Want to Change Light Button Function

Kruskal · Post by **Kruskal** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:31 pm

I have a URC-8811 with Extender 3-2K.

I'm don't remember the way the original light button worked, but the way it now works is it toggles light-mode. When light-mode is on, pushing any button lights the back light for a fixed time. (It also lights initially when it is turned on.). So, even in light-mode, the back light is normally off when I want to find a button to push in the dark. Not very useful.

Any suggestions? There may be many answers to this problem, but the one that occurs to me is to get rid of light-mode altogether and just have the light button turn the light on for a that fixed time whenever it is pushed. (I can find the light button in the dark by feel.)

Any idea how to do this?

Another possibility is to have get rid of the timeout in light-mode. This would require some discipline to avoid draining the batteries.

Thanks -- Vincent

Capn Trips · Post by **Capn Trips** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:07 pm

So what you have to do now is press the light button once OR twice - depending on the mode (OFF or ON, respectively), and you want to modify the behaviour so that it is ALWAYS a single push of the light button?

It might be worth the effort to design something like that, but I'm not sure I see the benefit being that great, personally (nor, for that matter, would I know where to begin designing such a mod).

Perhaps one of the extender-writers can help you.

Kruskal · Post by **Kruskal** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:17 pm

Capn Trips wrote:So what you have to do now is press the light button once OR twice - depending on the mode (OFF or ON, respectively), and you want to modify the behaviour so that it is ALWAYS a single push of the light button?

It might be worth the effort to design something like that, but I'm not sure I see the benefit being that great, personally (nor, for that matter, would I know where to begin designing such a mod).

Perhaps one of the extender-writers can help you.

Pushing the light button a known number of times is only half my desire. The other half is to avoid the remote lighting up when I push another button.

Am I really the first to have this silly desire?

Thanks -- Vincent

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:07 am

Some people use their remote purely by feel but obviously you are not one of them and - although it doesn't bother me as I am one of the "feel" types - I can see what you're getting at regarding the light. If seeing the buttons is important to you and no other workaround is forthcoming, and pressing the Light button twice (or once depending upon mode) isn't to your liking, you could always consider one of the Kameleon's that light up as soon as the'yre picked up. Paradoxically, some people consider this behaviour an annoyance and they have come up with various ways to turn the feature off.

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:15 am

Actually, I think Vince is looking for someing LESS automatic than that. He doesn't want the backlight to come on when the remote is picked up, nor when a regular button is pressed, he only wants the backlight to come on when the LIGHT button is pressed, and only turn off when the LIGHT button is pressed again. And, he doesn't want the backlight to time out, so it's on him to make sure he doesn't drain the batteries.

I imagine that this would be a fairly simple change to the extender for an extender writer, the only problem is we don't have that many extender writers, and the ones we do have are usually busy with other projects.

Kruskal · Post by **Kruskal** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:02 am

The Robman wrote:Actually, I think Vince is looking for someing LESS automatic than that. He doesn't want the backlight to come on when the remote is picked up, nor when a regular button is pressed, he only wants the backlight to come on when the LIGHT button is pressed, and only turn off when the LIGHT button is pressed again. And, he doesn't want the backlight to time out, so it's on him to make sure he doesn't drain the batteries.

I imagine that this would be a fairly simple change to the extender for an extender writer, the only problem is we don't have that many extender writers, and the ones we do have are usually busy with other projects.

Actually, you mix up two ideas which would each satisfy me:

1 (preferred)- No light-mode -- simple light on with timeout with light button push

2- Light-mode as now with no time-out

Vincent

PS Isn't there some way to change the time-out? Maybe a really long time-out would satisfy me. But I vaguely remember that the time-out value controls some other timing value as well.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:29 am

I think that other timing value is one you won't mind increasing as well. It is the length of time after you press shift before you press the key you want shifted that the remote will wait for that key, after which the shift press is simply cancelled and the next key will be unshifted.

I doubt you rely much on shift being canceled in any situation other than: accidentally hit shift when the remote isn't in use, walk away, come back later, you would be confused if the shift is remembered.

I'm not sure the longest available timeout setting will be long enough for your purpose, but if it is, I wouldn't worry about obscure side effects of increasing it.

Kruskal · Post by **Kruskal** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:01 pm

johnsfine wrote:I think that other timing value is one you won't mind increasing as well. It is the length of time after you press shift before you press the key you want shifted that the remote will wait for that key, after which the shift press is simply cancelled and the next key will be unshifted.

I doubt you rely much on shift being canceled in any situation other than: accidentally hit shift when the remote isn't in use, walk away, come back later, you would be confused if the shift is remembered.

I'm not sure the longest available timeout setting will be long enough for your purpose, but if it is, I wouldn't worry about obscure side effects of increasing it.

I would be willing to just disable the Shift/Set button. How do I encrease the time period?

Vincent

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:12 pm

Btw, I ran a theoretical situation past the hardware guy over at UEI to see how long he thought the batteries would last.

This was assuming that the LIGHT button was changed to an ON/OFF switch, with the implication that the backlight would be on for as long as the remote was being used.

So, the scenario states that the user watches 1 hour of TV every evening and he leaves the backlight on for that whole hour. In this situation, he said you could expect a fresh set of batteries to last about a month.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:15 pm

Kruskal wrote:I would be willing to just disable the Shift/Set button.

Wow. I couldn't get close to squeezing all the functions I use onto a remote without shift. I moved shift to an easier to press key because I use it so much.

Kruskal wrote:How do I encrease the time period?

I forget which version of extender is which. If the extender has an adjustable backlight timeout, I'd expect that to be in the RDF file so that it shows up in IR's general tab (in the right side of the top half) where VPT and similar things show up in an unextended remote.

If that extender version doesn't have it, check the readme files for other versions.

Kruskal · Post by **Kruskal** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:45 pm

johnsfine wrote:
Kruskal wrote:I would be willing to just disable the Shift/Set button.
Wow. I couldn't get close to squeezing all the functions I use onto a remote without shift. I moved shift to an easier to press key because I use it so much.

I use LKP a lot instead of Shift. Do you use LKP/DKP and still find such a need for Shift?

johnsfine wrote:
Kruskal wrote:How do I encrease the time period?
I forget which version of extender is which. If the extender has an adjustable backlight timeout, I'd expect that to be in the RDF file so that it shows up in IR's general tab (in the right side of the top half) where VPT and similar things show up in an unextended remote.

If that extender version doesn't have it, check the readme files for other versions.

Found it. It's limited to 33 seconds (instead of 10). If no one comes up with a better solution, I will give it a try to see if I like it better.

Thanks -- Vincent

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:17 pm

Kruskal wrote:I use LKP a lot instead of Shift. Do you use LKP/DKP and still find such a need for Shift?

I never tried LKP. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

Some of my VCRs aren't very good at receiving IR signals. It often takes a long press to do the job a short press should have done.

With LKP, you don't get the "short" press signal until you release, and then you get a fixed duration signal. I want faster response on the press, and I want the manual duration control.

Example, STOP is stop, while SHIFT STOP is eject. When I press STOP, I want the VCR to stop. I don't want to have to remember to release quickly in order to stop quickly and I don't want to eject by accident.

Another example, shift vol+ puts the remote in a rarely used mode where subsequent presses of vol+, vol- and mute control the cable tuner's vol rather than the TV's. Obviously, I can't use LKP for vol+, but for a function as obscure as that mode change, if I put it on any key combination other than the one I found most intuitive, I'd forget where it was by the time I needed it. (I think I originally had it on shift CBL and did forget where it was when I needed it).