LKP on 6131 and other extender questions

[AndyInNYC]

I have the 6131 running well without the extender, but I'm now setting up more macros and keymoves than I would have space for without the extender and I also want to use LKP.

I've read the readme and done searches on this site, but I would swear the readme isn't in English - or I've lost most of my IQ with the birth of my daughter.

I want a LPK on each of the device keys to trigger a macro which will turn on/off components and set inputs, etc. for that device. I created the macros and have them assigned (pre-extender) to Shift-DeviceKey, but I haven't tested them yet.

Example:
Shift-PVR macro triggers

Shift-Swap (a macro that turns off with discrete codes most of the devices)
X_AUD
Shift-Phantom3 (discrete ON for receiver)
0 (input for the PVR video from receiver)
X_TV
Shift-Phantom3 (discrete ON for TV)
9
0
Enter (change the channel to 90 and press enter; 90 is the SVideo input)
PVR (set the remote up to use the PVR)

Question 1: Is the last line wrong? I.E. will this trigger a loop? What should I use - X_PVR?

Question 2: I can't figure out for the life of me how to set this up as a LPK on the PVR key. Can someone parse out the directions that I read for this here three year old?

LPK on power key will generate the same Shift-Swap macro and also turn off the receiver (which is ignored via the Shift-Swap macro).

I'm close to understanding, but after completely locking up my 2116 trying to learn the extender, I don't want to mess up my 6131 which we actually use day in, day out - the entire house would fall into anarchy.

All help would be appreciated.

Andy

[mtakahar]

Question 1: Is the last line wrong? I.E. will this trigger a loop? What should I use - X_PVR?

Looks OK to me as long as the device selection macro is there. X_PVR doesn't have effect once the entire macro finishes. If "PVR" is somehow not working , you may want to try "V_TV;V_PVR;O_PVR" instead.

Question 2: I can't figure out for the life of me how to set this up as a LPK on the PVR key.

Recent versions of IR.exe has a nice UI to set it up. Just go to the [Key Moves] tab -> [Add] -> [Special Protocol Builder], choose "LKP" from the "Protocol" drop down list. Hopefully the rest are somewhat obvious to you.


Hal

[AndyInNYC]

Hal,

I've started to use the LKP 'help' as you pointed out.

2 Questions:

Question 1: I want the PVR button to run my macro - tv on, correct channel, etc.

the short keypress should simply make the PVR the selected device; what do I need to put in for the short keypress side of the equation?

additionally, since I don't want to create a loop, the last line of the macro (keymove in this case) needs to set the PVR as the selected device; what should the last line of the macro be?

Question 2: Since I want these macros shouldn't depend on what device is currently selected, how do I make them global? Do I need to define the macro (keymove) 6 times against each device? That can't be right. The power button, for example, when held down should do a global device shutdown. What's the magic here that I'm missing?

Thanks again.

Andrew

[gfb107]

From the Readme.txt included with the 6131 extender:

DEVICE SELECTION:
=================

There is no normal device selection. There is no VPT. There is no
Transport Punch Through. There is no Home Theater Mode.

Instead there is a device selection mechanism by key set that has a
superset of the power of all the above; But you must define macros to use
and customize it.

The device keys have no built in meaning. You must define macros to
have any device selection at all.

There are 33 commands that can be used in macros to control device
selection. Each command specifies the key set and the Device Index that will
be used for keys in that set. For example V_TV says the TV device will be
used for keys in the "Volume" set.

There are 4 Key sets: Volume, Transport, Other and Temporary(X).
There are 8 Device Indexes: SAT, TV, PVR, VCR, DVD, AUD, DEV7 and
DEV8. There is one additional command X_Cancel.

To achieve simple device selection (no VPT, TPT or HT) you would put a 3
command macro on each device key, for example the TV device key would have
the macro:
V_TV; T_TV; O_TV

The 6131 has only 6 device keys; But the extender uses 8 device indexes.
You can use any keys you want for the device selection macros (and you can use
device keys for other purposes).

To achieve VPT, replace the V_ command within the macro for each device
that should have VPT enabled with the command from the device to which VPT
should be set. For example, to enable TV VPT on your VCR, the VCR key
macro might be:
V_TV; T_VCR; O_VCR

If you want full VPT (same V_ selection in all device selection macros) you
can save some macro memory by omitting all the V_ commands. You can set the
initial V device using IR. That remains as the V device as long as no V_
commands specify a different V_ device.

