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Topic:
MX-850 has stopped working!!!
This thread has 17 replies. Displaying posts 1 through 15.
Post 1 made on Sunday August 7, 2005 at 20:08
David Anderson
Long Time Member
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98
I was just putting the finishing touches to the programming for my new MX-850 and everything was working fine, with 6 devices and lots of learned IR codes. Then I hit a strange problem on the MX-850 Editor. It wouldn't let me delete the learned code on an LCD button. A few minutes later the Editor crashed. I restarted the Editor, made a few minor changes and downloaded the new version to the remote.

The problem then got much worse. The signals are being sent to my MRF-300 which appears to be issuing an IR signal via the front blaster, but many of my IR commands, particularly power on/off commands, are now failing to work. Aaaaargh!

Is there some sort of reset for the MX-850? Have I probably got a corrupted MXF file? Any suggestions for fixing this problem will be much appreciated.
Post 2 made on Sunday August 7, 2005 at 21:17
oex
Super Member
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April 2004
4,177
Reboot the remote - hold down stop and main for about 10 seconds - then hit "all" in the top left corner.

are you using a usb to serial adapter?
Diplomacy is the art of saying hire a pro without actually saying hire a pro
OP | Post 3 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 04:13
David Anderson
Long Time Member
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98
On 08/07/05 21:17 ET, oex said...
Reboot the remote - hold down stop and main for
about 10 seconds - then hit "all" in the top left
corner.

This appears to be a 'factory reset' that takes the MX-850 back to standard settings. I did this and then re-downloaded my own MXF file. Unfortunately, the problems still remain. By the way, where is this reset facility documented?

To answer your other question, I'm not using any USB to serial adapter.

I have a POWER device page that carries all my discrete power on/off commands. They all used to work and, with one exception, they all still work when tested via the MX-850 Editor. The exception is the DVD, which now needs two DVDON signals to turn on and two DVDOF signals to turn off. However, only one of these power commands work when issued via the MX-850 (and that is the only macro, the rest are all simply learned IR codes). Does this behaviour give anyone a clue as to what might be going wrong?

I've tried relearning some of these codes but it made no difference (and indeed I wasn't really expecting a difference since the codes were already working via the editor). In every other respect, my MX-850 seems to be working okay.
OP | Post 4 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 09:35
David Anderson
Long Time Member
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98
An update on this problem:

By a process of trial and error, I have identified my CD device as the probable source of my MXF file corruption. Simply deleting this device from the configuration and re-downloading to the MX-850 miraculously made everything else work properly again.

Well, I guess recreating one device from scratch is better than having to start all over. I know, I know, I should have had a backup ........

I would still like to know if there is any procedure for fixing corrupted MXF files.
Post 5 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 09:39
Macroman
Long Time Member
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July 2005
47
Hey david,

Have you been programing this file between two different editor versions? Did you live update sometime between programing?
OP | Post 6 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 10:16
David Anderson
Long Time Member
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98
On 08/08/05 09:39 ET, Macroman said...
Have you been programing this file between two
different editor versions? Did you live update
sometime between programing?

No, I've had the MX-850 for less than 2 weeks, and I've only ever used the current version of the editor (1.12.236). I don't think there are any live updates available.

I'm not aware that I did anything unusual other than go through repeated attempts to learn certain track codes for my CD player. Some of these codes required 4 or 5 attempts before I captured them successfully.

This message was edited by David Anderson on 08/08/05 10:23 ET.
Post 7 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 10:38
Surf Remote
Loyal Member
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July 2001
5,958
What CD player do you have? Are there any IR database or other files available for it?

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

THX-certified video calibrator and contributing writer, ProjectorReviews.com
OP | Post 8 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 12:39
David Anderson
Long Time Member
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98
My CD player is not listed on this website, but no worries, I've already relearned all the codes and I'm up and running again.
Post 9 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 17:29
Dracula
Long Time Member
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65
On 08/08/05 09:35 ET, David Anderson said...
An update on this problem:

By a process of trial and error, I have identified
my CD device as the probable source of my MXF
file corruption. Simply deleting this device from
the configuration and re-downloading to the MX-850
miraculously made everything else work properly
again.

