Well it has been a while. I haven't been very active on this, one of my favoraite boards, but my wife just changed that. I came home last night and there was a new ProntoPro waiting for me in the Theater, it seems she wanted the old one for herself!

I see that many have gotten a lot of good use out of the original IR papers I wrote on the pronto. They have been translated into at least three languages I know of. Makes one feel awfully good!

The new ProntoPro took my standard configuration, but not without a hitch. I upgraded to the latest software first and could not upload the new firmware to the ProntoPro. It seems that my main machine has no com ports below #3, i.e. it is missing 1 and 2. It does have com ports 3-12 and they all work, but the ProntoPro firmware loader claimed there were no ports configured. I changed to another system that has a com port 1 and all problems disappeared. I then loaded my old configuration for the original Pronto and it works fine.

So the first question is: Does the ProntoPro only work with com ports below 3?

I started looking around for a nice color gallery to use on the Pro, but have not found any yet. Can somone point me in the right direction, or is it too early?

I want to modify my GENIRDB program to be able to produce a data base for the ProntoPro, but I am not sure that is possible. It does not appear that there is the equivalent of the rcir.mdb of the old pronto. I am thinking that I might change it to directly set the IR patterns into a ccf but I will have to think about that. If anyone wants the latest version of GENIRDB, it is posted at my Web site www.the-gordons.net. Look for the link to the download page on the bottom of the home page. If I get a chance I will also upload the latest version to this site where there is an older copy. The program will now produce IR patterns for the Pronto, the Nirvis Slink-e, and the Oceolot by ADI.

Oh, boy, my favorite topic: Ports. [Second is USB] Yes, Pronto will work with com ports below 3 (and other threads have said it prefers COM1) , but here's the thing: it will start from 1, and if that's occupied it will move to 2, etc., until it finds an open port BUT if it finds an unoccupied port with no device on it, it will stop there, and go no further.

So, I had a USB-to-serial adapter [Keyspan] that installed itself on COM4 by default. I had something on COM1 and COM2. I would get a message something to the effect of "Tried COM1. No response from Pronto. Tried COM2. No response from Pronto."--and there it ended. Not until I got the Belkin 5F103, which installed on COM3 did PE spot it.

Now I just got a new computer with a built-in serial port (even though, like my prior one, it has USB), and have had no problem.

As to the rest of your post, I have not a clue. Anyone?

There are new color Pro ccfs no postedin the file section. Yea!

I have found with W2K, Pronto Pro would not recognizie anything other than COM 1 and COM 2. It seems to do as Joel indicates in a Windows ME enviornment. BTW, the comm software is crap so no telling how it will behave on various systems. You'll get the hang of it.

Thanks. Your replys describe the situation. I think I will re-assign the com ports to give me 1 and 2.

Philips really ought to hire a programmer who understands the com port structure in the Windows world. It really is not hard!

I also found the 4 color ccf's and that should start me.

Barry, the IR database was dropped when V2 of ProntoEdit came out.

Philips didn't write the comms software. They are simply using some ancient 16-bit comms package. Which is also why they can't do USB. They are either going to have to get a new comms package (which would mean major changes to the O.S. on the Pronto), or get someone to write them one.

W2K seems to be the quirkiest in terms of interaction with older software, from what I've read. My COM problems were with my Win98 machine, and my new problem-free machine is (as Kevina500 astutely noticed) WinME. I think the problems, though, had more to do with lack of a built-in serial port than the OS.

Joel and Peter right. Ever notice that when you connect a device to Win Me or W2K, the device (whatever it is) is automatically recognized by the OS? If a hardware developer is writing code to the Win32API and Windows SDK (software developer kit), the vendor must furnish (1) a "signature" in the device so that it can talk to Windows and (2) the appropriate "drivers" contained in a CAB file that will mate the device with the operating system. This is basically what "Plug and Play" is all about and what a developer MUST do if they are to say they are Windows compatible. Philips took a 3rd party, 16-bit comm package and tacked it on to ProntoEdit and it has perpetuated to ProEdit. This particular package was apparently designed for a Windows 95 platform and has no business being in a product running on today's operating environments. Thank goodness when one recognizes the limitations, it can still be used.

Again, ProntoEdit was initially conceived (if this is what you can call it) to support development engineers and not be a commercial product. Someday, I hope it gets better.

Works for me! As a user, not a developer, once I've caught on to it, I have no real problem. If and when its improved, I will certainly embrace it.

So Barry, when are we going to get a look at Jill's kitchen? I'm curious to see how the fiscal parity panned out. :-)

Andrea, If you have a high speed connection, go to our web site www.the-gordons.net and take the guided tour. There are several shots of the Kitchen. The house is a lot of fun. When we get guests it is a challange as to whose mouth drops open first, the women in the kitchen, the men in the Theater or both of them in the Granite bathroom with the built in Gym.

Forgive me for being an idiot, but at the bottom of the page, it says "Jill's Kitchen" but is not hyperlinked. I have a cable router, so I'm a go for launch. Point me in the right direction. :-)

Doh! Found it in the guided slideshow tour. Very nice house!!

This message was edited by Andrea Whitlock on 08/12/01 00:23.04.

I'm a new Pronto User, but I think the idea of ProntEdit being developed for the engineers is old hat. It is mentioned for use in the consumer manual that comes with the remote, so it is obvious that Philips is targeting it for use with the Pronto.

Therefore, Philips has no excuse but to make it "consumer" friendly and not "engineer" friendly.

IMHO.

Anyone looking forward to WindowsXP (2000 based). I'll bet Home Theater Master and Philips aren't!!!

... Greg :-)

Greg, ProntoEdit works well on Windows XP. And some people who have had crashes learning codes with Win NT/2000 have found that it learns fine with XP.

This message was edited by Peter Dewildt on 08/12/01 22:21.50.

I've had zero problems with ME so far.