JP1 Remotes

[johnnya]

Thanks for your reply John and apologies for wasting your time. Can you clarify what exactly constitutes a "failed or questionable decode"? One which returns no specific protocol? Because I've tried learning these keyboard signals literally a couple dozen times now and never received a result in the Device, Sub-Device, OBC, or Hex Cmd fields.

[johnsfine]

In this case we know that DecodeIr doesn't yet support the right protocol so there is no chance of it returning a correct decode. Jon knows how to decode them by hand and he probably already knows what the decoded values would be from looking at similar devices.

By "failed or questionable decode" I was trying to be more general.

A "failed or questionable decode" is any time YOU think you need to tell us (the JP1 experts) something about a learned signal and that something is anything other than a plausible decode.

I wasn't trying to second guess the decision of whether to provide info about your learned signals. I don't know whether Jon will need that info to help you now and I don't know whether I will need that info later to debug changes to DecodeIr that I haven't started to write yet.

I was just commenting on HOW to provide info about learned signals, not whether.

[jon_armstrong]

The mouse keys use a somewhat different IR protocol from the rest of the Keyboard. There is a pretty good description in this thread

I'll try to create a device and protocol upgrade for those four commands in a few days.
_________________
-Jon

[johnnya]

Thanks Jon!! Do you need more decodes from me? I only posted the one for the power button, and apparently what I did post won't help you much. Do you need an .ir file with the 4 media keys and power button?

[jon_armstrong]

jonnya,

Does the Airboard upgrade work for most keys other than the mouse?

I just looked at the power command you posted and it is similar to the regular keyboard commands but has one stop bit instead of two. Does that learned command work?

What I'm guessing is that in the Keyboard hardware/firmware you can set the number of stop bits although it is probably not meant to be user configurable.

If that is the case and none of the commands work, then I do need you to learn the arrow commands and the numerals and I'll see if the commands are the same and I just need to change the device/protocol upgrade to one stop bit.
_________________
-Jon

[johnnya]

Hi Jon,

Yes, the Airboard upgrade works for all keys, including the arrows, but (as far as I can tell) it does not include the media keys (Play, Stop, Next, Prev) or the Power Key. There are others (Favorite, Email, WWW, Sleep, Vol. Up, Vol. Down, Mute) but I'm not really concerned with them, as they don't factor into my htpc use.

And yes, the power key will work once learned (the only one I've tested so far).

While I have your ear... would I need an extender to make commands repeat if I hold a key down? (Such as arrow down)

Thanks again for your assistance. Do you have a sourceforge project or something I can donate to? I can't afford much, but I would like to give back...

[jon_armstrong]

[johnnya]

OK, I learned all the nonstandard keys, verified that the learned buttons work, and then posted the .ir file in a zip archive with a .txt file explaining the key/button mapping here
(all keys learned to the AUX device)

I included mouse movements (short bursts in the four cardinal directions) and mouse buttons, for completeness sake, but I believe your Airboard upgrade already has the buttons.

Effusive thanks for your help on this!

[aperry]

Okay, I'm confused (but what else is new?)... If you make use of the make and break file that is posted in the files section, how do you actually program the macro that presses Ctrl, then M, then releases M, and then Ctrl?

Or alternatively, has anyone put together a file containing the Ctrl sequences?

Also, am I correct in assuming that this keyboard would be compatible with these keycodes in the device upgrade file?

[jon_armstrong]

jonnya,

try these for the mouse commands on the arrow keys:

Upgrade Code 0 = 3F D8 (Cable/2008) keymap-master Device Upgrade (KM v8.31)
DF 00 08 A9 81 BF FD EF BD FF 81 FF FD E0
End

Upgrade Protocol 0 = 01 DF (S3C8+) Custom Protocol for Cable/2008 keymap-master Device Upgrade (KM v8.31)
43 8C 22 8B 13 8E 01 08 08 01 A0 00 00 00 00 01
8C 15 46 FF FF FF FF 05 8D 01 46
End

aperry,

You will need to have two device/protocol upgrades to use compound commands. You will need to do compound keys with macros and preferably device specific macros (DSM). So you could still do it all on one "device", but some keys like numerals would be the make_AND_break device and protocol and you would program a DSM ctrl-alt-del on the Exit key (or something like that).

Keep in mind that we are only trying to get SOME functionality into the remote to emulate some keys.

As far as the KB in the link that you provided, I don't know whether it is an airboard or not. We have decoded an Acer KB, but I don't know what model it is. Since we have decoded the Airboard the most completely, you may want to find out from jonnya what model he has and where he got it. A new KB is a lot of work to decode.

