Auto entry of dash (dot) for digital tuners (URC-8820)

[khonderd]

I have a Digital Stream dtx-9950 converter box and, unlike my Zenith box, the remote requires a dash between the main channel number and the subchannel number. For instance, on my Zenith if I enter 432 it goes to channel 43-2. The DS tries to go to channel 432, which doesn't exist. I would like to program my URC-8820 to automatically enter the dash if 2 digits are entered. Does anyone have any idea if something like this has already been set up, or if it is even possible?

My initial thinking is to use a ToadTog value and set it to true after the first digit press. Then if the value is true when a second digit is pressed it will output the digit followed by the dash. I haven't had a chance to play around with this yet though and see how practical it is. My first concern is how I would clear the value back to zero after the third digit is pressed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated by me and especially my wife and kids.

[The Robman]

Do you not have a spare button that you could simply program to be the DASH button?

[khonderd]

Actually the "+100" button works as a dash, but the problem is it is situated 2 buttons below the "9" and the thumb does not reach it naturally in the process of entering numbers. "Enter" is directly under the 9, but I don't want to replace that because it is handy there for hitting after entering the number.

This isn't something that is a "need" but would be helpful to keep the wife happy. Actually I'm not sure any of the jp1 stuff is a "need".

[khonderd]

Just an FYI - Since I'm using over-the-air broadcasts there are no 3-digit channels at this time (ie, 100-1). If there was one of these in the future I could set up the +100 key to input the first 1 and my macro should still work.

[mdavej]

I'd use the input button for dash if I were you. If you still want the input function on the input button, put it on shift-input or double press input.

That being said, this is an interesting puzzle. I think you can do it like so, with 2 toadtog bits and lots of macros.

Code: Select all

- Make a macro for each number that has two steps: it's shifted self (i.e., shift-0, shift-1, etc.) and test toadtog bit 1
- Test1: if on, press dash and force off 1 and force on 2
         if off, Test2
- Test2: if on, force off 2
         if off, force on 1

Each Test and Force is a separate toadtog macro.

This should keep track of the 3 digits, pressing dash after the 2nd and resetting everything on the 3rd.

[khonderd]

This is exactly the direction I was thinking. Unforunately I'm very new at this so I'm hoping you can help with the implementation a little more.

Can a macro set the Toadtog bits directly, or does the macro have to "push" a button that sets it (ie the x-shift-1 button)? Also, do macros allow if/else situations or is that accomplished through the ToadTog protocol for the specified button?

Sorry if my questions are confusing, I'm still working on getting my mind around it all. I may have finally found a similar situation so I'm going to check that out too.

[The Robman]

I'd use the input button for dash if I were you. If you still want the input function on the input button, put it on shift-input or double press input.

Another option might be to program a dash to a short press of the ENTER button, and program "ENTER" to a long press.

[mdavej]

Yes, the number macros have to push buttons to run the toadtog macros.

Here's a working example:

Code: Select all

Device Key		Type						Function
TV		0		 DSM						SHIFT-0;XShift-1
TV		1		 DSM						SHIFT-1;XShift-1
TV		2		 DSM						SHIFT-2;XShift-1
TV		3		 DSM						SHIFT-3;XShift-1
TV		4		 DSM						SHIFT-4;XShift-1
TV		5		 DSM						SHIFT-5;XShift-1
TV		6		 DSM						SHIFT-6;XShift-1
TV		7		 DSM						SHIFT-7;XShift-1
TV		7		 DSM						SHIFT-8;XShift-1
TV		9		 DSM						SHIFT-9;XShift-1
TV	XShift-1	ToadTog(1,TestOnly)	[On]:Dash;XShift-4;XShift-5 [Off]:XShift-3
TV	XShift-2	ToadTog(2,ForceOff)	[On->Off]:<Blank>           [Already Off]:Pause
TV	XShift-3	ToadTog(2,TestOnly)	[On]:XShift-2               [Off]:XShift-6
TV	XShift-4	ToadTog(1,ForceOff)	[On->Off]:<Blank>           [Already Off]:Pause
TV	XShift-5	ToadTog(2,ForceOn)	 [Already On]:Pause          [Off->On]:<Blank>
TV	XShift-6	ToadTog(1,ForceOn)	 [Already On]:Pause          [Off->On]:<Blank>

The Pause commands in there do nothing. I just picked some bogus command because those macros can't be blank. I don't really need to do anything in those.

There's probably a better way, but just thinking about it makes my head hurt.

[khonderd]

That is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks to both of you for your help. Now I just need my jp1 cable to arrive so I can implement it. Does a watched mailbox never deliver? It feels like it.

[mdavej]

Great. Since you are new, a couple of things above probably don't make any sense. Let me explain a little more.

Each number macro is a DSM (Device Specific Macro). That means they only work in TV mode. Normal macros would work in every mode, which I assume in not desirable.

They also use something called shift cloaking. If I had used the number key alone in each macro, it would just be an infinite loop. But shift cloaking gets around that problem. In shift cloaking, if you try to call a shifted function and that function doesn't exist, it defaults to that button's original function. So using 1, for example in the 1 macro would cause an infinite loop. But shift-1 will try to run shift-1 which doesn't exist, so it defaults to the 1 function without calling the 1 macro again.

The other stuff is pretty straight forward. We are just setting toadtog bits to track how many digits have been pressed and taking different actions based on their values, as well as resetting them when we're done.

[khonderd]

Thanks again. I have been doing quite a bit of reading so most of it made sense. I hadn't really thought about what DSM stood for, but did realize I would need a Device Specific Macro. I didn't know about shift-cloaking so I thought I was going to have to put a macro on the shift-1 button that sent the signal for #1 (which would have worked but been unnecessary) so thank you for pointing that out. Amazing how much you can do with a cheap remote control.