RMIR and the URC-7955 (OFA Smart Control 5)

Curly060 · Post by **Curly060** » Sun Jul 30, 2023 1:22 pm

Hi!

TLDR:
What exact cable do I need to program my URC-7955 with RMIR? Can I use a CP2102 (serial-to-USB adapter) these days (I happen to own one)? What exact device do I need to program it via bluetooth? Will only the BLED112 dongle work?

And now the long story

My daughter drowned my URC-7980 in salt water and it has gone completely dead

I tried to buy it again, but it's simply not sold anywhere, so I got the next best thing, the URC-7955.

I thought I had documented how I had set up the 7980 but it turns out my documentation is outdated and the codes I had written down are missing a lot of buttons or just don't work with the URC-7955 like they did with the 7980.

I am always interested in "hacking" stuff so I thought, come on, these remotes are surely programmable and surely someone has found a way to do it - and there is! JP1 seems to be the magic!

So I have read the forum up and down trying to gain knowledge, but honestly, I am confused. I read the "Beginners - PLEASE read this thread first." and all it's related articles, but a lot of information simply seems to be outdated/wrong. As an example:

It says that for RMIR one needs to download RDF and Image maps, however RMIR comes bundled with all of this these days and the ones linked in the beginner's thread are very outdated (e.g. the 7955 isn't in there while it is in the RMIR packaged one).

I have certainly tried to dig myself through all info, but I am a little overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information and files that is available.

Anyway, would be glad if someone could quickly outline what exactly I need for my URC-7955 - and what the hell the pin layout is. There is a small white dot in the upper left corner on the PCB which I take as a marker for pin1. However in the bottom left corner I can see a 1 printed. So argh, where is pin 1?

Cheers, Ingo

P.S.: Absolutely amazing how much work must have gone into all of this! Wow!

davecs · Post by **davecs** » Sun Jul 30, 2023 1:58 pm

You need a FTDI (FT232RL) cable preferably, or a Prolific PL2303 cable. They have to be re-wired into a 3x2 dupont connector. If the cable you buy comes with 6 single dupont connectors you can glue them together. If it comes with a 1x6 connector, you can cut it through the 4th pin and glue the two halves back to back, as pins 1 and 5 are not used.

Have a look at this http://www.hifi-remote.com/wiki/index.php/JP1_Cables

and this about repurposing a 1x6 connector: https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewt ... &&start=45

Which country are you in by the way? Am I right in thinking that the 7980 you mention is a European model?

By the way if you want something to program which is reasonably recent and very powerful, see if you can get hold of the URC-3661 (Europe) or 3660/3680 (North America) rather than the 7955. You need the same connector.

Curly060 · Post by **Curly060** » Sun Jul 30, 2023 3:46 pm

Wow, what a quick response, thanks!

I am in Germany and I already bought the 7955. While the 3661 may technically the better one, I don't like it's appearance. So the 7955 it is.

Ok, I will get an FTDI cable and see how that goes then. I do have all sorts of cables/connectors etc. at home so that part will be easy.

I will report back once the FTDI arrives (hopefully Tuesday...)

Cheers, Ingo =;->

Curly060 · Post by **Curly060** » Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:55 am

A lot of good news:

I found another USB-to-Serial adapter which had an empty CTS pin. I soldered a pin in it and voila, I had a working JP1 interface.

And even better: The dead remote was readable and I could read everything. I had quite a lot of learned codes and a couple of keymoves.

I was able to generate device upgrades from these learned codes and used those to generate some fully working device upgrade for certain devices, yay!

But there is one thing that I have not yet found out how to do it:
I have an almost perfect code: 1272

What I would like to do now is to create a device upgrade starting from this code! It has almost all buttons mapped already in exaclty the way I want, it just misses 3-4 buttons. So is it possible to start a fresh device upgrade from an existing internal code and then add some missing codes manually?

I could not find such information (or was unable to search properly).

So far I am helping myself out with some keymoves, but for backup and future transfer purposes I'd rather have a full device upgrade (esp. because I can see exactly what is mapped to what).

Anyway, still amazed what a great tool RMIR is!

