JP1 Remotes

[Queeny]

The problem is that if I add pauses I can almost guarantee that the Harmony will not learn the macro to a button. How long a pause did you have in mind? The fact that the RCA remote must have pauses for the macro to work is of no concern because I won't be using it except to shoot the macro to the Harmony.

The Harmony allows the user to set four different delays: power on, inter-key, input and inter-device. The one of interest here is inter-key, the amount of time a device needs to process a key before the next one is sent. In the case of my TV that defaults to a very long 500 ms (the TiVo is 0 ms). The user can also set repeats from 0 to 5; the default for the TV is 3 (the TiVo defaults to 1).

What I don't know is how this is handled with multiple signals packed into one button. I'm going to have to experiment. But the first job is to have the Harmony learn the macro signals. And for that I think I need to send as fast as possible.

I tried those codes again with the same result - nada. I'm not surprised. To set analog captions you pick one of ten items on a list. To set digital captions you pick one of eight items on a list. You would need 18 codes. The TiVo is different. You set the type of caption you want in a settings menu which presumably is a one time thing. Then you can toggle them on-off on an easily accessed menu. Users have been asking for a discrete but so far it hasn't happened.

[vickyg2003]

[Queeny]

I'm glad you suggested starting with 0.125; that is as low as I could set it. I will be playing around with this for a few days.

No, I can't edit the learned signal. What I need to find out is how the Harmony treats multiple signals on one button with regard to timings.

I have really struck out looking for discrete codes. I even looked at Pronto stuff at remontecentral. All I can come up with are the usual suspects like power and inputs. Those are already in the Harmony database. As I understand it, their database is set up to acquire data from users so that if a discrete code exists and is used by someone, it will find its way into it.

I'll report back when I have some results.

[Queeny]

After several tries, the H1 said that it had detected a key. The signal from the RCA contained no repeats and no pauses. When I sent the signal from the H1 to the TV there was no indication that it responded at all (the TV does not have an LED to let you know a signal has been received). Not even the first command "took".

The signal was sent in 1.8 seconds, almost as fast as when sent from the RCA. That leads me to believe that the H1 does not recognize that it is dealing with multi-buttons and is not inserting the default 3 repeats and 500ms inter-key pauses for this device.

I may try putting a short pause after every key and see if that makes a difference, but it might make it impossible to teach the H1. It just might be that my TV (unlike my TiVo) is too slow witted for this hack to work.

[Queeny]

I have successfully taught my longest macro to a single H1 button and it is operational. Now to move from Alpha to Beta testing.

[vickyg2003]

Congratulations! If you ever get tired of the work, you can always switch over to the RCA remote.
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Remember to provide feedback to let us know how the problem was solved and share your upgrades.

Tip: When creating an upgrade, always include ALL functions from the oem remote, even if you never plan on assigning them to a button. Complete function lists makes an upgrade more helpful to others.

[Queeny]

Here is the good news. Each of the four TV macros are packed onto their own single button on the H1. The final crucial factor was the Pause. I had to insert it after every key, not just a Left-Left type run. That is because the H1 is not inserting its 500ms inter-key delay so I had to do it. I am actually up to 0.3 which IR sets to 313ms. To be safe I may increase this closer to the 500ms that the H1 thinks is needed.

One of the most interesting aspects to this is that with the Pause inserted, which slows down the macro, the H1 detects the signal in raw mode perfectly every time. That means I was completely wrong about there being a time window, and that sending the macro to the H1 as fast as possible is not the key to success.

I may at some point try to utilize the RCA feature of putting multiple macros on a button, which would allow me to turn the caption on-caption off into caption toggle. But for now I will quit while I am ahead.

Now the bad news. I cannot teach a TiVo macro to the H1. Even though the TiVo can process a signal much faster than the TV I added a short Pause after every key and finally cranked it up to the same 0.313 as the TV.

Now here are the differences between the TV and ToVo.

First, I do not have a TiVo upgrade like you provided for the TV so whatever repeats the RCA uses for the TiVo are still in the signal. Maybe those repeats are too fast for the H1 to learn. The DVR setup codes that work are 0740 and 0739.

Second, I set up another Special Protocol with DVR as the target device and all else the same as the one with the TV as the target device. Is this my problem? Do I need a Pause Protocol for the DVR device? It does look like the Pauses get inserted because the macro slows down when sent by the RCA each time I increase the Pause time.

Do you need my current IR setup?

[Queeny]

After the failure of the H1 to learn the PVR macros onto a single button I reassessed my approach. I had been led to believe that speed of transmission was critical to a successful learn. My experience was contrary to that. Because the H1 did not know that the data stream consisted of multiple button presses, it did not insert inter-key delays and I had to insert them in the macros for my slow witted TV. And that resulted in not only a successful learn, but an operating macro. Some, but not all, of the speed gained by the vicky's upgrade was given back by having to add the Pauses in the macro.

However, the quest for the fastest possible macros (by removing repeats) resulted in a non-general solution, one which seemed to require an upgrade for each device. I needed a general solution. So I picked up a used URC-8820B00 for a pittance. I loaded vicky's extender, set up the TV and PVR, did some key moves for the buttons that are not in the setup codebase, entered my macros, put in the lowest possible Pause between repeated buttons and set Macro Delay to 1 (is this a timing loop?). The H1 learned them on the first attempt and executes them significantly faster than the kludged Sequence method I had been using. And that was my goal.

My thanks to all of those who offered suggestions and expended effort on my behalf.

[vickyg2003]

[Queeny]

[vickyg2003]

[stangbat]

How do I get this macro speed up protocol to work with my RCRP05B? I do know how to enter it into IR using the protocols tab, I'm asking if I need to do anything else such as editing my devices so I can use it? I'm really missing the fast macros I have on my extended 8910.
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Erik

[vickyg2003]

[stangbat]

[mdavej]