JP1 Remotes

First of all, please excuse my ignorance. I have been reading as much as possible but have not been able to find anything on this one.

I have a OFA URC-6017 which I believe is the Canadian equivalent to a 6012. I have added the JP1 pins to the board and closed JMP2. I have also added a 8K eeprom (Atmel 24C64N). I have already run testEEPROM.exe - 1815 basic setup address.

After doing quite a bit of reading on extenders, coding them, etc. I would prefer not to use an extender yet. I would prefer to use the remote as if it had a 2K eeprom and do "normal" JP1 programming for now as I already have with my URC-8910. Yes - the obvious - why didn't you buy a 2K eeprom? Eventually, I will play with the extender, but right now it is a little bit too much for me timewise.

Now for the questions. Can I do this? Can I use the 6_806_80 (URC-881x_801x_601x).rdf that is packaged with IR321a.zip and modify addressing to work with the 8K eeprom? Any other suggestions? Am I on crack? Should I just get up and press the button?

thanks in advance,
Brad

With the right RDF you can use the 8K 6017 without the extender. But that doesn't get you around the extra reset steps needed to make a 4K+ eeprom work the first time, nor does it fix any of the issues that prevent most of the long_press_set style programming actions from working right on the remote.

Subject to those restrictions, without an extender you have a remote that can work just like a 2K 6017 but with more upgrade memory.

Thanks for the reply...

Can you shed some more light on the right RDF. I don't have an issue with the extra reset steps. I assume you mean upload, 981 reset, upload again, press power (four led blinks). I am not familiar with the long_press_set issues. Are you saying these are not an issue with the extender.

Am I chasing the wrong path here? I really prefer to do basic JP1 stuff but perhaps I should bite the bullit and deal with the extender. Comments welcome on that one.

tia,
Brad

bb71 wrote:Can you shed some more light on the right RDF.

I forget where in the Yahoo JP1 file area the big6012eeprom.zip file ended up (I think Rob rearranged a couple times since I uploaded it).

That has some instructions that are still relevent and it has many RDF files, one of which is named

6_806_80 (6012 8K$1815).RDF

That might work as is or might need to be upgraded for the changes in RDF format that have occurred since I wrote it (I'm not sure).

I just compared that to a fairly recent copy of
6_806_80 (URC-881x_801x_601x).rdf

Lots of addresses in the General, Settings, Checksums, FixedData, and DeviceButtons sections are different because of the $1815 address and you need the values from 6_806_80 (6012 8K$1815).RDF. The updates in 6_806_80 (URC-881x_801x_601x).rdf seem to be in other sections, such as the new [DeviceTypeAliases] section, so those other sections should come from the newest one.

bb71 wrote:I don't have an issue with the extra reset steps. I assume you mean upload, 981 reset, upload again, press power (four led blinks).

The "press power, four blinks" part is strictly for extender activation. No extender means no special meaning to the first press of power.
The upload / 981 reset / upload again is needed for 4K+ eeproms with or without the extender.

bb71 wrote:I am not familiar with the long_press_set issues. Are you saying these are not an issue with the extender.

With a 2K eeprom and no extender you can change the setup code for a device key without using your JP1 cable by doing a long press of set and then keying in the 4 digit setup code. Most of us wouldn't do that since we're in the habit of doing such things through IR.EXE, but you could. With a 4K+ eeprom, changing a setup code that way won't do exactly the right thing and might cause strange symptoms immediately, or more likely the strange symptoms will occur the next time you change batteries or use JP1. An extender doesn't solve any of that, but it makes it harder to get the remote to recognise the long press of set (you need to deactivate the extender first), so it's less likely that you want to reprogram without JP1 and easier to understand that it may not work. The simple answer is with either a 4K+ eeprom or an extender you should do all the reprogramming via JP1 and none via long press of set.

bb71 wrote:Am I chasing the wrong path here? I really prefer to do basic JP1 stuff but perhaps I should bite the bullit and deal with the extender. Comments welcome on that one.

I think the extender makes a JP1 remote so much better that skipping it is nuts, but I might be biased and the 8K eeprom doesn't actually increase the need for an extender.

I think your last answer just made up my mind. Down the extender path I go. Thanks for your input and quick replies.

Brad