I have been working with a TSU9600 for about a month and I am ready to program a design. I have a few codes for each device that I had to "Learn" the IR Code. I decided to look over the learned code to clean them up. In this process I decided to look at the codes from the Philips database codes.

After unziping the xcf and looking in the ConfigEdit.xml I found the learned codes a long stream codes of hex digits rather than the Pronto codes I expected. I assume these codes are in the "RAW learned" format. The device I am looking at is a Sony TV. The codes I learned are the standard Pronto format for Sony remotes. I can easily "clean" up the codes that I learned.

The Philips database codes are MUCH longer than the codes that I learned. My question is which codes are more efficient, I would expect that the shorter learned codes are better once cleaned up?

This kind of discourages me about the Philips database. It is fairly obvious that not anyone can add to the Philips database, because that have not given the option to the normal user.

What is other's experience.

Hi Bob!

I have no experience with IR codes. What do you mean when you talk about cleaning up your learned codes?

I have big problems with my Pioneer DVR 540HX. I had to learn the codes because I couldn't find appropriate ones. All codes work fine when testing them with my TSU9400. But if I send the IR codes via the RFX9400 extender nothing happens. So I am very interested in "cleaning up" the codes or anything that helps me putting my extender to work.

Some background info: I have no network problems. The extender works fine with my AV receiver and my TV. I also use learned codes for my AV receiver. When I try to control my DVR I get no error messages and the extender's busy sign flashes for a second as it is supposed to.

I'm happy for any info!

To all, if I misquote anything please comment and correct. That said, Over the last 4 to 5 years I have been reading the forum on this site and it has given me much information. About 6 months ago I purchased a TSU9600 and just started as a member.

There are many notes on the site about Clean and Dirty codes. From what I understand a "Clean" code matches the manufactures specifications, and was "most likely" generated by a computer. When a code is "Learned" my a remote it "resembles" or not in some cases, the RS pulses from another remote. There is documents on this site giving hints about the best environment to do the learning in, dark room, etc. These codes are "usually" not the same as clean codes.

For example, if the Sony Clean Code was (in pronto format) ….0030 0018 0018 0018…. A dirty code could be …0031 0019 0018 0019… The difference in the dirty to clean codes Is not very much and the dirty codes should still work. The more then numbers are off from the clean code the more difficult the reception could be. I have learned quite a bit about the Sony code format and feel fairly confident about "Cleaning" up a Sony code. There also some utilitys on this site that can generate clean codes, but you must know what codes you want. (read, learn, repeat.)

The Sony codes on Philips Database (while hidden from view) are not always in a Pronto format, some are a long string of hex characters. I think these are the pep Raw Format, but I am not sure. These strings are much longer than a string of Sony codes in the Pronto format. Leading me to question which is a better code.
Have you read the document about recommendations on "Learning" codes. My objected is always have the best codes you can get and the remote will work the best. Look at the codes you have learned with your remote. Pep will show you them in the "My Database". If the codes look to have a dissimilar format (length, dissimilar codes, etc.) it could be a bad learn.

Try learning the same button several times (different names) and compare the learned code. See how close the codes look. It could give you a start.

Good luck.

Many years ago I placed a paper which is still in the files forum on Pronto HEX format. I just updated my web site (www.the-gordons.net) to have three monographs packed into an archive all of which relate to IR and the Philips pronto. I suggest you look them over. One of them is the original paper, one discusses IR to x10 conversion, and the newest is called IR 101 and is a primer on IR theory and practical use.

If you can not find them on the web site, you probably would not be able to understand them (;-).

Thanks!

Just a note on learned codes on the 9600. If you get a different code each time you learn, it is quite likely you are not pointing at the learning eye. The 9600 is very sensitive to how close you point at the eye. It is actually located on the bottom corner - not the centre.

I'm not an expert by any stretch (I got my first pronto a few months ago) but in my limited experience the best thing to do is get the ir codes directly from the manufactuer's web site and enter them directly into your MyData base. Learned codes are full of extraneous stuff and the Philips database is not that easy to use (eg generic devices and you can't tell which codes are in the device until you open it up) and the codes don't always work. I was surprised at how many companies put those ir codes on their web site although it is not always easy to find them.

I would suspect either an ir routing error in the program or a problem with the IR emitter placement on the Pioneer unit if your codes are working ok using the remote sending normal IR. Also, for anyone with database code concerns, be sure and check out the new 3rd party ir database from only 1 remote that can be downloaded from the pronto website. Great database and more codes to come from these guys. Located under downloads on the pronto.philips.com site.

Just one more point Bob, I would not consider a difference in burst pair timing (on/off times) of one clock time to be "dirty" (0018 vis 0019, 0030 vs 0031) the basic unit of timing in the Sony IR world is 600 microseconds with a timing of 2:1 or 1:1 between on vs off. (0x18= 24 decimal and 0x30=48 decimal) They actually represent the number of ticks or cycles of the IR frequency that is being flashed. In the Sony world IIRC this is 40khz or a cycle time of 25 microseconds. . Interested parties can do the math to verify. Most IR receivers will accept at least a 10% variant in timing, some as high as 25%.

Dirty is when really off values appear, or there are extraneous or extra bursts after or befor the message. If these extraneous or erroneous bursts appear inside the message the message will not be properly decoded by the receiver.