I may be skirting right on the edge of the forum rules here, so sincere apologies in advance if this is the case.

I have been looking for some way of controlling a SKY HD box via an RFX9600 for a while now and have sadly found that the box has no known RS-232 protocol so have been stuck with using the IR Blasters. I found this nifty device that connects to an RS-232 port on the RFX9600 and the RF2 (powered) port on the SKY HD (or even SKY or SKY+) box. It has it's own RS-232 protocol which it translates into IR codes which it transfers to the SKY Box via the RF socket (using the same theory as SKY's i-Link remote extender).

I have found it to be much more responsive and reliable than using either the TSU9600 directly or via the RFX9600 using IR. I thought that some of you out there may be interested. Yes, it does mean another 'device' in the chain, but it is very small and it draws power from the SKY RF2 port, so no transformer is needed.

It comes as standard with the ability to control 2 separate SKY Boxes, but apparently they will custom build one to control any number of boxes.

Here's the link if anyone is interested;

[Link: dusky-control.com]

Again apologies if I have broken the forum rules, but I thought it useful to share a solution to a problem I have been trying to solve for a while now.

Regards
Brian.

Brian, I've got the same hardware as you, but when I sent the command my Sky HD box doesn't react, although the light blinks on the Sky/RS232 interface.

I'm wondering if I'm keying in the RS232 commands correctly. e.g. for the 'Sky' button command I've tried using the ASCI code:
0x31 0x0C 0x80

I've also tried this as a HEX code:
310C80

But neither of these approches works. What format are you using for the code?

Marcus,

I have one of these too and I think its great.

You should be using the hex code. One think worth checking is that you have the RF cable connected to the output labled 2 on the RS232 controller box. If it is connected to RF output 1 you need to change the command to 30 0C 80.

Hope this helps.

How much do these SkyHD RS232 things cost? I can't see a price on the web site.

I've got mine working now (sort of) - the outputs were labelled the wrong way round!

Trouble is, it's not working well at all for me, even though my settings seem to be identical to Brian's. Basically, when I send a command it gets repeated three times, so moving the menu cursor up just one line is impossible. I need to check with the supplier.

I think mine was something like £80, but it's a dual output one with pass-through.

Its worth checking you are running the latest firmware on remote and the extender. I think early versions had problems with repeats.

As for the actual settings, I have my delay before repeats set at 150ms on Sky commands which seems to work ok for me.

Marcus,

Did you get this working in the end? Been wracking my brains trying to think what else might be wrong. Might be useful to post your solution - if you had one!

Regards
Brian.

Yes - I fixed it tonight. Basically, after doing some research I tried updating the firmware in the remote and that cured the problem. You need to use a 'delay between repeats' of about 300ms though.

I also had a similar problem with controlling volume on a Pioneer TV via RS232 (irrespective of how long I pressed the vol+ control, it went up for 2 seconds). Apparently the original TSU9600 firmware didn't handle RS232 repeats correctly.

I don't understand why Phillips are still installing the old defective firmware on new Prontos, because the current version was released in November 2006...

So it's working fine now. However, I'm still not convinced that the RS232 control necessarily gives any real improvement over the RFX9600 IR blaster output. When you use the cursor to scroll through the EPG, it moves more slowly using RS232 - that might be seen as an advantage because it makes it easier to see what you're scrolling through. I guess RS232 also allows for tidier wiring.

Thanks for your assistance with this Brian!

No problem - glad you got it sorted!

I tend to be an RS232 junkie - if I can, I will!

Regards
Brian.