H900 Marcos/Newbie's 1st Extender with RCA & Atlas

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 6:25 pm

What an ELEGANT solution Vicky!

Works perfectly, and its so simple... Easy peasy. THANK YOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU!

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 6:46 pm

Dave, thanks for the ToadTog explanation. The flag analogy worked for my brain tonight

I kid you not, I am using my RCA now instead of my H900. Maybe it's intrinsic justification for all my effort (?), but if not for IR vs RF, I really like it!

Looking forward to getting my Atlas to see 1.) how much I like having backlit buttons (yes!), and 2.) to see if all the replicating I have done from my RCA commands are accurate.... probably not (!), it's a lot of typing!!..... bound to have a few errors in there.

Fun stuff. Addicting!

Post by **ElizabethD** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:01 pm

Great to hear you're all set with Vicky's help.
Now, you did ask this:

sti491 wrote:Elizabeth, and/or Dave, can you please clarify what you mean, where I bolded your comments:

A macro can call itself but don't forget to shift it. So if you have a macro on TV/closeCaption then at the end of the macro say shift-closeCaption, else infinite loop.
Curiously, LKP doesn't mind really calling iself, so a TV/someKey=LKP() short: nothing; long: few buttons, someKey - will work without shift.

so I figured I should answer anyway.
I gave you pseudo-code model since my equipment and my remotes aren't what you have.
To change input on TV normally requires pressing TV/Vid (aka video source) followed by a number or down and up arrows.
What follows was only a mad experiment to see what I can get away with.
With Transport keys permitted on TV, I put one direction on a macro, and another direction on a Special Function - just for testing two possiblities.
Here's what I meant by "call itself"

Code: Select all

SPECIAL PROTOCOL FUNCTIONS:
Target 					
Device	Target Key	Type	Function
TV	Rewind	LKP(3)	[Short]:< Blank >  [Long]:TV/VID;Up;Select;Rewind

MACROS:
Target Key	Macro Keys
Fast_Forward	X_TV;TV/VID;Down;Select;SHIFT-Fast_Forward

So now, when I'm in TV mode, Rewind will walk inputs, until I release Rewind button.
And when I'm in any mode, FastForward will walk TV inputs, till I release the FastForward button, because last key in a macro repeats always.
In this example, things happen too fast to be of any use to me, unless, I suppose, I insert pauses, but that wasn't a thing I was trying and didn'care.
But might be useful for some FAV simulation.
Test done and long forgotten

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:09 pm

Thanks Liz, great thought process! Appreciate the follow-up, too.

Post by **vickyg2003** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 11:19 pm

sti491 wrote:What an ELEGANT solution Vicky!

Works perfectly, and its so simple... Easy peasy. THANK YOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU!

You don't know how much I appreciate this feedback. I've been suggesting recursion for similar problems for years, and I have been totally ignored everytime!

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:53 am

Well, maybe they didn't understand it!

When you first said it would take two keys, I was like, well, bummer. I just want one button press. But when I studied it more and then tried it, I realized it was the same button.

Once you've done it one or two times, holding the buton down is intuitive for a long circular menu. Even though I use my Fav menu list every time, multiple times actually when I watch cable TV, much less frequently I do pick other selections like my DVR recordings, Home Settings, etc. I figured originally that I would need several buttons signed to each of those destinations. That means I have to remember all those buttons

Well, not with your solution!

I think your solution should be a sticky! Seriously, I think most HT setups have at least one circular menu somewhere between their TV settings and/or cable menus. This just works so well.

It's great!

pH7_jp1 · Post by **pH7_jp1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:57 am

I have posted a couple of times on solving the issue of lack of discrete input selection. In this one: Input Tracking for device without discretes I described 2 different approaches, one using TOADtog bits. In this post: Coping with the lack of input source discretes I describe an inexpensive hardware solution if all your inputs are HDMI and you are not already running all inputs through a receiver.

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:43 pm

Thanks!

