URC-8810 fails with USB - other JP1 remotes OK - ideas?

[donphillipe]

I just pulled out my USB to JP1 connector from storage for the past 7 years. This is my second computer I owned since I last used it. I downloaded all the most recent files and fired up the IR.EXE. I had programed this very 8810 with this USB device some 7 years ago but the buttons are wearing out and wanted to extract the program before I tried to upload to another remote. The last time I used this USB cabel on this 8810 it worked fine. Now when I try to download from the remote, it says "SDA is being held low." Just to do more PD, I found my two old RS 15-1994 remotes and hooked the USB to JP1 connector up to them and I was able to download from the remote using IR.EXE. I tried updating the USBIODS.SYS and INF file as well.

Any idea what I might check or change to figure out why the 8810 will no longer program with this setup. Again, the computer is new

(I might add that I first attempted this using a backup of the very old directory of my IR.EXE that last worked on an older computer, and I got the same results as when I replaced all with the newest versions of all files.)

[The Robman]

Are you using the same batteries in the URC-8810 and the 15-1994? If not, try switching them.

[donphillipe]

I guess it is a remote gone bad because I a few minutes ago dug out my even older parallel to JP1 cable, plugged it in an older computer with the parallel port, copied all the files to a thumb drive and tried IR.EXE from the old computer. Nearly the same results - both the 1994's will respond properly to the Download from Remote IR.EXE button from over the parallel cable. When I plug the 8810 into the old computer with parallel to JP1 cable, the error message is "No response from the remote" (different than on the new computer USB-JP1).

I tried with fresh batteries tested (plus light is bright). Still no change. The remote still works (just has sticky buttons) but just won't communicate any longer over the JP1.

Problem 2: In the process of a cold afternoon, I added a 6 pin header to my URC-9960B01. Checked and double checked the solder connections. Have good connectivity and no bridges. But it fails to communicate properly but produces the same error on both interfaces. On both the new computer with the USB-JP1 and the older computer with the PARALLEL-JP1 I get the same error message on both systems when clicking the Download from Remote button, "No definition file could be found for this remote (<<hieroglyphics>>>"

Batting a low one on this project!

[The Robman]

Regarding the URC-8810, the next thing I would try is re-soldering the pins on the 6-pin.

Regarding the URC=9960B01, the "no def..." message means that it couldn't find the RDF for the remote. Do you have the complete set of RDFs downloaded and saved? If you click away that message, does it still download and if so, can you see the signature in the Raw Data panel?

[donphillipe]

8810 - will check pins out next week
-----------------------------------------

REVISED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9960B01 - Raw data:

At 0000: FF FF 01 04 01 04 00 00 FF FF FF

At 0008: thel FF data begins (all FF data up to byte 0282)

At 0282: 28 00 D2 06 00 F9 AD 52 00 F9 41 44 11 95 08 D5 11 95 04 77 00 F9 08 CF 00 F9 .....................

At 02AB: the FF data begins again.

At 0E80: D3 2C 4B 4153 41 4B ................

At 0EA2: the FF data begins again.

At 0F80: 01 06 01 06 01 06 00 00

At 0F88: the FF data begins again.

Signature: yy|||| (y's have double dots above them)
Processor: Samsung S3C8+
Interface: JP1

On IR.EXE a File, Set Directory shows the default root directory used by IR.EXE as the path to the RDF directory. All files are in this root directory for IR.EXE along with a large list of RDF files which includes:

NAK0NAK0 (URC-9960 One For All Kameleon).rdf
NAKxNAK2 (URC-9960 One For All Kameleon Extender 2).rdf
NAKxNAKx (URC-9960 One For All Kameleon Extender 1).rdf
KASAKAS0 (URC-9960 B01 One For All Kameleon).rdf (date 1/21/08)
KASAKASX (URC-9960 B01 One For All Kameleon Extender).RDF

REVISED TO ADD MISSING DATA THAT IS NOT FF

[vickyg2003]

Since this problem might be associated with the new computer, what is different about the new computer? Do they use the same operating system?

[donphillipe]

Since this problem might be associated with the new computer, what is different about the new computer? Do they use the same operating system?

Two different computers running Win XP Pro SP3, latest fixpacks. The core 2 duo Asus board has no parallel port and it is using a USB to JP1 (the kind with the gray junction box with either vent or speaker slot holes cut in it).

The other computer is a 5 year old ACER Win XP Pro SP3 and all the latest fixpacks. It does have a parallel with the parallel to JP1 connected.

