JP1 Remotes

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

I've had a URC-8910 for about 17 years, I think I bought it from Rob who mailed it to me. A few years ago it stopped working fully. I had replaced a piece of equipment, had prepared a new version of the rmir file to upload to it, and it wouldn't connect.

Recently I decided to take it apart, and a coil had come away from its mounting, I stuck it back down, put everything back together and it appeared to be working perfectly. Pressed TV then Power for the extender, it said "SUCCESS" all looked well.

I had lost the little dongle that you needed between the FTDI cable and EEPROM-based remotes, so I decided to get an arduino nano and make a new interface. I know that works, because I also have a couple of 7560/2 remotes and it works with them.

So, my question is: Has anyone come across this issue before of the 8910 not communicating? Has anyone been able to fix it? If so, how?

Thanks for any help...
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URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661

The Robman · Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 5:47 pm Post subject:

The coil thing that fell out, and which has fallen out of most 8910 remotes, is for the modem upgrades that you could do over the phone, so that's no loss (if you didn't reattach it properly). I just hope you didn't short something else out if you messed up the reinstall.

Is the 8910 completely dead, or does it just not talk to RMIR?

If it's the latter case, you could try doing a modem upgrade, just to see if that works. IR.exe was able to create WAV files that you could play into your remote via your PC speakers.

If the remote works but the RMIR connection doesn't work, try messing around with the batteries:
1. Try with fresh new batteries
2. Try with older batteries
3. Try with one battery reversed (sounds silly, but this is for real)
4. Try with no batteries

If RMIR still doesn't work, try IR.exe

If still nothing, take a close look at the solder joints on the 6-pin, and if your soldering skills are ok, try reflowing the solder on all 6 pins
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Rob
www.hifi-remote.com
Please don't PM me with remote questions, post them in the forums so all the experts can help!

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

It's not talking to RMIR. It still operates my old Pioneer VCR/DVD-R unit. I had a brief sojourn into Windows to use IR.exe to try to set up the 7560, and as soon as I ran IR I got an error report that it couldn't connect to anything due to missing drivers. I also found that rmir files were not backwards compatible.

I got an error report, the same for all the battery combinations, but a different one if I left the arduino connected but the remote unplugged, so at least it knows something is there!

Is this fault one that develops on a lot of 8910s? It might be worth buying one second hand.
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URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

I've decided to buy another one, secondhand from USA. Via eBay uk. About £26 including postage. Let's hope it doesn't have the same problem.
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URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661

The Robman · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:59 am Post subject:

Do you have a saved RMIR file from the old 8910 that you can load into the new one? Once you have the new one up and running, I would suggest reflowing the solder on the 6-pin on the old one.
_________________
Rob
www.hifi-remote.com
Please don't PM me with remote questions, post them in the forums so all the experts can help!

mathdon · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:10 am Post subject:

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

I tried that, but after a noise lasting 1:36 which, if repeated, might result in my second divorce, it hadn't been updated — the remote didn't operate my amplifier and didn't display the updated labels in the LCD window, just the old ones.
_________________
URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661

The Robman · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:31 am Post subject:

I'm no audio expert, but I seem to remember that there was something about the speaker in the earpiece of old fashioned telephones that made it perfect for these WAV files, and not all conventional speakers have the same properties. So it could be that, or more likely you didn't re-install the coil properly. The coil has 2 very thin wires coming out of it and both need to be soldered to the PCB, so if you just glued it back in place, that's not going to work.
_________________
Rob
www.hifi-remote.com
Please don't PM me with remote questions, post them in the forums so all the experts can help!

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

The Robman · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:22 pm Post subject:

Yeah, if you didn't reconnect the wires, the modem coil won't work. I can try to find an 8910 here and, if it doesn't rattle, I could open it up and take a pic of where the wires are supposed to connect, if that will help.

Yeah, there were 2 designed, the original came with the hated "donut ring", which they wisely replaced with arrow buttons some time later. The original versions also had a nice green backlight, which became red in later versions.
_________________
Rob
www.hifi-remote.com
Please don't PM me with remote questions, post them in the forums so all the experts can help!

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

I shouldn't bother about opening up an 8910. I'm not going to be using the wav method to upgrade it. Let's see what happens with the one I ordered.
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URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

The replacement URC8910 arrived today and I can upload and download to/from it. I'll be working on it over the coming period.

Of course, being American, it won't display the time in 24hr format. Unless someone can tell me otherwise...

There's another little thing... it says in the instructions that you can set the initial VPT device in ir.exe (and presumably rmir) and that way if you never use the instruction SET_VOL_KEYS, then it can never be changed. That would be my preference but I can't see how to do it in RMIR.
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URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661

davecs · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 328 Location: UK

Time to feel stupid!

There is a minor issue with the Arduino interface for old JP1 remotes. I don't know whether this has happened to anyone else.

One of the things about the 6 pins inside the URC8910 is that where is reads "JP1" on the circuit board, is not by pins 1 and 2, but by pins 5 and 6. With the Arduino interface, if you put the connector on the board the wrong way round, then you get the "Uploading" message in RMIR, and after a while it gives up and reports an error, suggesting there might be a bug in the software! If you then remove the connector from the remote and put it in the correct way round, you get an immediate error report on Up/Down-loading: "No Remotes Found". To overcome this, you have to exit from RMIR and restart it. Now it works. However, it's easy to conclude that the correct connection is wrong, and the first one, which at least tries to connect, is faulty.

So my problem with my old URC-8910 was that I was connecting it the wrong way round, but when I tried it the other way I got a curt "No remotes found". When I got the replacement, the same thing happened but after the "No remotes found" report I exited RMIR and pulled out the connector at the USB end, and put it back, ran RMIR again, but didn't turn the connector back inside the remote. And it suddenly worked!

On the replacement one, some of the keys are a bit wobbly, though they work, so I might open it up, give it a compressed air clean, and try to reseat the buttons. I'm also going to add some colour around the L1234 buttons.

In the meantime, excuse me for feeling a bit stupid!

P.S. with the URC7560, the circuit board reads "1" next to pin 1. Simple!
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URC7560/URC7562, URC8910, URC7980, URC6440/OARUSB04G and URC3661