JP1 Remotes

Hi,

I have been here before, but things are a little quieter now and I can perhaps proceed a bit futher.

I have a URC 8210 10 in 1 - absolute remote "bling" all sivery and shiny and lights up a ghaslty green colour.

It has the JP1.x connector internally, and I am told that it is almost certainly a JP1.2 interface. Is there any way to tell for sure? Is it possible to damage the device using a JP1.2 cable if the remote is not JP1.2?

What software do I need to program it? Can I actually read from the Kameleon as well as write to it?

I have a JP1.2 cable (from the Gadget Store in Canada - thanks to them, 4 days to UK is faster than some UK companies can manage).

My reason to go the OFA way is pressure from the boss! We have so many remotes that finding the right one is not easy.

There is :

1 Sony TV
2 Panasonic Digital TV box
3 Lite-on DVD/HDD recorder (very impressed with this by the way)
4 Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder with digital/analog (not so impressed!)
6 Sony VHS VCR
7 Panasonic Audio system.
8 Sony digital cam-corder

Using the learning command, I can control the on/off function for each device and the Sony TV & VCR work fine with the UIE numbers. That just leave the other six to sort out!

My idea is to program the Kameleon with each function from the unit's own remotes, then read the codes from the Kameleon by the interface.

Once this is done, I should be able to make a spreadsheet for each device to enter what functions I want on whatever button, and hopefully to progam the remote from that, or is this beyond our current understanding of JP1.2?

I have had a go at Tommy Tyler's simple IR reader, but so far have not been able to access data from the printer port. The monitor program he suggests will not respond to any sort of input on LPT1

Maybe WinXP is less forgiving in this matter. I know that Windows in general keeps the user as far away as possible from the ports, and that DOS and xp are not the best of mates.

I have had a go through Visual Basic.net at monitoring the LPT port, but still cannot get it to accept inputs. This allows full control of the buffers and all the registers, but I still could not get the port to act as an input, and I was simply driving the pin high and low with a wire, not the IR device.

I may build a PIC interface to read the data by the serial or USB port as I am happier at PIC programming than VB, and I have got a reliable serial port reader program.

As always, any help will be appreciated.

dangerous wrote:It has the JP1.x connector internally, and I am told that it is almost certainly a JP1.2 interface. Is there any way to tell for sure? Is it possible to damage the device using a JP1.2 cable if the remote is not JP1.2?

1) I'm pretty sure that remote is JP1.2. It's definitely not JP1
2) I'm pretty sure the commercially available JP1.2 cables have the extra components needed to also work with JP1.1
3) I'm very sure a JP1.2 cable that lacks the extra parts for JP1.1 won't damage a JP1.1 remote. It just wouldn't work.

dangerous wrote: What software do I need to program it? Can I actually read from the Kameleon as well as write to it?

You need IR.exe version 7 (I'm using 7.00beta3, which I think is the latest). You need jp12serial.dll (I think that is in the distribution with 7.00beta3). You might need some files from a non-beta IR.exe (at one point the .zip file for the beta was incomplete and you needed some of the unchanged files from the non beta .zip). You need an rdf file for the 8210.

You can read and write the unprotected portion of the 8210's flash memory, which is the portion the has the same basic contents and layout as the eeprom had in JP1 remotes.

dangerous wrote: My idea is to program the Kameleon with each function from the unit's own remotes, then read the codes from the Kameleon by the interface.

The Kameleon probably has a bit less than enough learning memory for two of your devices, so you'll need to do that in batches (read, decode and delete the learned signals for each device before moving on to the next).

dangerous wrote: Once this is done, I should be able to make a spreadsheet for each device to enter what functions I want on whatever button, and hopefully to progam the remote from that, or is this beyond our current understanding of JP1.2?

I think you're better off entering the information directly into RemoteMaster and not using a spreadsheet.
Our current understanding of JP1.2 is quite good. Most upgrades should be easy to build and use with RemoteMaster and IR.exe. Several of the executors have variants that aren't correctly represented by the .rdf file, so if you have some problems you should ask and someone will probably give you a quick answer about whether an edit to the rdf file is required or even an edit to protocols.ini. Hopefully we'll have a cleaner collection of rdf files released soon.
I'm not sure of the JP1.2 status of KM. It might be as up-to-date as RM.

dangerous wrote: I have had a go at Tommy Tyler's simple IR reader, but so far have not been able to access data from the printer port. The monitor program he suggests will not respond to any sort of input on LPT1

I may build a PIC interface to read the data by the serial or USB port as I am happier at PIC programming than VB, and I have got a reliable serial port reader program.

I haven't kept up with the status of software and hardware for Tommy's current design.

My version of CaptureIR is very stable and useful. The hardware is simple and the software is pretty robust. It is also very flexible about the type of IR sensor you use and how you connect it to the printer port.

johnsfine wrote:I'm not sure of the JP1.2 status of KM. It might be as up-to-date as RM.

KM & RM are very close to each other in terms of JP1.2 support, though KM does not yet support the URC-8210. (I can't really add support for a remote to KM until the RDF file is finalized.) Some protocols are supported better in RM, others are better in KM. We'll eventually get that sorted out.

I'm somewhat trying to follow this thread inspite of the fact i don't do jp1.2. What is this a reference to? Which thread?

dangerous wrote:I have had a go at Tommy Tyler's simple IR reader, but so far have not been able to access data from the printer port. The monitor program he suggests will not respond to any sort of input on LPT1

Just curious about the LPT1 reference. DB25? XP or WinNT? What monitor program?
Ever used sysinternals PortMon?

ElizabethD wrote:

Just curious about the LPT1 reference. DB25? XP or WinNT? What monitor program?
Ever used sysinternals PortMon?

I was using the details in this link, https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=2044,
however, I now find that a newer serial port version is available, and that you have written in praise of it.
It seems that Digitrace and WinXP are not very compatible, even with the various I/O hacks suggested.

To all the other respondants, thanks. As soon as time allows, I will get started. I had a play with the software and remote cable on Saturday evening and did get the remote to respond, so it is definitely a JP1.2 device. I was able to read some (so far) meaningless data. That inspires me to press on.

johnsfine wrote:

I think you're better off entering the information directly into RemoteMaster and not using a spreadsheet.

That is what I meant. Last time I looked at either a KM or RM data file it looked like an Excel spreadsheet. Sorry for the confusion!

I appreciate that the remotes will probably have to be done individually.
The biggest issue is deciding what functions to program! The Panasonic PVR remote has over 50 buttons and some of those are multi-function.
I will probably settle for a simple set-up to allow recording settings and playback. Just leave the fancier stuff to the original remote, like system setup and upgrades etc. The Lite-on has quite a lot of buttons as well. Perhaps I can arrive at a common functionality between the two, then Mrs Dangerous will only have to learn one set of buttons.

Just a further point, using the IR7 software and trying to set the memory to 00 or FF a warning comes that the remote may stop working until a hardware reset is done.

How do I do that? Is it the operational reset described in the manual, or is there some evil wire twisting to do inside the remote?

The procedure in the manual is:

"Press & hold magic until the rabbit comes out of the hat. Press other then enter 980. The indicator will blink four times and then the unit reverts to the set-up screen."

This process erases all learned functions.

The other problem is that I get the message that there is an "error writing to the remote".

I am using a Gadget store cable and can read the RAW data fine. I have set the delay from 00 to 250, 500 750 and 1000, but still no joy.

Any ideas?