Anyone run into one of these?

I can't get it to respond to commands from a MX900/MRF260. It will only work via direct line of sight IR so far.

The rest of the system works just fine via the remote and base....

Can you successfully control other devices via that 350? Can you verify (using a phone/pad camera) that Cable Box commands are being emitted?

Edit: sorry for my typo -- the above should be "260", not "350".

WE are starting to see a lot of remotes that are RC-MM based.
this format is not really happy with our types of products.


Philips RC-MM Protocol

RC-MM was defined by Philips to be a multi-media IR protocol to be used in wireless keyboards, mice and game pads. For these purposes the commands had to be short and have low power requirements.
Whether the protocol is actually used for these purposes today is unknown to me. What I do know is that some Nokia digital satellite receivers used the protocol (9800 series).
Features

12 bits or 24 bits per message.
Pulse position coding, sending 2 bits per IR pulse.
Carrier frequency of 36kHz.
Message time ranges from 3.5 to 6.5 ms, depending on data content.
Repetition time 28 ms (36 messages per second).
Manufacturer Philips.

Transmission timing

RC-MM Timing

In this diagram you see the most important transmission times. The message time is the total time of a message, counting form the beginning of the first pulse until the end of the last pulse of the message. This time can be 3.5 to 6.5 ms, depending on the data content and protocol used.
The signal free time is the time in which no signal may be sent to avoid confusion with foreign protocols on the receiver's side. Philips recommends 1 ms for normal use, or 3.36 ms when used together with RC-5 and RC-6 signals. Since you can never tell whether a user has other remote controls in use together with an RC-MM controlled device I would recommend always to use a signal free time of 3.36 ms.
The frame time is the sum of the message time and the signal free time, which can add up to just about 10 ms per message.
Finally the repetition time is the recommended repetition time of 27.778 ms, which allows 36 messages per second. This is only a recommendation and is mainly introduced to allow other devices to send their commands during the dead times.

No provision is made for data collisions between two or more remote controls! This means that there is no guarantee that the messages get across.
Modulation

RC-MM Modulation

With this protocol a 36 kHz carrier frequency is used to transmit the pulses. This helps to increase the noise immunity at the receiver side and at the same time it reduces power dissipated by the transmitter LED. The recommended duty cycle of the pulses is 1:3 or 1:4.
Each message is preceded by a header pulse with the duration of 416.7µs (15 pulses of the carrier), followed by a space of 277.8µs (10 periods of the carrier). This header is followed by 12 or 24 bits of data.
By changing the distance between the pulses two bits of data are encoded per pulse. Below you find a table with the encoding times.
DataMarkSpace
0 0166.7µs (6 cycles)277.8µs (10 cycles)
0 1166.7µs (6 cycles)444.4µs (16 cycles)
1 0166.7µs (6 cycles)611.1µs (22 cycles)
1 1166.7µs (6 cycles)777.8µs (28 cycles)
Protocol

RC-MM comes in 3 different flavours, called modes. Each mode is intended for a particular purpose and differs mainly in the number of bits which can be used by the application. All data is sent with MSB first.
12-bit Mode

RC-MM 12-bit

The 12 bit mode is the basic mode, and allows for 2 address bits and 8 data bits per device family. There are 3 different device families defined: keyboard, mouse and game pad.
Mode bitsDevice Type
0 0Extended mode
0 1Mouse mode
1 0Keyboard mode
1 1Game pad mode

The 2 address bits provide for a way to use more than 1 device simultaneously. The data bits are the actual payload data.
24-bit Mode

RC-MM 24-bits

The 24 bit mode, also know as extended mode, allows more data to be transmitted per message. For instance for multi-lingual keyboards or a high resolution mouse.
Mode bitsDevice Type
0 0 0 0OEM mode
0 0 0 1Extended Mouse mode
0 0 1 0Extended Keyboard mode
0 0 1 1Extended Game pad mode
OEM Mode

RC-MM OEM

In the OEM mode the first 6 bits are always 0 0 0 0 1 1. The next 6 bits are the customer ID (OEM manufacturer). My observation showed that Nokia used the code 1 0 0 0 0 0 for their 9800 series digital satellite receivers.
Finally the last 12 bits are the actual pay load data.

MRF260 rather than MRF350. Not that it matters.

Yes, I've verified the commands ARE being sent, captured by the base, and emitted.


I can use either the OEM remote, or the MX900 remote line of sight, yet this cable box will not accept the commands via the emitter, and as I said previously, all the other devices do.

I remember years ago, having to use a Russound IR Remodulator 56K with cable boxes in order to get them to work. I wonder...


Brent:

You lost me way back in that technical "jibberish", and didn't really give me a possible way out of my dilemma. Are you just being mean to the old guy?

I'm wondering could it be these are like the Arris units that would get overload with IR and then not work?

Which box model number?

I would suspect a wonky cable box. We do Control4 and have Soextrum in this area. Lots of Samsung boxes with nary an issue. It could be the Samsung box with the IR receiver down low on the front of the box.

Could be an area issue. They did an update and killed two models of samsung boxes. Techs were swapping them for not responding to control, reboot every few hours and wrong time displayed on front.
I suspect your issue is not related.

The short of it.
Old style IR remotes may not work with new style IR products. (sigh).

We have had success using the blaster when the emitter wouldn't work.

There, was that so hard? Ya just have to remove the propeller hat now and then...LOL





Going to give the recommended blaster method a try. Who knows, maybe that will work.

Probably going to upgrade the client from the 11 year old MX900 to a MX990 in the process.

Ive got a customer in Columbia that has some of the samsung boxes. Im controlling them with Elan, with flashers on the front. You just have to find the right spot. Spectrum is too cheap and antiquated to move to the remotes like Brent is talking about. They will switch to those when everyone else is using mental telepathy.

The RC-MM remote is giving us hell in Texas Spectrum land.
We have had to redesign our IR receiver to work with it.

Do you mean this: Ethereal CS-IRKIT

Not that it would help, since I need the RF remote to control the box, since it gets used outside n the patio...


Had a thought that maybe I'll try using the Abus IR for the patio. Have used it before with good success. Other than the bright sunny days though....LOL

In our area Spectrum is still using the same boxes as they did when they were Time Warner. If that's your case as well make sure your IR flasher is plugged all the way in (I've had issues in the past getting the emitter to plug all the way in to the MRF260 and had to get tough with it), and make sure you don't have some of the old URC emitters that wouldn't actually flash through the plastic material on the equipment side (either try an emitter you know came from a new unit or remove the plastic from the diode).