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Topic:
MX-500 PC Interface
This thread has 267 replies. Displaying posts 46 through 60.
Post 46 made on Saturday May 11, 2002 at 20:42
GregoriusM
RC Consultant
Joined:
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December 1999
9,807
Keep up the good work, Mike! :-)

If anyone likes gizmos, it has to be us on Remote Central! :-)

This message was edited by GregoriusM on 05/11/02 20:42.44.
When ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.
Post 47 made on Sunday May 12, 2002 at 16:27
Mike C
Founding Member
Joined:
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April 2002
224
Got the next piece of the puzzle in place. I have designed my gizmo to transmit the two "send" commands that I previously viewed on the scope. Irrespective of which one I send the MX, in receive clone mode, sends back the response LSLSLSLS anywhere from 12 to 18 milli-seconds later. Just need to make a few changes to the gizmo to duplicate this and hopefully I can get a sending MX to dump its data. Then I'm going to need some software help. My son-in-law has volunteered but are there any others besides?

Mike
Post 48 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 00:25
Mike C
Founding Member
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224
I have made some more progress with the IR cloning but unfortunately I am not at the end of this yet.

After modifying my gizmo to send back the "ready to receive signal" the "sending" MX started spewing data. This is what I was hoping for but unfortunately about halfway through the MX stops sending and displays "FAILD". I presume it is expecting some sort of confirmation from the receiving device before continuing. While spewing data the MX indicates this by a little arrow in the bottom field of the display that moves upwards and then flips back to the bottom and the cycle repeats about every second. When sending in "DEV" mode I see 2 cycles of this arrow and 19 cycles for the "ALL" mode. Can anyone with two MXs tell me what happens for a successful "DEV" and "ALL" send cycle please.

When spewing data the 1.6 micro-second (us) pulse changes to a width of 2.2 to 2.3 us. The repetition period is either 13.3 or 20 us as before. 9 pulses are sent as a group with a period of 205 us between groups.

My gizmo is a circuit card with about 12 ICs on it. Obviously this is not going to work for anyone but an investigator like myself and I am now figuring a new direction to take that would make it much easier for others to obtain some hardware and software at a reasonable price. So my question is anyone but Greg still reading this thread? Also is anyone still interested in me continuing?

Mike
Post 49 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 00:45
MikeSRC
Loyal Member
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July 2001
5,958
Hey Mike!

Don't mistake our ignorance for indifference.

We're all rootin' for you even if we don't have any idea what you're talking about. ;-)

I think there's more than a few people here who could help you out though. Where are all you guys (and gals)?

Keep it going and let us know if you need any help from us mortals.

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

THX-certified video calibrator and contributing writer, ProjectorReviews.com
Post 50 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 02:58
Joakim Henze
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2001
23

So my question is anyone but Greg still reading this
thread? Also is anyone still interested in me
continuing?
Mike

Hi Mike,

I'm following this link every day with big interest and really do hope that you will succeed!
Unfortunately I can't help much myself as I don't have the knowledge needed but I was the one who tiped this thread off to "Robman" with the hope that he would join in. Alone or together with his skilled friends that designed the JP1 interface for OFA remotes.

I know Robman have visited this thread at least twice and the first time he said: "I think it might be time to bring Tommy Tyler in on this!"

I really wish he did that! Maybe I should kindly ask Robman again?

Randy also promised to send some pictures to Robman on how to open up the MX-500 without damaging it but I'm not sure that Randy ever did so. I've seen one picture on Robmans site but that didn't come from Randy.

I think one problem could be that Robman doesn't own a MX-500. Anyone interesed in lending him one for a while?

Please keep up the good work at let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Regards

Joakim
Post 51 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 06:39
subkron
Founding Member
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January 2002
6
Mike,
Absolutely interested! Sounds like you have the hardware up and it's "only software". If you want a second opinion, email me a copy of the schematic of what you have so far ( ORCAD, dxf, pdf, etc. ). If you want, I can start a layout for a pcb board and work out some quick cost numbers. This may somewhat be putting the cart before the horse, but it sounds like the basic interface is operational.
Post 52 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 12:04
www.BlueDo.com
Founding Member
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January 2002
1,724
I apologize for the delay!

How do you open the MX-500?
(It's quite simple)

Randy
www.BlueDo.com
MX-3000, MX-950, MX-900, MX-850, MRF-300, MRF-250 - Call or Email for THE BEST PRICE!
[Link: BlueDo.com] or call (303) 873-1750
Post 53 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 13:58
rschwarz_jr
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
February 2002
5
I have been checking this tread almost every day with the hope that someone figures it out or that I can help in some way.