Well, I guess recreating one device from scratch
is better than having to start all over. I know,
I know, I should have had a backup ........

I would still like to know if there is any procedure
for fixing corrupted MXF files.

Your experience validates what I have been saying about the Editor sloppy programming. If you make changes in button functions, the Editor will leave corrupted device data. Like you discovered, it is better with this lousy program to start from scratch rather than modify existing data.
See my post on the subject:
[Link: remotecentral.com]
OP | Post 10 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 18:02
David Anderson
Long Time Member
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February 2005
98
On 08/08/05 17:29 ET, Dracula said...
Your experience validates what I have been saying
about the Editor sloppy programming. If you make
changes in button functions, the Editor will leave
corrupted device data.

Unfortunately, there are several other examples of URC's poor attention to detail.

1. The MX-850 programming manual available for download from the URC website doesn't mention the MX-850.

2. They never made a clean changeover from the MX-850's original alternative name of Orion to the new name of Aeros (ref my earlier post at [Link: remotecentral.com]).

3. The factory reset procedure (press Main and Stop) is not documented in the programming manual - at least it is certainly not in the index.

4. They programmed keyboard shortcuts Ctrl C/Ctrl V for copy/paste in the Editor but didn't include Copy or Paste in any pull down menu, contrary to Windows conventions.

5. There are some non-intuitive aspects to importing devices from an MXD file but this process is not documented in the manual (which appears not to have been updated for two years!).

6. There is no online help in the Editor.


No doubt there are plenty of other examples but I've only been using this kit for about 12 days .......

However, just in case I seem to be rather negative about URC, let me also say that despite such irritations my MX-850/MRF-300 combo is doing everything I wanted it to do and it knocks spots off my Pronto. I'd also take the URC editor any day over ProntoEdit.
Post 11 made on Monday August 8, 2005 at 18:34
Dracula
Long Time Member
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Posts:
April 2004
65
I absolutely agree with you. The number of faults with the Editor are legion (I too, hate the right click commands with no Menu equivalents). The user interface is also very unintuitive.

Like I said before, it is a shame that the good MX-800 hardware is encumbered by the lousy Editor software.

Unfortunately, I don't see them doing anything about that since they are probably going on to work on more recent products.

If I was running URC, I would have fired the Editor programmers and started from scratch on the new products.

This message was edited by Dracula on 08/08/05 18:46 ET.
OP | Post 12 made on Tuesday August 9, 2005 at 19:28
David Anderson
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
February 2005
98
You may be interested to hear that my last post, where I listed 6 issues I had with URC, was noticed by one of the URC service staff and passed on to Eric Johnson, the URC Vice President of Technology. Mr Johnson then sent me a personal email in reply. He accepts that the programming manual is overdue for an update and has taken responsibility for making this happen.

He also requested my corrupted MXF file for investigation. He accepts that a problem does exist, albeit one that occurs rarely, but the URC engineers have struggled to diagnose the cause in the past.

This speedy and active response is most impressive and if it leads to some positive results I will be delighted to recommend URC to anyone that listens.
Post 13 made on Friday January 15, 2016 at 19:06
rrboggio
Lurking Member
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January 2016
4
Which is the stop button? I cannot reset my remote. I put fresh batteries. The light comes on, it turns on and off the system and tv but the screen is blank.
Post 14 made on Friday January 15, 2016 at 22:31
edmund
Elite Member
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April 2002
13,838
On January 15, 2016 at 19:06, rrboggio said...
Which is the stop button? I cannot reset my remote. I put fresh batteries. The light comes on, it turns on and off the system and tv but the screen is blank.

The international symbol for STOP is a Square, its left of the Play key which is the arrow.
Post 15 made on Friday January 15, 2016 at 22:47
rrboggio
Lurking Member
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January 2016
4
It does not work.
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