Anyone want a new project?

[The Robman]

Does anybody here fancy taking on a project? Long before we started the JP1 group, there was a bunch of hackers who discovered that you could control old OFA remotes using a serial cable. Now, all they were able to do was control the remote from a PC, they never figured out how to actually load upgrades into the remote or do any of the other stuff that we can do using JP1.

I have archived copies on my site of several of the web pages that discussed this topic, and I also have copies of some of the programs that they used. I've never gotten around to building one of these old cables to see what it can really do.

I'm hoping that someone who's got some spare time, and also an old 3-hole OFA remote, will take a look into this. I'm assuming that UEI could load upgrades into the remote using the 3-hole connector on these old remotes, so if they can, we should be able to do so also.

Now, why bother you may ask? It's just for the sake of knowing, I guess. Plus, if can make contact with these remotes, who knows what other info we might get from them.

Here's a brief list of some of the relevant stuff in my archives:

John Wasser
I have a complete archive of John's web site here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wasser/

The pages relevant to this topic are here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wasser/SerialCable.shtml
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wasser/SerialSoftware.shtml

Ziggr
A user with the ID "Ziggr" used to have a page on this topic too, my archive of his site is here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/ziggr/

He has a schematic of the cable here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/ziggr/schematic.shtml

And he describes the two possible baud rates here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/ziggr/9600.shtml (9600 baud, newer remotes)
http://www.hifi-remote.com/ziggr/4800.shtml (4800 baud, older remotes)

Jon Somers
A fellow called Jon Somers wrote a program to control the remotes using this cable. My archive of his page is here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wasser/somers.shtml

And you can download his program from here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wasser/urc.zip

David Huras
A fellow called David Huras wrote a couple of different programs for remotes and X10, my archive of his site is here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/huras/

He describes his Windows program for controlling remotes here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/huras/irdcw.htm

And you can download it from here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/huras/irdcw250.zip

OFA Developers Manual
You used to be able to buy a printed manual from Smart Home which described how to write a program to use this cable. I bought a copy and used OCR to create the following page:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/wasser/ofa-manual.shtml

[mr_d_p_gumby]

...and, this discussion with the late Jon Armstrong would strongly suggest that the URC-7070 / RS 15-1925 has a hybrid of both the JP1 inteface and the three-pin interface.

[The Robman]

...and, this discussion with the late Jon Armstrong would strongly suggest that the URC-7070 / RS 15-1925 has a hybrid of both the JP1 inteface and the three-pin interface.

I've just re-read Jon's thread (it's been a while) but I'm not seeing the "hybrid" connection from it. However, you are not wrong. While the URC-7070 and 15-1925 remotes both have regular 6-pin connectors, the 15-1918 has a 3-hole connector. I have a 15-1918 that has been modified to have a 6-pin and it shares an RDF with the 15-1925, so it's got the same chip onboard. Therefore, your assumption about it being a hybrid is a good one. IIRC, the 15-1919 also shares that RDF, and it's also a 3-hole remote. The reason I mention it is because it's also an RF remote, so it should be somewhere on the FCC web site. I have one somewhere, but it's in a box that's buried under some other boxes. If I get a chance, I'll dig it out to see if there's an FCC id on it.

[The Robman]

OK, I decided to dig the remote out. It's FCC id is B4S 15-1919T. While there is an entry on the FCC site for it, filed by X10, there's no supporting data, so no schematic.

[The Robman]

There is a schematic of the 15-1925 remote here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/files/schematics/15-1925.pdf

I will try looking at my 15-1918 remote to see if I can see where the 3-hole connector would fit into that schematic. I'm guessing that the 15-1925 would be a "9600 baud" remote.

Here's a brief summary of the serial protocol for each type of remote.

9600 Baud
To wake up the remote:

• push any button on the remote (Yes, you must physically press a button. What a pain.)
• send a "W" to the remote
• receive an 0x06 from the remote
• send a "K" to the remote

Once the remote's awake, you can send any single-byte keycode to the remote. The remote ignores commands if you send them too fast: delay 50-100 msec after each command. Macro commands probably need even more time.
To put the remote to sleep:

• send an "0xFF" to the remote

4800 Baud
To wake up the remote:

• raise DTR (to power the serial cable)
• send a serial BREAK for at least 50 msec (15 msec minimum, but some remotes take longer than that, maybe even 100 msec)
• receive a wake-up acknowlege from the remote: 0x6E
• send a serial execute command to the remote: 0xBC
• receive a serial execute command acknowlege: 0x6F

Once the remote's awake, you can send any single-byte keycode to the remote. The remote will go to sleep after execute the keycode. The remote will echo back the keycode.
If you send a macro command that issues multiple keycodes, the remote echoes back only the last keycode.

After each command:

• lower DTR (power down the serial cable)
• wait 200 msec

[Kevin Timmerman]

...

[dre]

Cool project... it would be nice if we could control JP1 remotes via a PC. For those of us with HTPC's, it's a good way to remotely blast IR signals short of going out and buying a USB IR thingy.

[Ex-Navy]

Rob,

The schematic that you provided of the 15-1918 remote uses a Freescale
68HC05C9A microcontroller here:

http://www.freescale.com/files/microcon ... C05C9A.pdf

The 3 wires you are referring to are the pins that communicate serially to
that microprocessor via the Serial Communications Interface in Chapter 9 of the above document.

The wake commands you speak of are done through this interface. Conversion of the signals TTL to RS232 have to take place to communicate with the microprocessor.

The 3 pins are TX (transmit), RX (receive) and GND.

On the schematic you see a Telephone pickup section. Notice pins 1,2 and 3. Pin 3 is GND.

This is the 3 pin connection. Upgrades for this remote could be done through a 6 PIN IDC header or a telephone (serial) connection.

The EEPROM is a Atmel or Microchip 24C08A (2 wire EEPROM)

I would be interested in seeing if I could read the memory contents of a 15-1918 remote with my development software.

I work with PICs and am very interested in developing a hardware/software protocol analyzer to determine what protocol it uses and what are the button mapping.

[StillLearning]

I had or still have somewhere a cable for My OFA-12 urc5000.

Heaven only know why it is.

I was using it one day on the remote and it slipped out during an opteration. Bye Bye

The now does not respond to anything. No LED action on any key push.

I opened it.

Main cpu Toshiba 80C35AT 8-BIT microP. Don't have a spec sheet for it.

Memory GOLDSTAR GM76C256LFW10 32K 8BIT Static 5.0V

This remote also has a 3v 2032 battery inside it.

It has the 3 pin serial visible under the battery compartment plus to the left under the plastic shell is another 4 pin connector.

The 4 pin does not seem to go to the same location. Probably the service upgrade connection.

I have not traced the remote out as I said it does not respond any more.

It was fun using it as a semi super PC remote. I say semi super because it didn't have all of the component codes I needed.

If you needed a new device code. It had to be sent in.

Bruce