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JP1 I/face from PC with no in-built Serial or Parallel port?

 
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digital_silence



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 252

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:02 am    Post subject: JP1 I/face from PC with no in-built Serial or Parallel port? Reply with quote

Hello, community.

I am sure I am not the first one facing this issue...

I have a variety of JP1 remotes. Some of them are JP1, others are JP1.3. For JP1, I use parallel port interface cable, and for JP1.3 I use the serial port interface cable. Everything works fine.

Now I want to migrate to another PC which doesn't have either parallel or serial port on the motherboard. So, I thought I would use USB-to-Serial/Parallel dongle. I have one of those - IBM USB Serial Parallel Adapter (the one shown, for example, here). It's built around two Prolific chips: PL2303 for serial interface and PL2305 - for parallel interface.

I am using IR8.04 (on 64 bit Win7) to communicate with remotes. While JP1.3 via serial port (using the adapter above) is working fine, the JP1 interface via parallel connector (on the same adapter) does not work.
I am guesing it is because the adapter does NOT emulate the LPT port 0x378 or 0x278 or any other specific hardware IO-port.

Sorry for the long intro, here are my questions:

1) Is there any way to get IR8.04 (or any version for that matters) to work with my JP1 parallel cable under Win7 or WinXP (I can boot either) using the USB dongle mentioned above ? Or with any other commercially available USB-parallel dongle?

2) If the answers to (1) above are NO and NO, what would be the easiest solution to interface to my JP1 remotes? I can build any interface of any complexity. Easiest seems to be if I built a serial JP1 cable, but I am reading on this forum that the serial JP1 cables won't work with USB-to-Serial dongles because the I2C comms needs the direct access to COM port pins for bitbashing. Is this right? If this is wrong please explain which serial JP1 interface and which drivers for PL2303 should be used.

3) If serial JP1 i/face via dongle is not an option either, it looks like building the USB interface is the only option left. However the conventional USB chip seems to be obsolete and not available from the suggested supplier now. Could you please refer me to the link at this forum that outlines the most current instructions for building the USB JP1 cable? (Note that I'd like to consider USB only if 1 and 2 above are not feasible)

If there is a forum thread where all this has already been discussed, could someone please point me to that direction, thanks.

Sorry for the long text - I tried to be as clear as I could. Thanks in advance for any info.
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gentzel



Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 40

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:40 am    Post subject: Re: JP1 I/face from PC with no in-built Serial or Parallel p Reply with quote

digital_silence wrote:
I'd like to consider USB only if 1 and 2 above are not feasible

I'm curious why you are reluctant to make the jump to USB. It's really the easiest (and most future-proof) option.

You can build a JP1.x USB interface for about $10 (http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13928).

A JP1 programming adapter will let this same cable work with your EEPROM remotes. It's a bit more work, but not too bad (http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11819). And if you'd rather, you can pick up the adapter for $10 from one of the listed vendors. This is the route I took when I left serial/parallel behind; built a JP1.x USB cable and purchased an adapter for JP1 (which I use less often these days).

Alternatively you can build a separate JP1 cable, but I'm not sure what the preferred USB JP1 interface is currently.

If you're committed to sticking with serial/parallel via adapters, I'll leave that to others as I never investigated that option.

Best of luck.
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digital_silence



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 252

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 10:04 am    Post subject: Re: JP1 I/face from PC with no in-built Serial or Parallel p Reply with quote

gentzel wrote:
digital_silence wrote:
I'd like to consider USB only if 1 and 2 above are not feasible

I'm curious why you are reluctant to make the jump to USB. It's really the easiest (and most future-proof) option.
Simply because I have serial and parallel JP-cables already.
Don't get me wrong - I will build the USB one if I need to. It's just I want to make sure first that I really DO need to.

gentzel wrote:
If you're committed to sticking with serial/parallel via adapters, I'll leave that to others as I never investigated that option.
Best of luck.
Thanks.

I am not really THAT insistant on Serial/Parallel, but let's see first what the other experts say, and if the serial/parallel options are out, I'll make the USB one.
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mdavej
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Joined: 08 Oct 2003
Posts: 4498

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why make a cable these days? My last JP1.3 USB cable was $7. I even bought one recently for $2, but I haven't tested it yet. EEPROM adapter from Tommy or DIYgadget adds JP1 support. You could spend a lot of time, effort and money on old parallel and serial cards and cables, but that makes absolutely no sense.

I probably have an old parallel card you can have for the cost of shipping. Good luck finding drivers though.

Whatever you do, please don't get a PL cable. They aren't worth the trouble when a good cable is only $7.
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The Robman
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Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Posts: 21197
Location: Chicago, IL

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

the parallel interface definitely requires a genuine parallel port, it won't work with any converter or adapter type ports. So a USB flash cable with JP1 adapter is your only option for your older remotes, unless you can build an older style JP1 EEPROM USB cable, because nobody makes those anymore.