Cheers, Ingo =;->

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Aug 01, 2023 11:27 am

When you quote setup codes, you have to include the device type too, because TV/1272 isn't the same as VCR/1272, etc.

You don't mention what device this 1272 code is supposed to control. Did you check our file section to see if we already have an upgrade for it?

CBL/1272 = MCE 128.4
TV/1272 = NEC1 4
VCR/1272 = NEC1 0

Post by **mathdon** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 2:43 am

Curly060 wrote:So is it possible to start a fresh device upgrade from an existing internal code and then add some missing codes manually?

In general, no, as the data in the built-in setup codes is not accessible by RMIR. However, it is possible in the XSight series of remotes, as these create a device upgrade whenever you set up a new device. If you do as Rob asks and tell us the device type as well as the setup code, I may be able to create a device upgrade for you by using my XSight Touch. But do do what Rob also suggests and look in the Device Upgrades section of our File Section. That is a huge repository of device upgrades for all sorts of equipment, from TVs and DVDs to more exotic things like Toys and Air Conditioners.

Curly060 · Post by **Curly060** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:04 am

@Robman
I was using code "CBL/1272". I am controlling Kodi (LibreElec on Raspi4 with TSOP IR receiver) and I use a custom made rc_keymaps file. I had adapted the keymap file in such a way that it translates the 1272 codes (+my 3 keymoves) into keys that are directly understood by Kodi without having to mess with Kodi's Lircmap stuff.
That's why looking through existing stuff won't really help because I wanted exactly what code "CBL/1272" does, so I don't have to edit that keymap file.

However, I have found another way now:
"ir-keytable -t" lists me the codes it receives and that's exactly the HEX codes I need to specify in the Functions tab of the device upgrade. So all I had to do is create a device upgrade from scratch and paste all my Hex codes from the rc_keymap and voila, I have exactly the device upgrade I need

Now the only part that's missing are quite some codes for my "Technisat DIGIT ISIO S". Unfortunately I have lost my original remote. But my neighbour has a similar Technisat device, so I will borrow his remote and test if it fully works and if it does, I will either learn the codes (and create a device upgrade from them) or see if I can make use of ir-keytable again.

@mathdon
That's very good to know and very nice of you to offer something like that! But see above, I have already found another solution.

BTW: I have downloaded some codes with the OFA setup app. they work perfectly. I have saved those as device upgrades. I could upload these here, if that's ok. In this case should I then keep the exact code? Or is it not necessary to upload device upgrades here which can simply be downloaded by the OFA setup app?

Cheers, Ingo =;->

davecs · Post by **davecs** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 4:34 am

Curly060 wrote: BTW: I have downloaded some codes with the OFA setup app. they work perfectly. I have saved those as device upgrades. I could upload these here, if that's ok. In this case should I then keep the exact code? Or is it not necessary to upload device upgrades here which can simply be downloaded by the OFA setup app?

Cheers, Ingo =;->

You might want to check whether there are already devices in the File Section for your equipment, even though you have built your devices by yourself. If there are not, you might want to upload your RMDU files as they may help someone else in the future.

Curly060 · Post by **Curly060** » Fri Aug 04, 2023 10:09 am

Success! Everything is working again! Thanks everyone for the help, really awesome!

I have uploaded a couple of device upgrades:
- LG BP-740 (Blu-ray player): https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=26763
- Technisat DIGIT ISIO S (SAT/PVR): https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=26764
- Medion MD31038 (Smart TV): https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=26766
- Rotel RR-AX91/Rotel RA-12 (Audio Receiver): https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=26765

Except for the Technisat these are all directly from the OFA setup app, uploaded to my URC-7955 and then saved with RMIR. So they do have the original setup code.

Again, thanks so much for your help everyone!

Cheers, Ingo =;->

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Aug 05, 2023 8:10 am

Thanks for loading those. Quick question, are there any buttons on your original remotes that are not replicated in these upgrades, and do all the buttons have the same name as on the original remote?

If your original remotes have extra buttons, could you learn them to find the OBC and then add them to the upgrades?

If any of the buttons have different names on the original remotes (like maybe the MENU button is called HOME, etc), could you rename the functions in the upgrades?

Both of those steps will make your upgrades much more useful to the next person who uses them.