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[dave w]

Hi group!

I have need of a working X10 IR543AH "IR Command Center".  It must be the IR543AH which does all 16 House Codes, not the IR543A which can only do one House Code.

Will buy or trade (I have a ton of X10 goodies). PM me if you have one and are not using it.

Thanks!!

[dhouston]

What do you need it for?

I'm sure I have one (or more) but do not recall whether it was a production model or one where I installed Laser's chip into an IR543A (or maybe both). I was colluding with Laser back then and, IIRC, even did some prerelease testing.

[dave w]

What do you need it for?

Hi Dave!
I have a Blumoo (http://www.blumoo.com/) which basically turns your unused smartphone into a universal remote. The smartphone transmits the proper remote code , depending on the TV, sound bar, DVR, VCR , home theater, etc you want to control via Bluetooth to the Blumoo appliance, and the Blumoo acts as an IR blaster.

The Blumoo remote code library has X10 codes, so I need a X10 IR to PLC interface. I would like the interface to handle all 16 HCs which is why I was looking for the IR543AH. My understanding is the IR543A can only retransmit the HC it's dial is set to, the IR543AH update will pass all house codes. But I can work with the IR543A also.

Now don't go hurting yourself rooting through all the boxes in the basement.

Thanks very much for responding!

[dhouston]

The Blumoo remote code library has X10 codes, so I need a X10 IR to PLC interface. I would like the interface to handle all 16 HCs which is why I was looking for the IR543AH. My understanding is the IR543A can only retransmit the HC it's dial is set to, the IR543AH update will pass all house codes. But I can work with the IR543A also.

It's been a long time since I played with this, dating all the back to the previous century. I believe I generated the Pronto Remote CCF codes that Laser supplied with the IR543AH and I probably published those to RemoteCentral. I know that I translated those codes to the format used by the Omni Remote but don't recall whether I added those to the RemoteCentral repository. My guess is that Blumoo is using the CCF codes. But that's not critical - all that matters is that they spit out the correct IR sequences. IIRC, all but the extended dims used the original X10 codes - the extended dims and all housecodes were the features Laser added. X10 Europe later copied Lasers's design, including the extended dims, for their IR7243AH (?) so that may be the source for Blumoo's codes.
EDIT: That should read IR7243W - I shoulda read the X10 IR Protocol article on my web page.

So, you'll send Bluetooth to your Blumoo which will send IR to the IR543AH which will send PLC to your X10 devices.

I don't like going down to the catacombs when there's a full Super/Hunters moon rising but I'll see what I can find over the next day or so.

[dave w]

So, you'll send Bluetooth to your Blumoo which will send IR to the IR543AH which will send PLC to your X10 devices.
I don't like going down to the catacombs when there's a full Super/Hunters moon rising but I'll see what I can find over the next day or so.

Yes. That is how it works. If you have TVs, home theaters, stereos, etc in other rooms, then you need a Blumoo blaster in each of those rooms. The concept is actually an X10 Icon or Nstinct Universal Remote on steroids. What got my attention was the customizable screen and buttons for each piece of equipment you want to control. The Icons I have just are not that configurable.

Thank you very much for your effort! Catacombs are very spooky, especially with full moon. I don't like the spiders. 

[dhouston]

Thank you very much for your effort! Catacombs are very spooky, especially with full moon. I don't like the spiders.

And that's especially the case now that I've learned the little buggers can hear.
http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/spiders-hearing/

Luckily, before the sunset, I stumbled across one with an IR543AH label along with two with IR543 labels. I suspect I had modified one of the latter with Laser's PIC but, if so, I did not label it in any way.

I have no easy way to test it but have no reason to suspect there is anything wrong with it so I'll let you do the testing.

I'll PM you with other details. It may take longer to find an appropriate shipping container than it did to find the device.

[dhouston]

I haven't dug into my archives for details on Laser's protocol used by the IR543AH and IR7243W but a quick review of the X10 IR Protocol would indicate that unless the Blumoo X10 Codes are explicitly for the IR543AH or IR7243W you can't control the housecode and you may not be able to control the IR543AH using standard X10 IR.

