IR V5.03 Now available w/ExtInstall support.

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 7:39 am

IRV503 adds support to convert files for extender. It calls ExtInstall directly so users do not have to run it separately.

Please read the ReleaseNotes.

TX

Post by **The Robman** » Thu May 27, 2004 8:54 am

Hey Paul, where do things stand with the new keymove format? Have you made any progress or is this something you'll have to let Mark Pauker handle?

If you're still taking feature requests, I've got one for you. Would it be possible to incorporate IRtoWAV into IR.exe? This would allow a user who has a remote with a modem and no JP1 cable to make IR.exe create and play a WAV file based on the EEPROM image that they just created using IR.exe

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 9:15 am

Rob:

I haven't forgotten your request. Just trying to build up the courage to jump out of that airplane

The ExtInstall was very simple so I knocked it out. I see no reason why we couldn't do the same with IRWAV.

I've never used IRWAV so I'll look into it. Hopefully it is similar to ExtInstall in the way it's used.

Did you try 5.03 yet...

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Thu May 27, 2004 9:41 am

e34m5 wrote: The ExtInstall was very simple so I knocked it out. I see no reason why we couldn't do the same with IRWAV.

That would be great.

When you do that, please give the user at least the two basic options in a meaningful form (rather than make the user look in the rdf and in the hex dump to find the two hex addresses that IRWAV requires for the more useful option).

More useful option: Generate a .wav file of just the used part of just the Upgrade region.

Less useful option: Generate a .wav file of the whole image.

I can see some benefit in offering a few other options for what part(s) of the image to include. But they would probably confuse people and probably be non contiguous (which would require a small change to IRWAV itself), so only the first two choices are really worth your effort.

Probably when you provide options for "whole image" or "just the upgrades" most users will react that they want "just a specific upgrade". That isn't even possible, so the documentation ought to mention that when you put upgrades in a .wav file it has to be all of them and it replaces all upgrades in the destination remote.

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 9:53 am

Ok...Maybe I'll take my easy comment back...right now I can't get IRWAV to work. Apparently my Java environment variables are not what IRWAV needs.

I am very concerned that the average user will have extreme difficulty with IRWAV. If one has to fiddle with java stuff I don't think we can expect the average user to do this.

Although I am not here to criticize IRWAV, I've never been a fan of creating desktop apps in Java because of some of the issues I mentioned above.

Is there any way we could convert this to a DLL. Sure would make the integration with IR easier.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:48 am

Do you have RM working or does it have Java problems too?

I haven't used IRWAV in a while (I don't even still have any of the computers I've used it on) but as far as I recall (which of course is far from perfect), I didn't have any Java issues at all (I had aleady set up Java for RM and that MIGHT be a factor).

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:00 am

I have problems with RM as well...I think the way I need to have java configured is not compatible with RM or IRWAV.

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:08 pm

Ok I figured out IRWav.

John: I think we should only provide the option to create a whole WAV file, that will make it easier on the users.

gfb107 · Post by **gfb107** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:19 pm

e34m5 wrote:I have problems with RM as well...I think the way I need to have java configured is not compatible with RM or IRWAV.

I'd be interested in helping you resolve your issues with RM and Java.
It may prove to be useful to others in the future.

I noticed that you were able to work out your issues with IRWAV. Did you have any luck with RM?

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:29 pm

No I didn't go back and try RM. I like KM better (familiarity). The issue with IRToWav was not java. It was that the bat file was changing the directory to something non existent. Once I realized that then it worked.

The command line is very simple:
java IRToWav fullyqualified path of exisitng file

I'll have a beta in a little while.

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:37 pm

Try this IRBETAv504.zip for IRToWav support.

Open file to convert then select File| Convert to WAV. As usual must use the TXT version for now.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:40 pm

e34m5 wrote:John: I think we should only provide the option to create a whole WAV file, that will make it easier on the users.

I disagree, I think we should offer some choices here. Keep in mind that if a user is using this feature, they probably don't have a JP1 cable, so therefore if they have already done alot of custom programming on their remote, they won't want to have it all undone just because they loaded an upgrade. Given this choice, they might just go back to getting a UEI upgrade over the phone.

For most remotes, the memory is basically divided into 3 sections:

1) General (includes setup codes, VPT settings, keymoves, macros, etc)
2) Upgrades
3) Learning - when applicable

I would suggest that these three options be presented as check boxes, so the user can select which ones they want loaded. Alternatively, it could be a drop down with the following options:

1) General only
2) Upgrade only
3) General & Upgrade
4) Whole EEPROM image

While it's unlikely that people will want to load learned signals via a WAV file, people wanting to load extenders would need to load the whole image.

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:46 pm

Ok..I agree.

So are we asking the user to enter the begin and end address or are we wanting IR to determine that for them.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:55 pm

I guess Rob already convinced you to have options. But if you didn't want options, the default should be just the upgrade area (only way UEI provides WAV files).

I'm not convinced Rob is right about what options are useful beyond the two he and I both requested. But I see no point arguing that now.

We DO NOT WANT the user to provide the addresses. Much of the value of having IR do it is that IR knows the addresses and the user doesn't.

You can get the start-of-upgrade-area address from the RDF (I'm sure IR already has that in some convenient variable). IR also knows the length of the used portion of the upgrade area. If that isn't obvious (it wouldn't be to me) look at how IR displays the status bar showing you how much upgrade area is used vs free.

I forget how IRtoWAV takes those values on its command line. If it isn't obvious from IRtoWAV documentation, ask and I'll reread/explain.

e34m5 · Post by **e34m5** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:59 pm

The command line is like this:

java IRToWav NameOfFIle signature BeginAddress EndAddress

if signature is replaced with none the it uses the sig from the file.

What ever options you guys want let me know. I have no preference.