JP1 Remotes

What tool do you guys use for capture/analyzing IR signals nowadays? Is it still IRDC by Tommy Tyler, or Pronto, or something else?

I still have Tommy's IRDC and use it to decode signals that are new/problematic/unusual, but John Fine wrote a decoder (decodeIR.dll) that works in conjuncton with the latest version of IR that can decode most learned commands by your OFA remotes.

decodeIR.dll also works with a new version of cf2efc and DecodeCCF that can decode Pronto ccf files and cml2efc that decodes RTI TT files. A modified version of IRTool can also uses the decoder to decode Pronto hex in text form.

They are all in the tools or progams section in the old Yahoo files.

John also wrote a Protocol Builder that can create many protocols without having to know/understand assembly language. So compared to a little more than a year ago -- BIG changes.

hlyi wrote:What tool do you guys use for capture/analyzing IR signals nowadays?

I know John has one of Tommy's Gizmo's (I gave it to him), but I think the preferred tool is still a JP1 learning remote. John's decoder .dll coupled with IR is a really comprehensive capture/analyzing tool (and just keeps getting better as John refines the dll).

johnsfine wrote:I guess I need to buy more toys. I'm expert at things like getting a 15-2104 to support more than 8 devices, but I don't need to

I didn't say I had any time to watch anything from those 13 devices just that I could control them perfectly

Mark Pierson wrote: I know John has one of Tommy's Gizmo's (I gave it to him)

Thankyou, and I use it on occasion. But I really depend on decodeIR. There are lots of situations in which the immediate feedback and the accuracy of Tommy's Gizmo would be a massive advantage over a learning remote, but only if it also used decodeIR.

Something about the counter chip in Tommy's Gizmo gives me trouble every time I've programmed it. It takes me hours to relearn the chip's behavior before I can write what ends up being trivial code to use it (some thing I did in several different project MANY years ago). Part of the issue is the I always want to squeeze just a little more information out of it than it is designed to provide. That and some Windows issues have stopped me so far from doing the obvious project of rewriting Tommy's software to use DecodeIR.

jon_armstrong wrote: John also wrote a Protocol Builder that can create many protocols without having to know/understand assembly language.

It was a group effort. I just invented some of the starting concepts and coded some of the bit twidling. I've lost track of who has contributed what to it. I might not be even the second (or even third) major contributor to PB at this point.

Lots of recent emails have flown by regarding recent PB enhancements and I haven't even had time to try to understand them much less contribute.

Apologies to Mark Pierson, Jason Mitchell, and Mike England. You guys are definitely taking PB to the next level and Mark did the user interface from the beginning.

Like I said in another thread, excessive bombardment of holiday music causes brain damage...