Octal (or Technotrend) cable box

PROD@pt · Post by **PROD@pt** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:57 pm

Hi,

I bought an UK slingbox and had it shipped to Portugal. It just arrived today.

Unfortunately it does not support the digital cable box I have. I was already expecting it, and had been in this forum last week to see if there was some way to program the codes. I saw the "universal RC" way, but it looks somewhat difficult, and ordering all parts from Europe would get rather expensive.
Still, I was able to find a friend of a friend who works at the cable box manufacturer and he gave me a list of the used IR HEX codes.
Is this enough to generate a new Slingbox configuration file? Can someone point me in the right direction?

The info he gave me was:
-------------------------------------------------------------

Code: Select all

PROTOCOL:RC5
1 - 0x1543 - 0x1d43 - 3
2 - 0x1544 - 0x1d44 - 4
3 - 0x1545 - 0x1d45 - 5
4 - 0x1546 - 0x1d46 - 6
5 - 0x1547 - 0x1d47 - 7
6 - 0x1548 - 0x1d48 - 8
7 - 0x1549 - 0x1d49 - 9
8 - 0x154a - 0x1d4a - 10
9 - 0x154b - 0x1d4b - 11
0 - 0x154c - 0x1d4c - 12

* - 0x1559 - 0x1d59 - 25
# - 0x1558 - 0x1d58 - 24

Channel up - 0x155b - 0x1d5b - 27
Channel down - 0x155c - 0x155c - 28

Volume up - 0x155d - 0x1d5d - 29
Volume down - 0x155e - 0x1d5e - 30

Red - 0x1554 - 0x1d54 - 20
Green - 0x1555 - 0x1d55 - 21
Yellow - 0x1556 - 0x1d56 - 22
Blue - 0x1557 - 0x1d57 - 23

ESC - 0x1553 - 0x1d53 - 19
Recall - 0x1552 - 0x1d52 - 18 

Cursor Up - 0x154d - 0x1d5d - 13
Cursor Down - 0x1551 - 0x1d51 - 17
Cursor Right - 0x1550 - 0x1d50 - 16
Cursor Left - 0x154e - 0x1d4e - 14

OK - 0x154f - 0x1d4f - 15

Mute - 0x1542 - 0x1d42 - 2

Standby - 0x1541 - 0x1d41 - 1

TV/Radio - 0x155a - 0x1d5a

-------------------------------------------------------------
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

PROD@PT

binky123 · Post by **binky123** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:27 am

The slingbox can generate the RC5 protocol but I don't know how to convert your listed format into what RM wants for the RC5 protocol. Once you fill in the appropriate values within RM, RM can generate a slingbox binary file.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:29 pm

binky123 wrote: but I don't know how to convert your listed format into what RM wants for the RC5 protocol.

Sorry, I should have jumped in earlier with that part of the answer.

To do this conversion with full generality, you need to convert from hex to binary, then split the result into the RC5 fields, then convert from binary to decimal.

For example 0x1543
converted to binary, that is 1 0101 0100 0011
rearranged into RC5 fields it is 1 0 10101 000011

The last field (000011) is the OBC number (3).
The field before that (10101) is the device number (21).
The field before that (0) is the toggle bit (which is managed automatically by the RC5 protocol).
The field before that(1) is a strange feature of RC5. When it is 0, you must add 64 to the OBC number you got from the last field to get the true OBC number. But looking at the posted list of codes, it appears that never happens for this device.

But since only the OBC is changing, we don't need the general conversion for each function. Select the device (21) for the whole upgrade. Take the last two digits of each hex string, subtract 40 (hex) from them, then convert the result from hex to decimal to get the OBC.

For example, "Channel Up" is 5b
subtract 40 to get 1b
convert from hex to decimal to get the OBC 27.

Evan_s · Post by **Evan_s** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:31 pm

The last number looks like it is probably the OBC. If thats the case we would only need to figure out what the Device and maybe subdevice code are.

What model cable box are you looking to control? We may be able to find other info that is easier for us to work with.

Have you checked https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... &cat_id=11 for upgrades that match your cable box? Remember it doesn't usually need to be the exact model. Close is usually good enough.

Well it looks like one of the experts gave a much better answer than I but my guess was right =)

PROD@pt · Post by **PROD@pt** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:41 pm

Hi! Thanks for the replies. After a few days I was wondering if I would get any help on this.

I'll give it a try using RM this weekend.

Evan_s, the cable box I want to control is not very common at all, and I had already looked at the link you suggested. As far as I know it is used by some cable and satellite operators in Portugal, Germany and a couple of South American countries, under the manufacturer name Octal or Technotrend.

Thanks anyway.

