JP1 Remotes

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:12 pm**

I'd like to know how a FAV key works.

I have been looking at how they go into the RAW Data page, but can't make sense out of some of the data.

I was looking at the 8811 extender. The keys involved are
FAV key = $30
1 key = $15
2 key = $16
3 key = $17

I put together a FAV setting that has
11111
22222
33333

The raw data that turned red

30 31 15 15 15 15 15
30 31 16 16 16 16 16
30 31 17 17 17 17 17 00

So I can figure out the 15's 16's and 17's and the 00.

Is the 30 just saying FAV?

What does the 31 mean?

Thanks

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:21 pm**

Are you asking about the FAV button as implemented by UEI, or as implemented by an extender writer? Also, the format may have changed from one remote to another, so which remote are you asking about?

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:27 pm**

Keymoves and macros were discussed thoroughly back in the Yahoo days, but I never saw any thing on the FAV keys, or if I did, I ignored it because I didn't have any remotes with a FAV key at the time.

I am getting ready to go into extender-writer-mode to get that 10820N extended and I want to get a include FAV support, but I'm so clueless when it comes to figuring this out on my own.

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:38 pm**

There is a description of the FAV key, from the 15-1994, here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/hack/memory.shtml

When a FAV/SCAN list has been set up, the actual settings also reside in this section. The first byte is '14' (which is the keycode of the fav/scan button), the first nibble of the 2nd byte is the number of bytes in each channel entry, the second nibble of the 2nd byte is the total number of channel entries, and the remaining bytes are the keycodes for the channel entries (when SETUP is used when entering the channel numbers, it shows up as '00' in this list). This list only applies to a single device, the device indicator is at address 01a.

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:29 pm**

So I went to the 15-1994 extender to play with this, and realized that the number of keys allowed was different in the 8811, so that sent me to the RDF where I could see that the entries for the FAV keys differed and that of coruse sent me to the RDF Spec where I read how to make those changes

FavKey
Some remotes perform special “Fav/Scan” processing for a “favorite” button (typically labeled FAV or SCAN). This entry specifies parameters for this button, and should only be present if the remote has this feature.
The FavKey entry is in the form:
FavKey=KeyCode, DevBtnAddr, MaxEntries, EntrySize[, Segregated]
where: KeyCode is the button number assigned to the Fav/Scan button DevBtnAddr is the address of the byte that specifies the device to use MaxEntries is the maximum number of allowable entries.
The optional argument Segregated specifies whether Fav Key macros are stored within the Key Move section or segregated off by itself. If present, Segregated should specify the address where Fav Key macros are to be stored (must be a non-zero value).
For example, the 15-1994's entry looks like this:
FavKey=$14, $01A, 15, 3

This entry specifies that the Fav Key has a button number of $14, that the device type currently assigned to the Fav Key is stored at hex address $01A, and that up to 15 Fav Key macros are supported. Since a Segregated option is not present, Fav Key macros will be stored in the same area as other macros.

Now the next step will be to see how this differs from a 996 FAV setup of the same keys and see if we are storing the FAV tha same way the remote stores them natively.

I'm making progress in my understanding.

Thanks.

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:57 pm**

FavKey cycles thru all the FavKey entries until a key is pressed on the remote to stop the cycling.

FavKey Type is $3x in URC-10820. RDF has this FavKey=$18,$00,10,5.
The $18 is the keycode for the FAV button. $00 means no separate address is needed for the device type. 10 Max Entries. 5 bytes per entry.
For example, 18 30 0A 15 15 15 12 00 16 16 16 12 00 will be stored in the Keymove/Macro area. $18 is FAV button. Top nibble of $30 is 3 which means FavKey type. Bot nibble is device type. $0A(10 bytes) is length of entry and since each entry is a fixed size of 5 bytes, this listing has 2 entries that will be cycled thru. The entries are a 3-digit channel followed by Enter button. Fifth button is listed as 00(not used).

In a MultiMacro, the user presses the button to cycle thru entries. In a FavKey, the remote has a timer that cycles thru until the user presses a button to stop the cycling.

