Transport keys in RM 0.93 not showing - URC-8550

daveoram · Post by **daveoram** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 8:24 am

Am I doing something wrong (probably), but I am starting to try ou RM for a troublesome upgrade detailed elsewhere.
I am using the Topline 8 (URC-8550) remote and selecting DVD mode, but the only transport keys that are showing as available are RECORD and SLOW.
KM allows me to use the whole set of keys.

Dave

gfb107 · Post by **gfb107** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:23 am

This looks like a problem in the RDF file for the 8550/5550 (are you watching Nils?)

You need to change the [DeviceTypeAliases] section to the following:

Code: Select all

[DeviceTypeAliases]
SAT        = SAT
TV         = TV
VCR        = VCR
CD         = CD
AMP        = Amp
TUNER      = Tuner
MISC_AUDIO = Misc Audio
TAPE       = Tape
VID_ACC    = Video Acc
CABLE      = Cable
PHONO      = Phone
HOME_CT    = Home Auto
LASER      = Laserdisc
DVD        = DVD
DAT        = DAT

Nils_Ekberg · Post by **Nils_Ekberg** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:51 am

Got it Greg

daveoram · Post by **daveoram** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:58 am

Thanks Greg, that fixed it - Its the same in the 5550 RDF as well, so that needs the same fix.

Dave

Nils_Ekberg · Post by **Nils_Ekberg** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:10 am

daveoram wrote:Thanks Greg, that fixed it - Its the same in the 5550 RDF as well, so that needs the same fix.

Dave

Fixing the 8550 also fixes the 5550 since they share an RDF. Unless ofcourse I am missing something.

daveoram · Post by **daveoram** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 3:34 am

Fixing the 8550 also fixes the 5550 since they share an RDF. Unless ofcourse I am missing something.

I'm sure you are right - I should have put my brain into gear before typing.

One thing I do notice is that there do not appear to be many users of this remote on this forum - understandable really as its not available in US (I know you have the Producer/director or whatever it is called), and more importantly it seems to lack the programmability and memory efficiency of other remotes - but what the heck, the wife thinks it looks cool and she can program a whole nights viewing into the timed functions and just sit back and let the remote do the channel changing - so I will persevere and try and squeeze every last bit of memory out of it (I do wish the two device upgrade sections could be combined into one somehow as I have 66bytes left in one and about 400 left in the other)

My point is that even though I am new to this remote and the whole aspect of programming with RM, I hope you dont mind if I ask what might be some silly/basic questions in the future about this - it may be me doing something wrong, but as in the initial post, It may help others who are just browsers on the board - I know I browsed a long time before I actually asked my first question, it looked like a very tight-knight community who talked about RDFs/EFC's/Protocols etc. Once I had had my first reply I realised what a freindly helpful bunch you are, and even if my responses to questions I thought I could answer were wrong, i havn't been flamed like some other boards you get.

Anyway sorry for rambling and getting away from the point.

Thanks

Dave

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 9:36 am

You are right, the URC-8550 was never made available here in the States, furthermore I believe it has been discontinued for quite some time, hence the lack of users here, though Uwe has one and might be able to help out occassionally.

In the US we had the URC-8080 which was very similar to the URC-8550. Actually, we had the URC-8600 Odyssey remote which was identical, but it must have been a bad seller because I haven't heard of a single person who has that remote.

As for combining the device upgrade sections, you have the ability to re-arrange the borders of these sections by editing the RDF. I think Jason has done that before so maybe he can jump in here and help you with it.

daveoram · Post by **daveoram** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:05 pm

The Robman wrote:As for combining the device upgrade sections, you have the ability to re-arrange the borders of these sections by editing the RDF. I think Jason has done that before so maybe he can jump in here and help you with it.

That would be very useful if he could.

I am sure that even though it is a discontinued model, there may be quite a few users over here as ther are being sold on eBay for as little as £14 (Damn I paid £31 for mine

)

Anyway, I have my first question - But I will post it in another thread to keep this one on topic.

Dave

uwereinert · Post by **uwereinert** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:09 pm

The Robman wrote:Uwe has one and might be able to help out occassionally.

Sure, if necessarily.

The Robman wrote:As for combining the device upgrade sections, you have the ability to re-arrange the borders of these sections by editing the RDF.

I'll dig a little bit deeper in this and post the result asap.

Uwe

uwereinert · Post by **uwereinert** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:27 pm

uwereinert wrote:asap

Here we go...

Take the RDF and change the original lines with the following lines.

[General]
UpgradeAddr=$104..$3FF
DevUpgradeAddr=$402..$6FF

[Checksums]
+$000:$002..$03B
+$03C:$03E..$0FF
+$100:$102..$3FF
+$400:$402..$6FF
+$700:$702..$7CE

[FixedData]
$00A = $3B $00 $FF $00 $FF $03 $FF $06 $CE $07 $CE $07 $CE $07 $CE $07 $CE $07 $FD $07

You have to start your config with a new file and copy and paste your devices, protocols, key moves and macros into the new file (you can run more than one instance of IR). Upload to remote, finish.

Uwe

daveoram · Post by **daveoram** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 3:15 pm

Thanks Uwe,

I will try that tomorrow - too much alcohol in my system to take it in tonight!

Dave

Nils_Ekberg · Post by **Nils_Ekberg** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 4:21 pm

gfb107 wrote:This looks like a problem in the RDF file for the 8550/5550 (are you watching Nils?)

You need to change the [DeviceTypeAliases] section to the following:
Code: Select all
[DeviceTypeAliases]
SAT        = SAT
TV         = TV
VCR        = VCR
CD         = CD
AMP        = Amp
TUNER      = Tuner
MISC_AUDIO = Misc Audio
TAPE       = Tape
VID_ACC    = Video Acc
CABLE      = Cable
PHONO      = Phone
HOME_CT    = Home Auto
LASER      = Laserdisc
DVD        = DVD
DAT        = DAT

Greg, after all is said and done with this topic do we still need these changes in the RDF. If so I will just leave them in for the next distribution. They look right but I never saw any confirmation that it helped with anything and I don't want to pass on a problem to others.

My gut tells me these changes are required.....

uwereinert · Post by **uwereinert** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:15 am

Nils_Ekberg wrote:My gut tells me these changes are required.....

Nils, I'm not Greg, but your gut is right.

Uwe

gfb107 · Post by **gfb107** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:26 am

Yes, these changes are needed.

There were 3 issues here:

1. DeviceTypeAliases were wrong, causing RM to use the wrong ButtonMap in many cases, which could be seen on the Layout panel.

2. In the generated upgrade code, RM used the wrong device type index because it assumed the index was strictly positional. v0.95 fixed this.

3. THe 8550 has some weird issues with some device modes, so changing the assigned device button was necessary.

daveoram · Post by **daveoram** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:15 am

3. THe 8550 has some weird issues with some device modes, so changing the assigned device button was necessary.

The 8550 has some wierd issues - Full Stop!!

It is still advertised over here as one of the 'flagship' range of remotes - Yet it does not have a built-in device for SKY Digital - the only real alternative to broadcast TV!

Dave