JP1 Remotes

Tranx, a further report. I have added WatchTV to the end of your macro on that button, so that the macro does leave the remote in the WatchTV combo mode. In that mode, everything is set to PVR2 so the only DSMs and keymoves that should work are those for PVR2. There is only one keymove on PVR2, on the Power2 button. That keymove works. There are several DSMs, I have tried two of them and they also work, but they take the remote out of combo mode as they switch to a specific device. So the issues you have found so far all seem to be the result of a faulty installation of the extender.

mathdon wrote:Tranx, I have had time to load your .rmir file into my URC-6440 with Extender 0.04....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.

Yes, somehow I managed to fail to do that step - amazing that it worked at all but now I am very pleased with the new effects

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 understand the point, and how this was something which did not happen when a similar macro was put on a combo selection button in 003.

Can you please re-install Extender 0.04 and try again?...

Did that, which has given me just what I had asked for with regard to macros, and particularly the ability to stay in/switch/Combo Modes by ending macros with or without combo'a/b/c/d' if a device had been called. Excellent!

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.

it was done deliberately because I had looked at setting up the shifted macros in different ways, then cleared them just as a reminder that they were not being used for a particular purpose.

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.

No need to do this because I found, that now I have properly installed 004, the keymoves to buttons in combo mode button groups work as expected. Hope I have replied in time to save wasting more time on that Will come back with anything which seems it might be a problem, now I have actually installed the new extender. I see that you have posted again which I was composing this but here it is for now

mathdon wrote:Tranx, a further report. I have added WatchTV to the end of your macro on that button, so that the macro does leave the remote in the WatchTV combo mode. In that mode, everything is set to PVR2 so the only DSMs and keymoves that should work are those for PVR2. There is only one keymove on PVR2, on the Power2 button. That keymove works. There are several DSMs, I have tried two of them and they also work, but they take the remote out of combo mode as they switch to a specific device. So the issues you have found so far all seem to be the result of a faulty installation of the extender.

Thank you for bothering to check that and for explaining those features. With our approach and setup the extra flexibility already provides easier and more transparent access to two of the four shifted devices, with macros on those 'pseudo device selection buttons'. That previously required 'normal' buttons, which are now free, while the combo buttons are better placed for device selection. I guess there will also be times when the amplified combo modes, themselves, will come into their own but for now I can only see that 'combo-uncloaking' might be handy .

Glad things are now working. The next development will be to make shifted digits require a single press of shift, and entry of an EFC to require a double press of shift. This inverts the present behaviour and is, I think, something you asked for. It also simplifies some coding for me, so not entirely altruistic .

Thanks for the note yes that will be welcome here, and especially if it makes some other coding easier...my wife is getting quite enthusiastic about the improvements too. She no longer hankers after her beloved Harmony and even finally admits she can do a lot more now!

Hi mathdon, re. 6440 Extender v0.04: hope I have not done something wrong again, but a macro bound to the the Combo Selection Button for Watch Tv, seems not to work in device modes PVR and DVD
http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=12910

tranx wrote:a macro bound to the Combo Selection Button for Watch Tv, seems not to work in device modes PVR and DVD

I will look into this. I am aware that a macro bound to WatchMovie does not work in device mode Extra, or in combo mode WatchTV, but this is true also in the unextended remote. It must therefore be a bug in the original software, not my extender, and I haven't been able to find it yet. I don't think your issue is present in the original remote, however, so that may be my doing. Or perhaps it is another manifestation of the original bug. I shall try to find out.

Thank you.

tranx wrote:I guess there will also be times when the amplified combo modes, themselves, will come into their own but for now I can only see that 'combo-uncloaking' might be handy.

I take it that by "combo-uncloaking" you mean some way to make shifted activity keys be keys you can put a keymove or learned signal on, instead of them entering Combo mode. In a round-about way you can do this already. You can put a macro on them, just as for the normal combo buttons, and if that macro includes a device key (or even a different combo key) then it will finish up in that mode, not in the combo mode associated with the key. Since you can put a keymove or learned signal into a macro, you should be able to achieve what you want to do. But I'm not sure why you want to do this. Haven't you enough buttons already with all the shifted ones being available?

