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Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:52 pm
by wwwoholic
Mark Pierson wrote:Hmmm.. my 8810w has more buttons than your 2116
Well... the OEM remote from Onkyo receiver has even more buttons, that doesnt make it any better
The layout is awful, the labels on the buttons incomprehensible, and it can not learn some signals even from SUPPORTED remotes!
Besides, for me the main point of going JP1 was to use LESS buttons, but make mapping from OEM keys more INTUITIVE and eliminate some of them by incorporating their transmission into macros "behind the scene".
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:53 pm
by Mark Pierson
wwwoholic wrote:After I re-insert batteries it paints LCD black for couple seconds. I hope this means reset.
vasqued2 wrote:"Paints the LCD screen black" is as good a description as any for what the 2116 does on a reset.
Asked... and answered
Now the $64,000 questions is: does your remote "paint the LCD screen black" after an up/download with IR? If it does, then your interface and remote are working properly in terms of JP1, except that now we don't have an explaination of your problem with lost settings.
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:57 pm
by Mark Pierson
wwwoholic wrote:Well... the OEM remote from Onkyo receiver has even more buttons, that doesnt make it any better
There's no such thing as a good OEM remote! 8)
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:07 pm
by mr_d_p_gumby
Mark Pierson wrote:There's no such thing as a good OEM remote! 8)
Except for the few that have JP1 connectors
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:08 pm
by vasqued2
Also, one or more icons will appear in the LCD to indicate the following conditions: Morning or Afternoon Time, Low Battery, IR Signal Transmission
There is also an unmentioned 'S' icon and a '*' icon which are just begging to by turned on when in the Shift mode and XShift mode. I just couldn't justify the extra couple bytes in the extender to do it.
David
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:23 pm
by wwwoholic
Mark Pierson wrote:Now the $64,000 questions is: does your remote "paint the LCD screen black" after an up/download with IR? If it does, then your interface and remote are working properly in terms of JP1, except that now we don't have an explaination of your problem with lost settings.
No, it does not. I prefer certified cheques.
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:30 pm
by Mark Pierson
mr_d_p_gumby wrote:Mark Pierson wrote:There's no such thing as a good OEM remote! 8)
Except for the few that have JP1 connectors
That just means the OEM was smart enough to keep their junk off the street in the first place!
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:39 pm
by Mark Pierson
wwwoholic wrote:No, it does not.
How about when you disconnect the cable?
A long time ago when I was having some interface troubles with my 2104, Tommy Tyler suggested a 10k resistor between pin 1 (?) and 5 on a Simple with 10k resistors. It only marginally helped. Then he suggested the 1k design that became the current Rev 5, and it worked flawlessly everytime on the 2104, but not a 1994. In any event, every remote I've used that doen't reset itself via IR always resets upon disconnecting the cable.
I prefer certified cheques.
It's, um... er... in the mail. Yeah, that's it. You should have it by Christmas.
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 4:21 pm
by wwwoholic
Mark Pierson wrote:A long time ago when I was having some interface troubles with my 2104, Tommy Tyler suggested a 10k resistor between pin 1 (?) and 5 on a Simple with 10k resistors.
Aha! That's what I was talking about some posts earlier - resistor between VDD (pins 1 and 2) and RESET. Just not that small. So, it was done before without real improvement... pity.
In any event, every remote I've used that doen't reset itself via IR always resets upon disconnecting the cable.
Well, mine does not. And from the remote schematic I frankly do not see why should it. If IR can not force reset, then the only other thing happening upon disconnection is switching EEPROM from VDD to processor supplied power.
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 5:17 pm
by Mark Pierson
wwwoholic wrote:If IR can not force reset, then the only other thing happening upon disconnection is switching EEPROM from VDD to processor supplied power.
I guess the answer lies in whether your interface is holding reset high or low.
