Hey guys,

I'm having a bit of a challenge getting the the Ramp and Repeat functionality working with RS232 to H20 and HR20 D* receivers. I'm wanting to do this on "up", "down", "chnl up" and "chnl down". I've got the "devices" converted to smart macros, mapped to the appropriate hand held remote buttons and all commands work fine via rs232. I've gone into the "connected data" section and clicked the "repeat while button is pressed" option. And I've played with various settings of Ramp start and Ramp speed. No matter what I do, when this is enabled it ALWAYS executes twice at a minimum, even if I only press and immediately release the remote button (normal button press). The only thing I've been able to do is make it repeat sooner and/or faster and/or more repeats. The goal is to have it execute once on a press and release and repeat at a controlled speed when pressed and held.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug or limitation?

Thanks in advance for any help on this....

Sincerely, Roger

I have found the same thing. Two commands get sent.

I also did not like the fact that without a ramp and repeat, you can't send the same button command rapidly one after the other. For instance, you might want to hit the skip forward button 4 times in a row to skip a 2min commercial break. But using the RS-232/USB interface, you can't send those commands rapidly. Only 1 or 2 of the 4 presses get noticed.

So I ended up putting an IR emiiter on the HR20, and using the IR emitter for up/down/left/right/ch+/ch-/skip forward/skip back. I use RS-232/USB for the other commands.

If anyone knows of a way to do this properly via RS-232, I'm all ears.

I hear ya ptrubey, that's probably what I'll end up doing as well. This single issue is going to cause me to go from one MSC400 to two for this particular job. I guess that's ok from URC's perspective, but not from mine or my customer's perspective. : )

I'm all ears as well for anyone who might have figured out how to make this work correctly?

Something I wasn't sure about on the MSC-400 - if you use ports 9-12 for serial, for example, can you use ports 7 and 8 for IR? Or does the entire 7-12 bank need to be either serial or IR?

did you try to vary the number of times the trigger command is sent from the remote itself (just like you change the number of repeats int he macro window of the editor)? I've found that works frequently.

You can use ports 7 & 8 for IR if you're using 9-12 for 232. It's all in how you set up the individual devices.

KC....my situation is with a MX-810 and to my knowledge, this is not configurable on the 810. Maybe this is the problem...????

Oohh..Yeah. Not sure there. I don't deal with the 810 because of the lack of ability in the editing software. It could be the problem.

I just ran into the same issue... as soon as you check the 'repeat while button is pressed' for an rs232 command, it's sent twice when you press the remote button even briefly, regarless of the ramp start value. I emailed Mike at surfremote about it, but I suspect a bug in the software.

Btw, the number of times the trigger command is sent from the remote can be changed on the MX-900, but shouldn't. All macro triggers are sent 3 times, but for reliability purposes only - it doesn't have anything to do with how many times the macro will be executed by the MSC-400.

Yeah, I'm also seeing this with a 980 now, so it's not the remote per say.....

.....post deleted by OP due to brain-fart....

Has ANYONE gotten the RS232 ramp function to work with the MSC-400? If not, it's something you'd think URC would have to fix! What am I missing here?

DaveWI,

I hear ya sir.... It works fine for volume ramping up/down. I've done this successfully with MX-810s and MX-980s. What I still have not gotten to work was to use this feature for things like DirecTV guides and channel up/downs whereby you would want ramp and repeat when pressed and held, but only single executions when NOT pressed and held. No matter how I tune the ramp speed and start timing, it ALWAYS executes at least twice with a single, quick tap of the remote button (not pressed and held) which doesn't fly with Guides and channel up/downs obviously.

I'm with ya....I would love for URC to fix this. I've raised this issue to URC via all means I know of and have not really gotten anywhere. An acknowledgment of the issue and status update would be much appreciated URC.

Sincerely...

This problem has been around for a while and they are aware of it. I reported it to URC some time ago, I think when MSC-400 was still beta testing. A quick solution is to have two trigger macros one with repeat and one without. Use a press and hold button macro on the remote. Use the trigger without the repeat for the single press command and the trigger with the repeat for the press and hold.

Hope this helps.

Bob

Thanks DS - interestingly enough I called URC this morning and the guy denied that it had been reported to them (or to be fair, maybe he was just unaware of it). I will follow up with email. If you guys want to post the exact device(s) for which the ramp is an issue (mine is a Lumagen RadianceXD), I will include that in my email.

Thanks Bob, I'll try that, that seems like a good workaround. Not that URC shouldn't fix the issue, but in the meantime if it works it'll have to do.