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juwlz

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:05 am

MyStuff Team Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 10804 Location: Wokingham, Berkshire (Hannington transmitter)

Having taken advantage of John Lewis selling off 5800s cheap, I now have an old 160GB silver Toppy and a new Black Panther 250GB. I have set up the new one with the same firmware and TAPs (for the time-being) in a separate room for now, but I've decided to keep the new Toppy in the lounge with the old one in the short-medium term, at least partly so that I can put dodgy new MyStuff versions on one, while using the other for "serious" recording. We also have a whole bunch of recordings on the old one that I don't intend to laboriously transfer to the new one, so still want to be able to watch those in comfort.

I see elsewhere in the forums that the RemExt patch (which I have installed) potentially makes the Toppy2 version of the Remote Extender TAP obsolete, but it also says that a TAP would be needed to actually set/access the codes for the second Toppy.

Does such a TAP exist? Presumably those who were previously using Toppy2 are still using something, but I haven't managed to track down who they are.

(Then my next problem is working out whether we can set up explicit key codes on the Harmony, or (if necessary) on the old OneForAll that I unearthed last week, but that's another story.)

All help and suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks
Julie

_________________
5800, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+BmC0CfCtFsIMPePsR3UUuUxZ
5810, TS On, F/W: F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 +BmCfCtFsR3Z
MyStuff info; Help!; Reference
Harmony 885 remote. Sig date 8 April 2012

simonc

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:19 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 5642 Location: Cheltenham

RemExt replaces the non Toppy2 version. Possibly what you're thinking of is Firebird's RemoteSwitch TAP that switches the front panel into another of the 4 different remote receiver modes. So, 2 possibilities for the new box:
1. Remote Extender Toppy 2 and don't patch RemExt.
2. RemoteSwitch and optionally patch RemExt.

R2-D2

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:33 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 12148

Your best bet is to talk to BobD, who already has a two Toppy setup for a MyStuff user. Do you know him? Laughing

As simonc says, you can switch remote sets that the Toppy responds to (which is how the TF5810 can be used in conjunction with a TF5800), but your problem will be finding the codes to use for the alternate remote sets. You could, for example, borrow a TF5810 remote and learn the codes from that, then use something like the [Rx] patch on one Toppy.

_________________
Troubleshooting -- User Manual -- Dark Side of the Matrix: Firmwares and Patches

juwlz

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:48 am

MyStuff Team Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 10804 Location: Wokingham, Berkshire (Hannington transmitter)

R2-D2 wrote:

Your best bet is to talk to BobD, who already has a two Toppy setup for a MyStuff user. Do you know him? Laughing

Vaguely, but he's disappeared off somewhere for the week. Said something about possibly not even doing any coding. The cheek of it! Rolling Eyes

And actually, I'm not sure that he keeps his in the same room anyway.

R2-D2 wrote:

Hmm. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be as easy as I first thought. I feel a low-tech solution coming on Wink

Thanks to you both.
Julie

simonc

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:05 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 5642 Location: Cheltenham

Flaps of card gaffer taped over the IR sensor, eh?

underquark

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:15 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 1793

What old OFA remote do you have (there's often a number on the battery box lid or inside it)? If it's one of the ones with a modem then it might be possible to create a WAV file upgrade with the Toppy2 codes in it.

_________________
A 5800 and a 5810 still in use with various dead ones and bits lying around, one Toppy with UPS and dedicated aerial; MyStuff 6.6; QuickJump 1.72; EPG2 MEI; Various remotes - URC1056B01 (my fav.), URC11-7140 R02 (to learn new codes) programmed using tools from the excellent JP1 site.

mike.hinson

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:27 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 1735 Location: Bordon, Hants UK

juwlz wrote:

...I feel a low-tech solution coming on Wink

...

I have a handy piece of thick black cardboard cut and folded to the right shape.

It is very clear which Toppy is in use to everyone that way & it works with any test setup regardless of patches & taps being tested, and you get the regular exercise of moving from sofa to Toppy Very Happy

/\/\

underquark

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:16 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 1793

What about getting two miniature remote-controlled garage doors to cover and uncover the Toppies' IR receivers?

