IR Blasting Volume (1 Viewer)

[Atramhasis]

I try to blast the volume +/- codes to my AV receiver but unfortunately it seems to be to slow. When I use the original remote than I can change volume very fast when holding down the button but when I am blasting through IRSS it sends one code every second or so.

Is it possible to blast with a higher frequency?

 

[Atramhasis]

After a long time I tried it again, it is a bit too slow, really. I use MS remote and receiver with blaster. I think most people use this functionality to change channels and there it's fast enough. But for volume changing it seems a bit too slow.

Is there a possibility to change the repeat rate of transmitting IR codes through the blaster? It seems to be around 250ms, I would like it at 50ms or 100ms.

 

[findftp]

After several testing with different remotes and different blast software (LM Remote Keymap) I always ended with the same behaviour.
My conclusion is that the blaster unit (connected through USB) is the bottleneck.
This can either be the blaster hardware or the driver telling the hardware how fast to blast.
Is there a way we can rewrite/view the driver?

 

[hairlesshobo]

I know this thread is pretty old, but I do the same thing and it is extremely fast and I never have any problems with it. What usb blaster do you have? I might have some pointers for you depending on what you are using.

 

[findftp]

Hi, this is a picture of my blaster/receiver

I'm not really sure the problem is with the blasting speed.
It might be that my blasting code (for volume up) is rather long:

0000 0070 0046 0000 014D 00AE 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003F 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 003F 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003F 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 003D 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 05FC 014D 00AC 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0016 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0016 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003F 0016 0014 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 003D 0016 003D 0016 003D 0016 0014 0016 003F 0016 05FA 014D 0053 0016 0AD8

Other possibility is that my blaster is not genuine toshiba but a fake chineese copy with cheaper components.

How fast is your maximum repeat speed? Mine is about 200ms, too slow for volume.
It makes sense, because newer MCE remote controls let you program the volume directly under the volume button instead of blasting it.

 

[hairlesshobo]

I don't know the exact repeat time, but i can say that when i use blasting to control my receiver that it responds as quickly as if I were using the original remote control.

I have had similar issues that you are speaking about with response speed in the past using learning remote controls, and it usually came down to a poorly learned code.

My setup is using WinLirc with EventGhost, and then I just use IRSS for blasting the channel change of my cable DTAs. I have two different Blasters, both of which are USB MCE units with two blaster outputs. One is HP branded and one is Dell branded, but both operate the exact same way. I don't know if you are familiar with WinLirc, but if you decide to give it a shot, the key is to make sure that the code is not learned in Raw mode. When learning in Raw mode, from my understanding, it is basically just taking a snapshot of the code that it receives and sends it back out. So if you hold the button for say, 250ms, then the code length will be roughly 250ms. This may not be 100% correct, but it seems to be how it has worked with me in the past. So I say this to tell you that I also agree that the code is likely too long. Have you tried relearning the code a couple times to see if the condition gets any worse or any better?

 

[findftp]

I relearned the code numerous times from both amplifier and TV.
TV code is *a lot* shorter and behaves almost the same way. Maybe a little bit better but still not the same as original remote control.
I talk about repeat speed for volume, because that is basically the only command which should repeat quick.

I did a lot of testing in the past, but got tired of no improvement.

You can see a red led in the blaster unit which lights up when it gets a signal received, and when it blasts a signal.
Whatever I tried, I never got it blinking faster than 5 times a second.

-lets retest that with a short blast command, repeated by a macro and record everything with a camera and analyze the frames-

Be right back.

 

[findftp]

Okay, finished test.

First of all, I took a short IR code, and made a macro repeating this code 10 times.
I changed the repeat speed for both fields to 20ms to be sure that won't be the problem (after that IRSS says it needs restart).
After pressing 'test' in IRSS, the led lights up 10 times.

I made a video of it using my samsung galaxy SII

I dropped the raw video at youtube:

With virtualdub I editted the video so that I only had the blinking led (10 times).
After that, the video was 1.903 seconds in length

So, repeat speed is 1.903 divided by 9 = 211 ms, almost the same as the 220ms I choose after numerous testing!
The extra milliseconds are nice to have for some buffer tolerance.

By the way, I come to dividing by 9 because you have 10 repeats:
0 = led blinking
- = repeat speed

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Count the '-'

 

[findftp]

To make investigation complete, I took the original remote and recorded the repeated volume up command with my home-made-low-cost infrared camera (see for a glowing soldering iron my other youtube videos).
I took a video from it and placed it on youtube:

I edited the video in virtualdub and came to 18 blinks (=17 repeats) in 1.835 seconds = 108 ms. Twice as fast!

 

[hairlesshobo]

I'd be interested to see what happens you did the same test with WinLIRC. I know that WinLIRC is capable of very fast speed which makes me wonder if it's your hardware or irss. Supposedly irss and WinLIRC will talk to each other, but I didn't have any luck... Not sure why.[DOUBLEPOST=1345681795][/DOUBLEPOST]i just watched both videos (on my sgs2 lol) and just with the naked eye could definitely see a difference in repeat speed. It almost looks like the pulses on the ir emitter are not turning completely off - as if the transistor configuration in the emitter is not allowing for clean transitions from on to off or something crazy like that. If I was hacking the hardware, I'd be inclined to try a high value pull down resistor to see if it helps or not, but obviously we aren't doing all of that craziness lol. But them again, I may be completely wrong on that haha, wouldn't be the first time.

I hate to say it but you might have to pick up a better quality emitter for volume control purposes.