One way or another most unshifted keys in our device modes have DSMs on them, while I appreciate that their 'normal' unshifted functions might still be accessed by indirectly addressing their any of their missing shifted functions i.e. by relying upon 'shift cloaking' ('/uncloaking') as I think you mentioned before you provided a shift button. However, now that shifted functions can be addressed directly, they are even more useful for that.

It had seemed that the original purpose of a combo mode was to combine sets of simple commands from different devices into one mode, according to the concept 'Activity', but to me the keymove and macro capabilities seemed to supercede that. btw I presume that might be why the combo modes were not intended to include macros, which seemed consistent with the more recent policy to emphasise 'simplicity' along with the combo modes, while user manuals started to leave out 9xx commands such as macros. It was according to that view of activities, and when you kindly amplified the combo modes, that I was trying to think of a different use for them.

mathdon wrote:I take it that by "combo-uncloaking" you mean some way to make shifted activity keys be keys you can put a keymove or learned signal on...

I could only come up with the idea that the combo modes could 'uncloak' the 'normal' commands which had been 'cloaked' by macros. I would not have thought to use learned commands but was vaguely aware that they would take precedence, also that macros which referred to devices would need a 'Watch_xxx(combo)' at the end to make the combo mode persist.

So far I have only tried the two combo selection buttons as a place to put macros, now they have just been rendered valuable by 004 as extra selection buttons for shifted Devices, because on/off toggle macros could be put on them to change device modes and to operate some IR mains switches. Pressing the 'watch tv' button (Device PVR2) activates/deactivates the Home Theatre system, mainly to use 'clear sound' for films on Tv, and the 'watch movie' button does the same for a DVD recorder/pvr in Device DVD2, CEC handling the Tv input changes. That doesn't work for the normal device selection buttons so two other pvrs and the TV are selected by ordinary buttons which can carry input and device changing macros.

There seem to be almost unlimited ways to skin the proverbial cat but however inelegant might be the allocations and pattern of functions, as always the aim has been to minimise button pressing, while making the functions of various boxes seem to be consistent and easily remembered by both of us. It helps that several of them, or the way they combine in our set up, are essentially just pvrs, for which the buttons are already labelled, and I reckon it also helps that there are no really obscure buttons to put anything on! and that there seems to be plenty of spare memory.

Haven't you enough buttons already with all the shifted ones being available?

Yes, but only just! - those one-press-shift-button shifted digit functions are going to be very handy too

tranx wrote:Hi mathdon, re. 6440 Extender v0.04: hope I have not done something wrong again, but a macro bound to the Combo Selection Button for Watch Tv, seems not to work in device modes PVR and DVD

As I said earlier, this is a bug that was present also in the unextended remote. I have now found and fixed it. The reason it happened with certain devices and not others, and indeed was a little different for me than for you, is that it depended on what else was set up in the remote.

I have also fixed a bug that I think I introduced in version 0.04. This was that "shift-uncloaking" did not work. I think you know what I mean, the shifted button sending the base signal of a button that has a macro or keymove on it when nothing else is assigned to the shifted key. This will now also work on digit keys, which it didn't even before I introduced my bug.

The behaviour of Shift (short press of List) is now as follows. For non-digit keys, repeated presses toggle the shift action on and off. For digit keys there is a cycle of 4 presses: one press gives shifted digit, two or three start entry of an EFC, 4th press returns to unpressed state. The LED flashes the appropriate count, 1 to 4 (and then 1 again), on each press so you know where you are in the sequence. For non-digits the action always was a toggle, but for digits there was no way of un-cancelling a shift other than waiting for it to time out.

Glad to hear you have tracked down the bug in the unextended remote and fixed shift cloaking too. With shift and digit keys, the cycle of 4 shift button presses is v.neat with corresponding LED flashes, and guess that the cycle of 4 shift button presses wiil be fine because it would most often be cancelled early, when a number button is pressed after the first flash of LED. Reckon that will be very useful!

A quick post to say that URC-6440 Extender 0.05 is now available. More details in the ReadMe file. No time now for more detail.

Works like a charm - superb!

I'm still on 0.02 because the lack of time to upgrade my whole setup. But all the changes up to 0.05 sound awesome. Great work Graham :).