JP1 Remotes

[sic0048]

Hello everyone. I'm new to the group, but well on my way to programming my OFA 8910. I will soon be working with the extender to get the remote to work as easily as possible for normal people to use (read my wife).

Here is what I am looking at doing and I would appreciate any advice.
1) normal device button = turn on all needed equipment and change inputs to watch.
2) short power button = turn off the current selected device (using DSM)
3) long power button = turn off ALL equipment (using power off discrete commands - available for all my equipment)
4) long device button = bring that device back into synch (only need for Receiver as it is the only TOAD device)

Other misc. ideas
1) Short DVD stop = stop / Long DVD stop = mark and save location and stop
2) Have transport commands be dynamic


Also, are there any other common ideas that I've missed? Anything that you've done to your remote that you really like and makes it easier to use? Thanks.
_________________
-Brian

My Equipment:
OFA 8910 - extender 1
Zenith C32V37 HDTV (32" 4:3 ratio with built-in HD tuner)
Onkyo TX-R510 Receiver (6.1 channel receiver)
Panasonic DVD-F85 (5 disc DVD changer)
JVC S-VHS VCR HR-S3901U

[johann83]

That pretty much describes my basic setup, although I have a couple things set differently than you. Specifically, I use long key presses (LKPs) of the device buttons to turn everything on for that mode and set up the inputs etc. Then a short press can be used to switch modes in case you need to do something specific to one device that isn't supported by the way you have your "HomeTheater" settings set up. Otherwise, say you are in DVD mode, but need to switch to TV mode to make an adjustment, in your proposed setup pressing the TV button will take you to TV mode and potentially change the input settings etc. The way I have it set up, you can use the short press to switch modes at will without messing up other things. If you want to switch from TV watching to DVD watching, you use a LKP of the DVD key.

So then I have a long press of power to toggle power for a device (to correct for out of sync conditions, as most of my devices are Toads, unfortunately), and a short press turns everything off (since this is what is used most often). Once I showed her how it works, my wife is pretty good with this setup and can generally do 99% of things she needs to do easily without asking.

I like your idea for the LKP on DVD/Stop, I hadn't thought of that. But, then again, I'm not sure how my DVD player handles saving the locations. I will have to look into it.

Matt

[sic0048]

OK - I agree your way is better. So here is my updated list.

1. Short Device Key - puts remote in that device mode. (however - transport and volume keys are dynamic - ie if you go back and forth from DVD to receiver modes, the transport and vol keys will always control the DVD and receiver respectively).

2. Long Device Key - will turn on all equipment and change inputs to allow viewing of that device. Here is what that looks like for my set up
TV - TV power (no cable or sat to worry about)
Receiver - Receiver power & tuner input
DVD - TV, DVD and receiver power, TV to AUX input, Rec to DVD
CD - DVD and Receiver power, Rec to CD input (this allows me to have different surround settings for DVD and CD to simplify things).
VCR - TV, VCR and receiver power, TV to AUX, Rec to V1 input.
AUX (PS1 game) - TV and Receiver Power, TV to Aux input, Rec to V2 input.

3. Short Power Key - will toggle the power for current device

4. Long Power Key - ALL off

FYI - I worked last night to get the above macros to work. I have everything in the system correctly, but I need to add some pauses to make everything work correctly. It seems that the extender works so fast that any commands sent right after powering on a device do not work (since the device is still powering up). I need to read some more to figure out how to make a pause work with the extender.

I also need to read more on how the LKP work. I've read through the material several times, but it still hasn't "clicked" yet.
_________________
-Brian

My Equipment:
OFA 8910 - extender 1
Zenith C32V37 HDTV (32" 4:3 ratio with built-in HD tuner)
Onkyo TX-R510 Receiver (6.1 channel receiver)
Panasonic DVD-F85 (5 disc DVD changer)
JVC S-VHS VCR HR-S3901U

[johann83]

Well, since you are trying to do something very similar to what I have done with LKPs and pauses etc. I can probably give you some examples when I get home from work tonight, if no one answers sooner. I'm not sure it will be exactly the same since I am using a different remote (RS 15-2104) than you, but it should help. The LKP protocol can be slightly confusing at first, but once you get it figured out once you can just copy the same structure over for other devices.

