I've been lurking on this site for some time planning my first move into a good remote control. I first was impressed by the Pronto due to how much you can customize using the PC software. I was almost ready to purchase the Pronto when the MX-1000 came along. I immediately liked the idea of more hard buttons, including the joystick control. I've been reading the reviews and comments in the forums to determine if this will satisfy my needs. One item has come up several times, but not really addressed - discrete codes.

I can't imagine not being able to assign discrete codes (i.e. TV on, TV off, TV video 1, ect..) to the macros in the remote. Without this, the person using the remote have to know how the system is setup and how to get to each function. I want everyone who wants to use the system to be able to, say, turn on the TV, receiver, and DVD player and setup all the video and audio regardless of what they were doing before (i.e. listening to a CD). To me the only way to do this is by using discrete codes.

So, the question is, can I use discrete codes with the MX-1000? If so, where can I get these codes for my system (can I use the ones published on this site for the Pronto)?

Thanks.

Currently, no. You'd need to have another remote to learn them off of. As the software develops? Maybe... the TheaterTouch has a Pronto -> T2 hex converter, so maybe something will be developed for the MX-1000.

Well, I finally got my remote and have begun to decode the learned program files (*.LDT). This will take a long time at the rate I'm going, but it looks pretty straight forward.

As usual, I'm trying to document what I discover and will share with anyone who asks. Since this is my first attempt at this sort of business, I'm interested in any pointers from those who know more about discrete codes.

Jason, did you make any progress on the LDT files? I just want to make sure that my uploaded file at least has codes for the right number of keys, in case I ever need to restore from it. I do notice there is more data in it after I learned 11 devices than after I learned 5 devices, and at least the file is readable. Since I have never gotten an operating program upload to copy all the data correctly, I am skeptical. (The operating program when uploaded contains actual readable source code -looks like Visual Basic - right in the middle of an otherwise binary file)

Yes, I worked through most of the weekend (much to my wife's dismay...) and I've managed to figure out the codes for the devices (C0,C1,C2...,CB), the hard buttons and soft button numbering assignments.

The basic format of the learned commands is:


For example
C6073 5F23232345565324234235345435345435435345435

Would be a learned command for SAT (C6) Play hard button (073). Hard buttons are page 0...

C6173 5F23232345565324234235345435345435435345435

Would be a learned command for SAT (C6) Page 1 button row 3 button 1. Soft buttons are numbered from left to right starting at the top left button and ending at the bottom right. They are number 13,23,33,...,A3,B3.

(I'm at work so I don't remember what buttons these correspond to..., nor is the IR code above a real IR code..so the data examples above are just examples...)

It's possible the significance of the number 3 is escaping me, since I've only seen it change once (C6112).

I've done tests with moving the buttons around by a few pixels to see if those changes are reflected in the LDT file, but they have not.

I've also not been able to detect any macros in the LDT file (at least not yet). Macros seem to be stored in the operating program, which makes sense since macros are just a series of learned commands. So, if I could ever upload the operating program, we should theoretically be able view/modify the macros.

Addressing is a slight mystery as well. It seems the first row of devices (AUDIO, TUNER, CD) all appear at the very beginning of the LDT file. The second row shows up ~65000, third row at ~131000 and the fourth row at ~192000. These do not land on exact 32K, 64K, 128K boundaries. Maybe they spaced them apart to provide room for each device, but I'm not sure what would happen if the section filled up.

I too have never been able to get an operating program upload to work on Win98, it seems like the timing is off by a few seconds (the program isn't ready for the remote) even though I've followed their instructions to the letter.

I have had significantly less success on Win2k with uploads/downloads (possibly none, I can't remember...). I also noticed that the interface actually looks different on my Win2k systems than it does on Win98. The graphical representation of the remote on Win2k isn't using solid black for lines, but more of a halftone grey.

I've also tried to move the time and date text, while the changes show up in PC program, when they are uploaded to the remote, the time and date stay in the top middle of the screen. I still have some more testing to do to see if I can get them to move.

One other thing I'm planning on doing is now seeing how the preprogrammed codes are reflected, if at all, in the LDT file, I'd also like to see if I can correlate the LDT to the PDT file in anyway.

If anyone is interested in what I have documented, just email me.

Jason, GREAT work.

About assigning the codes to buttons. I believe
there are 14 possible learned commands per device.
So probably not 1-B but 1-D. (Button numbers 7,9,11...33).
I am happy to seen that assigning learned commands to buttons is in the LDT, I was afraid that data was not available yet.

It would be nice if we now can crack te structure of the IR commands.

About downloading on WIN98. It is working for me, but
the beep on the remote must be on!!!! (probably changing remotes timing).
WIN2000: never got it working, it seems to start somewhere in the middle, so probably also a timing problem.

Corrections to my prior post, the addressing is no mystery (I was looking at it backwards, assuming the address in the LDT file was the beginning address, but it's actually the address of the end of the line).

Soo.... Row 1 devices start at address 0, Row 2 at 64K (not 32K...), Row 3 at 128K and Row 4 at 196K. That leaves 64K blocks for learned commands.

I've also now seen multiple instaces of button assignments that do not end with the number 3. In fact, it just donned on my what Rene was trying to say, but button assignments range from 1 to probably F. And this makes more sense than my prior button assignment algorithm. The number 3 is actually probably apart of the IRCODE section. So, this would mean a limit of 16 user buttons (excluding LAST PAGE) per page.

I confident that the preprogrammed codes are not reflected at all in the LDT file in any way. I've programmed an entire page of buttons and some use the preprogrammed codes, and others use learned codes. The button assignments with learned codes show up in the LDT file, the others do not. No surprise there.

Besides the annoying "duplicate button" problem (two buttons having the same code even when they are programmed with different codes...) I'm pretty happy with the remote, and besides it gives me something to do lately. :) The only thing I cannot do with the software so far is upload the operating program from the remote, all other uploads/downloads work for me.