Suggestions for creating reliable USB-UIRT configuration files

[jchiso]

I've tried for several months to come up with a working solution to the problem of controlling a pair of set-top boxes with a USB-UIRT. The boxes in question are Hughes HTL-HD DirecTV units; capable of tuning satellite, OTA digital, OTA analog and cable signals. I am using two different command sets with the units and attempted to build two different .ir config files.

The problem is that neither code set works reliably. Digits are frequently dropped, such that "3-0-7" may become "3" or "0-7". I have tried to learn the digit transmissions from within Sage, with the IRHelper app from USB-UIRT, and as values pasted from Pronto configurations. Nothing seems to work. I've tried Repeat Count values from as high as "10" to as low as "2".

To determine if it was a Sage (and/or) USB-UIRT problem I set up the emitter to control a different model of set-top box (in an adjacent room) and it works fine. It appears that the problems are specific to the Hughes boxes. Now it would seem to me that blasting an infrared signal would not be that difficult a task, as a $15 learning remote can do this.

Anyone have any ideas or experiences that would explain this or can offer any suggestions to eliminate the problems?

Here are the setup line and first digit of each of the two config files I've most recently used:
Setup 1:
HughesHTLHDSet1 0 0 3 219 800 ok
1 0000 006E 0022 0002 0152 00AA 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 05C5 0153 0056 0015 0E30

Setup 2:
HughesHTLHDSet2 37616 411 3 317 800
RepeatCount 2
0 0000 006E 0022 0002 0152 00AB 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0041 0015 0016 0015 05C5 0153 0056 0015 0E32

[salsbst]

Do you have the emitters attached to the IR receiver windows on the STBs with black tape?

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by salsbst

Do you have the emitters attached to the IR receiver windows on the STBs with black tape?

No, they are just using the adhesive that came with the emitters.

[salsbst]

Well, you might see if covering the area with black tape improves the accuracy (by drastically reducing reflection).

[perfessor101]

Hello JSciso,
One thing that helped me with capturing the pronto codes from the remotes was to turn off the flourescent lights in my room. I read in another post that they operate at or around 40Khz which interferes with capturing the codes at 38Khz.
Also under remote control options I've set 'delay between codes' to 250 msec and 'delay between channel changes' to 500msec as I found my cable box would 'timeout' before it finished sending the last digits of the code (ie. 067 would attempt a change to channel 06 for a moment and then to 7 after).

Hope this may help,

Bobby

[SHS]

Try this
HughesHTLHDSet1 0 0 3 219 800
to
HughesHTLHDSet1 0 0 3 6 100

[jchiso]

Okay, I've tried virtually everything mentioned above, and then some. For the past three weeks I have had my primary capture card connected to a set-top box in and adjacent room and have had a 100% success rate with over fifty scheduled captures and several ad-hoc tunings. Clearly the USB-UIRT and Sage installation are not lacking in this area.

This points me back to the Hughes set-top boxes. I have tried re-programming the codes from the original remotes, from a universal remote and from a Pronto. Nothing seems to work. Digits are randomly and sporadically dropped during transmission. I have also pasted the IR codes from the irhelper app, but that is similarly unpredictable.

Is there any way at all to specifically force Sage or the USB-UIRT to transmit the codes as emitted from any of the remotes mentioned? I'm not even sure if the codes for a specific button, say "3" is interpreted the same by Sage, the USB-UIRT helper or Pronto Edit.

Anyone have any ideas on this?