As far as pauses, sometimes you can get around using them by staggering commands to different devices. For example, you want to watch a DVD, and this requires turning on the TV, DVD, and Receiver, setting the TV to aux input and setting the Receiver to DVD input. What you might be able to do in a macro is something like this:
TV/Power, Receiver/Power, TV/AuxIn, DVD/Power, Receiver/DVDIn

This can end up taking more steps in the macro, and if you have long macros already, you might need to split them into parts (as long as the extender allows nested macros). And it won't always work if a device needs a relatively long pause, but you can experiment with the order of commands in the macro to see if you can find something that does work. I personally ended up still having to use the Pause special protocol because my Panasonic TV needed a couple seconds from Power On to when it would receive commands.

Sounds like you are well on your way to "the perfect remote" (although we all know its never perfect and that you will be tweaking it forever). If you run into any other problems, don't hesitate to post here. And I'll try to post up a couple LKP examples from my config later today.

Matt

[gfb107]

Also, extender 1 for the 8910 includes the pause protocol. Look in included documentation.
_________________
-- Greg
Original RemoteMaster developer
JP1 How-To's and Software Tools
The #1 Code Search FAQ and it's answer (PLEASE READ FIRST)

[sic0048]

OK - I've read through the LKP material one more time and used the extendercalc spreadsheet (I only have Excel access at work) and I think I have it down now, but wanted to post my thoughts.

For the Power Key LKP here is what I want: a short power key will toggle the power for that device and a long power key will turn off ALL equipment.

First, I need to write a macro for all power off - I figure I'll assign it to the shifted Phantom 2 key.

Then using the IR, I'll create a key move for the power button in EACH device. Here is what it should look like:

Bound Key: Device = DVD (then TV for TV device, etc); Key = Power
Function to Perform: Device type = TV; Setup Code = 1106
Hex Data = 41 83 BE

What this means in English is that my duration is 4. A short key press will cause the shift-power button to activate (hex code 83), but since there is no shift power button assigned, it will cause the power button to activate which is where I have my toggle power assigned (this to prevent a loop). A long key press will activate the Shift-Phantom 2 button (hex code BE)which is where I have my ALL OFF macro assigned.

Does that sound correct to everybody? I'm going to try it out tonight.
_________________
-Brian

My Equipment:
OFA 8910 - extender 1
Zenith C32V37 HDTV (32" 4:3 ratio with built-in HD tuner)
Onkyo TX-R510 Receiver (6.1 channel receiver)
Panasonic DVD-F85 (5 disc DVD changer)
JVC S-VHS VCR HR-S3901U

[johann83]

So it's lunch and I was able to open some of my IR files to give you an example (gotta love Windows XP Remote Desktop with a broadband connection). And I was in the middle this example when I saw your latest post... So I'll skip that as it looks to me like you have the right idea.

As far as the Pause protocol, I am less sure that things are the same for your remote as they are for mine, but in my case, I simply added the device and protocol upgrades to IR (as device TV/1104) and created two keymoves that I use in macros. Since I really only need them for the TV, I used keymoves on two shifted keys like so:
TV/Shift-1s = TV/1104 : $01
TV/Shift-2s = TV/1104 : $02
which should give 1 and 2 second delays respectively. I ended up needing the 2 second delay to do what I was trying to do, but your mileage will vary. Then you can just insert these into your macros wherever you need a little delay.

Matt

[sic0048]

Thanks for the help Matt. The pause sounds extremely easy to use. I guess I was just trying to make it harder than it needed to be. Once I understood the LKP (with the duration, etc) then the pause made sense too.

Now I have to review my macros that I was working on last night (used to power up the required devices for each "mode of watching"). I realize sitting at my desk that they are longer than they need to be. I guess it's OK, because I'm going to have to tweak them with the new Pauses to get everything to work anyway.

All I can say is that is it slowly coming together.
_________________
-Brian

My Equipment:
OFA 8910 - extender 1
Zenith C32V37 HDTV (32" 4:3 ratio with built-in HD tuner)
Onkyo TX-R510 Receiver (6.1 channel receiver)
Panasonic DVD-F85 (5 disc DVD changer)
JVC S-VHS VCR HR-S3901U

[sic0048]

Well, I had a little time to work on it last night and I'm proud to say that I got everything working! Thanks for everyone's help.

I guess I'll use it for a while and find out a few more things to do to it to make it better. But atleast it works.
_________________
-Brian

My Equipment:
OFA 8910 - extender 1
Zenith C32V37 HDTV (32" 4:3 ratio with built-in HD tuner)
Onkyo TX-R510 Receiver (6.1 channel receiver)
Panasonic DVD-F85 (5 disc DVD changer)
JVC S-VHS VCR HR-S3901U

[TimH]