I think it as about time somebody says something positive about the PDAWIN software.
I believe that is a great program.
For the price of $15 it turns a PPC into a great remote control.
This program has been getting a bad rap in this forum because of a repeating signal issue,and a limited number of device panel issue.
The truth of the matter is that the repeating signal is a non-issue if you assign these signals to hard buttons.
As for the limited number of devices that will show on the scroll down display that to should be a non-issue.
I believe the number of device screens that will show up on the scroll down screen is in the high 40s.
Along with these 47 or so device screens you can umlimited panels attached to each device.
So if your not smart enough to make this work for system,OH WELL.
It is becoming obvious that what PDAWIN has achieved with their software is quite impressive ,since the others that tried to do the same are not even close .
As for PDAWIN lack of response to e-mails I can only say with the trival complaints I have seen mentioned is this forum I doubt if I would reply to them either.
GREAT WORK PDAWIN.

You have to understand that people come to forums for prob solving or for instructions on how to do stuff. Also many people advise that the more editor related questions be asked in the Pronto forum, so most of the how to questions are asked there and the ones left here tend to be the prob

I'm one of he people actively looking for an alternative to PDAWin, so I guess I'm entitled to respond.

As far as I recall, no one has said that PDAWin is terrible software. I've used it quite happily, warts and all, for the last 12 months. And I agree, for $15 it's great value. But it ain't perfect, and as far as anyone can tell, it is not going to get any better. If the vendor will not respond to forums like this, and polite requests for information from its licensed users (like the ones I've sent), well, I'm sorry but some criticism is inevitable.

It's a competitive world out there, and if someone else is prepared to do the work to make a better product, then good on'em. And if that makes PDAWin wake up and start behaving like a responsible vendor, then even better.

Your right it is a competitive world,and as of right now PDAWIN is kicking the competition butts.

If only it could accurately learn codes and replay them without having to go in and manually edit the hex for each code it would be.

It seems to depend on the equipment you have, it can learn some codes great, but others...no chance. Sorry can't give examples, but I struggled with it for so long to learn basic numbers, on a TV (Toshiba portable)I had, I gave up. But the video (Old panasonic I think) all worked fine

If you have equipment that it works with, great, I you do not, there is no hope since they seem to offer no support.

I think the problem with the repeat code issue is as much one of understanding what a repeat code is. There is a difference between a code that is just transmitted continously when a button is held down, (it just keeps transmitting the same learned sequence over and over again), and the repeat sequence in a hex code, which is the sequence specified in the 4th word in the pre amble.
I have not been able to get PDAWin to learn a repeat code, or use a code created with a different repeat sequence, BUT (I am told) it can repeat a code after it has been learned, by aliasing to a hard button.

So.. it CAN repeat a code aliased to a hard button, BUT CAN'T learn a repeat code sequence or replay them when they are there.

If any one can show me any hex codes that work in PDAWin that have a working repeat sequence different to the One Time sequence, can you please post it so I can have look at it. Would like to see how it has been done.





This message was edited by npaisnel on 04/26/04 04:22.

I can't understand your problems with Toshiba codes. My iPAQ learned them very well with PDAWin. I assume Toshiba isn't using a completely different IR protocol with each model.
What I found though is, that Toshiba TV's have a very poor IR-Receiver. Could it be, that your problem is simply that the TV is not sensitive enough? Try to hold the transmitter close to your TV.
I boosted the sensitivity of my TV by simply changeing the IR receiver chip to a standard receiver for 1¤.
After that the range of the original transmitter and my iPAQ nearly trippled. I know this might be not a solution for everyone but perhaps a hint. Anyway this is not PDAWin's fault.
Just my 2 Ct.

Wilhelm

I could not understand it either. Not a problem anymore though, TV was despatched to the scrap soon after.

I have a ccf that I use at home, that runs on PDAWin fine, I use it all the time. but it took a lot of work to get it to learn any codes correctly and cleanly and get them to work.
In particulat I am thinking about a Sky satelite remote. Some of the numbers would not learn at all, where a Pronto or TR learned them fine. They would constantly give a double tap output. This could be as much an original remote problem as one of PDAWin, some remotes could handle learning and replying the original code, PDAWin could not.
Manually editing to produce clean single burst codes soon had a complete set of working codes, for Sky, but as with your changing of the IR receiver chip in the TV, this might be not a solution for everyone but perhaps a hint.
All I would say about any of the Remote progs for any PDA if you are planning to use ccf files is Be prepared for a load of manual hex editing and a lot time spent doing it to get good reliable codes.
PDAWin and TVR are both great in their native modes, it is just trying to get the ccf support.

None of them are perfect, even the real learning remotes. The big downside with PDAWin is their lack of support, this is where Total Remote is scoring big time

Hi Neil,

I strongly agree with the support issue with PDAWin (or lack of it).
Concerning the SKY-Codes and others I have to say, that I never edited any codes that PDAWin has learned (Except the Volume codes of my AMP). When you train it SKY codes, you have to press the button on the original remote really short, I mean, tap it for not more that a 1/10th of a second. The SKY-remote repeats really quick and since PDAWin is not able to learn the repeat at all, you must produce a single burst so that it can be learned correctly.

Hope this helps

Wilhelm

Yes, fully understand the very quick button press issue to give a clean short code.

I find I manually edit most of the codes learned by either prog. Shorten them down, to minimum length to give a clean code, Tx better and takes less space in the ccf

My comment on all above:
PDAWin is "nearly" very good (with IR extender) Unfortunately it doesn't work with all codes and therefore it just happens that my home theatre works perfectly except for volume, onoff, and some vital buttons of my Sony Amplifier. All other devices work perfectly.

So if you were lucky and PDAWin happens to be compatible with your devices, then its VERY VERY good.
If not, well then it's just basically unusable...
For 15$ I think it's worthwhile taking the risk. You have a big chance of having compatible devices and then it rocks.

Also to be fair, the limitation could be in the PDA which is not a remote control from the beginning, rather than the software. I don't know.
I seldom use my PDA for remoting but I sure will retry when I get myself a new amplifier...