JP1 Remotes

I was trying to get an extender working in my 8811. Nothing was working so I did a 981 reset to start fresh, and still nothing is working. I get the blinking light on the remote but it will not turn on any devices. Is it possible that some badly programed remote could fry itself? I'd hate to do this again to another remote.

I'm not aware of anything an extender could possibly do to damage the remote. (What, leave the IR LED on continuously for several hours with some really good batteries?) Apparently, the remote is working to the extent that you can still do a 981 reset, so I think you'll have to define "nothing is working" a little better for us. Are you able to upload and download from the remote? If so, can you restore your original setup? (You did save it, right?) Doing a 981 reset will also reset all of your setup codes, so at a minimum you'd need te re-enter the setup codes for all your equipment before the remote would be able to control any of them.

infidean wrote:I was trying to get an extender working in my 8811.

Can you give us the juicy details? Did you use extinstall.exe to create your IR image? Did you make an IR.txt backup of your initial remote, and did you try loading this backup back into the remote? Tell us step by step exactly what you did and it probably is just a small thing you need to do to get it working. extenders are cool.

be aware that I believe there are issues with extender-3 and 8811 remotes. I believe about 50% of the 8811s out there have problems with extender-3. something about 3 rogue no-op instructions. John S Fine or Jon Armstrong (or any expert) I believe know the details. I may have this all confused with some other extender on some other remote. I am not sure if the experts were able to identify any markings in or on the case or PCB that would help distinguish which 8811s (or 8810w) would work and which would not work. I do not know if the 3 no-op problem has been solved either.

I clearly could use some help explaining all this better, I apologize for not knowing the details better before writing this.

Happy Holidays and Good Luck,

Just to be 100% sure that you've disabled the extender, from IR.exe, do an Advanced > Purge Memory, then do another 981 reset.

Sorry, I was a bit short on details, it was late

The remote uploads and downloads fine. The LED blinks like it should, but it just does not control any of my devices. I reloaded the original config, to make sure it was not the extender, no diff. Purge and reset 981 are no help either. It seems like the IR LED is shot. I guess my question should have been - If some wonky programing left the IR LED on continuously could it "burn out"

Did you press the power button after the extended IR file was uploaded?

infidean wrote:..the IR LED on continuously could it "burn out"

Easy to find out. Get your video camera and look at the remote through the video screen and press some buttons. Video equipment can see into the IR spectrum just fine and you should see the IR LED flashing rapidly.

jon_armstrong wrote:Did you press the power button after the extended IR file was uploaded?

To elaborate further on what jon is saying, did you activate the extender? Everytime you upload the extender or perhaps change the batteries, you have to press power to activate the thing - you should see 4 LED flashes which indicate activation was successful.

upload your ir.txt file to diagnostic folder. sometimes things are easier to see there. for example, if you are calling protocols in a keymove, and these protocols have not been installed and therefore do not exist, the extender will act spiteful and crush your hopes and dreams.

infidean wrote:I guess my question should have been - If some wonky programing left the IR LED on continuously could it "burn out"

I don't think we've ever seen a documented case of this (caused by an extender), but it is a remote ( ) possibility. The IR LED is meant to be pulsed at high currents, but cannot take the current continuously for very long. In any case, if it turns out the LED is damaged, I'd treat it as a fluke. There's no reason to believe it would happen to another remote.

Thanks for the advice guys. Turns out I had a dud remote. No activity on the IR LED. The extender I was working on works much better now that the remote works!!

Did you fix the remote (by replacing the IR-LED) or did you just replace the remote?