JP1 Remotes

roberthunt · Joined: 21 Nov 2009 Posts: 21

Okay I managed to create an upgrade under the URC-7555 but because the key layout on that remote differs from mine it wasn't that easy to see what I was mapping. The good news is that the functions I mapped works perfectly and I was able to control the power, volume, channels and numbers.

How would I go about creating a remote definition for the URC-1660? I assume I could base it on the URC-7555 to some extent.

Thanks

vickyg2003 · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:22 pm Post subject:

Robert, please remember to post your upgrade. There is NOTHING like this TV built into any UEI remotes at this time, so this will be very helpful to other Technika TV owners.
_________________
Remember to provide feedback to let us know how the problem was solved and share your upgrades.

Tip: When creating an upgrade, always include ALL functions from the oem remote, even if you never plan on assigning them to a button. Complete function lists makes an upgrade more helpful to others.

vickyg2003 · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:30 pm Post subject:

A good place to start on your quest for a graphical interface for your remote would be to start with this thread.
http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8229
_________________
Remember to provide feedback to let us know how the problem was solved and share your upgrades.

Tip: When creating an upgrade, always include ALL functions from the oem remote, even if you never plan on assigning them to a button. Complete function lists makes an upgrade more helpful to others.

WagonMaster · Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 361

Hi Robert and welcome to the JP1 forums!

I recently took over maintenance of the RDF/map/image files from Nils Ekberg and I'm in the process of getting a new release ready.

roberthunt · Joined: 21 Nov 2009 Posts: 21

Thanks for the helpful information, I have just started working on the map for this remote and I have a good photo of it. I'll move on to the RDF afterwards and let you know how I get on.

WagonMaster · Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 361

Sounds great, Robert! Don't hesitate to holler for help on either the map or RDF. As you can see, there are a bunch of helpful experts here to "lean on" when needed.

Bill

roberthunt · Joined: 21 Nov 2009 Posts: 21

I managed to create the map fairly easily, had a few problems getting the program to run on a 64-bit Windows 7 system but that's expected from a program designed in 1995. I labelled all of the keys with logical names and modified a couple of lines in the RDF file to get it into RemoteMaster.

The map is available in the files section: http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload.php?action=file&file_id=7560

This is the bit where I get stuck because my understanding is not yet deep enough to know what things I need to be changing in the RDF file. I am assuming a lot of the hard work was done initially when the URC-7555 RDF was created.

I created a few macros on my remote that make use of most of the keys and when I download the remote and view the macros in IR.exe I see the keys listed, a lot of them are correct such as the numbers and transport controls (play/pause etc.) but others such as the Sky+ specific ones (Box Office, TV Guide, Services etc.) appear as functions that are not part of my remote.

What is the next step?

Thanks

WagonMaster · Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 361

I've checked out your map/image files with "Map This!" and they look and work great -- nice job! Assuming you have no objection, I'll include these files in the next release.

As for the RDF, first fix the "ImageMap=URC-7555.map" line to instead point to your new map file, if you haven't already done so.

Next, you'll need to fix up (add, remove, or modify) any of the assignments ('button-name=button-code') in the "[Buttons]" section. I'm hoping that someone with more experience and/or imagination than I have will jump in here and make a suggestion for the best user-friendly way to do that. (The way I'd do it is not at all user-friendly. Wink

). I suppose you could do some manual keymoves using the '994' code and then inspect them under 'IR.exe' to get the button codes, but I'm not sure if that's the most efficient way to get the button codes.

As you might expect, the button names used in the map file need to match the names used in the RDF's "[Buttons]" section. In cases where that's not practical, the button code should be pre-pended to the map file's button name, but don't worry about that because I don't think your remote has any such cases.

Some of those other settings will be hard to know if they're correct or not. That's where one of the experts will have to jump in and assist.

Bill

vickyg2003 · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 6:18 am Post subject:

You don't want to remove buttons. This 2 device remote is really a 5 device remote. Any buttons that don't exist on the remote, are still there for use in macros. The other devices can be set up to control 3 more pieces of equipment.

Typically these two remotes will be combined into 1 rdf since they are the same internally.
_________________
Remember to provide feedback to let us know how the problem was solved and share your upgrades.

Tip: When creating an upgrade, always include ALL functions from the oem remote, even if you never plan on assigning them to a button. Complete function lists makes an upgrade more helpful to others.

3FG · Expert Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 3367

Caveat: I'm no expert and the following is not imaginative. However, one task is to identify the button numbers so that they can be correctly labeled in the buttons section. As WagonMaster said, a way to do this is to manually (from the remote itself) do keymoves of each unknown button onto another known button. Use the first set of 994 instructions in mdavej's compilation to carry out the keymoves.

After downloading into IR, go to the Keymoves tab where you'll find the actual button code in the column labeled Hex Cmd. For example, if you keymove the Power button onto some other button, the Hex Cmd would be $03 **Key Code. Of course, you don't need to keymove the commonly named buttons, like vol +/-, mute, digits, etc. , because those buttons will already be correctly identified.

Under [buttons] in the RDF file, change the name associated with a key code to e.g. Box Office. If a key has the same function but a different name than is standard in RDF files, consider describing that. For example, if the Back Up button causes the TV or Cable box to revert to the previously selected channel, then describe that key as "prev ch":Back_Up. That will help make upgrade files to be more easily converted. But I don't know which names are actually standard. Sad

ETA: The file RDFspec_R004.pdf, which is included in the IR.exe distribution, has good and importnant information. It does include a list of the standard Generic Names, and the rationale for using them.

roberthunt · Joined: 21 Nov 2009 Posts: 21

Okay, thanks for the info, had a bit of a read through the RDF and the RDFspec_R004.pdf. I think I can handle the key mappings part, I'll have a play around with that shortly.

Back to a point raised by vickyg2003, would it be best for me to add support for the URC-1660 to the already existing RDF for the URC-7555 as they share the same signature? If I did that what would happen when I get to things such as Learning because the URC-7555 supports that and the URC-1660 does not. The alternative would be to create a copy of the RDF with the same signature but only for the URC-1660.

UPDATE:

I think I've got all of the key addresses now.

mr_d_p_gumby · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 4:57 pm Post subject:

vickyg2003 · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:09 pm Post subject:

roberthunt · Joined: 21 Nov 2009 Posts: 21