cantruchd | # 651 | 2012-09-06, 06:03 | Report

Hi Copernicus,

Could you add a function that allow to loop through all available devices and send the signal for a particular button (ie. power button)

My point is that we can use this to quickly check what key set work for a particular device.

Thank you in advance

macey | # 652 | 2012-09-06, 06:25 | Report

I'll second that! May help me find a suitable keyset for my ADB-iCan Easy HD 2851T!

Copernicus | # 653 | 2012-09-06, 07:00 | Report

@cantruchd and @macey, yes, I originally wanted to add that sort of quick run through the same button in all the keysets to quickly pick out the one you want. But I got into a problem with memory usage back when I was keeping all the keysets active at the same time. I'd still like to do it, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it efficiently...

petur | # 654 | 2012-09-06, 08:58 | Report

I'd only keep those of the specific brand + device type in memory. So if you have a TV set of a certain brand, and there are 20 possible keysetsm it is easier to find out which one you need....

krutznikov | # 655 | 2012-09-06, 10:17 | Report

The widget TVBgone does this function: it loops sending all poweroff signals, but I don't think it's possible to check which keyset worked because in any case there is no IR receiver on n900...

Estel | # 656 | 2012-09-06, 10:40 | Report

It would require user to press some kind of "Stop!" button, when receiving device goes off - then, it should be possible to check last, lets say, 5 codes used (to re-try each one separately, checking which one really worked).

To be effective, it would require sending codes not-too-fast - something like one or two per second. I think, that it would still make browsing through dozens of keysets *much* more easy.

/Estel

Copernicus | # 657 | 2012-09-06, 21:45 | Report

Ok, ok, I guess I just really needed to be pushed a bit. I have finally made the attempt to complete my memory management scheme; I was leery about destroying objects across threads, but it looks like it was easier than I had feared. At least, so far it seems that way.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I can now run through every keyset in Pierogi without consuming all the ram in the N900. And so, I've thrown together a panel that, more or less, follows the scheme I had put together for testing keysets way back when I started. (I'll attach a screenshot of the panel at the end of this post.) Right now, the panel just tests the "Power" key in each keyset. I have four buttons on the panel, two which allow you to step forward and backward through the list of keysets one keyset at a time, and two which allow you to "fast forward" through the list, spitting out power keys very quickly (I've currently got it set to switch keysets every 0.05 seconds, but as some protocols require more time than that to encode a single command, it won't always move forward that quickly).

The general idea here is that you'd use the fast-forward and fast-reverse keys to move around quickly until you see the device power on or off, and then use the stepwise keys to find out exactly which keyset triggered the power switch.

There are caveats here, of course: quite a number of devices don't have a remote "power" key, so this mechanism won't catch them. Also, some manufacturers make really strange decisions about their key values: for example, as I've just discovered, the "Power" button for the Sanyo TV Keyset 1a is exactly the same as the "Factory Reset" button in Sanyo TV Keyset 1. (Luckily, you have to hit the reset button twice to perform the reset, so I didn't lose all my TV settings. I have no idea what the engineers at Sanyo were thinking...) So be warned, even just looking for power buttons can be dangerous!

Also of note in this release, I've added a new Camera Shutter panel, for use with the various DSLR camera remotes. It doesn't have much, just an "Open Shutter" button, and (for the Canon remote) an "Open Shutter after Delay" button. Pretty simple.

And, this release contains a first pass at keysets for Deutsche Telekom, Emtec, Goodmans, Nikon, Olympus, and Pentax. (Along with an update to Canon so it can use the new camera panel.)

Again, this is a release that contained a decent amount of messing around with the memory management guts. Be warned that bugs may lie ahead! (And please tell me when you do find them!)

Attached Images

 

Copernicus | # 658 | 2012-09-06, 21:54 | Report

Well, but if you already know the brand, there probably aren't all that many choices to pick through in Pierogi. Only a few brands have as many as 10 TV keysets, and most have much less.

Also, a lot of minor players in the consumer electronics market are using devices manufactured by the big guys and rebranded in their own name; so, it can be worthwhile to try keysets used for other brands of device if you can't find a keyset specific to the brand you've got.

In any case, my biggest problem was just getting Pierogi's memory management under control; with that, playing around with keysets becomes a whole lot easier.

Copernicus | # 659 | 2012-09-06, 21:57 | Report

And what's worse is that TVBgone doesn't even know anything about the IR commands it spits out. I've looked at the data in the TVBgone widget, and I have no idea how they manage to update it, as it is just a list of raw numbers. Even if you knew that the 45th entry in the list was the one you wanted, there's no way to tell just where the 45th entry came from...

sixwheeledbeast | # 660 | 2012-09-06, 23:26 | Report

Dangerous is true, but this is not Pierogi's doing.
I remember having trouble with an LG TV/Monitor using this "Power Button" scanning type on a Virgin Media Box Remote.
The TV went into engineers mode and disabled all input's, took I while to work out how to fix.

A few suggestions for your vary useful new panel, a "restart" from beginning button to quick reset back to the first keyset. Maybe this could replace the fast backward?

I see no reason why you need to fast backward? "Restart", "Scan" and "Pause" would be more user friendly IMO.
Scan being nicer than holding the fast forward button down.
Then use "Previous" and "Next" to exactly find the correct keyset.

Also "add current keyset to favourites" would be useful.
That makes six buttons so could be same as main screen layout?

Finally, do you realise that when using the fast forward then next keyset the application has to be restarted to run the fast forward again?

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Last edited by sixwheeledbeast; 2012-09-06 at 23:29.