R2DI or USB-UIRT

[rhamer]

I am tossing up whether to buy an R2DI card or a USB-UIRT to control my HT equipment as part of my new found interest in all things HT.

Unfortunately none of my gear is controllable any other way, except the Poineer CD changer.

So what would be everybody's suggestion?

Also what would be the best way to buy the winning item.

Cheers

Rohan

[Dean Roddey]

The R2DI is obviously a higher end solution for pure blasting, and provides more options for individual control in the future. And it's internal so it provides more of an appliance-like configuration, if that means anything to you.

It doesn't though support IR learning, just blasting and receiving. And the receiving we are working on currently, so it's not in there yet. But we can convert from other formats so if you can find a CCF file with the commands we can convert from that.

[noshali]

I use a USB-UIRT and it works very well...the best way to buy is through the website form what I know. I have my uirt connected to a zantech 791-44 connecting block. I would have gotten FRANKMC IR system but only need it in one place.

regards,

[rhamer]

I will definately need to learn, so perhaps the USB-UIRT is the go for the moment, and I can add the R2DI later as needed.

So just straight from the website is the go for purchasing it then?

Cheers

Rohan

[Frank Mc Alinden]

Hi Rohan

If you want to try before buying i can loan you mine ???.....

Let me know.........Its a great little device ........

Frank

[rhamer]

Hey, thanks for the offer Frank.

But I'm a bit of an impulse buyer, and I've already ordered one this afternoon.

Thanks anyway.

Cheers

Rohan

[Frank Mc Alinden]

>Hey, thanks for the offer Frank.

>But I'm a bit of an impulse buyer, and I've already ordered one this afternoon.

>Thanks anyway.

No problem.......

The USBUIRT has 2 tx zones available at the 3.5mm socket at the rear as well as the blaster at the front.....I dont think CQC supports zoning as yet ...???
If tx multi zoning is required it wouldnt be too hard to knock up on veroboard a serial driven zone selector which would direct the ir signal.....

Frank

[Dean Roddey]

No, we've not added support for the second zone yet.

[rhamer]

No, we've not added support for the second zone yet.

What, been busy or something :tounge

Cheers

Rohan

[znelbok]

What about the GC100.

You were inquirying about the external version of the R2DI, which appears to be similar to the IR side of the GC100. You get the serial ports as well then with the 100.

Mick

[ToyMaster458]

I am using both the R2DI and the GC. The GC is great for remote locations as it provides a serial, IR and senors. Where the R2DI is great for local equipment in the Rack.

[rhamer]

Hmm, I forgot about the GC, I'll have to take a closer look at it.

How does it stack up against the R2DI from an IR perspective? Just as capable?

Cheers

Rohan

[ToyMaster458]

No issues yet.

[penngray]

Someone said they are trigger happy with buying well count me in on that one!!! I have had the R2DI IR PCI card since it first came out and never used it yet. :(

I just used USB-UIRT to learn my Cable Box, MyFi XM hand held and 3 receivers. its time to get that card working so I can control them.

anything special I should know about installing the IR Card? Is there a thread on how to use it in CQC?

[Dean Roddey]

See the IR driver documentation page.

[penngray]

Sorry for the seemingly dumb question but IR driver documentation page is where?

Im sure its easy to find but I cant find it right now. Its not the supported devices page correct?

[Dean Roddey]

It is on the support devices page. I noticed that I didn't add it to the list but all of the IR devices point to the same page, so just pick any of them. I'll update the list to add that. Also use the beta web:

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/BetaWeb/

It has more updated information.

[penngray]

Thanks, great job getting the new site ready. I will check out the new documentation.

[penngray]

cool, I have the IR500P Driver loaded in CQC but how do I work with it.....

Anyone have examples. I will figure it out but its nice to see a working setup.

[penngray]

I guess I need to export my IR stuff from USB-UIRT and import into the local IR500P driver...time for a HOW-TO
:D

[penngray]

well, that sucked. I can not import the exported USB-UIRT file for my cable box.

Message is....

This device was exported from a USB-UIRT device, and cannot be imported into this R2DI device

I will work on this tomorrow, I need to get 1/8" plugs anyways, I dont have any around.

[Dean Roddey]

You'll have to send the exported USB-UIRT file to me and I'll convert it. Also, check the IR repository and make sure that your cable box isn't already done. If not, then send me the files and I'll add them to the IR repository.

[penngray]

Thanks, file sent. Are the files that different?

[penngray]

how can I learn any devices using R2DI? From what Im reading and finding out CQC can not learn anything using that device.

