Program Ocelot to use Pronto as Controller

[hanarmco]

GD,

The easiest thing to do now that you have an Ocelot is to generate these same codes with GenIRDB and create an lir file and load them into the Ocelot and test.

When you say they are nothing like what you have, how are they different? Keep in mind that they are hex values of timings and +/- 10% variances are insignificant. So 003F is only decimal 1 different than 0040.

-Jon

[GenevaDude]

Jon,

Good point. I was looking at literal values.
But, still, it didn't give me the results I had expected. Knowing this, I can work with it.
I'll try what you suggest tonight or tomorrow.
This is getting to be a challenge with me, but as I mess around with this stuff, I'm learning.
By the way, if I use my Ocelot to learn, then save to file, what can I use to decode the file, so I can upload it to my Pronto? Would that be lir2ir.exe or something else?

-System Spec------
ASUS A7V333ARU VIA KT333 MOTHERBOARD; AMD ATHLON XP PROCESSOR 2200+ (1800MHz); 1024MB DDR 333MHz DDRAM; ATI RAGE 128 CHIPSET 32MB W/ TV OUT VGA CARD; AHANIX PLATINUM XP SILVER/BLACK COLOR 9 DRIVE BAYS SPI 300W POWER SUPPLY TOOL-LESS PANELS ATX MID TOWER CASE; Win2K SP2 5Serial 1Parallel, Hawking Modem, Broadband >Mediacomm, Phillips Audio, ATT Voices, PhoneSwitch, 10/100 Ethernet, Ocelot for IR and Bobcats, CM11A for X10
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GenevaDude

[hanarmco]

GD,

lir2ir will turn the learned Ocelot commands into pseudo Pronto hex. There are two problems with this:

1. The Ocelot does no know the frequency of the IR carrier. The default is set at 38KHz but if you are decoding Dish, RCA, older Panasonic etc. that are all at 58KHz then it will be way off.

2. The third and fourth 4-character hex values in Pronto hex are fixed segment length and repeat segment length. The Pronto figures this stuff out when it learns. The Ocelot cannot distinguish between one time and repeat sequences. It just records the IR signals till it runs out of space. lir2ir just calculates the number of burst pairs contained in the whole learned sequence (even though it is stopped in mid way in thee last segment) and calls that the fixed segment length.

These fixed and repeating segments must be accurately defined for the Pronto to work correctly and get reliable recognition.

This was a tool that Jay Hogg wrote so that Ocelot users without a Pronto could get their IR library in a uniform format and build a database.

I use lir2ir to decode the signals. I already know the definitions of most protocols so I am only looking for the bits. This is very helpful when I am trying to figure out what protocol/device code works.

The Pronto is a very good learning remote so learn the signals directly from the OEM remote into the Pronto and make sure you use fresh batteries before trying to learn anything. The Pronto can very accurately determine the IR carrier frequency.

There is a whole family of protocols that the Ocelot cannot handle reliably. These are mostly from Philips and they have a toggle bit that varies every button push. One bit alternates back and forth between 1 and 0. So when you learn a command it will be one or the other. So trying to switch to channel 111 would be impossible for a learned command in the Ocelot. GenIRDB can handle it by generating the 1 and 0 case (two sets of commands) and then you would have to alter the commands in the script/macro.


Needless to say the Pronto, designed by Philips handles these commands well.

-Jon