I see that toasterking posted about both versions to RemoteCentral about 3 years ago so he might be able to shed (visible) light on this.

[dave w]

I haven't dug into my archives for details on Laser's protocol used by the IR543AH and IR7243W but a quick review of the X10 IR Protocol would indicate that unless the Blumoo X10 Codes are explicitly for the IR543AH or IR7243W

I just PMed you about this, but the X10 screen on the Blumoo has 16 buttons for house codes and 16 buttons for unit codes along with ON, OFF BRI, DIM, etc. Pretty much like the SmartHome "Maxi Control Linc" when it's keyboard cover is open. No there is nothing from Blumoo that indicates anything other than standard X10 protocol. I think the IR 543AH will work fine.

[dhouston]

I think the IR 543AH will work fine.

I'm still skeptical. I might be able to conduct some simple tests to resolve things if we don't hear from toasterking. I wrote a Windows application way back then that generated Pronto CCF files for many, many devices and I probably have copies on some HDDs from old PCs that I've saved and installed in USB housings.

While I did not find any codes on RemoteCentral from me, those I found from others were specific to one or the other but not both.

Laser added Preset and Extended Dims. If Blumoo doesn't show these, I think their codes are for the IR543 only. However, given that they do show housecodes (of no use with the IR543) it may mean that the IR7243AH did not include Preset and Extended Dims and that theirs are the codes Blumoo is using.

[dhouston]

The IR543 protocol is very simple. It only contains a unit code or function code.
https://www.laser.com/dhouston/ir.html
The IR543AH protocol is far more complex. It's more like the X10 RF protocol with each transmission including house, unit & function codes.
http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/CM17A_Protocol

I don't recall whether Laser's PIC code (actually created for them by a PIC programmer in Canada) retained the ability to handle standard X10 IR codes. If not, and if Blumoo uses the standard codes, the IR543AH will not handle them - you'd be better off with the IR543.

IOW, the IR543 may not work with IR543AH codes and the IR543AH may not work with IR543 codes. This RemoteCentral page indicates they are incompatible.
http://files.remotecentral.com/view/1709-3003-1/x-10_ir7243ah_lighting.html
And, this post to the X10 forum further confuses things.
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=29529.msg166295#msg166295
CORRECTION: The IR7243AH did copy the IR543AH format. The IR7243W combined standard IR with RF.

Way back whenever, I had a Pronto to which I added a 310MHz RF transmitter. It sent IR & RF simultaneously. It made it fairly easy to control everything and test things before distributing CCF codes, etc. Once I got my current Vizio SmarTV paired with a Lenovo Q190 PC, the Pronto was no longer as handy so I gave it to a nephew.

[dhouston]

I don't recall whether Laser's PIC code (actually created for them by a PIC programmer in Canada) retained the ability to handle standard X10 IR codes. If not, and if Blumoo uses the standard codes, the IR543AH will not handle them - you'd be better off with the IR543.

Someone with a much younger brain and more recent IR543/IR543AH hands on experience has confirmed that the IR543AH does still handle standard IR so I'll get the IR543AH en route ASAP.

[toasterking]

I see that I arrived fashionably late just as people were talking about me. 

The IR543AH definitely accepts the same IR sequences for unit codes and function codes as the IR543; I'm still using my IR543AH that way.  I found that the timing for repeated commands was a little different for the IR543AH, at least in the US/60Hz version, and so I had to modify the binary codes for the IR sequence for DIM and BRIGHT a little for my Philips ProntoNEO TSU501 remote to get them to repeat properly.  The thing you found on Remote Central was probably the remote config files I uploaded from that experiment.  Other than that and adding the new house code sequences, the transition from IR543 to IR543AH was seamless.

dhouston, I wasn't actually aware that there is a way to send the house, unit, and function codes in one IR message.  I send them as three separate messages from my TSU501 and it is slower than I would prefer, so I'd like to know how to do this.  Do you know where I could find those codes (and the extended dim ones) for the IR543AH?  Does the Windows application you wrote create CCF files with those codes attached to buttons?