Posted: **Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:23 am**

Thank you BINKY! (Everybody should know that even though I coded and tested many of the JP1.2 extenders, its largly work that Binky did that made my extenders possible)

I understand extenders take the data and process it as a multi-Macro, instead of the timed scan that UEI has them coded as.

So on the JP1.2 type remotes, a standard FAV has fixed length 5 byte entries all run together while on the older JP1 remotes like the 15-1994 each line on the FAV key screen has repeats the header between the scan info?

Also don't some remotes have FAV's and multi-macro built in? I know absolutely nothing about the built in multi-macro and would like to hear more.

Posted: **Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:36 am**

Multi macros are typically built into OEM remotes (like the Millenium4, that sort of remote). When you press the button in question the first time, you get macros1, when you press it a second time you get macro2, etc. The idea being that macro1 might be "1,2,3,ENTER" (ie, the channel number for HBO), macro2 might be "2,4,6,ENTER" (ie, the channel number for Showtime), etc and the button itself might be labeled "Movies".

Posted: **Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:02 pm**

The Robman wrote:Multi macros are typically built into OEM remotes (like the Millenium4, that sort of remote). When you press the button in question the first time, you get macros1, when you press it a second time you get macro2, etc. The idea being that macro1 might be "1,2,3,ENTER" (ie, the channel number for HBO), macro2 might be "2,4,6,ENTER" (ie, the channel number for Showtime), etc and the button itself might be labeled "Movies".

I think I've read about these in that RCA cable replacement remote as well. I don't know how to encode a multi-macro either, but I suspect these might be available in my ATLAS remote too. I've never had a cable STB, so I really don't know how these are supposed to work.

Posted: **Tue Mar 02, 2010 6:15 pm**

Atlas remotes all have multi-macro in them, although none of the extenders do. I've never gone back in to do the work to support the multi, although I would like to.

The FAV key on the JP1.3 extenders behaves like multi-macro. (i.e. it cycles through a sequence of macros, with length specified in the RDF) I've never done anything to this other than port it to make it work. All of the Atlas JP1.3 extender FAV functions are derivatives of Nils' URC-9960 extender

The latest RCA JP1.3 remote also has multi-macro

Posted: **Mon Apr 12, 2010 2:54 pm**

Typically it looks like we've limited the FAV key to be up to 15 , 3 button macros. It doesn't appear that we need to be that restricted when we build the JP1.2 extender.

Since I'm new to FAV's I might not be using FAV's right, but I "think"
I'm finding our tools to be more restrictive than the remote is when it comes to FAVs' and I don't know how to get around it.

Ideally I'd like to use a FAV function to actually pick out my favorite channels. Comcast has foisted off the Thomson DTA box that has no features. I can't edit my channel list. I have no guide. I'd like to set up some keys to do theme based channel changing.

My husband's channels, Speed, Golf,CNN, ESPN, ESPN2, MSNBC .......

My channels, ABC Family, Comedy,Spike, TBS, TNT, USA, Hallmark, Lifetime, LMN, Oxygen, Disney....

Mutual Channels channels. PBS, History, Discovery Channel, Food Network, Travel Channel, HGTV.

But our tools seem to want us to be standing in the way of this type of FAV use.

Posted: **Mon Apr 12, 2010 3:36 pm**

Is there something in the RDF spec, to get IR to allow you to have FAV style headers on more than one device and than one key? I thought I could backdoor it in through the RawData tab, but it keeps switching over to the FAV key.

Posted: **Mon Apr 12, 2010 3:50 pm**

I think you could accomplish this using multiple multi-macro keys, as opposed to multiple fav keys.

Posted: **Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:47 pm**

I can't decipher the RDF spec for multimacros, can someone give me an RDF to look at as an example?

Posted: **Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:44 pm**

I've done some research on the MultiMacro and it looks that won't be the correct course of action as it looks like there would be a different header for each step, but then I could be wrong. Without an example in front of me I don't do all that well interpretting tech-speak. It looks like I might be able to get this done by creating multiple FAV key, loading it into the remote, doing a raw download and then altering the raw data, and then uploading to the remote. This would really solve a huge problem for me.

JP1 Remotes

Anatomy of a FAV key?

Anatomy of a FAV key?