Codes/Upgrade wanted: LG VCD/CD/Karaoke FL-R888K

digital_silence · Post by **digital_silence** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:39 am

Hi all,

I am looking for the codes for LG (formerly Goldstar) VCD/Karaoke machine model FL-R888K for my URC8811 (I suspect, the code set would be same or similar for the other close LG models like FL-R800 or FL-R900)

Unfortunately, the original remote is lost, so I am in a complete darkness as to where to start.

The complication here is that the code list for URC8811 does not have LG listed as a manufacturer at all in either CD or DVD player sections.

Is there any known upgrade for LG VCD/DVD players? That would at least be a start for me.

Any help on the subject is greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,
:-DS

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 11:18 am

I believe that LG = Zenith

digital_silence · Post by **digital_silence** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 7:31 pm

Thanks Rob,

I tried EVERY code for all LG, Goldstar and Zenith for EVERY device (TV, VCR, etc.) for my URC8811 - all to no avail.

Oh well... Nobody can say I didn't try... :-)

BTW, another question aside:
Buttons L1 to L4 (learning buttons) on the URC8811 - can they be programmed (learnt) differently for different device selection (TV, VCR, DVD etc.) ? In other words, how many learnt codes can be stored in the remote at a time? Is it 4 only or 4*8=32 ? (meaning: 4 codes for each of the 8 devices)? It is not clear from the URC8811 user guide brochure.

Thanks,
:-DS

Mark Pierson · Post by **Mark Pierson** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 7:41 pm

Actually, contrary to the documentation, you can learn to just about ANY button except the device buttons. TV:L1 is different from VCR:L1 is different from DVD:L1, etc... any unused combination of device:button can be used. Typically, you can learn approximately 25 commands, until the learning area of memory is used up.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 6:14 am

The storage needed by each IR signal varies a lot depending on what IR protocol it is and how well it is learned (badly learned signals usually take more storage). The often quoted 25 commands is a little pesimistic. You're more likely to have room for more than that rather than less, but either is possible.

The storage is shared by all device modes and you can lean to almost any key, so you could probably learn all the keys of a typical original remote into one device mode and have no storage left for any other device modes, or you could learn 3 or 4 keys in each device mode and use the storage more evenly.

The documentation focusing on L1 to L4 tends to suggest using the storage evenly across device modes, but in the real world that is not likely to be what you want.

digital_silence · Post by **digital_silence** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 8:02 am

Thanks guys,

I have "learnt" some signals from the friend's machine that is a slightly different model, but luckily, its remote controller happened to be compatible with my FL-R888K in the subject.

I was able to learn 25 (and 25 it was!) buttons out of 41. Some of them appeared with big red warning frame in IR.EXE, but the majority of the codes were recognised. They are NEC (sometimes IR says it's NECx1), the device is 46 and subdevice is also 46. Has anyone of you guys ever come across the upgrade or the set of codes that would match this? Or do I have to sit down and manually create the upgrade based on OBC set that I can figure out from learnt signals analysis? BTW, is it URC8811 itself that analyses the learnt signals or IR.EXE?

Another "general URC8811 knowledge" question is:
If I don't have IR.EXE or d/load cable or I am away from my PC at the moment, how do I fully reset URC8811 to the stage it was shipped in (factory default), using only 8811's own buttons?

Thanks heaps,
:-DS

Mark Pierson · Post by **Mark Pierson** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:34 am

digital_silence wrote:They are NEC (sometimes IR says it's NECx1), the device is 46 and subdevice is also 46.

Time to build an upgrade!

As far as I can tell, there's no built-in code that uses 46.46 in either the NEC1 or NECx1 variant in the 8811. I didn't check any upgrades in the Files section for the various brands mentioned so far.

how do I fully reset URC8811 to the stage it was shipped in (factory default), using only 8811's own buttons?

Hold the Set button until the LED blinks twice.
Enter 9 8 1
The LED should blink 2 sets of double-blinks indicating a reset.

Post by **The Robman** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 10:23 am

As the device and sub-device codes are the same, I'm inclined to believe that the NECx1 decode is correct rather than the NEC1, but in reality, both will probably work.

