Suggestions on Learning and/or Finding IR Codes?

[matt (support)]

I'm having difficulty both learing IR codes from my Tach and finding IR codes online to use.

As mentioned on this thread the Learn button inside the plugin Action UI didn't work for me. So then tried the OS X version of the iLearn application. It would interpret the codes and show them, but if I then tried to send that IR code (either from Cynical Caché or the iLearn application itself) the A/V equipment ignored it. Note that when pasting the code into the action I assumed I should use the generic tag format like this:

Code: Select all

<generic:0000 0067 0000 0022 ...

correct?

Next, I tried to find IR codes online. Yikes! What a mess. RemoteCentral.com has lots of codes but not as many in the generic pronto hex format. There are also remote specific files that include button layouts and the codes, but I'm not sure if there is a Mac utility to easily extract out the codes.

Note, however, that I did find some IR codes online and they did work from Cynical Caché. So I know that the send IR action does indeed work and I have my iTach setup and wired correctly. I'm just having difficulty because I cannot get my iTach to learn via Cynical Caché or the iLearn app, and I'm not having much luck finding codes online.

Does anyone have any tips on an easy way to learn IR codes from a Mac (with iTach or GC-100 + IR learner)? Maybe I'm just doing something incorrectly, although I would expect iLearn's Test button to be able to send out the IR code it just received successfully.

Does anyone have any good Web resources for IR codes or Mac utilities for converting different formats? RemoteCentral seems to be the most popular, but I was surprised how many IR codes are missing for the equipment I have. Some of the IR code files are really stripped down any only include a dozen or so commands, of course none of which are the ones I'm seeking.

Does anyone have any tips on an easy way to learn IR codes from a Mac (with iTach or GC-100 + IR learner)? Maybe I'm just doing something incorrectly, although I would expect iLearn's Test button to be able to send out the IR code it just received successfully.

I would recommend getting a GC-IRL and using that for reading codes off remotes. It works very well (for me, at least ). The GC-IRL plugs into any serial port, and my plugin supports it.

I'm not sure why you're having that much trouble with the iTach learner. I find it fiddly, but if I (literally) jam the emitter of the remote onto the pinhole and hold down the remote button, it does learn okay... most of the time. Nothing like the GC-IRL, where I can comfortably hold it ten inches away and just tap the button, but still... it's not quite that unusable for me.

Does anyone have any good Web resources for IR codes or Mac utilities for converting different formats? RemoteCentral seems to be the most popular, but I was surprised how many IR codes are missing for the equipment I have. Some of the IR code files are really stripped down any only include a dozen or so commands, of course none of which are the ones I'm seeking.

It's even worse: many consumer devices respond to useful IR codes that your remote cannot send. These are called "discrete codes", and they usually do things like "switch to input 3" (instead of "switch to next input") that make automation much easier. The only way to learn those discrete codes is either to find them on some website, or to exhaustively discover the by scanning the device, which is dangerous because some discrete codes actually crash the poor little receiver brains in ways that are hard to reset.

One important thing to know: outside of the "generic" universe (where we just record modulation streams because we don't understand them), there are actually sort-of standards for encoding bits. That's what <NEC:7f/23ba> means; it's NEC-encoding with device code 0x7f and function code 0x23ba. That reduces the complexity space a lot. But not nearly enough to make this easy...

Welcome to the wacky world of consumer IR. It's a mess.
-- perry

[matt (support)]

The problem I'm having with the iTach isn't the pinhole, but rather a python TypeError whenever I try to teach it a code.

Welcome to the wacky world of consumer IR. It's a mess.

I was afraid you might say that.

[jay (support)]

Sigh. I hope the CE vendors accelerate their WiFi plans and document the APIs.

Probably too much to ask for.

Does anyone have a IR code that works with Cynical Cache so that I can see it work without an error. I am using iLearn to capture codes with no luck of them working in the plugin.

[matt (support)]

This one works for me:

Code: Select all

<generic:0000 0067 0066 0000 0153 00a9 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 03f3 0153 00a9 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 03f3 0153 00a9 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003f 0016 003f 0016 003f>

GREAT THanks! I did not know about the brackets, or the generic portion. Is it always generic?
At least now I HAVE A POINT TO WORK FROM.

Thanks!

[matt (support)]

I don't believe it is always generic -- above Perry said:

One important thing to know: outside of the "generic" universe (where we just record modulation streams because we don't understand them), there are actually sort-of standards for encoding bits. That's what <NEC:7f/23ba> means; it's NEC-encoding with device code 0x7f and function code 0x23ba. That reduces the complexity space a lot. But not nearly enough to make this easy...