OK--I'm brand new to the forum. Earlier this week, I bought a TSU2000. I have no experience with these devices. That being said, I'm a relatively fast learner, and am willing to try and figure this thing out.

I downloaded Dale Crawford's Easy Theater, and it looks great, but as Dale says in one of his posts, it's too much for a newbie to merge CCFs etc to customize his CCF for my equipment. He suggested writing a simple CCF on your own to get the hang of it.

I've looked over the FAQs, and tried to search the forum (didn't work) to find threads to describe how write a CCF to no avail. There's no documentation with the software to teach me either.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get started? Thanks in advance.

You don't really "write" a CCF. It's more along the lines of deciding what you want the Remote to do, how you want it done and then Point & Click in ProntoEdit (V4.0.5). Along the way you will probably have to Learn Codes off of your OEM Remotes &/or cull them out of the UDB.

It's good you have read the FAQs . . . read them again & again & again, then follow the advice in the following. (the Play With It link, you might find most useful):

Click on the links in the box below, in particular you will find : the FAQ, Reviews, Play With It, Phases, Planning and ALIAS.CCF helpful when just starting out.

And remember when you ask questions to be specific in your Heading and very specific in your question, including precisely what your problem/question is and what model Remote you have and what OS you are using on your PC.

Also, don't forget the Search Forum at the bottom of the Page. It may seem slow but it is VERY thourough and don't be mislead by the "0%" you will see on the first screen, it is only a progress marker.

CLICK ON THESE LINKS
FAQ | Files | Reviews | Play with it | Phases | Planning | ALIAS.CCF | Copying .BMPs & Galleries | Discretes | Docking Station | NEO | X-10 | Parts | Cable | Buy/Sell

    MIKE

There are no rules, and every CCF is different, it is like asking us how to write an essay (or create a painting,.....), people can teach you grammar spelling, correct sentence structure.... (the tools) but once it is all said and done the quality of the essay comes from the writer (or the imagination of the painter.....). Like Mike said, playing with PE is the best way to learn it and get a great result. And to learn the howto (grammar in my example) the manual and PE is the best to use, plus we are here if you have a technical question or just want to float some ideas

Just to clarify, you essentially are "writing a .ccf" when you simply use the remote to learn the correct functions from your OEM remotes, and re-label the buttons in the remote, etc. This can all be done without connecting to a PC or using ProntoEdit. You will find that your device comes preloaded with lots of templates for various devices (AV amp, DVD, VCR, satellite box, etc.). Start with these, learn the codes from your OEM remotes, relable the buttons to match what's on the OEM remotes, and voila, you have written a .ccf. After becoming familiar with the basic learning and re-labeling process using just the remote, you will find that you can increase the functionality and flexibility of the remote greatly by using the software and connecting the remote to a PC. For example, I have downloaded a gallery from this site that has a complete set of buttons that have the logo from the various cable stations. I used the software to upload my current configuration (i.e., my .ccf file residing in the remote), and then put these buttons in a macro panel that I created on my PC. I downloaded the modified configuration back into the remote, and then programed them to perform one touch access to the various channels that each button represents. I couldn't have done this without using the software, because these logo buttons don't exist in the remote's internal factory database. I also used the software to assign various satellite box functions to the hard keys on the remote, so that I can control volume, info, clear, and other functions with the hard keys while I'm in the macro panel with the icon buttons. You can't do this without the software because there is no "learn" function available on the macro side of the remote. Using the software, I can "alias" any function I want to any button, regardless of whether its on the macro side or the device side. With each thing that you add to your configuration, whether using a PC or the remote itself, you are increasing the complexity and customization of your .ccf file, and thus, you are writing a .ccf file. You will find that your .ccf file is constantly a work in progress and that you are constantly fiddling with it. The other major advantage of using a PC, is that you can save your existing .ccf, experiment, and then save any changes resulting from the experiment as a new file. That way if you mess up, you can always download your original saved .ccf back the remote and be back were you started before the mistake. This is invaluable. Good luck. It's fun.

OK, I've done about a dozen ccfs for clients and I have the hang of it. I can learn commands or copy the codes from the library, do macros and jumps. Here's the question: Wishing to be efficient with my time and not sit in the client's living room for 3 hours, how do I begin to save time in creating ccfs? My impression is that every one is unique and except for a few dandy panels (sat logos, etc) they have to be made nearly from scratch. The process seems to be to learn each remote, then download the basic ccf and begin to customize it. It takes me quite a few upload/download combinations and lots of time before I have a finished product. Is this the way it goes, or do you get to where you can create it in PE and upload it once? The only way I can figure on saving time is if I have two clients with basically similar components (Sony TV, Mits VCR, Integra rcvr and DVD, for instance).

One thing I haven't fully caught yet is, when I merge ccfs, am I merging panels only or panels plus IR codes?

How would you merge panels/functions/IRs from say, three different ccfs you've done where you want to snag a device from each?

Kinda long winded here, thanks for reading and your advice.
=Tom

B6-07 How can I best merge CCF files?

This message was edited by MrKlaatu on 10/19/02 23:41.55.

Another way to achieve this ist to use the windows copy/paste functions. Click on a device you want to copy, press CTRL-C, then open your own ccf, click anywhere you want to place the new device and press CTRL-V. Works perfectly and is sometimes a little less work than deleting all the unnecessary devices from another CCF.
André