Is there other software I can use? I wish I could just use USB-UIRT to learn all the codes,export and then re-import but for some unknown reason to me those imports can not be used with R2DI :(

[Dean Roddey]

The R2DI is not capable of learning. They cannot be imported because the data format for various devices are all different, so they have to be converted.

[penngray]

Thanks, so to create new IR codes I will use USB-UIRT then I have to send them to you to be converted?

I hate to take up your time on these type of things. Is the change realitively easy and similar for all exports? It will be much more efficient for me (and you) if I could just convert them.

What did the others with R2DI do?

[Dean Roddey]

Thanks, so to create new IR codes I will use USB-UIRT then I have to send them to you to be converted?

I hate to take up your time on these type of things. Is the change realitively easy and similar for all exports? It will be much more efficient for me (and you) if I could just convert them.

What did the others with R2DI do?


The advantage of this scheme is that I can get them into the CQC IR respository for others to use. So it's not a waste of time or anything. It's worth it. I can vet the commands and data to make sure it follows our basic IR command conventions and then add it to the repository and send it back to you.

[penngray]

No prob then :)

just didnt want to take up your time, you do have some important stuff on your plate!

[penngray]

The R2DI doesnt seem to work, I have a mono 1/8 inch plug out of zone 1 into the back of my cable box labeled IR and Im trying to test one code and the cable box doesnt respond.
It responds nicely to the USB-UIRT though.

How do I troubleshoot this?

[Frank Mc Alinden]

>How do I troubleshoot this?

To verify that your getting ir out of the R2D1 Card , i would suggest getting a 3.5mm plug and solder a normal led to it .....ensuring the correct polarity...
Normally tip is + and chassis -.....so tip goes to the longest leg of the led....

When ready insert the plug into the zone on the card and send an ir signal and see if it flashes ,if so then maybe the signal requires relearning....

A blinking xantech ir emitter should serve the same purose as mentioned above ..

HTH
Frank

[penngray]

I will find an emitter then.

[Dean Roddey]

The R2DI doesnt seem to work, I have a mono 1/8 inch plug out of zone 1 into the back of my cable box labeled IR and Im trying to test one code and the cable box doesnt respond.

Follow the driver page directions and make sure you have selected the zone in CQC for which you have plugged in an emitter. How are you testing? If it's through the IR client, check the zone selection and make sure it's the zone you ahve the emitter plugged into.

[penngray]

I have checked them all actually twice...I have plug into all 4 zones and I have switch to all 4 zones. Im simply testing at the local client drivers level when I import the .IRExport file.


I dont have an emitter to see if they blast IR so I will order that and wait. That seems to be the only way to find out if they are working.

I dont see any hardware errors or CQC errors and that makes it a blackbox situation because there is no software to test or re-learn anything with them

[Dean Roddey]

Oh, I didn't get the part about plugging it into something the device. I have no idea what that device is expecting. What voltage level and format is it expecting?

[penngray]

I will find out what the device is expecting. I didnt really think about. there is a IR plug on the back of the SetTop cable box and I figured I could just use a 1/8" mono plug and connect the R2DI to it.

I found an old emitter just now and plug it into the R2DI, I do get a flashing light but its doing nothing to the box.

Dean, could the export you converted for me have a problem?

[penngray]

Found my answers....

can not plug into the back of the box where it simply says IR because it wont work.

The old emitter I found and used was so crappy that it had to be attach right to the front of the cable box and even then it work 50% of the time.

Conclusion, order new and hopefully better emitters from smarthome.com.

[rhamer]

Just a tip for checking IR LED's.

If you have a video camera of some sort they will work in the IR range. So you can just point your handycam or whatever at it and see the LED flashing.

It's also good for getting a rough idea of the light output of various LED's, so you can compare them.

Cheers

Rohan

[ctay]

http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/remote/ir500p.asp
This says that this R2DI does learning...

[Dean Roddey]

Well, kind of. There are two different sensors. One is for receiving and another is for learning. The card only has an external sensor for receiving. There is a hole at the bottom of the card, and I think that's where the learning sensor is on the card version. So it's not terribly practical to use, because most people wouldn't be able to get the IR remote behind the box and point it into this small hole.

And it may even then only learn into its own internal memory, which wouldn't be useful for CQC since we need to store the codes in our IR architecture. This will have to be confirmed. It can differ with different versions of the hardware (which have different firmware I think.)

So anyway, technically it can do learning, but it's probably not very much worth implementing given the physical restrictions on it.