Simple Question - Easy Answer?

[upsidedown]

After working through the remote to control my HT (6131 with extender(, I have it working most of the way that I want.

Now I need a simple remote for my wife. I am planning to use a 6012 without extender. She does not want to deal with the whole HT setup, just the TV for volume, and cable box for watching.

I created an upgrade for the cable box, and an upgrade for the TV. Both test out fine.

Now I want to create macros so that regardless of which device button she picks, or even the Home Theater button, it turns on the TV power (using the discrete on), sets the input on the TV to TV tuner channel 3, assigns the volume controls to TV, and assigns all other navigation and transport to the cable box.

I tried to assign the macros to each of the device buttons, but that doesn't work.

So my questions:

In the non-extended 6012, can macros be assigned to device buttons?
If yes, how does one select a device if there is a macro on the device key?
Are shift keys available in the non-extended 6012?

I believe the answers to my question are No, but I am trying to get confirmation.

At a high level, what is the easiest way to accomplish this.

Thanks

[johnsfine]

Now I need a simple remote for my wife. I am planning to use a 6012 without extender. She does not want to deal with the whole HT setup, just the TV for volume, and cable box for watching.

Using the extender doesn't force you to do anything complicated or interesting with HT. You just need a few extra steps in the device select macros, but they're there by default when you install, and I assume it is you, not your wife who will be setting up the macros anyway.

Now I want to create macros so that regardless of which device button she picks, or even the Home Theater button, it turns on the TV power (using the discrete on), sets the input on the TV to TV tuner channel 3, assigns the volume controls to TV, and assigns all other navigation and transport to the cable box.

I tried to assign the macros to each of the device buttons, but that doesn't work.

So my questions:

In the non-extended 6012, can macros be assigned to device buttons?

No.

At a high level, what is the easiest way to accomplish this.

With the extender.

Actually it sounds like with the extender, you don't need device selection in the macros at all. You can set the initial device selection in IR. That sticks as long as you don't do any device selection in macros.

[The Robman]

The extender would be the best way to do this, but if you're keen to try it without an extender it might be possible.

For starters, you could create an upgrade, using the device combiner, that includes the TV volume buttons with the cable naviation buttons. This upgrade would just include the functions that you want your wife to have access to. You would then assign this upgrade to all 6 device buttons.

You could create additional upgrades that include the discrete power codes for your TV and cable box and assign these to the 2 hidden device modes, which are not accessible except thru macros.

You could then program a master "turn everything on" macro and assign it to the POWER button. This macro would use the discrete codes in the 2 hidden device buttons.

If you also want a "turn everything off" macro, you could program it to SLEEP or shift/POWER, etc.

NOTE: I *think* you can program the POWER and SLEEP buttons on this remote, but I'm not sure. If you can't, use other buttons.

[upsidedown]

When you say device combiner, do you mean the external functions area of RM?

[Mark Pierson]

No. The Device Combiner is one of the JP1 "special" protocols. It allows you to combine up to 16 devices together in one upgrade. Unfortunately, the version in RM is not fully implemented at this time and doesn't work.

[The Robman]

The "Device Combiner" is a selectable protocol in KM. Greg has started work on implementing it into RM but I think it's still buggy there.

[upsidedown]

Thanks to all who replied. I ended up going with the extender. It was just easier.

Added the two devices customized for the set of functions I wanted available (basically deleted a bunch of EFC's, and mapped them to the appropriate buttons on RM). Then I added my macros in IR so regardless of which device was selected, TV turns on, input on tv is selected, tv tunes to channel three.

All other devices I set in the general tab with the punch through commands.

One question. Is there a way to add a pause to a macro. Sometimes when turning on the TV, it doesn't catch the next command because it is still starting up.