Motorola DCT6412 & Cambridge Soundworks AVS550 conflict

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:41 pm

I haven't had time to do the bit by bit comparison to see if my guess was right about similarity to that thread at RC. Even there, I didn't do it. Dave Houston did.

Also, in JP1 it's much trickier than with a Pronto to tack extra stuff on the end of a signal.

I'm also a bit surprised at that frequency range, and don't have a good idea on how to proceed.

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:09 pm

Do you have a URL for the R/C thread?

As for tacking something onto the end of the signals, if there's just a few buttons we could use learning for this.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:24 pm

It looks like a very different conflict. I suddenly remembered using the word "tri-state" in that other thread. That made it easy to do a search and I found

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mb ... words=3907

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:44 pm

From using the remote, it appears that all of the Cable buttons are stepping on the Cambridge Vol + and Vol-. Some make it go up where others make it go down. The ones that increase the volume are: Ch+, Ch-, Left, Right, Enter, Menu, Exit, and all the numbers. The ones that decrease the volume are Guide, Info, Page+, Page-, Mute, Pause, Play, Live, Stop, 30 Sec Skip and 15-sec Rewind.

One thing that is interesting is that if you increase or decrease the Cambridge volume using the Cambridge codes and then press something else on the Cambridge remote, the volume seems to be 'locked' in and the Cable buttons do not change the Cambridge volume at all. The buttons I've tried are the input source (AV2), Audio In (Optical/Alalog toggle), Prologic toggle, Zoom and Angle.

I wonder if the Cambridge Vol + and Vol- codes could also send one of these other codes after the volume change (e.g., Vol+ and Angle together), it would also lock it in and the problem would be solved.

something else to think about.

Gary

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:02 pm

grcobb wrote:From using the remote, it appears that all of the Cable buttons are stepping on the Cambridge Vol + and Vol-. Some make it go up where others make it go down. The ones that increase the volume are: Ch+, Ch-, Left, Right, Enter, Menu, Exit, and all the numbers. The ones that decrease the volume are Guide, Info, Page+, Page-, Mute, Pause, Play, Live, Stop, 30 Sec Skip and 15-sec Rewind.

Did you verify any of those in later tests? In other words, do the same ones have the same association later?

grcobb wrote: One thing that is interesting is that if you increase or decrease the Cambridge volume using the Cambridge codes and then press something else on the Cambridge remote, the volume seems to be 'locked' in and the Cable buttons do not change the Cambridge volume at all.

Does that mean that when you did the earlier testing, the last real Cambridge command you had sent was a vol command? You're sure the error acts like issuing a new vol command rather than continuing the previous one?

grcobb wrote: I wonder if the Cambridge Vol + and Vol- codes could also send one of these other codes after the volume change (e.g., Vol+ and Angle together), it would also lock it in and the problem would be solved.

Sounds reasonable.

What other commands on the Cambridge are adjustments of continuous quatities (like vol) rather than individual actions (like AV2)?

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:11 pm

If the last command sent to the Cambridge is a Vol+ or Vol-, the Motorola cable commands always change the Cambridge volume. If the last Cambridge command is one of the ones I tried (not a volume command), the cable commands never change the Cambridge volume.

I just tried a Cambridge Vol+, then a Cambridge ch+ and the cable command (Ch+, Ch-) did not change the Cambridge volume. I then pressed Cambridge Vol+ and then Cable Ch+ and the Cambridge volume started changing again.

Gary

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:44 pm

That doesn't really answer the main question that John was trying to ask. We want to know if the cable remote is merely repeating the last volume button pressed or does it always send the same volume button based on which cable button was pressed.

For example, you say that CH+ (and some others) always increase the volume, and that GUIDE (and some others) always decrease the volume.

If this is true, then the following sequence would result in the volume increasing...

1) receiver VOL-
2) cable CH+

and this sequence would result in the volume decreasing...

1) receiver VOL+
2) cable GUIDE

We're trying to ascertain whether your earlier results were really based on which receiver volume button just happened to be the last one pressed before you did those experiments.

Ya see?

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:49 pm

grcobb wrote:One thing that is interesting is that if you increase or decrease the Cambridge volume using the Cambridge codes and then press something else on the Cambridge remote, the volume seems to be 'locked' in and the Cable buttons do not change the Cambridge volume at all. The buttons I've tried are the input source (AV2), Audio In (Optical/Alalog toggle), Prologic toggle, Zoom and Angle.

Not having one of these units, I don't know what each of those buttons really do. I'm guessing that you wouldn't want just any of them to be sent after a volume change as some of them might change the selected input or do some other function that would change what you are listening to.

Is there a button that both locks the volume and doesn't alter the sound that could be used after the volume buttons? If so, it wouldn't be too hard to re-write the NEC protocol to send it after the volume button is released.

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:30 pm

Rob,
You are right...the cable button is doing the last Cambridge volume command that was sent; e.g., if I press Cambridge vol+, all cable buttons also cause the volume to increase, if I press Cambridge vol-, all cable buttons cause the volume to decrease. If I press vol+ (or vol-) and immediately follow with a Ch+, the volume stays the same when I press a cable button.

The Cambridge unit has a funky button ("Slide") that is only used when you are viewing a slide show of jpeg photos on a CD. It isn't used for anything else as far as I can see. Pressing Cambridge Vol+, Cambridge Slide, Cable Ch+ does not change the volume. The Slide button has an EFC=184.

That might be a good one to use. (The Cambridge Ch+ changes the chapter if it is in DVD mode.)

Gary

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:00 pm

Rob,
Am I waiting on you or are you wainting on me?

As mentioned in previous post, there is a button on the Cambridge remote that is not really used and would be a good candidate for sending after the Vol+ and Vol- commands (EFC=184) to lock the Cambridge volume.

Not sure what the next step is, if any.

Gary

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:37 pm

You're waiting on me (or anyone else that wants to try doing the coding), I just haven't had a chance to get to it yet.

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:45 pm

Thanks. Let me know if you need anything from me. Have fun.

Gary

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 5:20 pm

Rob,
I have just finished installing an Extender on the remote and have solved all of the Vol+ and Vol- problems by assigning macros to the Vol+ and Vol- keys.

Naturally, I couldn't stop at that and have configured other macros and LDKP's to mimic some of the other buttons on the Motorola DRC-800 that Comcast distributes with the Motorola DCT-6412 Cable/PVR box. Some of them include Page+=Long Down, Page-=Long Up, Info=Long Select, Exit=Long Guide, etc.

If you are interested, I'll be glad to clean up the .ir file so it only includes the Cbl and TV stuff and upload it. If not, that's OK too.

Thanks for your help earlier this week.

Gary

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 7:03 pm

Sounds like you did good, congrats. So does this mean you don't need a custom protocol anymore? Sorry that I didn't get the time to write one for you.

grcobb · Post by **grcobb** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:51 am

Rob,

It looks like the extender took care of all of the problems with the Cable keypress stomping on the Cambridge volume (using a macro on the Vol+ & Vol- keys to send both a volume code and the 'Slide' code toi lock the volume on the Cambridge unit. So I won't need a special protocol to do it.

Getting into the extender also solved other problems -- (1) Buttons on the 6412 remote that are not on the 8811 (Page+ & Page-), (2) putting long keypresses on buttons that are easier to reach for common tasks (exit, info, etc.) and (3) setting up the various component modes (TV, DVD, CBL, etc.). Now to tackle Power on/off.

Once done, I'll upload a copy of the DCT-6412 .ir file into the diagnostics area. It might make it easier for the next guy trying to configure it.

Thanks again for your help.

Gary