Execute a macro after some amount of time

tkenn1s · Post by **tkenn1s** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 12:22 am

I recently purchased a 9910 remote and am absolutely blown away by how easy it was to program. This forum and the original JP1 Yahoo! Group has been so helpful. (Esp Don's wonderful tutorial)

But, I cannot figure out how to execute a macro after some amount of time. Here's the full description of the problem. Maybe I'm thinking about this the wrong way...

I have the remote setup to control the satelite and receiver while in "Home theater" mode. However, I want to be able to select a different device (namely 'TV') and be able to interact with it -- I really just want the ability to enter my TV's menu to configure the picture settings. I have all of this setup right now. But, what I would like to do is, after being in 'TV' mode for, say, 5 minutes, I want the remote to automatically go back to "Home Theater" mode. Ideally, the mode would shift back to "Home Theater" after some number of seconds after the last keypress.

I don't think I want a 'pause' because I need to be able to interact with the TV.

And, by the way, I am using the 8910 extender 1.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 5:34 am

I haven't looked inside the 8910 extender so I'm not sure, but most extenders have a short basic timer for things like canceling the shift key and turning off the backlight. That's usually about 10 seconds.

It would be a pretty small S3C80 asm programming task to tack an extra task (such as executing a macro on a specific phantom key) onto the event of that timer expiring. That could do what you want in a general enough way to be useful to others as well. But it does require some custom S3C80 asm programming changes to the extender and it does use the same timeout as the shift key and backlight etc.

It sounds like you may want a second, longer timeout for this feature (without also extending the timer for the backlight). That would significantly increase the difficulty of the programming and the eeprom space required, probably enough to kill the idea.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 6:46 am

I don't see how you could program the remote to perform a task in (let's say) 5 minutes time, without putting the remote into some sort of "wait" mode. He wants to be able to continue using the remote to adjust the TV menu while the remote is counting down the seconds before returning to HT mode.

Here's a different idea. When you're done with the TV's menu, is there a button that you typically press to signal that you are complete, such as SELECT or EXIT perhaps? If so, maybe you can program a device specific macro (DSM) to that button which will perform the normal function and also return the remote to HT mode.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 6:58 am

The Robman wrote:I don't see how you could program the remote to perform a task in (let's say) 5 minutes time, without putting the remote into some sort of "wait" mode. He wants to be able to continue using the remote to adjust the TV menu while the remote is counting down the seconds before returning to HT mode.

We seem to understand the request differently. I think he wants the timer to restart every time he presses a key, so the remote doesn't revert N seconds after entering TV mode, it reverts the first time N seconds go by without a keypress. That's exactly how the backlight works in a typical extender.

The remote is in a "wait mode". But it would be the normal wait mode of timer or keystroke, whichever comes first.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 7:03 am

I gotchya, that could work.

tkenn1s · Post by **tkenn1s** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 8:58 am

johnsfine wrote:
The Robman wrote:I don't see how you could program the remote to perform a task in (let's say) 5 minutes time, without putting the remote into some sort of "wait" mode. He wants to be able to continue using the remote to adjust the TV menu while the remote is counting down the seconds before returning to HT mode.
We seem to understand the request differently. I think he wants the timer to restart every time he presses a key, so the remote doesn't revert N seconds after entering TV mode, it reverts the first time N seconds go by without a keypress. That's exactly how the backlight works in a typical extender.

The remote is in a "wait mode". But it would be the normal wait mode of timer or keystroke, whichever comes first.

You know, I thought this was the more complex of the options. However, it seems that this would actually be easier to implement. (If I knew S3C80 asm!) Do you know if there is any asm snippet like this already?

Robman: Good idea about the exit. It's all about the way you look at the problem. I think, untill I become an S3C80 asm expert, I'll try to use the 'exit' to reset to Home Theater.

Now, another question.. Does anyone know where I can find information on the S3C80? And, where I can find the assembler?

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:57 am

tkenn1s wrote:Now, another question.. Does anyone know where I can find information on the S3C80?

http://www.hifi-remote.com/files/chip-m ... on-set.pdf
http://www.hifi-remote.com/files/chip-m ... -sheet.pdf

tkenn1s wrote:And, where I can find the assembler?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1/files ... 8asm_6.zip

tkenn1s · Post by **tkenn1s** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 8:11 pm

The Robman wrote:
tkenn1s wrote:Now, another question.. Does anyone know where I can find information on the S3C80?
http://www.hifi-remote.com/files/chip-m ... on-set.pdf
http://www.hifi-remote.com/files/chip-m ... -sheet.pdf

tkenn1s wrote:And, where I can find the assembler?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1/files ... 8asm_6.zip

Robman you're awesome! Thanks!

tkenn1s · Post by **tkenn1s** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:15 pm

So I looked over the documents and they're great for general S3C80 development. I'm also looking for something specific to the 8910/9910. Looking at the extender1 ASM code, it seems there are a series of standard library calls. ("LowBatery", "DispStatus", "HandleTimeout", etc...)

I'm wondering if this is more than a noob can handle. It sure seems like an interesting problem to solve. But, I don't want to bollocks my remote either!

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:49 pm

tkenn1s wrote:But, I don't want to bollocks my remote either!

Are you English by any chance?

tkenn1s · Post by **tkenn1s** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:19 pm

The Robman wrote:
tkenn1s wrote:But, I don't want to bollocks my remote either!
Are you English by any chance?

Sorry, no. Native Californian. Go figure!

("Bollocks" is such a cool word, tho!)

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 6:16 am

Oh yeah...

evan · Post by **evan** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:36 pm

Hello and THANK YOU Rob and John for all you have done!

Just wanted to add that I too would LOVE to see something such as this added to the 8910 extender.

I have a Scientific Atlantic 8000HD cable box and a 9910. When you view the guide, the 9910 does not have dedicated Page up/down keys (ONLY thing missing to make it the PERFECT remote for me.) so I set up a toadtog for both the channel +/- to make them page up/down when Guide is selected. (page up/down does nothing while watching tv, ch +/- does nothing in the guide)

Select and Exit buttons force them back to channel +/-, the guide button toggles.

Now, for myself it's no big deal to re-sync but for others (Wife, kids, and in-laws) it would help to have a timer macro defined to automatically force the toggle off and go back to page +/- after a remote key has not been pressed for X seconds.

Evan