IRTrans Users, What Say You?

[YoYo]

I've received a few emails over the last week or so regarding the IRTrans devices and the related plugin.

Due to the lack of activity in the forum, some folks think the plugin is either dead, outdated, or has issues.

I've responded by telling them I think the plugin works great and the lack of activity could be taken as a good sign in that the problems and issues must be few and far between.

So, what say you users of IRTrans devices, do I speak the truth?

[DomeAdept]

Well...... I guess there is a grain of truth in your reasoning

Once you figure out the quirks regarding the modules (took me ages to find out that trying to broadcast through multiple desktop switches was not a good idea. Same for figuring out that the modules use 10Mbit Half Duplex! this kills traffic on a lot of cheapo netwok equipment) and you resign in the fact that the interface is quite spartan, the system works superb.

I do feel that some things can be improved regarding the interface (import/export Pronto or Irtans native, copy/paste, better/easier zone labeling incorperating selecting external/internal IR by checkbox instead of 121/120/123 zone codes etc. etc.) , and having a bit more control over the modules would be nice (as I posted a while back). But knowing you did this pluging Pro-Deo these improvements are nice to have and in no way critical needs.

For one, the stability of this plugin is a shining example as to how things should be within the HS framework (needless to say I have a lot of plugins which I call "slightly unstable" at best of times... euphemistically).
Radical changes in plugin design often introduce bugs by the bucket, and not having a software test/engineer team at your disposal would make this all quite challenging in my opinion.

Regards,

Alex

[johnz]

For me the plugin works great!

Regards,
John

[bartdesign]

The plugin works great for me. But i have some suggestions to make it even better:

* Ability to mass program buttons, instead of doing each button individual.
* Automatically add the IR link to homeseer upon installing. Other plugs do this aswell.
*Ability to control RS232 devices from my LAN controller.(this is a big one IMHO)
*Option to automatically create an Infrared Device in Homeseer upon entering a new Device Name. Alle codes that are assigned to that device should be automatically added to the homeseer infrared device. That would save a ton of work.
* Ability to import pronto codes and to use the inbuild IR lib.


* Another thing i would like to see is better HStouch intergration. But i guess this is something for the homeseer dev's. I would love to be able to press and hold an button to repeat it's IR command. Haven't found that function yet. Also HSTouch seem to be a bit sluggish in processing allot of IR commands, like changing the volume rapidly. It always tends to lag a lot.

Thanks for the great plugin!

[Chak]

For me the plugin works fine.

Including good support for HStouch.
With the scripting option is HStouch you can send IR command directly without need for any event.

In the action windows select scripting

see snap

"Led.rood-1" is the name of the IR command

[tonlof]

Thanks, it has working perfectly in all years.

I have several devices that need to be learned by "Learn command with timing" from GUI Client and then you have to cut and paste the [TIMING] and [Command] from rem file into hs2_signals.rem
Especially learning air conditioning pumps all temp, mode, speed etc.

It had helped a lot if you could select these options directly from the plugin.

• Learn command with timing
• RAW Mode
• Repeate Code
• Toggle Command
• RAW Repeat

[drule]

Works great for me too.

[bartdesign]

For me the plugin works fine.

Including good support for HStouch.
With the scripting option is HStouch you can send IR command directly without need for any event.

In the action windows select scripting

see snap

"Led.rood-1" is the name of the IR command

Thanks Chak, But i already knew that Better support for HSTouch would mean beeing able to directly choose a remote code as an action. If your assigning 40+ ir codes a simple dropdown code would be nice instead of inputing the &hs.sendir"" string. And for some reason sending multiple ir codes in one action seems to lag allot. Another problem i have is that i'm unable to repeat ir commands. For instance for the volume controls. I have to press and release them instead of holding them down like on a conventional remote.

So the HSTouch intergration could use some improvement IMHO. But that's probably more something for the homeseer dev's anyway.

