IR Commander

[Tuicemen]

steinie44:

Once the ir commander is programed (royal pain unless you have a free pc with no other x10 stuff on it)

you can have AHP send a windows command (batch file) that will turn on/off your device.

or any other ir command you wish but this is a long about way!

Hopefuly x10 will make a plug-in for this

***SOON***

[steinie44]

We need something like this....!

http://www.smarthome.com/1623.html

Any one know where I can Get one?

[steinie44]

steinie44:

Once the ir commander is programed (royal pain unless you have a free pc withno othe x10 stuff on it)

you can have AHP send a windows command (batch file) that will turn on/off your device.

or any other ir command you wish but this is a long about way!

Hopefuly x10 will make a plug-in for this

***SOON***

I have a laptop with no x10 at all on it!

Can I program the IR Commander on the laptop then use it on my desktop with AHP?

Why do I need to use a batch file? can't I just send a x10 code with AHP or a RF Transmitter?

[Tuicemen]

You cam program it with your laptop if you have never installed any x10 software on it!
you'll need a firecracker CM17A for you laptop as well
Write down all the codes for your devices configured with the commander!
You then need to use the SDK on your desktop to send extended RF commands like:

• AHP Projects Location>ahcmd sendrf e3 00TV
• ahcmd sendrf e3 63Release

[/b][/color]
AHP can't send this code YET
AHP can start a batch file which send the commands from the SDK, this can be triggered with the windows command option in a macros.
The batch file would look something like this:

[li]@rem echo off[/li]
[li]cd C:C:Program FilesAHSDKin[/li]
[li]ahcmd sendrf e3 00TV[/li]
[li]ahcmd sendrf e3 63Release[/li]
[li]ahcmd sendrf e3 03power[/li]
[li]ahcmd sendrf e3 63Release[/li]
[/list]
Your TV code no doubt will be different! 
Name the batch file TV_Power.bat then from AHP you have a macro with window command "(location of batch file)TV_Power.bat"
You have to do this for each commad  you wish to use so you can see it is a lot of work!
For powering on/off you would use the same batch file,so if you just want to turn on/off devices it isn't too bad!

***GOOD LUCK***
Cheers

[/size]

[Charles Sullivan]

Tuicemen,
I finally got X10 Commander for the UX17A (xcom027) working, with a fresh new Win XP installation.

However I can only control ONE device with it.  If I setup for TV, I can control only the TV; if I setup for VCR, I can control only the VCR.
Which ever device is setup last is the only device which can be controlled.

Regardless of what mode is selected in the GUI,  Commander sends the exact same RF code (say for Power and Channel numbers) according to the output I see from a MR26A.  I've tried two different UX17A units with the same result.

Have you (or anyone else) actually managed to control more than one device at a time with a UX17A ?

[Tuicemen]

Charles Sullivan
Wish I could say I had it working with more then one device, but I only ever set it up for one. I had other projects on the table so I boxed it up and haven't used it since Perhaps someone else has been able to program it for more than one device. Maybe your missing a save command or a simple device switch in your testings
I'm off for a weeks holidays so I'll try to remember to have a look at it(play with it) when I get back

[MichaelC]

Tuicemen, it takes a lot of dedication to make batch files like that. The IR Commander hardware is basically like pushing buttons with RF commands, not like sending the commands or even the instructions to send the commands. While it's a great idea, it's fundamentally flawed.

[Charles Sullivan]

I wrote:
Regardless of what mode is selected in the GUI,  Commander sends the exact same RF code (say for Power and Channel numbers) according to the output I see from a MR26A.  I've tried two different UX17A units with the same result.

OK, I've finally got this figured out.  The problem is that the UX17A Commander software (xcom27.exe) is buggy and doesn't send any code to switch modes between TV, VCR, DVD, etc., when the Commander MODE menu item is clicked.  However I was able to discover the correct switch codes and send them with the CM17A Firecracker using my own software.  They can also be sent with the AHP SDK.

Unfortunately the SDK code for UX17A TV mode is not the "e3 00TV", nor does "e3 03Power" control the power switch.  But the following work:
   To switch to TV mode:
      ahcmd  sendrf  e3  29MenuToggle
      ahcmd  sendrf  e3  63Release

   To switch to VCR mode:
      ahcmd  sendrf  e3  28Six
      ahcmd  sendrf  e3  63Release

   To turn Power On/Off in either mode;
      ahcmd  sendrf  e3  30MouseAuxB
      ahcmd  sendrf  e3  63Release

When I get a round tuit, I'll try to post the equivalent SDK commands for the rest of the UX17A functions (assuming anyone really cares).

[Tuicemen]

Tuicemen, it takes a lot of dedication to make batch files like that. The IR Commander hardware is basically like pushing buttons with RF commands, not like sending the commands or even the instructions to send the commands. While it's a great idea, it's fundamentally flawed.

True
The post was just an example to show the posibilities.Perhaps X10 will make a plugin for this which would make lfe simpler!
As Charles Sullivan stated he has his own program to do this! perhaps once the bugs are ironed out he'll post a link to it!

[Charles Sullivan]

Tuicemen, it takes a lot of dedication to make batch files like that. The IR Commander hardware is basically like pushing buttons with RF commands, not like sending the commands or even the instructions to send the commands. While it's a great idea, it's fundamentally flawed.

True
The post was just an example to show the posibilities.Perhaps X10 will make a plugin for this which would make lfe simpler!
As Charles Sullivan stated he has his own program to do this! perhaps once the bugs are ironed out he'll post a link to it!

I've got both the UX17A and UX23A working (including the initial setup) on my Linux system using Heyu as a back end to drive a CM17A.  It's in pieces at the moment and I'm in the process of putting it all together.  The most time consuming part has been due to bugs in the two Windows Commander programs - it's a little more difficult to reverse engineer a program when the original doesn't work.       Both the UX17A and UX23A are neat little devices.  It's unfortunate that X-10 didn't take more care with the Commander software.

Once I've got them finished I'll put the source code up on the Heyu website and post a message here.  It ought to be easy enough to port back to Windows using the AHP SDK to drive the CM15A.  The main usability limitation will be whether the built-in tables in the UX17A and/or UX23A include the IR codes for more recent models of TV, VCR, DVD, etc.  (AFAIK, there's no provision for the UX23A to "learn" the IR codes for anything beyond Record/Stop for a VCR.)

[Charles Sullivan]

I wrote:

Once I've got them finished I'll put the source code up on the Heyu website and post a message here.  It ought to be easy enough to port back to Windows using the AHP SDK to drive the CM15A.

As promised:
Lux17 and Lux23 are console programs to configure and operate, respectively, the X-10 UX17A "IR Commander" and UX23A "VCR Commander II" devices under Linux/Unix/Mac OS X.  They use Heyu as a back end to drive a CM17A "Firecracker" RF transmitter.  The source code is available in the utilities section of the Heyu website (http://www.heyu.org) and is released under the GNU General Public License.

Note: I tried a simple port to Windows XP using the ahcmd.exe command from the AHP SDK to send the RF signals with a CM15A.  Unfortunately ahcmd.exe crashes so frequently as to make the port essentially useless.