Would Like to Start Working on USBUIRT Fix: Where Do I Start (1 Viewer)

[SteveV]

Hi All,

I'm an experienced C# dev and while I'm fairly new to Media Portal, I've been using/building/involved with HTPCs for over 4 years. I have downloaded the latest souce code and have started working on improving USBUIRT support (I own 2 USBUIRTs) for MP control and EPG channel tuning. I've made some good progress in the very short time I've been working on it and once I have something working would like to submit the changes.

I have looked that the CVS todo list and there's nothing related to the USBUIRT. But before I get too involved in working on this, is someone actively working on it or is this something OK for me to work on?

Also, should I submit changes via SourceForge patches?

Steve

 

[kaliatech]

I'm new to Media Portal as well. I don't know if anyone is actively working on USBUIRT at this time, but I don't *think* so. You might want to check the list of patches on sourceforge for any USBUIRT work that might have been submitted recently though. More importantly, I assume you've been on the #mediaportal IRC channel? It was kind-of dead when I was on there over the weekend, but I think that's where most of the devs communicate.

I don't know what the protocol is for contributing code yet. Based on what I read, your supposed to submit as a patch. Based on antecdotal evidence, I think you need to get in touch with the right people on IRC. I think the core MP team is very anxious to get more dev involvement.

Fwiw, I also started doing some fixes to the USBUIRT. (So far, all I've really done is make some modifications to USBUIRT.cs to put a delay in when transmitting same digits back-to-back. Otherwise my settop wouldn't register channel 11 for example.) My next step was to add this as GUI configuration option somewhere and then go from there.) ...so you're probably further along than I am. :lol:

I've also been wondering why the current USBUIRT work was done as part of the MP core project and not as a standalone plug-in. But I haven't look at the source enough to say one way or another yet. Maybe there's a good reason.

 

[Frodo]

is someone actively working on it or is this something OK for me to work on?
No, so glad you are!

Also, should I submit changes via SourceForge patches?
Please do!, dont forget to upload the sourcefiles

frodo

 

[ASiDiE]

I am looking forward to seeing your work. I am using my UIRT with Girder and it's a pain to work with. It will be nice to finally have something "out of the box" that works.

Keep up the good work!

 

[SteveV]

It's been a little over a week since my original post and I wanted to let everyone know that I'm nearly done (unfortunately, work and life get in the way of all the fun stuff :wink: ). Here's what's done so far:

• Set System.Xml.Formatting.Indented property to improve ledgibilty of xml output.
  
  Fixed problem causing a silent exception when writing out UIRTUSB-remote.xml resulting in 0 length file.
  
  Fixed invalid cast exception during UIRTUSB-tuner.xml load.
  
  Removed hard-coded value limiting channel numbers to be a maximum of 3 digits long (some STBs require 4 digit channel numbers).
  
  Changed teaching method for MP control IR codes. Old method was teaching USBUIRT transmit codes which vary greatly from USBUIRT receive codes. This was causing MP to ignore incomming MP control IR codes as they didn't match the taught codes.
  
  Added 2 part teaching process for MP control codes to accomodate Philips RC5/RC6 toggle codes (bit toggled with each button press). New teaching process now requires 2 codes be taught for each button.
  
  Changed teaching ui to show overall progress.
  
  Added "IR Repeat Count" and "Inter-Command Delay" settings to allow user to fix/improve reliability of set top box control.
  
  LearnTunerCodes now runs asynchronously to allow user to cancel teaching process and allow the configuration dialog to be dismissed without hanging.
  
  Disabled UUIRTClose(UsbUirtHandle) in USBUIRT::Close() method which was causing MP to crash on exit (only occurred if USBUIRT had received at least one IR signal). This still needs work as I suspect the USBUIRT handle does not get released properly and my be causing a small memory leak.
  
  Todo: Current MP control via USBUIRT currently includes only basic navigation and does not allow user to select which MP actions are controlled. Future patch will include additional user selectable MP action support similar to SerialUIR configuration.

I still need to do a little testing. Hopefully, I'll have time to finish up and submit the patch before the weekend.

Steve[/b]

 

[dman_lfc]

SteveV

This sounds great - keep up the good work

DMAN

 

[kaliatech]

Very cool Steve. I think a lot of USBUIRT owners will be happy to see the results of your work.

 

[ASiDiE]

As a USB-UIRT owner.. I have very happy to see this. I am hoping to get rid of Girder and use your hard work!

 

[SteveV]

Just submitted the patch. This fixes/adds the items listed in my previous post plus a few others.

I'm not sure what happens next but I'm assuming it eventually finds it's way into a CVS snapshot?

Steve

 

[ASiDiE]

Can anyone confirm the status of this? Has it been added to the latest CVS snapshot?

I am ready to test this.....

Thanks for your hard work!