I think the serial cable will work with an adapter, but I'm not certain on that as I've never used one.
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Please don't PM me with remote questions, post them in the forums so all the experts can help!
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digital_silence



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 252

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, things are getting a bit clearer...

mdavej, thanks for your card offer, but I don't even have a spare PCI slot in that PC.

BTW, can someone link me to a schematics/documentation of that JP1 adapter? I understand that it makes serial/USB JP1.3 cables to work with JP1 remotes, right?

Thanks.
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gentzel



Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 40

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

digital_silence wrote:
BTW, can someone link me to a schematics/documentation of that JP1 adapter?

See the link in my original reply.
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digital_silence



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 252

                    
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

gentzel wrote:
digital_silence wrote:
BTW, can someone link me to a schematics/documentation of that JP1 adapter?

See the link in my original reply.

Thanks gentzel.
I had a look at the "guts" of Kevin's JP1 adapter HERE and it looks like the way to go for me. Great. The reason I want to build my own one rather than buying it is that I prefer to have 100% control over the tools I am using, just to be able to replace/fix them quickly if (when) such situation arises. Living outside US (I am in AU), quick replacement for JP1 gadget maybe problematic.

Just a last confirmation question bunch before I go and buy myself a PIC:

I understand that (in the nutshell) the above JP1 adapter converts the JP1.X FLASH (serial) protocol into JP1 EEPROM (I2C) protocol.
So, the IR804 talks to adapter thinking that it communicates with JP1.X device, while the PIC inside the converter talks to the JP1 remote at the other end. So the adapter "emulates" JP1.X remote protocol on the real JP1 remote.

So, if in IR804 I select JP1 remote (say 8910) and JP1.X serial Interface, the IR804 is NOT going to complain about mismatch... or is it?

So to make the case clear. If:
- I make the custom upgrade for my 8910 using RM
- I load that upgrade to IR804 (8910 remote is selected)
- I chose "Serial JP1.X Interface"
- I connect my 8910 to the PC via USB-serial dongle, Serial JP1.X interface cable and Kevin's JP1 adapter
- I press "Upload to remote"

then it will program my 8910 just fine. Right?
(assuming, of course, all mentioned hardware works OK)

Thanks a lot for the great help!
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gentzel



Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 40

                    
PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

digital_silence wrote:
then it will program my 8910 just fine. Right?
(assuming, of course, all mentioned hardware works OK)

Yes, I believe it should, but I must again mention that I've only ever used an EEPROM adapter with a USB JP1.x interface, not an old-school serial interface. I don't see any reason it shouldn't work, however.

Worst case, if it doesn't work you'll only have to spend $10 to build a JP1.x USB adapter and use it with that instead. So no real risk to giving it a shot.
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digital_silence



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 252

                    
PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

gentzel wrote:
digital_silence wrote:
then it will program my 8910 just fine. Right?
(assuming, of course, all mentioned hardware works OK)

Yes, I believe it should, but I must again mention that I've only ever used an EEPROM adapter with a USB JP1.x interface, not an old-school serial interface. I don't see any reason it shouldn't work, however.

Worst case, if it doesn't work you'll only have to spend $10 to build a JP1.x USB adapter and use it with that instead. So no real risk to giving it a shot.
You are right. It's not a money saving exercise. Just fun.

Logically, the remote itself (and the JP1 adapter in this case) receives just SCL/SDA or TX/RX/RESET signals and has no way of knowing which cable (USB, parallel or serial) sends those signals. So it should make no difference which JP1.X cable is used of those three. That's in theory, unless I am missing some fine details.

OK, I'll give it a go and report here.

Thanks to everyone in this thread.
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digital_silence



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 252

                    
PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 7:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Final update.

I have built the JP1.x-to-JP1 adapter as documented in Kevin's website, and it works quite happily with my serial JP1.x cable for JP1 EEPROM remotes.

BTW, I am running the JP1.x cable from the Prolific PL-2303 based USB-2-Serial dongle.

So I can now program my JP1.x remotes (i.e. Comcast URC-1067Bx3) using just a serial JP1.x cable, and also can program my JP1 remotes (i.e. URC8910) using the (serial JP1.x cable + Kevin's JP1 adapter) combo.

All good.

I realise that for many of you this is all pretty obvious, but I thought I'd spell this out in case someone will come across this thread looking for related info.

Thanks a lot to all contributed.

Best,
:-DS

2 Kevin T:
If you find this post sooner than you check your email - please disregards the email from me. I have found the issue - it was the PIC programming.
For some reason, simplified JDM adapter and PICPgm software programmed the chip wrongly.
I changed the setup to the standard USB programmer and Microchip software and it all worked flawlessly.
Thanks for your great little design.
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gentzel



Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 40

                    
PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glad you got everything working.

And thanks for the update... it always bugs me when someone resolves their issue and doesn't post a followup to help the next guy.
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