Adding support for Dish remote protocol (1 Viewer)

[rymo]

Cuing from posts here and there, it looks like a custom Dish remote protocol is going to have to be added to the detection algorithms for IR Remote Server to be able to use incoming Dish-specific button presses as triggers in Translator. It seems that and-81 has a real job now; I'm going to assume nobody else is working on this since the last check-in against Input Service was November.

I'm going to outline here my plan to move forward in adding the Dish protocol, so if anybody out there can point me in a better direction please post here or send me a PM. I don't know much about the specifics of IR protocols but I am familiar with C# so I'm approaching this from a reverse-engineering standpoint.

1. Create a baseline: use IR File Tool to record a large subset of buttons of one or more well-known remotes (I'll plan to use an MCE remote and also probably a Sony TV remote)
2. Observe detection: my baseline remotes are already recognized by the "Attempt decode" function in IR File Tool, so I will see how the C# is handling those incoming patterns (within the Detect*** methods of IrDecoder?)
3. Compare remotes: compare .IR files from my Dish remote to the baseline, attempt to find a similar pattern
4. Adapt detection: copy-paste-modify one of the existing Detect methods?

Again, I'm sort of doing this blind so I wanted to post here as I get started in case I missed something obvious like a "How to Detect Your Custom Remote" tutorial.

My motivation for this is that the [SAT, TV, DVD, AUX] mode buttons at the top of any recent Dish remote not only change the internal mode of the remote but also send unique IR patterns. Dish software uses these codes to display a bouncing "Press SAT to control your satellite receiver" message. I want to harness these signals in Translator to automatically change my TV and tuner inputs, turning my "free" remote into a virtual activity-based model. Also, it should be fun!

Cheers,

rymo

 

[mikyd1954]

what IR receiver are you using on your pc that can recieve the IR codes from the Dish remote ? I'd like to use my Dish remote to control mp on my pc.... well technically its my wife who refuses to use more than one remote control and a universal wont do (or at least not an inexpensive one) since it is TV2 and therefore is controlled by the UHF part of the remote which also has vcr and aux for standard IR devices....

 

[rymo]

I have a standard Microsoft IR receiver - and I almost have it working! But in your case you'd likely be well off with the new 21.0 remote from Dish - it's a learning remote that will still do UHF for TV2. $25 or so, just log onto customer service chat and ask for one. I taught it all the buttons from my Microsoft MCE remote and it works great! Here's more info on the 21.0:

Tech Portal : Remotes : 21.0 IR/UHF Pro

You'll also need to do this registry hack to turn off debounce or you'll have trouble pressing buttons twice or more in a row:

The Green Button - RE: Using universal remote to control media center (skip to "The third option")

-r

 

[mikyd1954]

cool, I just picked up a microsoft mce remote a couple of days ago... Ill check out that remote, thanks a lot!