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:42 am

Ok, I received my Atlas OCAP 1056B01 from E-bay. Before I had the remote, I used a working, extended file Bruce provided, that he uses on this same remote as a base, to add my specifics to.

I downloaded that file to my Atlas. Seemed like that went well. Hit TV/OK to activate it. I thought I saw 4 blinks confirming the activation, but now I am not sure. Holding a LKP on setup does not cause enough blinks to show deactivation... and of course nothing works!

Any button press causes the last selected device key to blink twice. My RMIR file is located in the diagnostic section here:

https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=13144

I knew creating my RMIR config from Bruce's extended file might not work for some reason... but it should, he has the exact same remote. I can start over from scratch loading the un-extended file, then extend it, than adding all my upgrades, macros, key assignments and special functions... but that is a lot of work.

Ant thoughts why it does't seem to be activating or working? Maybe an expert could look at my file in the diagnostic link provided above. Maybe I just did something simple wrong?

Thanks

Post by **ElizabethD** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 1:12 pm

Who is Bruce? Means nothing to me.
Unclemiltie (Bill) wrote the extender. Is that what you mean?

Your file loaded fine in RMIR and reports it's extender 2.13, is that what you think it is? If yes,

Two blinks when press buttons means extender not running or broken.
It should be 4 blinks to activate(TV/OK) and 4 blinks to deactivate.

You need to assign the Deactivate keymove to a pressable key. On keymoves tab, just edit the first row from "Deactivate" to, for instance, TV/shift-PIPch-.

And you need to deactivate to upgrade the extender over an existing configuration. So if you took some old file from Bruce and upgraded, maybe that's what broke it.

EDIT: I now know who Bruce is, so ignore the first sentence.

ruidosobruce · Post by **ruidosobruce** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:15 pm

Liz,

It's just that I had a nearly new Atlas remote with extender 2.13 controlling a Vizio TV among other devices, so I just posted my .rmir for sti491 to try on his new un-extended Atlas, with the caution

You should be able to simply upload my .rmir file to your new Atlas which will extend it, although the safest approach would be to install the extender yourself (be sure the extender RDF is in your RDF folder). Either way, you have to activate the extender. Read the extender read-me file.

Bruce

Post by **ElizabethD** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:30 pm

Sorry, Bruce,
I now see you were on p.10 and I think I didn't join this thread until p.11

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 4:52 pm

I do believe this is my problem:

"And you need to deactivate to upgrade the extender over an existing configuration. So if you took some old file from Bruce and upgraded, maybe that's what broke it."

I was hoping for a fix. If I need to I'll just start all over again.

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 6:52 pm

Bruce,

In the file you sent me, do you deactivate the extender by a long key press of the Setup button, per the readme file, or some other way?

After I tried to upload my revised file I created from your extended file, the remote acted squirely, then at one point, not at all. Eventually I downloaded your unadulterated file, and I could see your macros working. So I know my remote was not bricked, it uploaded your extended file just fine.

Then I remembered when I added my AppleTV upgrade, there was an error message saying that it would not work with this remote, or something to that effect. Of course I ignored that, because it worked great on my RCA.

So remembering that, I changed my device code 2615 I was using for my AppleTV upgrade, to 0000 in the general tab, and all of a sudden the remote with my revised RMIR file was working some of my macros, although some looked like they were running too fast.

Interesting your AppleTV upgrade seems to work (in your unadulterated file, but mine doesn't.

With either your file or mine with changes made to yours, a LKP of the setup key does not invoke 4 light flashes to deactivate the remote.... is there another method you use to deactivate??

sti491 · Post by **sti491** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:21 pm

I missed this Liz: "You need to assign the Deactivate keymove to a pressable key. On keymoves tab, just edit the first row from "Deactivate" to, for instance, TV/shift-PIPch-."

Based on the readme I thought a LKP of setup deactivated it?

I tried to reassign the deactivate to a different key, tried a shifted key, then just tried "0". Doesn't work. Not sure what's wrong.

Bruce, please confirm how you deactivate the extender using your file on your Atlas.