[Chak]

@Bart,
Drop down menu is a great idea.
Thats something for HSTouch team

[vossenh]

I have just received my first IRTrans module, the Wifi device is quite neat as it only needs a power cable (via adaptor). I have it set up OK, but the IRTrans Plug in has problems learning the IR codes. I can learn some of the remote control buttons, but others don't seem to catch on and results in 'Learning operations for location 6 was cancelled' etc. I am able to learn the codes through the IRTrans GUI, but I have no idea how to transfer this information so that HomeSeer can use it. Can anyone give me a pointer to this ??

[tonlof]

Learning operations for location 6 was cancelled' etc. I am able to learn the codes through the IRTrans GUI, but I have no idea how to transfer this information so that HomeSeer can use it. Can anyone give me a pointer to this ??

First, let me just apologize for my poor English explanation.

Easiest way is if you both record the codes in homeseer even if they are wrong and in the GUI. Open hs2_signals.rem in C:\Program Files\IrTrans\remotes and your example yourremote.rem

yourremote.rem example
[TIMING]
[0][N]3[1]312 768[2]288 1800[3]280 48112[RC]2[RP]40[FREQ]39
[1][N]4[1]288 792[2]256 1824[3]264 43920[4]288 46024[RC]1[RP]44[FREQ]39

[COMMANDS]
[ok][T]0[D]00010110111010020001000100010110
[up][T]0[D]00010001101010020001011001010110
[down][T]0[D]00010101101010020001001001010110
[left][T]0[D]00010111101010020001000001010110

The red value in Commands is linked to the timing number 0


If the highest timing number in hs2_signals.rem is example [7].......
then you have to increase timenumber and copy your new timings from yourremote.rem
to hs2_signals.rem
[8][N]3[1]312 768[2]288 1800[3]280 48112[RC]2[RP]40[FREQ]39
[9][N]4[1]288 792[2]256 1824[3]264 43920[4]288 46024[RC]1[RP]44[FREQ]39

Then copy Commands lines into hs2_signals.rem but change the new timing link and name.

[Power][T]8[D]012123311124311141
[Volume+][T]9[D]012123311124311121
[Volume-][T]8[D]012123311124311131

Change the name to the recorded number that corresponding to the recorded homeseer number.

If you want you can post your 2 rem files.

[vossenh]

Tony, that is very good of you to offer to help, because I don't yet have a reply from IRTrans on how to do this. The hs_signals.rem file contains the following (it may be that these are some values that ended up in there after trying to learn IR commands through HomeSeer, but I have since deleted all the buttons in HomeSeer and the file still reads the same):

[REMOTE]
[NAME]hs2_signals

[TIMING]
[0][N]3[1]3472 1752[2]424 448[3]424 1312[RC]6[FL]134[FREQ]37[FREQ-MEAS][SB][RS]
[1][N]0[RC]2[FL]105[FREQ]36[FREQ-MEAS][RC6][SB][RS]
[2][N]4[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]144 4512[4]144 6080[RC]23[FL]92[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]
[3][N]3[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]144 6080[RC]23[FL]91[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]
[4][N]4[1]144 6080[2]144 1408[3]144 3048[4]144 4512[RC]6[FL]92[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[5][N]3[1]144 6080[2]144 1408[3]144 3040[RC]6[FL]91[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[6][N]0[RC]6[FL]134[FREQ]37[FREQ-MEAS][SB][RS]
[7][N]1[1]200 400[RC]1[RP]0[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]

[COMMANDS]
[0][T]4[D]011121131111201
[1][T]5[D]011121211121101
[2][T]4[D]011121131121101
[3][T]4[D]011121231121201
[11][T]6[D]011121131111201
[19][T]7[D]0
[15][T]6[D]011121131111201

_____________________________
I have then cleared all the IR buttons in HomeSeer and added 11 new buttons for a device called Futronix (which is a IR controlled light unit) I have an on, off and 9 btns. set up in Homeseer, but I cannot learn any commands to them.