Both JP1 connectors are professionally constructed and purchased from a recommended seller listed here.

Both computers read and write to the two Radio Shack 1994's just great. The 9960 fails the same way on both systems (see above raw data map). The 8810 fails one way on one system and another way on the other system.

Update. I just tried a URC-9910B00 on both computers and it works fine on both. just like the 1994's do.

So I am down to failures on the 8810 which Rob says may be a factory connector come unsoldered. The other issue is the 9960 that reports back strange data.

[vickyg2003]

I take it that neither computer is a 64bit version.

Have you tried a factory reset(981) on the two remotes that are giving you headaches?

[donphillipe]

I take it that neither computer is a 64bit version.

Have you tried a factory reset(981) on the two remotes that are giving you headaches?

Not 64. I would have likely jumped off a bridge by now if they had been

[vickyg2003]

I remember there were a lot of problems with the duo processors.
https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9358

If when you said you downloaded the latest files, if you downloaded the wrong version of the delcom driver that might be a problem.

This is not my area of expertise, but just thought the computer questions needed to be asked

[The Robman]

The URC-9960B01 is a 4k remote, did you check the 4k button in IR.exe?

[donphillipe]

I had it on auto but when I change it to forced 4K, the Signature goes to |||||

Very similar, sparsely placed data in a bed of FFFFFFFF.....

I did the factory reset and the signature goes still to yy||||||

[vickyg2003]

The 8810 fails one way on one system and another way on the other system

On the parallel connection, did you try all the battery tricks? My Parallel cable is extremely sensitive, and each remote I have requires different battery tricks.

For the 9960, my advice is get brand new batteries. Weak batteries can cause the EEprom to corrupt, and those kameleons suck the life out of batteries. I know you said they tested okay, but I'd still recommend a 4 pack. Last year I was in a panic because all of a sudden my interface wouldn't read from 2 remotes from two different computers, and it turned out I had 2 sets of bad batteries.

[donphillipe]

I finally made it down to Costco to buy a new AAA battery supply stock and today I installed fresh new batteries in the 8810. Still nothing worked trying to download from the JP1 interface and I still received the same old various errors in IR.exe. Tried both the parallel JP1 interface on computer B and the USB JP1 interface on computer A. I then took all the remotes I have in the house, 5 of them and tried each set of batteries in them, tested by moving this various batteries to the 8810 and again checked in on both computers, both USB and Parallel interfaces, still "download from remote" action failed with ??? held high (can't remember) on USB interface "there is a problem with the interface" on the parallel.

I then took the remote apart and re-melted the solder on the reverse of the JP1 board connector, believing it could be a cold solder joint was suggested here. I retried all the tests again on both computers, using all the batteries at different stages of exhaustion. No help.

Next thing I was thinking was what if pin 1 was not on lower left on the remote as seemed standard on these, even though I saw I had marked it before with a sharpie, maybe I made a mistake by marking the lower left pin and maybe that wasn't pin 1. It couldn't get much worse so wondering if by miscalculation, perhaps I was plugging the JP1 in backwards so I now reversed the JP1 and plugged into the 8810 with the parallel connector upside down on the remote and tried "Download from remote" on the parallel again. I got the same interface error message. Then I reversed it again to be alligned as I had marked on both the remote years ago and the JP1 connector. I still got the interface error.

Remembering my sister's words of long ago of he who repeats the exact same test over and over and expects to get different results is a fool, and considering that sometimes I feel like I have been haunted, I plugged in the USB JP1 with the pin 1 in the lower left as I had done 10's of times before and hit "Download from Remote". This time it worked!

I am not certain what happened. Perhaps plugging the remote backwards on the parallel interface cable reversed some charge on a capacitor or something but I am not going to do any more research to try to figure it out. All I know is that it worked, allowed me to download the program and save it.

Coincidentally, today cleaning out my storage room I found a 8810 I had bought years ago as a backup. I plugged in in the USB JP1 connector, pushed Upload To Remote, crossed my fingers and watched the IR control light flashed a couple of times and I got the success message.

Going back to the Kamilon (sp) remote will be another day's project and test of my voodoo skills.
All is well that ends well!

[The Robman]

Congrats on getting the 8810 to work, even if you don't know what you did to fix it.

Regarding the 9960, please do another 981 reset, then check the 4k box in IR.exe and do a raw download. Save the IR file and post it to the Diagnosis Area folder, then post a link to it so I can take a look.