I am pleased to announce that we have entered a new phase with the IRCLONE-MX in which you can now upload and download the contents of your MX-500 to your PC.

Please see www.irclone.com for further details.

Initially you will be able to purchase an IRCLONE-MX with a Backup Utility that allows you to capture the user programmed contents of your MX-500 on your PC. You will also be able to save that captured file back to the MX-500.

Dave is creating an editor which will allow you to edit the user programmed contents of your MX-500 or even create a file from scratch which you can then download to your MX-500. The irclone site shows you some screen shots of this editor. Dave will make evaluation versions of this editor available over the next month for you to try out and comment on, prior to releasing it for sale.

Please enjoy your IRCLONE-MX. Do not forget, capture what you have programmed first and file it away safely before attempting anything else. We only want satisfied customers.

Mike

Mike

I just ordered it from a good looking site and it went well but the price is...

Amount: $69.99
Shipping & Handling: $7.50
Sales Tax: $5.77 (8.250% in CA)

Total Amount: $83.26

I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Jim

The backup utiltity works perfectly (beta tester) and is simple to use, which is what we want right?

And I think the pricing is appropriate for a first manufacturing run of the IRCLONE box itself, where most of the initial cash outlay goes.

Once the editor portion is done, and the total price is $89.99, I think you'll have a VERY good utility for your MX-500.

I salute Mike and Dave for their efforts in this regard and wish them all the best in their business efforts!!!

... Greg

Mike

Looks like a great start for your product. The website looks good. I would order immediately if you supported windows xp ( i guess xp is not as popular as I thought). I hope this is available before your introduction pricing is in effect.I would hate to pay more just because that support is lacking.

dave

Dave (dlovullo),
We ( MikeC & I ) believe that XP is very popular. In fact, I prefer XP as it is easily the most solid OS Microsoft has released to date. When we found out that our hardware supplier was not going to support XP initially (as they had claimed), we were stuck! So, all we could do is to keep going (and I had to find a Win2K machine). We have contacted our supplier and know that they are working to provide XP support. As soon as we know more, we’ll let everyone know here and on our WEB site (www.irclone.com). Thanks for the interest, and we hope to have good news soon.

Dave

What? It doesn't support XP.

Off to cancel, shucks, didn't read that.

Jim

**********************************************

Update:

They returned my money almost instantly, looks like a good company and I look forward to their W-XP version.

This message was edited by Jim Christian on 11/17/02 13:33.17.

Am I understanding this correctly?

The introductory price is $69.99, then add $24.99 for the editing software when available. A total of $94.98. But wait, early birds get a $5.00 discount, bringing the price back to $89.98 - a savings of a penny off the bundled price.

Even at today's low interest rates, I think I can forgo the savings and wait until the package ships.

Hopefully the XP support and editor will come along at the same time. Until then, I wait.

It seems that there may be some confusion over what may be ordered now and what may be ordered later.

If the editor were ready you could buy it and an IRCLONE-MX for $89.99. This package gives you all the features and contains:

"Everything included in the IRCLONE-MX w/Backup Utility, plus a full-featured programming package to easily configure the buttons and macros for your MX-500 remote control."

Purchasing the IRCLONE-MX w/Backup ($69.99) now and then adding the editor later ($24.99) will provide the same capabilities as the IRCLONE- MX w/ 500e Editing Software. However the total price would be $94.98. To allow those who need the IRCLONE-MX w/Backup now and who would also like to have purchased the editor now we are providing a $5.00 off incentive so that they are not penalized for not waiting for the full package to become available. A little while after the full package becomes available this offer will be deleted.

So if you want to order the IRCLONE-MX w/Backup now for $69.99 you will be able to order the editor for $19.99 later. We will have your name on record as having purchased the IRCLONE-MX prior to the deadline and so will be able to verify that you are entitled to the discount price for the editor.

Mike

Just a note to let everyone know that the IRCLONE-MX Backup Utility v 1.00 has been posted to the download page of our WEB site www.irclone.com

Dave

How about those of us who are waiting for XP support? Same deal?

