Having the inlaws here over the holidays revealed some holes in my programming. I knew they were there, but I never really got around to fixing them as everything was working for me. But my in-laws just never could grasp it so I would come down in the morning to see the TV still on or the AVR on. For example, my HD-DVD player is a TOAD, so OFF button just turned it off and changed all the inputs back to DirecTV. Well, they watched a DVD on it, pressed OFF so it went off, but the TV and AVR were still on requiring a 2nd press. My wife, daughter and myself knew this so it was never a problem, but let the inlaws in and all hell breaks loose.

So I have been fixing the programming and have it pretty stable, but there are a few things I would like to tweak. One of them is the "OFF" button. I want it to shut the system down no matter what page is open. I have done this, but I had to import the macro from the WATCH>Page1 to all other pages. This was a PITA. I want to add some IF/ELSE statements, but don't want to have to import them all over again.

I read somewhere about being able to Alias a macro so when the master changes, it flows through. I just can't figure out how to do this. Is this what the ALIAS button on the macro window does, if so, how as it doesn't seem to do anything for me.

Thanks

I create a hidden device called Power.

In Power I create buttons called (in your case System OFF) or other similar power commands that I wish to use or reference.

Create a macro for this button that will execute the required steps for the system to turn off reliably.

Save the button/macro.

On all devices that you wish to execute this macro from goto them and click (for instance) the hard power off button. Clear any macro or commands out and create an alias that points to the macro you created for System OFF. Do this for each device you wish to have System OFF as an available macro.

Now whenever you change the original System OFF macro that is hidden the rest that are already referencing it will obviously reference the new macro that you've edited.

What about punch through? Am I missing something?

You cannot punch through a macro to a single button.

If I follow your problem I’m not sure you need to call a macro from within a macro, but you can see below. I seems you want to control TOAD on/off along with discrete on/off commands. Also you want the OFF button to function the same from all (or many pages). This later issue can be fixed using the Punch Through function under the Program Menu item. Punch through allows you to set a macro or IR code to be called from all or many pages from a single page. I set all pages to use the Watch Page 1 On and Off buttons (macros) for their respective On and Off buttons. In this way one will always execute the same set of commands (macro) from and page when shutting down (or turning on). Also I use the HT receiver volume control punch through for all pages.

The first issue can be solved with declared UI Variables (declared by you) and IF Else statements. First I set up a list of power UI Variables (Power Cable, Power HDTV, Power DVD, etc.) These can be set within a macro to be True or False. Whether True is On or Off is up to you. Then I use them in an IF Else statement:

IF(UI Var(Power Cable), True)
Alias(Cable/Page 2/POWER))
UI Var(Power Cable, False)
Else

These statements first test to see if cable power is on (True), if so the Cable Power button will be toggled (a TOAD), then the Power Cable UI variable is reset to False.

I do this even with discrete power buttons so that the macro will not need to send the IR command if the discrete state is already in the desired state. This speeds up macros and causes less picture blinking and jumping etc. when macros are running. I do this also for device input calls as the same positive result accrues.

This will stay “is Sync” for TOADs unless you do a new program download into the remote or someone turns a TOAD on or off with the original remote (or sometimes when the cable company does a new software download I don’t know what state they leave the box in).

Finally

I've been able to use an "Alias" to call a macro intermingled with straight Alias IR code button calls in a macro. I haven't tested this function seriously yet but will in the next few days. I'm calling a macro from other macros that test a group of UI variables that test and direct conditional jump to and jump back commands for a set of common functions that are used throughout the various watch activities (in this case setting about 12 different sound or echo effects as well as Dolby and THX settings on a Yamaha RX-Z9 HT receiver).

And strickly speaking calling a Watch page ON or OFF button macro from other pages using Punch Through is calling a macro from using Alias. And you can do this discretely yourself page by page or use the faster Punch Through feature.

I hope this helps

And tweeterguy you are correct punch through is only on a device by device basis.

Its not really a macro within a macro, but instead one macro that takes all the UI variables into account. Since I may need to tweak it over time, I don't want to have to copy down to all the device pages with each change. Tweeterguy seems to have the solution.


This is what I am working towards. Currently I am using 2 inputs on my TV, so if I don't have to send the discrete command, I would rather not as it brings up a banner.



Fortunately I only have one TOAD, my Toshiba A1, and I implemented the PLAY>STOP commands to power it up, so even if someone turns it on by inserting a disc, the macro still works. Plus, all the original remotes are sitting in a plastic tub in the closet with batteries removed. I learned that lesson last time the inlaws visited.



Yes, thanks for all the responses.

slick. i hadnt thought of this as my exp with aliasing is that it will only alias the ORIGINAL command that was assigned to a hard button. ie: on my PVR (and any device) i like my hard transport buttons laid out with rr and ff flanking play. but if i were to alias these keys it would alias the stop and pause commands, even though i have ff and rr programmed there.

so i assume from what you're saying you can alias a soft key and it will alias the entire list of commands attached to said key?

Truer words have not been spoken....within the last 5 minutes anyway. The way I outlined above enables you to edit across multiple devices all at once by the nature of the alias.

Yep slick, I think I will implement tweeterguy's solution for power on off perhaps input selects also. Common functions or actions across multiple devices makes for clean programming and better upgrade tinkering.

Tweeterguy,

That worked like a charm. Thanks.

1. Punch through would be great but I have never wanted to punch through ON and OFF, just OFF. Therefore individual alias commands on each device required.

2. Don't know why you need a new power page. I make my power off macro on WATCH page OFF button and alias to LISTEN, cable, DVD, CD, and so on. Why the extra steps??

You don't need to go that route obviously. I like to keep things separate and easy to find and the logic behind how I do things comes from other programming such as crestron. I prefer to make a centralized location to keep things clear and orderly for the future and troubleshooting. If you do crestron you'll understand what I mean when you have a project with hundreds and hundreds of symbols and if you don't label and document you will quickly be up the creek without a paddle. I transfer the same discipline over to URC and it takes me about 30 seconds extra in time. I do this for other things as well that I'll want to track, reference, etc...just keeps it cleaner in the end.

The benefit of a separate button for executing the power function is a simple but important programming advantage. It keeps all code involved in performing the function in one place. If the function is spread out, and a change is needed, one must remember each place and make the change without errors in each place. In code involving conditional variables good programming rules would demand doing this. In fact, I’ve taken tweeterguy’s suggestion for not only power but input changes and calls to get to channel logo pages and surround sound effects pages. The channel logos and sound effects have conditional jump back calls that returns the user to the place from which they asked for the logos. Each of these operations involve conditional variables. And each of these functions are called from many locations. I need get them correct only once. I need to check for code errors by only passing through the code from one place. I don’t need to remember every place I make the function call for testing. Once it works correctly in one place all places that call the function will work. This especially important to me for the channel logos as the cable company keeps changing the locations for these. I only need to correct it once and all places that call this function will be correct. And finally the call to these functions requires a simple jump command to the button that holds the function code, error free programming.

Certainly using this programming feature is not necessary and can be a bit more complicated to setup the first time, but it appeals to my programming aesthetics. Many years ago I was employed writing a lot of software.

The IF Else statements and conditional variable make doing this possible. As an old Pronto programmer without this capability, all functions needed to strung out line by line in each place needed.

Again slick, compliments to tweeterguy for reminding me.