To achieve crude TPT (such as most of the UEIC remotes) replace the T_
command within the macro for each device that should have TPT enabled with
T_VCR. For example, your TV key macro might be:
V_TV; T_VCR; O_TV

To achieve dynamic TPT (similar to the URC7800). Omit the T_ command from
the macro for each non Transport device and include it in the macro for each
transport device (VCR, DVD etc.). When you select a non transport device,
the T keys will all remain associated with whatever transport device was
most recently selected.

Shifted keys all go into the key set containing their unshifted
counterpart. For example SHIFT-Stop is in the T set. Phantom keys are in
the O set. Device keys are in the O set; But most people will put macros
on device keys. If a key is a macro, it doesn't matter which set it is in.
The set only matters for KeyMoves and for keys defined by setup code.

Temporary Device Selection:
---------------------------

Within a macro, you often want to issue a key to a specific device
regardless of the previous device selection and without disturbing that
previous device selection. You use X_ commands to do that. For example,
the sequence
X_TV; 0; 3
in a macro would send the 0 and 3 keys to the TV regardless of the previous
device selection.

The X_ selection is automatically canceled when the outermost macro (see
nested macros) completes. If the above example were intended for use as a
top level macro, there would be no need for it to explicitly cancel its X_
command. If the above example were in a general purpose macro that might
be called by other macros, you probably should change it to:
X_TV; 0; 3; X_Cancel

While an X_ command is active, it applies to all keys. The usual division
into Volume, Transport and Other doesn't apply.

From LongDoubleKeyPress.txt:

"Global" L/DKP

You can include a Long (or Double) Press macro in a regular macro.
This would be useful if you want put two different actions on a
device button. In order to do that, just create an L/DKP macro on a
key move in any device mode and use the X_ temporary device
selection command for that device.

For example, put a LKP macro on the Phantom1 in the TV mode, then
create a macro on the TV button = "X_TV; Phantom1;", and then the
LKP macro will run in any device mode except for the ones that you
have key moves on the TV button (IR.exe lays out all key moves
before any macros, and the extender executes whichever it finds
first. You may need to drag a key move or a macro in IR.exe to
trigger this sorting.) The device selection won't change unless
you explicitly include the permanent device selection commands
(O_TV, V_TV, etc.)

.

[AndyInNYC]

gfb107 - thanks for responding; unfortunately, as I stated, I have read the readme files - I'm just having trouble understanding them. Quoting from them doesn't answer my question. If you feel your response should have solved my problem, you don't need to reply further.

Is anyone else willing to paraphrase from the readme to directly answer my question so that I can "get it"?

Andrew

[gfb107]

In the extender, the device keys have no special meaning, they are just keys that happen to be labelled with device names. They do not automatically change the "current device".

When you create your macros, and you want to change the device mode of a set of keys, you must use V_YY (to set the volume and mute buttons to the YY device), T_YY (to set the transport buttons (play,pause, stop, ffwd, etc) to the YY device), and O_YY (to set all other buttons to device YY). There is also the X_YY that temporarily (for the duration of the execution of the macro) sets all keys to device YY.

YY can be SAT, TV, PVR, VCR, DVD, AUD, DEV7 or DEV8.

For your short key-press on the PVR key, you want to have (at least) T_PVR;O_PVR
this sets the transport and other keys to the PVR device.

For your Long key-press you'll want to temporarily change to each device that you need to send some commands to, then send the commands. Something like:
X_TV;SHIFT-2;Exit;X_AUD;3;T_PVR;O_PVR
This does the following:

• temporarily use the TV device
• send the shift-2 keys (which I've programmed to select the DVI input on my TV)
• send the exit key (to clear the video selection screen)
• temporarily switch to the AUD device
• send the 3 key (which selectes digital audio input 3 on my receiver)
• set the transport keys to the PVR device
• set the other keys to the PVR device

For the device keys to invoke your LKP regardless of current device mode, all you have to do is assign a macro to them that temporarily switch to the device mode on which you assigned your LKP keymoves.

For example, if you assigned your LKP keymove that handles properly switching to the PVR device to the Phantom1 key in the PVR device, you would asssing the macro
X_PVR;Phantom1
to the PVR button.

When you first start playing with this, I would NOT assign the LKP to the Phantom1 key, just because you cant test it out directly. You might use the Pip button until you get it worked out, then switch it to the Phantom1 when you've got it working.