Scientific Atlanta VCR Commander Part # 574656 Hacking?

[120240VAC60HZ]

I was recently given a box of miscellaneous cables and in the box was a Scientific Atlanta VCR Commander Model # E2052-VC with a part # of 574656. I was curious so I took it apart and I noticed that it was made by UEIC (Universal Electronics Inc.) and it even has a 6-Pin JP1 connector. Can I do anything with this? I do have a JP1 Cable
here are some picture of the VCR Commander

[cauer29]

Slightly intriguing. A serial port controlled JP1 eeprom remote. Slightly before the dawn of time, there were serial port interface JP1 remotes. From the datecodes on this, it looks to be circa 2000. Not likely to be very capable at best.

Hook up a JP1 cable and see what ID it returns.

A.A.

[The Robman]

I'd be curious to see what a download looks like too.

[120240VAC60HZ]

What program do I use to get a remote ID and what do I do in the program to see the remotes ID?
Also it might take me a few days to a week to get this done as I have to build another XP machine
Thanks

[The Robman]

You would use IR.exe which will let you download the remote's memory, then post the file here and we'll get the info from it.

This appears to have an EEPROM, so you would need a regular JP1 cable, rather than a JP1.x cable.

[120240VAC60HZ]

I dug out my "Old" XP machine and I managed to take a screen shot of the IR Window.




Here is a Link to the IR file that has the information about the device

[The Robman]

Here is a Link to the IR file that has the information about the device

I've copied the file to our file section for safe keeping:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=11261

Unfortunately, there's really nothing interesting in there, it's pretty much an empty EEPROM.

[120240VAC60HZ]

So there is not much (If anything) I can do with this (Outside of its intended purpose of course)? I found the users Manual for this thing but I don't have a compatible Set Top Box.

[cauer29]

So there is not much (If anything) I can do with this (Outside of its intended purpose of course)? I found the users Manual for this thing but I don't have a compatible Set Top Box.

Just a little curious, what did you use to power the device when downloading? I expect that the 8 pin mini-DIN connector was supposed to supply power, but since you don't have the mating STB, where did power for the eeprom come from? JP1 cables don't normally power the eeprom but instead bridge pin 5 to pin 6 on the JP1 header. That connects the batteries in the remote to the eeprom VDD pin.

If there was no power being supplied, it's possible that just toggling the clock line enough was sufficient to pump the VDD bypass capacitor up enough to allow a download. I wouldn't want to rely on having gotten a good download though.

A.A.

[120240VAC60HZ]

So there is not much (If anything) I can do with this (Outside of its intended purpose of course)? I found the users Manual for this thing but I don't have a compatible Set Top Box.

Just a little curious, what did you use to power the device when downloading? I expect that the 8 pin mini-DIN connector was supposed to supply power, but since you don't have the mating STB, where did power for the eeprom come from? JP1 cables don't normally power the eeprom but instead bridge pin 5 to pin 6 on the JP1 header. That connects the batteries in the remote to the eeprom VDD pin.

If there was no power being supplied, it's possible that just toggling the clock line enough was sufficient to pump the VDD bypass capacitor up enough to allow a download. I wouldn't want to rely on having gotten a good download though.

A.A.

I did not power this
I just plugged in the JP1 Cable, as I thought the JP1 cable supplied power through the PC's parallel port
oops I guess