IR not working in NR

[vitello]

I am having problems getting ir working with NR. I have an USBIRT and it works fine from G5
(version 5.0.525). I am able to learn and transmit with no problems. With NR (1.1.045) and
NRD (2.0.0.102) I am able to learn, but tramsmit doesn't work. I copied a learned code from
NRD to G5 and got it to work there so I know that the NRD learning works. I am testing with
NR client. With the client in ir direct mode, the USBIRT flashed when I tryed sending ir, but the
device didn't respond. When I try girder passthrough, the USBIRT doesn't even flash and
nothing shows up in logger display. On the G5 side there clearly is a problem. When I
set ir passthrough to USBIRT in the component manager/netremote window it always
resets it to disabled when I go back to check. I know it is possible to use G5 events to
manage ir, but I don't want to duplicate all of my universal remote ir commands both on NR
and again on G5.

There have been a lot of threads on ir problem over the last couple of months. I think that
it would be useful to have a sticky thread describing what isn't working, and/or how to
get ir working with and without girder.

Also, it would be nice if NRD and G5 could copy and paste back and forth ir codes that both
programs could understand. Copying from NRD to G5 works, but not the other way around.

Peter

[tmorten]

That's the first report I've heard of USB-UIRT not working for output, so unfortunately I don't have any threads to point you to on that one. I'll hook up my USB-UIRT to test, but it would be helpful to know if anyone else out there has experienced USB-UIRT issues with build 102 (and if so, whether they were able to work around somehow)... anyone?

Thanks,
Tim

[vitello]

Tim,

Any luck with your USB-UIRT?

Thanks,
Peter

[NeoMorph]

As a Girder user way before NR, I've always had the IR stored in Girder. Never stored any of the IR codes on the remote itself... the main codes were on Girder.

Honestly, I've never used passthrough as I can do much more with Girder - for instance I can send one IR command and it shuts down my TV, Amp and XBOX, turn on the main room lights and turn off the scene lighting.

Trying to macro that on a remote is a pain but it's easy in NRD.

[vitello]

NeoMorph

What I am doing with NR/NRD is replacing my universal remote (MX-700 from Universal Remote). I have my MX-700 remote programed with all of my ir codes for 10 different remotes plus x-10 codes. There are then 10 different activities I have setup: watch a movie, watch tv, etc that have macros to setup the reciever, tv, drv, lights, and so on. There are about 400-500 different ir codes from the separate remotes loaded into the universal remote. With the universal remote I have access to all of the controls from all of the separate remotes available and nicely combined in my activities. Playing with the MX-700 was my hobby before Girder and NR.

Now I could learn the 400-500 ir codes into Girder and set up my macros there, but then I still need to set up a separate 400-500 buttons on my NR pages that mimic the separate remotes so I can control devices individually if I need to change settings, and then I would need to add all of the macro buttons on my NR pages that would call the girder macros to control activities. Its much easier (and less prone to typing errors) to do this once in NR for the ir and use girder for non-ir stuff, like my Insteon lighting scenes.

I estimated that putting the ir into girder would make setting this up and debugging it take about three times longer than just using NR.

The MX-700 is a great remote with good setup software. NR beats it with two-way communication and graphical placement of buttons.

Peter

[NeoMorph]

Wow Peter... That's a LOT of transferring. It took me ages just to learn all the IR codes for my plasma, Denon amp, Panasonic DVD recorder and two spare IR controllers for controlling the automation facilities.

Thing is, once you have done it you can make a backup. What would happen if your MX-700 develops a fault. Remotes are notorious for being dropped, sat on etc, etc. (edit: found out you can backup mxf files for your remote... got to say it looks cool - never looked at one like that before)

Do what I did... a remote a day. It's not such a big job then. Just doing a single remote allowed me to input the data for the single remote and then fully test it.

[vitello]

NeoMorph,

I've started out desiging my NR pages that will mimic the remotes. Coming up with my own button placement plan is fun. I'm trying for something that is similar to the MX-700 which my wife and I are used to. I'm doing this while the ir issues get straightened out. If passthrough is fixed, then I can just do the learning one device at a time. If not, then I'll have to do the boring work of setting up hundreds of girder events. That's the part that will be a pain. Also, I plan on getting a globalcache. My understanding is that NR can send directly to globalcache, bypassing girder. Since direct ir doesn't work anymore, NR to globalcache would be a good backup plan if girder hangs. This has happened to me in the past due to insteon lighting system going wild. You've had girder lockups yourself.

Good luck on your projects.

Peter

[tmorten]

Sorry; I got side-tracked, but I'll put this at the top of my list for tomorrow.

Best,
Tim

[NeoMorph]

Vitello I found a lovely little program that Promixis bundles with Girder that I only found the other day... called Watchdog. Basically it sits in the system tray and monitors Girder. If Girder is naughty and locks up it restarts it. You should find Watchdog in your Girder 5 directory.

Here is what it looks like when you open it from the system tray...

http://www.neomorph.net/promixis/Watchdog.png

Note how Watchdog even keeps a note on how many lockups there are and where so you can figure out what is causing the problem. I wish I had found this a couple of months ago as it would have let me know what was locking up. In my case it was a dodgy piece of hardware that kept resetting itself and then failing on the reset in Girder (USB-UIRT didn't like my USB 2 hubs being plugged into a USB 1.1 PC I think is the answer now even though they are supposedly backwards compatible. When it reset it killed the hub too and anything that was connected to it which was the rest of my home automation kit... hence Girder was "locked up" as it couldn't contact anything in my home.).

Since fixing the hardware problem I haven't had any lockups and and everything is running sweet.

[vitello]

John,

Thanks for the info on WatchDog. I missed seeing it as it doesn't show up under the start menu with the other girder programs. I launched it and I am seeing a number of CoreThread Subsystem did not respond messages. You mentioned that WatchDog lets you know where the problem is. I see two columns with the warning messages and the time. Should I be looking somewhere else? It would be nice to have watchdog looking at NR as well because my NR client is really unstable at times.

Thanks for the tip. I'll leave watchdog on for a while and see what it turns up.

Peter

[NeoMorph]

When Girder falls over and has to be restarted Watchdog shows the infraction count. Then you look at the messages and the timestamp. Go to your logfile and lookup the corresponding error and it will show what's gone wrong.

I just wish you could resize Watchdog so the msg and date columns would fit better.

[vitello]

John,

I see where to look now in the log files. By the way, you should be able to resize watchdog. Try grabing the lower right edge and dragging it. I am able to resize the window and the column widths. I still wish watchdog worked with NR because as soon as I start NR watchdog complains and my NR client just died again.

Peter

[NeoMorph]

Ahhh.. I was looking on my laptop and that is using a windowblinds skin that partially hid the draggable edge. You can it see in my screenshot.

I've had that NR crash happen a couple of times... usually it kill NRD at the same time so yeah I too wish that there was one for NR too (especially as when I finish my panel off it will be put into a wall panel and I don't want that crashing (even though I suppose I could put a single icon on the desktop to restart it).