John Fine and I very recently decoded the SolidTek ACK-571 including the mouse commands and his latest decoder supports it. So I would get that one or an "Airboard". I just bought the SolidTek from PCTek Online for $32 including shipping.
_________________
-Jon

[johnnya]

jon,

the upgrade worked beautifully very smooth movement, perfect rate of speed (not too fast, not too slow). nice work!!! just one thing -- the left/right arrow and movement was reversed.

sorry for asking the obvious, but will this protocol eventually get folded into the original airboard one, in a KM file, or do I have to combine them somehow?

[jon_armstrong]

The Mouse uses a different IR protocol than the rest of the commands, so you just key move the four commands to your KB device. They are double byte commands so you have to key move them using IR selecting hex and then enter the two bytes separated by a space.
_________________
-Jon

[aperry]

jon (and how many johns/jons/juans can we have in one thread? ),

A couple of posts in page 2 of this discussion topic at Meedio.com seem to indicate that the Airkey keyboard I referenced above should work with the JP1 definition here.

However, I've tried all of the variations of Acer definition files in the downloads area, and none of them seem to do anything (tried mapping them to my URC-6131, just the number keys since they seemed to already be defined).

How do I go about capturing some of the codes from the keyboard so that someone can look at them and see if they are the same as these ones that are already defined? I do have access to a learning remote to capture the IR codes.

I assume that I could learn the appropriate codes to my learning remote, pull those out using IR, then reassign the keys to something more compatible with my URC-6131, then load it to that remote. It would not be the most elegant of solutions, but would it work?

[johnnya]

Thanks (again, and again) for the advice Jon. I have keymoved the mouse movements onto the Airboard device upgrade and all is well on that front. However, like the Bobman in the other thread re: mouse clicks, and the active window of WinMCE, I am having some problems with the mouse buttons as they currently exist in the Airboard upgrade. I have tried both the standard and the make-and-break variants and they don't seem to work correctly (that is, bring the active page of my HTPC's frontend into focus). However, like Bobman, if I learn the mouse clicks instead, it works as it should.

For the time being, I have also learned the media (Play, Pause, Next, Prev, Stop) and power keys. At some point, though, I would like to use an extender, and would therefore lose the learning capability.

So, if you ever have a chance to re-decode the mouse buttons, as well as the media and power keys, as included in the IR file posted above, I think I'd be all set and could finally leave you alone

As always, TIA.

[jon_armstrong]

jonnya, the R/L mouse buttons and the other buttons in your file from the link above (that use the protocol like the rest of the keys) are:

0xBC decimal 188 left mouse button
0xB8 decimal 184 right mouse button

0x94 decimal 148 power
0xEB decimal 235 play
0x92 decimal 146 stop
0xE8 decimal 232 vol+
0x9E decimal 158 vol-
0xEC decimal 236 mute
0x9A decimal 154 fav
0x96 decimal 150 email
0x97 decimal 151 www
0x9B decimal 155 sleep
0x99 decimal 153 track fwd
0x95 decimal 149 track back

These would be the make commands and subtract 128 decimal for the the break commands.

Since those are the same keys as decoded before, here is my theory of what is going on. Keyboards can have multiple keys pressed at the same time. My guess in this keyboard is that the IR receiver(s) can see the mouse direction commands and the mouse button at the same time. The mouse button commands can be used in conjunction to moving the mouse to drag, for example. So you are probably going to have to experiment with macros to get the sort of commands you want. IIRC, at least in some of the extenders, if you hold the button with the macro on it down, it will repeat the last command if it is repeating. So a left mouse button|right arrow command might just give you a drag. If you assigned that to the shift-right arrow key that would almost seem normal. I suspect problems of focus on the right windows could be the absence of the break or clear commands.

This is the part that you with the keyboard may be able to figure out, but it's tedious. I just did that with my new keyboard (a Solidtek) and it's a pain to get it right, but I can actually get the mouse to work OK. It has the advantage of changing a couple of bits in the direction commands when the right or left button is pressed.

I will also try to tackle the repeat keys. I now think all keys repeat but have a long delay between the first command and the repeat (that's how my keyboard works.) So we should be back to two IR protocols:

1.mouse direction commands and
2.everything else.

aperry, I'm not sure that the link is that specific about your keyboard. Acer brands a lot of gear that they don't make, so if you have a learning JP1 remote that's what you need to get started. Learn the numeral commands with a sharp tap on the Keyboard. But make sure the OFA remote is rapidly blinking before you do the tap. Then post that file that you save in IR to the diagnosis section and post a link back in this thread and I'll take a look. I've been pretty busy lately so I can't guarantee how fast I can get to it.
_________________
-Jon