If I use the IRTrans GUI, I manage to get a Futronix.rem file with the following content:

[REMOTE]
[NAME]futronix

[TIMING]
[0][N]4[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]152 4512[4]144 6080[RC]6[FL]102[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[1][N]3[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]144 6080[RC]6[FL]91[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[2][N]4[1]152 1408[2]144 3048[3]152 4512[4]152 6072[RC]6[FL]92[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]
[3][N]3[1]152 1408[2]144 3048[3]152 6072[RC]6[FL]94[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]

[COMMANDS]
[On][T]0[D]300010121212030
[1][T]1[D]200010100010020
[2][T]2[D]300010020010030
[3][T]2[D]300010120010130
[4][T]1[D]200010001010020
[5][T]3[D]200010101010120
[6][T]0[D]300010021010130
[7][T]2[D]300010121010030
[8][T]2[D]300010000210030
[9][T]0[D]300010100210130
[Off][T]2[D]300010020000130
__________________________________
If you can now show me how to transfer this to the hs_signal.rem file that would be fantastic. Does this then mean that the buttons set-up in HomeSeer would all work for this device, even if I have not been able to learn any IR commands against them ?

Thanks very much for your help.
Harry

[tonlof]

Hello Harry, can I take a look at your IR-Labels.ini in homeseer config folder?

[vossenh]

Hi Tony, The ir_labels.ini file has the following content:
"0,Futronix,Futronix,On,On"
"1,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_1,Btn_1"
"2,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_2,Btn_2"
"3,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_3,Btn_3"
"4,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_4,Btn_4"
"5,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_5,Btn_5"
"6,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_6,Btn_6"
"7,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_7,Btn_7"
"8,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_8,Btn_8"
"9,Futronix,Futronix,Btn_9,Btn_9"
"10,Futronix,Futronix,Off,Off"

I can also tell that I have tried to amend the hs_signal.rem file as follows (see below), but that gives me partial success. Strangely the On button (in HomeSeer) sends an Off command, button 1, 2 and 3 work as intended, but all the others don't function. I don't understand.

[REMOTE]
[NAME]hs2_signals

[TIMING]
[0][N]3[1]3472 1752[2]424 448[3]424 1312[RC]6[FL]134[FREQ]37[FREQ-MEAS][SB][RS]
[1][N]0[RC]2[FL]105[FREQ]36[FREQ-MEAS][RC6][SB][RS]
[2][N]4[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]144 4512[4]144 6080[RC]23[FL]92[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]
[3][N]3[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]144 6080[RC]23[FL]91[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]
[4][N]4[1]144 6080[2]144 1408[3]144 3048[4]144 4512[RC]6[FL]92[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[5][N]3[1]144 6080[2]144 1408[3]144 3040[RC]6[FL]91[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[6][N]0[RC]6[FL]134[FREQ]37[FREQ-MEAS][SB][RS]
[7][N]1[1]200 400[RC]1[RP]0[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[8][N]4[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]152 4512[4]144 6080[RC]6[FL]102[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[9][N]3[1]144 1416[2]144 3048[3]144 6080[RC]6[FL]91[FREQ]38[FREQ-MEAS]
[10][N]4[1]152 1408[2]144 3048[3]152 4512[4]152 6072[RC]6[FL]92[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]
[11][N]3[1]152 1408[2]144 3048[3]152 6072[RC]6[FL]94[FREQ]39[FREQ-MEAS]

[COMMANDS]
[0][T]4[D]011121131111201
[1][T]5[D]011121211121101
[2][T]4[D]011121131121101
[3][T]4[D]011121231121201
[11][T]6[D]011121131111201
[19][T]7[D]0
[15][T]6[D]011121131111201
[On][T]8[D]300010121212030
[Btn_1][T]9[D]200010100010020
[Btn_2][T]10[D]300010020010030
[Btn_3][T]10[D]300010120010130
[Btn_4][T]9[D]200010001010020
[Btn_5][T]11[D]200010101010120
[Btn_6][T]8[D]300010021010130
[Btn_7][T]10[D]300010121010030
[Btn_8][T]10[D]300010000210030
[Btn_9][T]8[D]300010100210130
[Off][T]10[D]300010020000130

[vossenh]

Hi Tony,
I have send you the files in a zip file through to your e-mail address.