Actual OneForAll Smart Control Pro Remotes (URC 7981 / URC 7985) useable with RemoteMaster

[MacGyver_MUC]

Unfortunately still not readable/detectable.
Just to be sure: There should be no batteries inserted when trying to read, correct?

[The Robman]

You should try it both ways. I think the current interfaces require batteries in the remote, whereas some of the older ones required no batteries.

[mathdon]

Very interesting. However they soldered the pins, they must have accessed the back of the PCB. I am currently trying to open the remote but having great difficulty. Following 3FG's instructions for the 7980, I have been able to get as far as releasing the lowest clip on each side, the ones nearest the battery compartment, but cannot release any others. I am afraid of using too much force to separate the two halves of the case in case I break it. As for his soldered-in pins, he may be right. The 7980 has shorter pins than usual and they may have tried to emulate that.

I have made some progress with the Bluetooth connection, but not to the point of being able to read any memory. I have done enough, though, to discover that the Bluetooth setup is completely different from that of the 7980. I can read the remote name, model number, battery level and signal strength but all are read in a totally different way from the 7980.

Another discovery is that I suspect the 7981 does not have a signature. Trying 9xx commands, I find that 990 works to blink back setup codes but 983, which normally blinks back the signature, is not recognized as as a valid command. I can see no reason for deliberately blocking this, which makes me believe that they have stopped using signatures and instead are using model numbers for identification.

You definitely need batteries when trying to read the remote with RMIR.

[HamburgerHelper1]

In case any one finds The Smart Control Pro URC-7966, it is different from the 7981 but uses the same smart App Via Bluetooth for programming . It has the UE878 controller and what appears to be a separate flash chip. Unfortunately it does not have a 6 pin Jp1 Header as i have dismantled it for closer inspection.
Also not noted in its documentation is that the backlight is activated upon pickup
https://www.oneforall.com/en-us/univers ... ontrol-pro

[mathdon]

I wrote above about the URC-7981 that I was trying to open the remote but having great difficulty. I persisted and finally succeeded. I have soldered in the 6-pin connector in the "standard" way that Rob described. The pins are then a tiny bit too long to easily close the battery compartment, though I suspect it may be possible to force it closed. I won''t try that as I didn't buy the remote to use, only to try to develop its use with RMIR, so it doesn't bother me that I can't close the battery compartment.

When I had it dismantled, I found that it uses a different processor to that of the URC-7980, a processor that we haven't seen before. That will explain why RMIR at present cannot read it, and probably why it appears not to use a signature for identification. As far as I can tell, RMIR can write to the remote but the sequence other UEI remotes use to initiate communication through the 6-pin connector does not work for the URC-7981. I will continue to investigate this but it is not going to be a quick or easy problem to solve.

[MacGyver_MUC]

Dear Graham, Rob,
and maybe others,

thanks for your effort and replies; truely appreciated!

As per the last posting of Graham regarding that the URC 7981 uses a new and (so far) unknown chip I made no additional attempts this weekend; as they most likely will fail. Unfortunately I`m also only a "User" so I could not really contribute on the "developer" side of things.

However if I could help somehow I would do my best or if there is any "developer tip jar" or "hardware funding" I would definately consider such "support"; please let me know!

I personally like the OFA remotes much better than any of that fancy ones out there (Sofabaton, Unfolded Circle Remote 3, etc.) because of
1) it has real BUTTONS and
2) of course also its "cheap" price point [I mean; the other ones are selling up on a whopping ~400 GBP / 600 USD...] and
3) for what I use OFA remotes are pretty SUFFICIENT!

[mathdon]

if there is any "developer tip jar" or "hardware funding" I would definitely consider such "support"; please let me know!

I and the other developers work for the pleasure the challenges give us and for the knowledge that we are helping other users. We do not want or accept financial support, but it is very kind of you to consider it.