Or you could have this bad boy crawl over the IR port you wish to occlude.

juwlz

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:05 pm

MyStuff Team Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 10804 Location: Wokingham, Berkshire (Hannington transmitter)

mike.hinson wrote:

I have a handy piece of thick black cardboard cut and folded to the right shape.
It is very clear which Toppy is in use to everyone that way & it works with any test setup regardless of patches & taps being tested, and you get the regular exercise of moving from sofa to Toppy Very Happy

/\/\

A combination of something like that, and judicious use of the OFF switch was the sort of thing I had in mind Wink

. Of course, the off switch approach won't work if both machines are recording - hence the need for additional measures. Since you're clearly an expert, what is your interpretation of "the right shape"?

underquark wrote:

It's a URC-7560. Quite advanced for its time, I think, with the Home Theater (sic) option, so you could program some of the keys to affect the TV and others to affect the good ol' VCR without having to keep pressing buttons to switch from one to the other. It even has 8 extra buttons hidden under a flap, so I can still have a White button! Wink

... assuming the thing still works, of course. Mind you, it's a bit of a chunky beast! No sign or recollection of a modem though.

Looking at the annotations for the extra buttons, it looks as though I got it while I was using the Hitachi FX770E VCR as my recording device, which in itself was a clever machine that did indexing and kept track of what recordings were on what tapes etc. Never caught on, and then eventually got superseded by DVD recorders and those newfangled PVR thingies Wink

Nostalgia over. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Julie

juwlz

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:10 pm

MyStuff Team Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 10804 Location: Wokingham, Berkshire (Hannington transmitter)

Oh dear. In response to Underquark's suggestions re remote controlled mini garage doors, spiders, etc., Andy (my other half) is proposing a very Heath Robinson solution involving ejecting CD trays, strings, pulleys and a bit of something to obscure one IR receiver or the other.
I suspect it will spend a long time in planning, and never make it off the drawing board Wink

Julie

R2-D2

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:15 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 12148

juwlz wrote:

a bit of something to obscure one IR receiver or the other.

Hmm... is LED light polarized? I don't think it is, so maybe you could attach a few bits of polarizing filter to remote + 2 sensors, with one of the sensor's filters set at 90 degrees. Then hold the remote normally for one Toppy and rotate 90 degrees for the other. Would that work? Confused

_________________
Troubleshooting -- User Manual -- Dark Side of the Matrix: Firmwares and Patches

mike.hinson

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:33 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 1735 Location: Bordon, Hants UK

juwlz wrote:

...what is your interpretation of "the right shape"?

My cardboard is stiff enough to hold a "U" shape, it is 15cm wide & tucks under the Toppy and over the Toppy 4.5cm. It has a tiny bit of blu-tack to hold the top down neatly.

The remote will go through some thin card paticularly some colours so mine is black.

The Toppy coming on and switching the TV to that channel is a bit of a pain at first, but the family have got that sussed & know exactly how to swap back in a few seconds and skip back a few seconds without complaining now.

I like the polarising filter idea, but I fear it might reduce the sensitivity & cause another sort of anoyance, also refelcted IR would be less polarised and since the potential for bad things happening is severe I think I will stick to my physical obstruction unless tests are very conclusive.

/\/\

Andy K

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:46 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 14 Jun 2005 Posts: 3520

key stopper is a simple TAP. When the SAT button is pressed it ignores all keys except SAT.

you could run this on one toppy.

probably not much good for you though

underquark

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:53 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 1793

R2-D2 wrote:

Hmm... is LED light polarized? I don't think it is, so maybe you could attach a few bits of polarizing filter to...

Sure, but go look up the price of IR polarizing filters. Normal light polarizing filters are too opaque to IR, I think.

underquark

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:06 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 1793

juwlz wrote:

It's a URC-7560......No sign or recollection of a modem though.

Look closer! The modem is built-in. It was originally designed for over-the-telephone upgrades. You can play a WAV file through your PC speaker and the modem picks it up to store it in the remote's EEPROM. Has to be a WAV file (no MP3's) and has to be a normal speaker as I think it's actually the magnetic coil of the speaker interacting with a magnetic wire loop in the remote. If I get time I might try to find my old URC7562 and see if I can knock up a WAV file. On the JP1 site all the software and even the Toppy2 upgrade are there somewhere.

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