JP1 Remotes

OK, so you want to turn on the devices you need and turn off the devices you don't need. That makes managing the power state of your devices even mode complicated, and much harder to do when all you have is power toggle commands.

The point I was trying to make is that managing the power state of your devices is always easier when you have discrete power commands.

So, in your macro to switch to VCR mode, you would want to send a discrete ON to your A/V receiver, Discrete ON to your TV, Discrete ON to your VCR, discrete OFF to your DVD player, discrete OFF to your Cable Box, select appropriate input on TV, appropriate input select to your receiver, etc.

Similarly, your macro to switch to TV mode would turn on what you need and turn off what you don't need, and select the appropriate inputs.

Also when you switch to DVD mode, and when you switch to FM Radio mode. You get my point.

With these macros, you would never need to use the Power button to turn things ON, because the macros would always turn on everything you need and turn off everything you don't

You would still want a global power off macro, which you could assign to the Power button.

You don't give up anything when you use TOADTOG, other than the memory space used for setting up and tracking the TOADTOG.

P.S. Alot of A/V gear such as DVD players, cable boxes, satellite boxes, and VCRs use almost as much power (80%-90%) when turned off as when turned on but idle. That's because they are never really turned off. They go into a standby state, that pretty much only turns off the outputs and any display. That's what allows them to keep track of date and time, and respond to IR signals while "off". I'm not trying to dissuade you from turning off the components you aren't actively using, just pointing out that you may not be accomplishing as much as you think.

Greg,

Now that I think about it, I like your approach of using the macros to turn on and off the desired devices, and using the power button as a master off control. However, I think that, in my case, it's a moot point. Here is my equipment list:

TV: Panasonic CT27SF25W (about 10 or more years old)
VCR: Magnavox VR 9960 (over 20 years old and no copy protection circuitry, the reason I keep it)
Surround Sound: Boston Acoustics Digital Theater 6000 (over 10 years)
Cable Box: Motorola DCT 2224/1662/ACDEG (supplied by Comcast)
DVD: Panasonic DMR-ES10 (brand new)

I have not found discrete power on/off codes for all of this stuff. I'm not sure the older equipment has such codes. I looked through the file section of this forum and could not find any files with a listing of devices and their discrete codes. Do such files exist?

As to your suggestion about using ToadTog: My comment about giving up functionality assumed that I had to use the Extender software to take advantage of that protocol. Is that true? If so, I give up the ability to learn keys from my old remotes. I'd rather not lose that. And, as you pointed out, it's still possible to get out of sync even with ToadTog. Also, as a JP1 rank beginner (I'm sure you figured that out), I could be getting in over my head. Perhaps as I gain more experience, I can make the jump, but not yet.

Thanks for the help.

Dave W.

Dave W wrote:As to your suggestion about using ToadTog: My comment about giving up functionality assumed that I had to use the Extender software to take advantage of that protocol. Is that true?

There is a non extender version of ToadTog. It is available for some JP1 models, but I forget which. It is harder to use than the extender version and I (and I expect other experts) have forgotten how to use it, since the extender version is so much better.

But if you really want it, there is documentation included and many people did figure out how to use it (before the extender ToadTog version was available)

Dave W wrote:If so, I give up the ability to learn keys from my old remotes.

Either you're misunderstanding that or you're overestimating how serious it is:

You can't learn nor use learned signals while the extender is ACTIVE. You can't (correctly) reactivate the extender after learning without reloading it. You can

1) Deactivate the extender.
2) Learn signals
3) Download and decode the learned signals to IR
4) Load the file copy of your extender config into IR
5) Edit it based on the results of step 3
6) Save it
7) Upload back to the remote
8) Reactivate the extender.

Only steps 1 and 8 differ from what a non extender JP1 user would typically want to do when learning more signals.

Dave W wrote: I have not found discrete power on/off codes for all of this stuff. I'm not sure the older equipment has such codes. I looked through the file section of this forum and could not find any files with a listing of devices and their discrete codes. Do such files exist?

We don't have a list of discrete codes by device. However, we have the lists of advanced codes many setup codes at http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/adv-codes.shtml.

Also, if there is an existing device upgrade for your device, it may have discrete commands in it.

Also you can sometimes use short macros to achieve the equivalent of discrete power commands. For example, most DVDs and VCR will turn on if they receive a Play command. So, power on can be Play;Stop and power off can be Play;Power

As to your suggestion about using ToadTog: My comment about giving up functionality assumed that I had to use the Extender software to take advantage of that protocol. Is that true? If so, I give up the ability to learn keys from my old remotes. I'd rather not lose that. And, as you pointed out, it's still possible to get out of sync even with ToadTog. Also, as a JP1 rank beginner (I'm sure you figured that out), I could be getting in over my head. Perhaps as I gain more experience, I can make the jump, but not yet.

As John has pointed out, you don't have to use and extender to use ToadTog, and even if you did, you can always remove the extender (just do a reset), learn the signals, download and analyze, then upload your IR file (that has the extender installed), and you are back in business.

Thanks for the help.

Dave W.[/quote]