JP1 Remotes

Good morning

I found this NEC S-VHS VCR in Goodwill (keeping with the gear theme, on my way back from having my big Adcom amp checked out) for the princely sum of $12.50 and I couldn't say no even though it was nonfunctional. The lady at the cash register made sure that I understood that I could bring it back within a week if it didn't work and I assured her that even though I already knew it didn't work, I wasn't bringing it back (would have been an hour drive each way if nothing else). Well, all it really needed was a main drive belt and some cleaning, although purchasing the owner's manual (I couldn't find a scan, and I wanted to get the part number for the original remote) and remote control significantly increased my investment in this unit.

I actually have this up and running and connected in my living room and it's working fine although I am using a composite video connection as apparently neither my current TV nor AVR have a S-Video connection.

What I'm looking for is if there are any discrete power codes for this unit, or is it likely that it is too old to have same? I am in the process of making an upgrade for this with learns from the original remote; the Harmony program for it is pretty sparse and doesn't have discretes. Or, being that this unit dates from 1988 is it likely that discrete codes weren't a thing yet? It does have an electronic power switch is why I'm asking, but the power button on the remote is a toggle.

Yes, I am trying to get a 35 year old VCR working with my living room stuff. Humor me, I just like doing weird stuff like this

Here is what I have so far.

https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=26714

I think the only way to find out is to test them all. Do you know how to do that efficiently?

Also, I notice that you entered the device codes as dev=25,sub=230. You should notice that 25+230=255, so this is really just dev=25 with no sub-device (ie, the sub-device is the complement of the device).

The Robman wrote:I think the only way to find out is to test them all. Do you know how to do that efficiently?

Also, I notice that you entered the device codes as dev=25,sub=230. You should notice that 25+230=255, so this is really just dev=25 with no sub-device (ie, the sub-device is the complement of the device).

Sure I can, I was just curious if that was a worthwhile exercise or likely pointless. As for the device and sub device, that's what came up when I looked at my learns.

Right, the decoder must not be programmed to recognize when the sub is the complement of the dev. It doesn't make a difference, except someone who doesn't know about this stuff would assume that device 25 is different from dev 25.230

Well now it's been a while (almost 3 years!), but I now have both this VCR and my Laserdisc player hooked up to a Zektor HDS4.1 switch (the upgrade that I made is in the file section, of course, although Zektor implements remote control in an interesting way so pretty much any code set will work with them) in my living room and now that whole pile is 99.44% properly working with my Denon AVR and LG OLED TV.

I still do not have discrete power codes for the VCR however. I guess I glossed over this initially (and then completely forgot about it until this evening) so you just have to get up and turn on and off the VCR manually, which is of course unacceptable unless there is no other choice.

I see there are some files for NEC VCRs at Remote Central; I know I've looked at these before but I have completely forgotten how to do so. Anyone got a link to a tutorial?

https://files.remotecentral.com/browser ... index.html

I'm also going to try to see if I can get a Harmony working to see if there are any codes there that I don't have. I haven't been having much luck with them lately, but it's worth a try. Next step after that I guess is brute force, nothing I haven't done before...

At the same time I'm doing this, I am also planning on AC3 modding my LD player so that I can watch Laserdiscs in full Dolby Digital surround. Good times good times, I actually have everything other than the little mod kit itself and a few cables necessary to make this work.

I also have recently acquired a Sofabaton X2 that I'm hoping to get working with this whole pile but since I have to learn all the commands for any devices not in Sofabaton's database (and fix ones that are, although I apparently cannot upload those fixes, only code sets that I've 100% generated myself and learned), I really want to get all the IR commands figured out and working with my Xsight before adding any devices. I really, really wish Sofabaton would let me just add the codes in protocol/OBC format but no such luck (sigh). JP1 and Remote Master is still the king for people like me who collect old, somewhat obscure, and partially documented A/V gear and either don't always have the original remotes or have brute forced additional codes.

Why does the POWER toggle button not turn on the VCR, does it have a push-pull POWER button? If it does, the only way you can do it would be to have a remote controlled power source. As you're doing everything else old-school, you could find some old X10 units?

As for reading the Pronto files from Remote Central, I use either or its predecessor [url=https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/app.php/file?file_id=8766]CCF2EFC. You may need to also load DecodeIR into the same folder with them. To use them, you just drag and drop the ccf file onto the .exe file and it will generate a .txt file with all the contents decoded. I'm sure you'll have questions if you try it.

Power toggle works, it's just that literally every single other component with a few exceptions in the living room has discrete power on/off codes which makes life so much easier - the exceptions are a sadly dying Chromecast Ultra, a Fire Stick 4K (which is frustratingly slow; I think it's telling me it's time for a new one), and a Denon combo CD/cassette deck that has a hard power switch; those three devices are on a smart power strip that is using the AVR as its master. The Denon unit is usually powered down as it is really just taking up space there and is almost never used (as the LD, BD, and HD-DVD units could all play CDs as well, only the cassette is really useful, and that is almost never used. It's more like I had the unit, I had the shelf space, so why not hook it up.)

This is really just me being OCD about this and wanting everything to work perfectly. It's so darn close right now. I really only have four action items.

1) discrete power codes for VCR
2) AC3 mod the LD player and get Dolby Digital working (I already have the demodulator) - as part of this I need to go through my LDs and pull out the ones that are DD for testing.
3) Somehow confirm the pinout of the 3.5mm TRRS to 3x RCA dongle for the TV (somewhat irrelevant, as I am not sending it analog audio, only video - and that part is working; I just like to have everything 100% figured out)
4) take everything I've done for Xsight and get that working with the Sofabaton - which will be nice because that'll natively control the Fire Stick without having to use the IReTV. (I probably should go ahead and input the LD and the Denon combo unit some evening when I need a mindless task to do, as I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get those code sets any better than they are already.)

By the time I get all of that done, of course, I will either have decided to upgrade the TV or some other component, so this will never actually be finished

Do any of the VCR buttons cause the unit to power on, if it's currently off? I doubt it, but that sometimes works for audio receivers, where some buttons will work as a sort-of discrete on in addition to their labeled function. If that isn't the case, and you don't want to use X10 to power on the VCR, maybe because with no power the clock will go out too, then you could try some clever macros where, as long as the VCR starts off powered off, then you only turn it on when you need it, and only turn it off if it's already on.