PROD

PROD@pt · Post by **PROD@pt** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:14 pm

Great, it works now. Now let's see if I can upload it to the remotes list, and reply to some posts where I saw people asking for it.

Thanks for your help!

dbegonha · Post by **dbegonha** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:49 pm

Can you please help me to use Sling Box with Octal TV Box? I cannot make it work. From your post it seems you solve the issue

chinoverme1 · Post by **chinoverme1** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 12:04 pm

Does this TV Box has discrete codes for Power?
How can I find them?
The brand for South America is TechnoTrend.

Thanks in advance

Luis

Post by **The Robman** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:51 pm

I don't know if it does, but you could try loading the upgrade and experiment with any unused OBC codes.

I have created an upgrade based on the codes posted previously here:
https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=6007

Even if you don't find discretes, it would be nice if you could confirm that the upgrade works and tell us the exact model number of the box. Also, if your remote has any buttons not included in the upgrade, please let us know.

chinoverme1 · Post by **chinoverme1** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:30 am

Thank you for your reply Robman.
I was trying to find the discrete ON/OFF codes with KM, but when I put the OBC codes that are not used by the remote, the HEX codes don't change, they are the same as the first OBC numbers (001, 002, 003 ...etc.)
Any sugestions?
Is there any way to try the codes manually using only the remote? I've heard that pressiing Set and the OBC code number must work but mine's doesn't. I have an URC 8811.
I found that you can Turn ON the cable box with CH+, CH- and previous channel.

Thanks in advance

Luis Verme

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:34 am

You'll have to explain in greater detail what you tried to do and why you think it didn't work. However, I just took a closer look at the codes and I notice that the OEM has used every OBC in the range 1 thru 30, so I don't think it's likely that there are undiscovered codes, but if you still want to try, you could try OBCs 0, 31 and 32.

If you have discovered that the CH and PREV buttons work as discrete on, that should be good enough for you to create some "workaround" macros.

chinoverme1 · Post by **chinoverme1** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:46 am

Thank you for your reply Robman.
I thought you have to try all 256 codes. I didn't know there wee only 30.
What about trying the codes directly with the remote.
What macro can I use for Discrete OFF.

Thanks in advance

Luis

Capn Trips · Post by **Capn Trips** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:34 am

chinoverme1 wrote:Thank you for your reply Robman.
I thought you have to try all 256 codes. I didn't know there wee only 30.
What about trying the codes directly with the remote.
What macro can I use for Discrete OFF.

Thanks in advance

Luis

IN THEORY, you should/could try all 256 codes, but in practice, you can often see what codes the device is limited to (for whatever reason the manufaturer may choose to only use a band of 0-32, or 0-64, or some other "standard" band). Rob simply noticed that all of the OBCs that were in use were in the range 1-30, so it is UNLIKELY (but not impossible) that other OBCs outside the 0-32 range would do anything. That's why he suggested testing 0, 31 and 32.

For trying the codes direclty with the remote, you have to convert the OBCs into EFCs (which I usually do by building an upgrade in KM or RM. When you enter the OBCs, it calculates the EFCs for you).

As for an "OFF" macro, the standard formulation is use your dicrete on (like "PREV") followed by "POWER".

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:14 pm

chinoverme1 wrote:I thought you have to try all 256 codes. I didn't know there wee only 30.

In theory that's true. Normally, when you sort the functions into OBC order, you will see several gaps in the sequence, which tends to make us ask "why?" so we try the gap OBCs to see if they do anything and this is typically where we'll find discrete codes, if they exist.

However, in your case, the OEM carefully used every OBC in the range 1 thru 30, which makes me suspect that there aren't any discretes to be found, but I could be wrong. Zero is a valid OBC and the OEM didn't use it, so that's worth a test. Also, it's possible that they did include discretes and they are the next functions in the list, in which case their OBCs would be 31 and 32, which is why I suggested you try those.

You are certainly free to test all possible OBCs, and there are usually 256 possible OBCs (ie, 0 thru 255), however for the RC5 signal there's only 1/2 that amount (0 thru 127). But, my instinct tells me that if OBCs 0, 31 and 32 don't do anything, you're not going to find any hidden treasures in the range 33 thru 127.

chinoverme1 · Post by **chinoverme1** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:38 am

Hi Robman and Capn Trips, thanks for your replies.
I've just uploaded the Cable Box file with learned codes as "TechnoTrend TT-micro C271"

I've tried to make a macro for discrete OFF (Ch+ Power) but I had to put a long delay time between them because there was no response from the Cable Box, so I decided not to include it in my IR program.

One last question, I have both the OFA 8811 and the OFA 8910 but it's very difficult to find them in stores. Which new OFA models are similar to these?

Best regards

Luis