JP1 Remotes

nevolc · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Tennessee

I tried the mods Hal suggested. The BackLight still occasionally repeats but never more than 2 or 3 cycles (use to get 2-6 cycles of my ~5 second timer with 6 being more common). I think most people could live with this BackLight behavior since you no longer have 30 second sequences of backlighting romping the batteries.

It still appears keys in rapid succession are causing at least 90% of the repeats. I would estimate the repeats are happening less than 20% of the time but this probably correlates to your programming. In my case, I use a lot of macros - some of which repeat the same key.

I've only done limited testing but I couldn't tell any difference with 2 NOPs versus 3 NOPs. Before, 3 NOPs were required to prevent the Extender from locking up right away and this is no longer a problem.

I have experienced a lockup or two - this could be something I caused. I also had two "sit over-night" lockups after I tried just the "DI" mod at L50. I'll continue to test tonight. Again, this is the best fix yet with the possible exception of a lockup.

In case I made a dumb error making the code delta changes, here is my L5-L50 (sorry for formatting):

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

nevolc · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Tennessee

I tried the revised L50 code. It didn't change the remotes behavior. Some keys still repeat the Backlight cycle 2 or 3 times. I haven't seen it go past 3 cycles a single time.

I haven't experienced any lockups this evening. I'll see if the 8811 makes it overnight without a lockup.
_________________
Cliff

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

Sorry, I found another stupid mistake. The line immediately after "L05:" had to jump to L10. Perhaps this doesn't fix the backlight problem, though, because this change only affects the cases where the backlight is disabled.

nevolc · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Tennessee

I made the L05 code change - as you predicted, no change in backlight behavior. Here are responses to scenario questions:

A) press the backlight key to enable it - the light comes on for one cycle. I don't believe I have ever seen the backlight repeat a cycle by being turned on.
B) press button while backlight is on - the backlight goes out briefly while I press another key and appears to reset the timer based on the last keypress so that you get at least one full cycle of backlight after you stop pressing keys. I sometimes see the backlight "repeat" two or three cycles of light after the last keypress. There is a brief (milliseconds) backlight turnoff between the repeating cycles when they occur which makes it easy to count how many times it repeated.
C) press button while backlight is off but enabled - backlight comes on after button released. Like case "B" above, I sometimes see the backlight "repeat" two or three cycles of light after the last keypress.

I decided to try pressing each key once and observe how often the backlight "repeats" (yes, I should have tried this sooner). The answer for 98% of the keys that are not macros or LDKP is never. I have only found one "plain" key of a particular protocol that will cause two backlight cycles and it does so consistently. So the backlight repeat problem (when it occurs) seems to be an additional "keypress" when the backlight was already on. In the case of a macro, I assume the keystrokes sent after the initial command emulate this behavior.

The code changes so far have definitely reduced the number of occurrences of backlight "repeats" and the actual number of repeats (2 or 3 now). With Extender V3.2 (three NOPs), I commonly saw 6 repeats. Also, it appears two versus three NOPs is not significant now. With Extender V3.1 (two NOPs), the Extender would lock up almost immediately on my 8811s that misbehave.
_________________
Cliff

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

jherrick · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 8:54 am Post subject:

Cliff,
While following this thread, one thing that I didn't see mentioned was the results of your testing the remotes without the extender. Have you tried them without the extender to see if they exhibit the same behavior? I ask because, in working with things like this it is always best to eliminate the easy things first, as obvious or ridiculous as they may sound.
Jim

Nils_Ekberg · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 9:09 am Post subject:

I see where Hal is going with this but I am just curious to hear if you get the same results with a longer backlight on timer. I guess I never set things as low as 5 seconds so I was curious if the same thing occurs at say 10 seconds or more. Probably does not mean anything just curious.
_________________
Nils
Files Section
Diagnosis File Section

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

nevolc · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 17 Location: Tennessee

THE LAST L50 SUGGESTION FIXED IT! Very Happy

The backlight works correct at 5.2V, it works correct at 6.4V. This is with two NOPs. I've been testing about an hour with normal backlight behavior. I checked both "bad" 8811s as well as a "good" one. Also tested on my green backlit 8810w.

The key/protocol that repeated the backlight in the previous simple test mode was HouseCode-O from Rob's "X10 Hacked" protocol and the backlight works correct with it now.

Nils, I normally run a 10 second timer - for shift/xshifting as much as backlighting. I dropped to 5 seconds to speed up testing.

Jim, I did do minimal testing without an extender on a "bad" 8811 and it worked OK. This was with 6.4V batteries and why the low voltage "fix" bugged me.

Hal - I really appreciate your time, skill, and effort. Likewise for the other contributors. I'll be running this code on 8811s for many years to come.
_________________
Cliff

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

I've uploaded new version in the files section.
6012ex3_3.zip

Now it has LDKP and Device Multiplexer preloaded.

Hal

chakrax · Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 5 Location: San Jose, CA

All,

I'm trying to use this extender in a new 8811, and I have backlight issues.

If I turn OFF backlighting before I activate the extender, the remote works, but no backlight. By turning off backlighting, I mean pressing the backlight button so that any further button presses do not cause backlight to come on.

If I leave backlighting ON and active the extender, the backlight just stays on, and does not go off.

Could this happen if I made a mistake with the RDF file? Do I use the latest one that came with IR 6.xx or the one in this zip file?

Thanks for your help.

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

The RDF included in the latest RDF package is for v3.3. Just install v3.3 if you are not sure what you are using.

Nils or someone else who can: I think it's less confusing if we don't keep the old revisions of the same variants around. Could you delete old ones if you agree?

Thanks,
Hal

Nils_Ekberg · Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:14 am Post subject:

I am not sure what you mean Hal.

Are you referring to old versions of the RDF's in the distribution zip or the RDF in the extender zip or old versions of the extenders?

Was this problem caused by using an old extender RDF with the newer extender?
_________________
Nils
Files Section
Diagnosis File Section

mtakahar · Expert Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 281

I meant old buggy extenders.