HouseBot

I've been playing with the USB-UIRT to try to kick some tasks off if a remote button is pressed, and am having a problem that sparks a couple of questions. I have a remote (my primary remote - for a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD) that has a button I'd like to teach to HB, but it WILL NOT learn to recognize the buttons. When I do the learning, it takes a couple of minutes to get through the sampling, and the remote has to be held perfectly still to get a good sample.

Questions:

- The above only happens with 1 remote (of course, the one I need to learn from) - The others seem to work fine. Why would this be? Yes, I have fresh batteries in the remote that doesn't work....

- I can probably find a Pronto code for what I want to do, but that won't help the recognition of the button press, will it?

Thanks, and Happy New Year!!

Can you 'learn' any of the other buttons on that remote? If not, it may be a frequency issue. I had a remote (RCA DirecTV Sat receiver) that I had to diddle with, trying different frequencies until I found one that worked reliably. But if other buttons can be learned, then your idea of hunting the Pronto code would be my suggested next step.

kbosscawen wrote:...- I can probably find a Pronto code for what I want to do, but that won't help the recognition of the button press, will it?

It may still work for you. I'm pretty sure the circuitry used for learning is different than that for just receiving. That's why you have to hold the remote so close during learning, but not for just receiving.

I tried the common remote frequencies, including the one that RemoteCentral reports the SA3800HD uses (56khz). No luck. I also tried the Pronto code - again, no luck.

Some clarification, maybe. Learning the IR doesn't seem to be a problem - It's really recognizing it that is the problem. When I try to learn the button I get the following:

IR data received. Frequency = 57328
IR data received. Frequency = 57342
IR data received. Frequency = 57334
IR data received. Frequency = 57340
IR data received. Frequency = 57361
IR data received. Frequency = 57319
IR data received. Frequency = 57370
IR data received. Frequency = 57338
IR data received. Frequency = 57338
Stage 1 learned successfully. Data = 0000 0048 0000 0018 00BF 00BF 002F 0093 002F 0092 002F 0031 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0093 002F 0030 002F 0031 002F 0092 002F 0030 002F 0031 002F 0030 002F 0030 002F 0030 002F 0030 002F 0030 002F 0030 0030 0885
Beginning sampling for IR reception detection.

Stage 1 learning is VERY quick, but the Beginning of the Sampling takes a really long time, and doesn't seem to work even if HB gets a good sample.

What is HB trying to do when it gets to the "sampling" stage? Is there a reason that stage would be more persnickety than Stage 1 learning?

Stage 1 is the process of learning the code needed for SENDING. If you check the 'AND RECEIVING' checkbox before learning, you will move on to stage 2 which is the sampling for the receiving. What this does is just receives the codes using the normal receive circuit (not the learning circuit that is used in stage 1). It receives about 10 IR codes and then runs through them and finds one that looks the closes to the other 9 and uses it as the one to use as the matching code for the IR reception. It has to be an exact match, so if the received codes are not very consistent, it may not be able to match it well.

You may be better off asking more remote specific questions over at the USB UIRT forms.

Maybe a bit off topic, but here is a nice one to for not being able to learn a remote.

I had a remote from a Panasonic DVB-C unit and that remote sends the codes only once for a very short time. I wanted to learn these codes into my Onkyo Receivers RC but that didn't work. The codes were sent only once and for a very short time. So I figured I will press the button a number of times but that didn't work also. So I learned the codes using HouseBot and the UIRT which did work. I set the repeat to three which was long enough for the Onlyo remote to learn them from HouseBot. But than when pressing button 1 for channel 1, I got channel 111 because the code sample consisted of three times the same code.

Another thing I got with my Hauppauge PVR250 remote is that each button has two codes. Press it once and you get code X and press it again you get code Y. Than press it again and code X is sent again. So after learning all the buttons using the UIRT, all only worked half of the times.

After these two encounters I figured that IR can be tricky to deal with. Not to mention any B&O equipment..

We solved our issue on why certain channels would not pick up certain signals for the IR codes. Part of it was the distance between the remote and USB-UIRT and plus it is picky with some buttons. We raised the repeat to four and had to do it 5-6 times at a distance of around 1-2-3 inches untill it learned all the code...Everything is good.