F.Y.I. Although the driver isn't "Certified", there is a Windows XP driver available for the FT8U2xx chip.
I have it installed and working fine on my system under Windows XP Pro.
You can get the driver here.
[Link: ftdichip.com]
You want the D2XX "Direct" Drivers for Windows 98 / 2000 / ME / XP

Note that since the driver isn't certified for Windows XP there's no guarantee that it'll work on your system, but then again there never is...;)

I should point out that I have only done a Backup of my MX-500 with this driver and have not yet attempted to Restore to it. I probably won't try a restore until the MX Editor software is released or my MX-500 looses its configuration. Whichever comes first.

Is there anything wrong with this driver Mike? Other than the fact that it's not Signed?
My driver version is 1.3.20.0
My backup file is 44KB. The software goes through the download and gives me a "Data Verified - OK"

This message was edited by Hutchca on 11/20/02 00:05.12.

Hutcha,

What you say is true about there being a driver available for the USB chip at the web site you linked to. Neither Dave, nor Greg nor I have actually been able to get XP to recognize these drivers as they are unsigned. I have gone as far as telling XP to load them anyway, which it does, but when I try to use them XP says it cannot start them. I am using XP Home edition, version 1.04.01, but I don't know what what Dave or Greg uses. If you have one of the other operating system available, to get you out of trouble, I am sure folks would appreciate you downloading from the PC to the MX-500 to see if it can be done with XP. Your first crash can be scary with the 500's text turning to little bowling pins but that's what the other OS is for to help you restore in the event of a catastrophe. If you'd like to email your upload to me I'll load it into my MX-500 first just to make sure it's valid.

There is another driver called the VCP driver which treats the FTDI chip as a COM port. I have loaded those into XP and been able to upload from the MX-500 to the PC but not download. The download crashes. Actually this is true for all the OS I have tried these drivers out on. Dave figures in time he could use them to give us XP compatibility if FTDI don't come through with the D2XX drivers. However there is only him doing the editor and the BackUp Utility and its time for him to get you guys a glimpse of the editor.

Mike

F.Y.I. I'm using Windows XP Pro. Version 2002, Service Pack 1.
My Hardware is a GA-8IHXP motherboard which has all USB2.0 ports.
The IR Clone is connected to the "Intel 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2" Driver Version 5.1.2600.1106

As far as getting the D2XX driver to install, this is what I did.
I initially installed the VCP drivers, but then realized that I should have installed the "Direct" drivers.
The VCP drivers install 2 devices. There's a COM Port listed under Ports, and under the USB tree there's a high speed USB serial device.(I don't remember exactly what it was called)
I went to the properties for the high speed USB serial device and went to Update Driver.
Instead of letting it search automatically I chose "Install from a list or specific location", then I chose "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install". Then I hit "Have Disk" and browsed to the location of the D2XX drivers I downloaded.
You should get "FTDI FT8U2XX Device Version: 1.3.20.0 [7/29/2002]"
I got a warning that the driver wasn't signed, clicked on "Install Anyway" and then I was done.
I'll go ahead and try a restore under XP. I have a Windows 2000 machine also that I have the software installed on.
F.Y.I. The backup file from the Win2K machine and the WinXP machine are identical.

EDIT: I did a restore under WinXP. No Problem. The Backup software reported "Restore Complete. MX-500 reports GOOD transfer."
All devices and macros seem to be the same as they were.

Let me know if you want any other info. Screen shots, driver details, debug data, whatever.
I can't wait for the Editing Software...

This message was edited by Hutchca on 11/20/02 01:43.10.

Wrong. As I pointed out a few months ago, there is a driver included in Windows (usbscan.sys) that works perfectly fine with XP (and Windows 2000, for that matter). You could almost say it's guaranteed to work. There is no reason to develop a kernel-mode driver for this device. The software just needs to be altered to use that driver (see the XP DDK for more info). Please do that. Poorly implemented 3rd-party kernel-mode drivers are the #1 cause of Windows crashes.

Dave