g. that sets of favourite channels (which in three of my device modes are on the shifted buttons around button 'ok' at the moment) might go onto the number buttons of the combo modes instead...

mathdon wrote:

tranx wrote:In the device edit> layout tab, once a function has been removed from all buttons, I don't think it always reverts to being coloured red

.
Things that happen only sometimes are difficult to trace. I tend to wait till someone can give me a reproducible case that I can investigate. Can you tell me how to reproduce this?

Understood. I have cleared the TV device keys and posted the TV upgrade which resulted http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12890

This is the same TV device as that in the 6440 image http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12889 which was saved before the TV device's keys had been cleared, but in the editor's layout page of the 'cleared' Tv upgrade, many functions are still shown in black text, as if they were still allocated to buttons. It seems peculiar but maybe I have overlooked something

PS. Upon inspecting the saved 'problem' TV upgrade all the functions have reverted to red! so perhaps it somehow got updated when being saved, which did not happen otherwise
.

tranx wrote:PS. Upon inspecting the saved 'problem' TV upgrade all the functions have reverted to red! so perhaps it somehow got updated when being saved, which did not happen otherwise

This is entirely possible, as the saving and re-loading as a.rmir file involves the reinterpretation of the setup data. You can create a "clean save" that saves the setup without any reinterpretation as follows. First, go to the Advanced menu and select "Preserve original data". If you open the Raw Data tab you should now see that the data is displayed in blue rather than black. (This setting lasts only for the current RMIR session, or until you unselect the option.) Then open File/Save As, select the file type "IR file (*.ir)" and save the file. Loading the resulting file will then take RMIR through exactly the same steps as downloading the remote, and so should preserve any issues with the setup.

mathdon wrote:...You can create a "clean save"... go to the Advanced menu and select "Preserve original data"...open File/Save As, select the file type "IR file (*.ir)" and save the file. Loading the resulting file..should preserve any issues with the setup.

Cleared the Tv buttons again, this time noting that it was only the cleared shifted buttons which were still subsequently shown in black, then 'preserved original data' and saved the file as .ir.
Loaded the resulting file which incorrectly showed all the buttons which had been cleared as still being occupied, so the setup appears not to have been adjusted by the editing up to that stage.

The problem had initially been flagged up by their separate text labels remaining in colour black after removing functions from any shifted buttons. As noted that was corrected when saving the setup as an .rmir, the second of the two saved files zipped for comparison: http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12895

Thanks, tranx. I've fixed that and it will be in the RMIR version that I will post along with the next extender version.

Extender 0.04 for the URC-6440 is now available. Extender 0.03 increased the number of devices from four to eight. This new version increases the number of activities (combo modes) similarly from two to four. It also allows macros to operate in combo modes, which is not allowed in the unextended remote.

The installation procedure is similar to that for version 0.03 but it requires RMIR v2.03 Alpha 25d, not the Alpha 25c that was sufficient for installing version 0.03.

There is one subtlety concerning macros in combo mode that needs mention. Both this and the unextended remote allow a macro to be put on a Combo button. In the unextended remote the apparent effect was that the macro was performed before the remote entered the combo mode. In actual fact this was not so, it was performed after the remote entered combo mode but made to appear as if it was before, by some specially coded features. These features have been removed as they are not appropriate for macros in general in combo modes. Macros on the combo buttons now genuinely act within the combo mode. The effect of this change is that if the macro includes a device button then the macro must end by including the combo button itself, to switch it back to combo mode as the device button will take it out of that mode.

Nested macros are still not allowed. They are a subject for future investigation.

Edit: It also reduces the Power button delay in Combo mode from 2sec to 100ms. Leaving a short delay makes it easier to put back in case there is a reason for the delay that we have not yet discovered.

Thank you very much for extender v0.04. So far things seem fine, with one exception.

In combo mode e.g. (unshifted) Watch Movie, there is no option to determine the device which will be used for the Power Button. This seems to be because the button Power is not included within any button group, although I see that power2 (shifted-power) is mentioned separately in item5, (for allocation of a device to be used for the shifted-power button).

I wondered if the tick box for Power? (to send the appropriate power command if the combo-selection button was held down, as you explained earlier) might at the same time determine the device to be the source of the command on the Power Button in Combo Modes. It does work when the power button is held but nothing is sent if it is pressed and released i.e. that does not seem to make any difference.

This feature/problem was also present in v0.03, but I did not not spot it.

tranx wrote:In combo mode e.g. (unshifted) Watch Movie, there is no option to determine the device which will be used for the Power Button.

This is a feature of the remote, not the extender. The Power button in combo mode is specially treated. A short press does nothing, a long press (which in 0.04 means > 100ms) runs a special macro that sends the Power command for every device assigned to any button group in the combo. The tick boxes allow you to exclude any of these devices, but not to add devices that are not used in that combo mode. This behaviour does not apply to the shifted Power2 button so (presumably) you can assign that to any device, or put a macro on it. I say "presumably", since I haven't actually tested it but that is what I expect to happen.

Thanks I may have finally got that now! After a bit more testing of v0.04 with RMIR v2.03 alpha 25d, I find that a macro on the Watch Movie button seems to work fine, in the same way as in v0.03, where you advised that it had only been simulated for the macro to work first, then for the mode to be changed to the Watch Tv Combo Mode, i.e. with no reversion to a device mode.

Once in WatchTv mode, which is set to operate PVR2, I have tried both a global macro, and two or three DSMs. They contain intended device mode changes but neither type of macro seems to operate in that Combo Mode, nor do they yet change from the Watch Tv Combo Mode to a device mode. http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12908

Thanks, tranx. I will investigate, but probably will not have time for a day or two.

No worries. It also seems that keymoves which are bound to buttons in a button group of a Combo Mode do not work in that combo mode, while they do work in the equivalent device mode.

Tranx, I have had time to load your .rmir file into my URC-6440 with Extender 0.04. The macros on the WatchTV and WatchMovie buttons DO take the remote out of combo mode, so it is in fact impossible (without changing the macros) to enter combo mode. I am pretty certain that what you have done is load the .rmir file for Extender 0.04 into a remote that still has the Extender 0.03 software. It is not surprising if that does not work correctly.

Can you please re-install Extender 0.04 and try again? Please note that it is ESSENTIAL that you copy the Extender 0.04 .bin file to the remote with standard Windows file copying. Loading a .bin file into RMIR and uploading it to the remote loads only the setup data from the .bin file and will not change the extender version. Only standard file copying will do that.

There are also some peculiarities in the .rmir file that I want to ask about. I see that everything has been deleted from the WatchTV2 and WatchMovie2 combo modes. All the power boxes unticked and all the group settings set to "none". Did you do this deliberately, or does it result from something going wrong in the install process? There is no need to change the default settings if you do not intend to use these new combo modes, so if you did it deliberately, I would be interested to know what you were trying to achieve.

I will modify your macros so that I can test the other points you raise, and will report again when I have had time to test them.