JP1 Remotes

Hi, i have a URC-8810 remote that does not LEARN any signals at all, suddenly it stopped responding, but this thread is not to ask about how to fix it, instead, i want to use my laptop´s IR port and look for an application or SOFTWARE that CAN LEARN AND can give me the EFC,OBC, AND HEX FUNCTIONS OF A LEARNED SIGNAL.

So my question to all the members reading this is:

Is thera a software available for PC users to LEARN signals from any IR remote control that can give me the EFC, OBC, HEX numbers to make my own upgrades?

Best regards and happy 2007

I deleted three of the four copies of the message you posted. We don't appreciate the same question in four different forums.

I'm not sure which is the right forum. This one might be. At least two of your other choices definitely were not.

I don't know of any software that captures IR signals from a PC's built-in IR port. If there is such a thing, you're more likely to find out about it from LIRC experts rather than from JP1 experts. If you find/use LIRC software, you would get an .lirc file rather than JP1 decodes. But several of the experts here know how to interpret .lirc files. If you post an .lirc file, we can tell you what the signals are.

There is simple inexpensive hardware you can build (maybe as little as one component and a DB-25 connector) that you can conect to a PC printer port, then use the CaptureIR software to capture and decode IR signals.

Ok, i get it, my bad, no more multi forum questions!

Anyway, any other experts out there can you help me please ?? still haven´t found a software that does what i´m looking for!

Thnx

jorge garcia wrote:still haven´t found a software that does what i´m looking for!

There isn't any as far as I know. As John said, the LIRC folks might have a better handle on it.

However, if I recall correctly, the bigger problem is that most PC IR ports are not simple IR but rather IRDA which really not useable for things such as remote control. Think about it, if it were that easy, there'd be a ton of software out there to do it. Heck, even Mr. Gates might be trying to sell you it (or bundling it in Windows as another one of those "must have" features.

For a hardware and software solution that will literally cost you pennies, read this post.

As pointed out above, what you ask using the computer's IR port is NOT easy, common, or an area of great expertise in these fora (try a Goggle search for a LIRD forum as suggested above), but CaptureIR (as also mentioned above and described in the link in the first sentence) is trivial to build, and can provide you with very detailed analysis of an IR signal - which somebody in this forum is likely to be able to help turn into Protocol/Device/Subdevice/OBC for you.

Could be. or maybe not.

Im thinking this without any major knowlege of the protocols or frequencies used in IR, but the logic i used is this:

There are Palm pilots, watches, or other such devices that DO LEARN KEYS from any remote you put in front of it, and at the same time these devices connect to the computer´s IR port with no problem at all, for synch, file transfers, etc.

So if this can be done with the simple IR from a palm... why not using the laptop´s own IR port to learn and interpret (obc,efc, hex) any keys from any remote, and avoiding the hassle of the 25 key learning maximum that many URC remotes have.

This way i can easily create my own UPGRADES without the LEARNING keys technique on many JP1 compatible remotes.


Help anyone?

I know of a simple solution for which there is software ready and that costs just $20? That solution is to get another learning remote!

THanks Robman!!

Im willing to spend more than that to implement this solution Rob, its not the money, but what this could help me out.
.
No more learning keys, memory erasing, remotes pointing one to the other, 25 keys maximums to learn etc, etc,

And all this can be true using my laptop´s IR, right away i could see the codes, Learn as many keys as i want from a remote,
This way i could do Upgrades using the IR.exe and REMOTE MASTER to new remotes that come out without having to carry the good old LEARNING remote.


Your suggestion is a start... but still no Software!!

P.S. Thank you Capn Trips and Mark, ill follow your advise and try to contact those LIRD guys.

Thanks

You're not the first person to ask about the IR port on your computer, but as of yet, nobody has written anything that would be useful to a JP1 user (and given that all of us have learning remotes, we don't have the incentive to develop it ourselves).

The LIRC people have got something that captures signals and stores them in a format that we're semi-familiar with, but we don't have any software that will convert a LIRC file into JP1-friendly data, so you'll have to do that yourself by hand, which I'm guessing will be alot more time consuming than all the head-to-head learning that you don't like.

No matter what solution you end up coming up with, you're not going to be able to avoid learning from the original remote one way or another, whether it's using your laptop or another remote.

If money's not the issue, it's just the limited learning capacity of the JP1 remotes, you could always get yourself a Pronto. That's what I had to do in order to capture IR signals before JP1 was invented. I was able to get a good deal on my Pronto, it only cost me $270 which was a bargain compaired to the $400 retail price.

Mark Pierson wrote:However, if I recall correctly, the bigger problem is that most PC IR ports are not simple IR but rather IRDA which really not useable for things such as remote control.

Many years ago I managed to get the detailed documentation on the IRDA chip that my employer was using in some hand held computers. The manufacturer of the IRDA chips didn't want to release the documentation to low volume customers, only to major BIOS writing companies, because they thought only BIOS developers should have that info. One of my coworkers managed to get it despite that.

That IRDA chip had a number of non IRDA modes, in which it could be kludged to send and receive ordinary remote control signals, and I did so.

That was all long ago and all the details would be different now. But I expect IRDA chips still have non IRDA modes that could be used.

I'm actually rather surprised that there aren't easy to find and use software to do this. The Linux folks seem to be fairly good at extracting documentation from chip manufacturers that initially prefer to tell only Microsoft and maybe a few BIOS vendors. I'm sure you also would need to know a bit more than I do about bypassing whatever Windows drivers and features get in the way of your taking over the IRDA subsystem. But many people clearly know how to do that.

I'd bet it is all possible. But I have never had the time for the major investigation project to find out how. As I said before, the most likely freeware group to work on such things is LIRC.

Mark Pierson wrote:Think about it, if it were that easy, there'd be a ton of software out there to do it. Heck, even Mr. Gates might be trying to sell you it (or bundling it in Windows as another one of those "must have" features.

For commercial vendors, I think needing a little extra hardware is a marketing advantage. Various trivial hardware designs with bundled software are available (at outrageous prices) to capture remote signals. If those vendors know how to skip the hardware, they probably wouldn't do it because it reduces what you can reasonably charge and makes it hard to prevent piracy.

jorge garcia wrote:There are Palm pilots, watches, or other such devices that DO LEARN KEYS from any remote you put in front of it, and at the same time these devices connect to the computer´s IR port with no problem at all, for synch, file transfers, etc.

Meaning the people who programmed that did have access to the detailed specs of the IRDA subsystems built into those devices (and how to bypass any OS IRDA software that might be in the way). So they can program them to receive remote control signals. Then they can talk to a PC with correct IRDA (not need to kludge the PC's IRDA support).

jorge garcia wrote:to learn and interpret (obc,efc, hex) any keys from any remote, and avoiding the hassle of the 25 key learning maximum that many URC remotes have.

Exactly what CaptureIR does!

Immediate decodes (protocol, device, obc, efc, etc.) a moment after you release the button, and instantly ready to receive the next. No 25 key limit, not second step (upload and decode results), also large adjustable limit on the max captured signal duration, so you can decode macros and the obscure protocols that are too long for a learning remote to learn.

Yes, it would be better if it used the IRDA port instead of an external IR sensor whose parts cost a few dollars. But I don't have time to research IRDA chips.

cool! that sounds great, i will build the IR prototype and post the results here.

Thank you johnsfine!