[dhouston]

dhouston, I wasn't actually aware that there is a way to send the house, unit, and function codes in one IR message.  I send them as three separate messages from my TSU501 and it is slower than I would prefer, so I'd like to know how to do this.  Do you know where I could find those codes (and the extended dim ones) for the IR543AH?  Does the Windows application you wrote create CCF files with those codes attached to buttons?

That may just be my faulty memory. I was always much more involved with X10 RF and I may have been a bit biased towards that protocol. And, as I mentioned earlier, I had modified my Pronto to send RF and I used that as my major remote, only doing periodic testing of IR related to this or to the Ocelot. In my web page article on the X10 IR protocol, created back then,  I wrote...

Both the IR543 and IR543AH receive IR codes, verify that they represent a supported X-10 command, translate the data to the X-10 PLC protocol and transmit the translated command to the powerline. While transmitting to the powerline they cannot receive IR so sequential commands need to be paced to assure the IR543 or IR543AH are again ready to receive IR.

I did a quick dive into my archives but found nothing related to this. It may all have been on a W98 machine that went to the recycler a few years back. I'm sure I kept the HDD but may have later wiped it for use with a Linux distro - they got bigger over the years, requiring bigger HDDs. Do you still have the files that Laser supplied? If not, I'm still in contact with Kwong Li. But, it has been so long that he may not have records either. Home Automation was actually a sideline that his wife supervised and ran out of their garage. His main business was doing IT work for major companies all over Britain (and even Hong Kong).

It's interesting that you and dave w are doing sort of the same thing, sending RF/Bluetooth to a device that then retransmits as IR.

[toasterking]

Do you still have the files that Laser supplied?

I do, but I don't recall any combined house/unit/function command messages being in those example files.  I will check them again to make sure.  The "read me" file shows these command formats, with no mention of the ability to combine them into one message:

Pronto Transmission Patterns
============================

HOUSE:
1 H1 H2 H3 H4 /H1 /H2 /H3 /H4

UNIT:
1 U1 U2 U3 U4 0 /U1 /U2 /U3 /U4 1

FUNCTION:
1 F1 F2 F3 F4 1 /F1 /F2 /F3 /F4 0

EXTENDED_CMD:
1 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 0 /C1 /C2 /C3 /C4 /C5 /C6 /C7 /C8 1

EXTENDED_DATA:
1 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 1 /D1 /D2 /D3 /D4 /D5 /D6 /D7 /D8 0

It also says:

Both the house code and unit code may also reside in the same button
thereby creating a button for a specific X-10 module.

So it seems to suggest using a feature of the Pronto remote (adding multiple commands to one button) to send two separate messages rather than some mechanism of their protocol for combining them into one message.

It shows the command format as:

The 40KHz IR house code signal format is as follows:

0x00A5 0x0096   Lead-in
(4-burst pair)  House code, standard X-10 coding. eg. A=0110, B=1110
(4-burst pair)  House code compliment
0x01C2 0x0096   Inter-message code
0x00A5 0x0096   Lead-in
(4-burst pair)  House code
(4-burst pair)  House code compliment
0x01C2 0x0E10   Lead-out

I suppose it might be possible to insert another inter-message code, lead-in, and another entirely different code before the lead-out, but the "read me" doesn't explicitly state that this is acceptable.

It's interesting that you and dave w are doing sort of the same thing, sending RF/Bluetooth to a device that then retransmits as IR.

In my case, it's because of the remote I am using.  The only RF messages that the TSU501 can transmit are IR messages encapsulated in RF, requiring a Philips RF extender (RF-to-IR device) to receive and retransmit them and necessitating that the destination device be one that accepts IR.  And of course the reason that I am using the RF option at all is for whole-house coverage without line-of-sight access to the receiver.  I could just use an X10 RF remote and avoid this silliness, but I don't wanna; I'd need 2 remotes then! 

[toasterking]

dhouston, that "read me" file also mentions your code generator program:

Another great Windows program for generating large numbers of IR and RF hex
strings, including Extended Commands, is CodeGen http://www.laser.com/dhouston/codegen.htm

The page no longer appears to be on your web site.  This page also has a broken link to that same page:
https://www.laser.com/dhouston/pronto.html