On 05/17/02 00:25.27, Mike C said...
So my question
is anyone but Greg still reading this thread?
Also is anyone still interested in me continuing?

Mike

This message was edited by rschwarz_jr on 05/17/02 13:59.06.
Post 54 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 14:50
The Robman
Loyal Member
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August 2001
6,218
Hi Joakim, I hadn't been back here since the last time that I posted. As you know, I don't have an MX500 myself, so there's not much in it for me to participate, but more importantly it's completely outside of my area of expertise.

In the JP1 group I'm mainly a co-ordinator, plus I'm an expert in UEIC made remotes. It was other people who discovered how to use the 6-pin JP1 connector to communicate with the EEPROM, but once that discovery was made I was able to use my expertise to figure out what all the bits & bytes meant. The IR software was also written by someone else.

I hope you guys manage to get this working as the MX500 is a great remote, which would be made even better if it was PC upgradeable. Who knows, when you eventually get there you might discover that you can use the MX700 software to do the updates.

Rob.
http://www.hifi-remote.com
Rob.
[Link: hifi-remote.com]
Post 55 made on Friday May 17, 2002 at 15:45
paulhubbard
No Longer Registered
If there is a call list add my name to it.
I've just spent 1 1/2 months setting up my 500 (still only about 95% of the way to finished). And I would really like to be able to save my configuration somewhere, I just know when I think I'm done ole mister murphy will pop up and I'm back at square one. I guess I could buy another MX-500, clone it and then rig up some sort of UPS to keep it "alive". But it brothers me to think I have to spend more on the backup than I did on the original, (my labor not counted).
What I want is a "black Box" that can save my configuration to either FlashROM or to my PC.
Post 56 made on Monday May 20, 2002 at 23:22
Mike C
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2002
224
Judging from your reactions I must have sounded a little threatening. I am sorry that was not my intent. I was just curious to see how much interest there is.

I have come to a point where it is going to take a little while to reach my objective. That is to provide a means of transferring the contents of a MX-500 to a PC and back again so as to provide at least a back-up. I can see that there are a few who will take it further than that by analyzing the contents of what is captured to see how it can be modified or created from scratch or whether the captured file can be massaged into the MX-700 software.

I have to put together yet another gizmo, write some firmware for it while my son-in-law writes the PC software. This time it will be similar to the UIRT used with Girder. Thank you Adam H for bringing this to my attention. I hope this one will be good enough and cheap enough for everyone's use. I may aim it so that it can be used as a general-purpose remote control for the PC and also to be used for figuring out how other URs clone. It has to use a different version of the micro-controller than the UIRT because we'll be sending long strings of data to and from the PC.

It's going to take a few weeks but I'll keep you informed along the way when there is some progress to report.

Mike
Post 57 made on Sunday June 2, 2002 at 23:41
Mike C
Founding Member
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April 2002
224
Sorry to be so long in reporting back. I have some hardware now which is based on a Microchip microcontroller and USB. I chose USB because most PCs and laptops today have USB ports. I have been reading how Com Ports don't work so well, particularly on laptops, that I thought USB would appeal to more people. Let me know how you feel. Using USB also solves the problem of how to power an IR device as you can draw more than enough power from it whereas with a COM Port one has trouble getting adequate power.

I am programming the assembly code for it and so far I have been able to report IR activity to the PC. My son-in-law is writing code to read the IR activity, as reported to the PC, and also code to support the sequencing of the MX cloning process.

I will be completing the code for the micro-controller to transmit commands and data and also to sequence between transmitting and receiving so that the cloning process will work both ways, i.e to and from the PC.

I'll keep you updated.

Mike
Post 58 made on Monday June 3, 2002 at 04:46
GregoriusM
RC Consultant
Joined:
Posts:
December 1999
9,807
Thanks for the report, Mike!
When ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.
Post 59 made on Tuesday June 4, 2002 at 12:20
dfr
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2002
27
Thanks Mike! I just stumbled onto this thread a few days ago...

Your progress sounds terrific! I’m sure that there are many others like myself who anxiously await your results!

My background is in software. If I can be of any help, please email me.

-Dave
Post 60 made on Tuesday June 4, 2002 at 12:20
bharritt
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
June 2002
53
Hello all,

Being new to the MX-500 world (got mine last week and love it!), I won't pretend that I understand everything posted on this thread, so if my comment appear dumb, please forgive me.

First, I noticed that the picture of the MX-500 PCB board appears to be an older unit, as the case shows no evidence of the molded boss for the MX-700 connector boss. Has anyone opened one of the later units with this boss? It is possible, though unlikely, that URC uses the same PCB for both the 500 and 700, just leaving the connector itself off the 500. If we get this lucky, then all it would take would be to download the software and fabricate an interface device.

Brent
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