If you're getting the red messages on some of your learned signals, you could either have weak batteries in either of the remotes, or your learning technique may be wrong.

johnsfine · Post by **johnsfine** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:47 pm

The Robman wrote:As the device and sub-device codes are the same, I'm inclined to believe that the NECx1 decode is correct rather than the NEC1, but in reality, both will probably work.

Sometimes a device will accept a signal with NEC vs. NECx selected wrong, but more often not, so you should get that right.

As for misdecodes on bad learns, it isn't too surprising that a bad learn of NECx1 would report NEC. It's would be much more surprising that a bad learn of NEC1 would report NECx1. So that makes NECx1 much more likely to be correct.

Also, Rob is right to point out the subdevice. Manufacturers choosing NEC1 rarely make subdevice number equal device number. Manufacturers choosing NECx1 make subdevice equal device in over 90% of the cases we've seen. So that's independent confirmation that NECx1 is correct.

digital_silence · Post by **digital_silence** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 5:26 pm

Thanks guys,

It looks like I am up for creating my first upgrade! Well... Let's see what it takes... :-)

BTW, how about my question as to who of the two (8811 or IR.EXE) does the actual protocol recognition job?

Regards,
:-DS

mr_d_p_gumby · Post by **mr_d_p_gumby** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 5:30 pm

digital_silence wrote:BTW, how about my question as to who of the two (8811 or IR.EXE) does the actual protocol recognition job?

The remote doesn't have a clue about the learned signal. All it knows is how to play it back. IR has some older built-in recognition, but it has been replaced with John's DecodeIR.DLL, which is called by IR for this purpose.

jon_armstrong · Post by **jon_armstrong** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 5:31 pm

digital_silence wrote:BTW, how about my question as to who of the two (8811 or IR.EXE) does the actual protocol recognition job?

It's actually decoded by IR.exe by calling DecodeIR.dll (written by John Fine). DecodeIR.dll is used by several other tools such as DecodeCCF that can decode Pronto ccf files. This decoder can probably decode 90+% of IR protocols out there.

Post by **The Robman** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 7:24 pm

What's the word DS, did you create an upgrade yet? I checked with UEI and they don't have a code for this, so I'll be sending them your upgrade when you're done with it.

digital_silence · Post by **digital_silence** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:56 pm

Yep, created the upgrade yesterday - works flawlessly!

I am keen to share it with the community, but have to make a little disclaimer first:

Buttons have been learned from my mate's remote for FL-R900K, which is the newer model than my FL-R888K as in subject. All buttons that are common between two machines are found to be fully compatible. However, there are some other buttons on the 900K remote, the actual functionality of which is unclear to me - they just don't do anything for my 888K. I guess, they represent the new functions that are not supported by 888K.
I included only some of those "other buttons" (but not all, as I ran out of buttons in URC8811) in the upgrade.

The other thing is that I haven't tried experimenting with any of the unused OBCs to see what they are (or may be) doing (so I don't know, for example, if there are discrete ON and OFF codes). And there was no button for tray open/close on the R900K remote, therefore it's not supported by this upgrade (although there still may be an OBC for it, but I wouldn't know until I trial'n'fail).

In a nutshell - the upgrade is good enough to provide control of FL-R888K and FL-R900K, but some non-important (to me) functionality will be missing for 900-th model.

Rob, if you think it's worth publishing this upgrade as it is, could you tell me whether I should email the upgrade to you or upload it to yahoo groups? This is my first upgrade, so please advise.

Thanks,
:-DS

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 6:29 am

Hey DS,
Regarding the 900K functions that don't do anything on your 888K, you should include all of them in the Functions list, just don't bother assigning them to buttons on your remote. Also, in the "notes" column in the Functions list, indicate that these are R900K functions that don't do anything for the R888K.

Could you then load a copy of your upgrade into the Yahoo file section (I guess the DVD folder is probably the closest fit) and also email me a copy.

If you do eventually try testing the missing OBCs and you find some additional functions, you should then replace the file you created.