JP1 Remotes

Hi folks,

I'm fairly new to JP1 programming but, being something of a hacker, I've jumped right in and figured out the basics. So, on to the fun bit - I started playing with the RCU810 extender variant 2. Interesting stuff - I really like it. The downside is that half of my components are JVC and the macros are executing too quickly for the JVC devices (Pioneer and Motorola are working fine).

I've read John Fine's instructions. He suggests using the device combiner protocol when only a key or two needs tweaking, or modifying the protocol to add a duration and create a complete device upgrade using the new protocol. It looks like one poster has already solved the latter problem - I see that there is a modified JVC protocol on the Yahoo JP1 file depot that increases the minimum keypress duration.

Ideally, I'd like to tweak the duration in the extender so that I don't have to create upgrades for all of my JVC devices (the stock device definitions plus some key moves works very well for two of three of my JVC components). However, it isn't obvious to me how I go about changing the extender's assembly code to increase the key duration in the macros.

Any suggestions? Thanks, Jonathan

You could use the pause protocol TV/1104 and introduce a pause as a step in the macro.

IIRC, if you upload the modified JVC protocol upgrade and assign it Protocol ID 0034 (the same PID as the built in JVC), then any JVC device will use that protocol rather than the one built in. My guess is that it is a minimum repeat problem. It is a simple protocol and usually that it is <40 bytes. Give it a try, the worst you do is remove it if it doesn't work.

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't realize that I can override a builtin protocol with a user-defined one by using the same protocol ID. I'll give that a try shortly. I'll also try the pause protocol if the new JVC protocol doesn't work but I suspect that the problem lies in the short duration and not the short gap. I'll report back after some experimenting. Thanks, Jonathan

I tried a few things and discovered the following.... on the RCU810, it looks like overriding a builtin protocol (installing a custom protocol with the same protocol ID as an existing protocol) only works for device upgrades and not builtin device definitions. But, the good news is that the modified JVC protocol does solve the minimum repeat problem inside macros when using the extender. And, as I'm discovering, creating device upgrades isn't quite as labor-intensive as I initially thought since I've found device definitions that are fairly close to my components. So, I think I'll just go ahead and create upgrades for my other two components as well.

I'm still curious to know how this could be solved in the extender but at least I've got a solution now. Thanks for the input!

jlayes wrote: on the RCU810, it looks like overriding a builtin protocol (installing a custom protocol with the same protocol ID as an existing protocol) only works for device upgrades and not builtin device definitions.

It acts that way on all models.

I think someone else wrote an extender that managed the duration issue in macros itself rather than leaving it to the protocol. I forget how he made that work. I looked into doing something similar in my design of extender and decided it was harder than it was worth.

Different extender designs replace different parts of the remote's built-in processing, so that something like duration control in macros cannot be done the same way from one extender design to another.

Several extenders use the basic design of my 6012 extender and I think that's the one for which I concluded duration control in the extender was too hard. The RCU810 extender design is older and I don't remember such details.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad that I wasn't totally off base in my earlier observations. After a few hours of capturing commands and moving buttons around, I've got device upgrades built for the RCU810 extender so that it mimics every function on all of my AV remotes. I'll go on the hunt later today to find a protocol for my air conditioner and that should complete my programming.

Thanks for the help, everyone. Jonathan