Here's what Tommy says in the Simple Interface Rev 5 document:
9. PERMANENT RESET Sometimes a remote will remain permanently reset as long as it is connected to the interface. The symptoms of this are: (1) You can't operate the remote while it is connected. (2) The remote's red LED doesn't blink twice following Check Interface, Upload, or Download. (3) The red LED blinks twice whenever the remote is disconnected. There are two causes for this problem. One is the voltage mis-match situation discussed previously. If you are working with a 6-volt remote with fresh batteries, and your PC's output voltage is not high enough to release the reset signal on the remote's processor, the processor will remain reset as long as the remote is connected. The important thing to remember is that this shortcoming does not prevent you from using the interface to upload or download because the processor must be held reset during those operations anyway. It simply means the JP1 connector must be unplugged before the remote can be operated, something most people do routinely.
The reduction of resistor R2 in this Rev 5 version of the interface should greatly reduce the incidence of permanent reset, but there is not enough evidence yet to confirm this, particularly when used with laptop PC's. If you absolutely must be able to operate the remote while it is still connected to the interface you can try reducing the operating voltage of a 4-cell remote to 4.5 volts by replacing one cell with a dead battery or a dummy. This will result in some reduction in maximum operating distance, so it may not be a totally satisfactory solution. You can make a dummy AAA size battery by cutting a 1-3/4 inch length of 3/8 inch diameter wooden dowel rod and wrapping it with aluminum foil or aluminum (not cloth) duct tape.
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:30 pm
by wwwoholic
Mark Pierson wrote:I guess the answer lies in whether your interface is holding reset high or low.
Precisely. Lets say it is low. Then 1) I should not be able to operate connected remote. Which is not the case. 2) It should reset when disconnected. Not hapenning.
Lets say it is high. Then I should be able to operate it connected and I am. But then disconnection should not result in reset! And it doesn't!
Now, the only question is why I don't see reset after uploading. I see two possible answers. 1) this particular remote does not indicate reset, unless it is the very first "power on" one. 2) something particular about electric signals, e.g. not steep enough front or whatever. It happens often with Microchip's PICs for example. May be IR can trigger reset two-three times after uploading?
Anyway, it works as is, and I can always pull the batteries. Time to go for extender. THAT is where I will flood this forum with questions!
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:50 pm
by gjarboni
wwwoholic wrote:Now, the only question is why I don't see reset after uploading. I see two possible answers. 1) this particular remote does not indicate reset, unless it is the very first "power on" one.
Every remote has to indicate reset -- the reset line is like ctrl-alt-del on a computer. It makes the processor start as if the batteries were just inserted.
wwwoholic wrote:2) something particular about electric signals
In this case the something peculiar is that your PC's parallel port can't pull the reset line low enough for the remote to "see" it as low. It depends on the voltages the parallel port puts out, what kind of batteries are in the remote, the resistors used in the interface, and the remote itself. In other words, there isn't a general solution. You can either tie pins 3 & 5 in your interface (so your remote is always reset when it's connected) or you can pull the batteries out after uploading. Or get a new computer
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 7:04 pm
by wwwoholic
gjarboni wrote:your PC's parallel port can't pull the reset line low enough for the remote to "see" it as low.
Wouldn't the upload then be impossible because of interference from the controller? On the other hand if I don't punch the buttons it should not access the memory, so upload indeed must be possible! And the suggestion to reduce the resistor on RESET line should work. I'll try it later. Just how many resistors one can by for the price of a new PC?!
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 7:10 pm
by Mark Pierson
wwwoholic wrote:Just how many resistors one can by for the price of a new PC?!
If you're buying them at RadioShack, don't forget to allow for the new cell phone, cable modem, and batteries they're going to push on you
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 7:43 pm
by gjarboni
wwwoholic wrote:gjarboni wrote:your PC's parallel port can't pull the reset line low enough for the remote to "see" it as low.
Wouldn't the upload then be impossible because of interference from the controller?
Not really -- Quite a few people have a PC/interface combination where the remote doesn't "see" the reset line going low, but we've seen very few cases of the processor interfering with the upload. If there was interference the symptom would be an invalid image written to the remote. That would mean that the checksum was invalid and cause a "MEM FAULT" message on your LCD.