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Simulate a long key press in a macro?

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:29 am
by PhileFriendly
I am trying to build a macro to turn on all of my devices at once, but unfortunately my receiver (Philips FR975) requires a long key press to power it on. Is there any way to do that in a macro?

On a related topic, if I can somehow map a short key press of a button to the long press behavior, that would also work (since I could then include that short key in the macro).

Thanks in advance!

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:43 pm
by jeajea
What remote are you using? Does it has an extender available? For most extenders the last button in the macro will be sent for as long as you hold the button that invokes macro. In your case you make receiver ON the last button.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 5:36 am
by vickyg2003
It depends on the remote and the protocol executor being used in the upgrade.

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 6:49 pm
by PhileFriendly
Thanks for the replies. The remote I have is OARUSB04G, and I haven't put an extender on it; all I've done is loaded a couple device codes that I've gotten from the forum. Incidentally, I did try just holding down on the macro key, but that didn't work (I was hoping what jeajea suggested maybe would be working out of the box).

thanks!

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 6:09 am
by tranx
The extender is a bit like central heating or windup car windows, indispensable once you have got the hang of it

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:04 am
by mathdon
PhileFriendly wrote:Incidentally, I did try just holding down on the macro key, but that didn't work (I was hoping what jeajea suggested maybe would be working out of the box).
On the OARUSB04G you need the extender for this to work. Also, depending on how long a keypress you need, the extender allows you to change the hold time of any key in a macro from the default of 250ms (the hold time in the unextended remote). The available range is 0-450ms in increments of 50ms. So you can almost double the hold time of the unextended remote, but to go beyond 450ms you need to make it the last key of the sequence and hold the physical button for as long as you need.

A note to old-timers puzzled by the above: macros in older UEI unextended remotes usually sent each signal 3 times, but UEI has changed this for the OARUSB04G and equivalents to a hold time of 250ms rather than a set number of repeats of the signal.

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 2:18 pm
by vickyg2003
mathdon wrote: A note to old-timers puzzled by the above: macros in older UEI unextended remotes usually sent each signal 3 times, but UEI has changed this for the OARUSB04G and equivalents to a hold time of 250ms rather than a set number of repeats of the signal.
Thanks for that. It helps with the steep learning curve of moving on to the newer remotes.

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:17 pm
by mdavej
FWIW, Xsight/Nevo macro steps have a programmable hold duration, which I think acts like a long key press. I've only used it with volume commands, and they work as if they are held for the duration.