Send OK/Enter with HaupBlast.exe

[three6zerocool]

If you download the Hauppauge IRblast utility, you can configure the onboard IR hardware of suitable Hauppauge capture cards like HDPVR and Colossus.
It allows one to learn the IR commands, and then add in commands like ok/enter etc.

I will attach the file to this post.

..Dean..

[three6zerocool]

Oh, for clarification Hauppauge name the archive IRblast, but it installs a utility called Blastcfg, and it allows you to learn all your IR codes, and also configure additional buttons like enter etc for your STB.
It also allows you to tweak settings like button delays, amount of digits to pad etc.   eg. if you choose 3 digits, it would convert '1'  to '001'

So, configure Blastcfg like sub suggests, then enter in the location of the haupblast executable in the NexdtPVR device settings.

eg. for me, it is 'C:\Program Files\NextPVR\HaupBlast.exe' in the first field,   and '{channel} in the second field.
All other configuration is performed within the Hauppage Blastcfg utility.

..Dean..

[LateNightCat]

This thread is the closest one i have found to my situation.  Others have said they have a solution but I have yet to find it here or in any other post myself.

I have a Bell STB that requires a Select key or Power key to wake from sleep before sending a channel number.

I have spent hours trying various Hauppauge BlastCfg configurations and parameters (current version with WinTV10).

I have successfully "learned" the Hauppauge IR to my Bell STB including the Power and Enter (I used the Bell remote Select button).

I also successfully "tested" the Power button and the Enter (select) button and they transmit to STB correctly.

I see settings in BlastCfg to "Send Power On before Channel" and "Send Enter After Channel"
I have tried these and concluded these are the reverse of what I need.
If a Power is sent before it can wake the STB the first time but thereafter alternates turning the box off and on. 
Sending the Enter after the channel seems to have no effect.


I need to send an Enter (Select) BEFORE a channel is sent not after.


I have exchanged emails with Hauppauge and asked if there was a way to map the OK button on the Hauppauge remote to the learned code for Enter (Select in my case).  They said there is no way to do that.  I wonder if they just don't want to change their BlastCfg application.   I don't know what the OK button is good for.  I will ask them if they can change their BlastCfg to enable sending an Enter before a channel.  

A post on this thread hinted at a "wrapper" and that NextPVR haupblast.exe can be configured or commands sent through a batch file (windows task scheduler?) to do this.  Is there a syntax or commands to do this?

OR is there a command into the irremote.ini or HCWBlast.ini files that BlastCfg seems to create?

To be clear, NextPVR haupblast.exe works for me.  If I manually power on or select my STB and then run NextPVR, I can use the guide to change channels just fine.  However, if i schedule a program to be recorded, NextPVR does not wake the STB before sending the channel number and begin the recording. I end up with a recording of the STB screensaver.

Any suggestions?  Others have seem to have found a way but I have not found the details to solve this yet.

BTW, my STB has this annoying feature where it goes to sleep after 3 hours and 59 minutes even if you are in the middle of a show.  But that is another story...

[jasonwilliams]

Rogers STBs have the exact same behavior. They are really Comcast Xfinity boxes, and they also go to sleep after 1 hour with no activity. You can't change this setting for some stupid reason. I despise our choices here in Canada, but I digress.

Create a custom Blast.cmd command batch and use it as the Channel change command in NPVR. You will need a program to control the blaster. If you dno't already have one, I am using IR Server Suite. You don't need any fancy features - just the command line tool. Here is the code:

@ECHO OFF
"C:\Program Files (x86)\IR Server Suite\IRBlast.exe" -port %1 "ENTER.IR"
TIMEOUT /T 3
"C:\Program Files (x86)\IR Server Suite\IRBlast.exe" -port %1 -channel %2
"C:\Program Files (x86)\IR Server Suite\IRBlast.exe" -port %1 "ENTER.IR"
TIMEOUT /T 1
"C:\Program Files (x86)\IR Server Suite\IRBlast.exe" -port %1 "ENTER.IR"

To overcome the sleeping issue, you can make another batch that just send the ENTER.IR command and schedule it to run every hour using Windows scheduling service.

This has been working flawlessly for me for about a year now.

Good luck!

[mvallevand]

For my Rogers Xfinity box my script sends a Back to wake up the screen saver (it can be changed to 5 hours in the settings and turn off power saving) the numbers and an end. but I but I use LIRC for Linux and don't use HaupBlast.

Martin

[LateNightCat]

I have some success to report.  After much experimentation I discovered some capability and some limitations to using the Hauppauge IR Blaster with WinTV and NextPVR HaupBlast.exe.

First limitation, consistent with what Happauge told me (and did not tell me), it is impossible to map a Hauppauge remote control button like the OK button to an IR Enter (Select) code/signal.  However, I did learn that it is possible to link a button to an executable path.  There are examples of this in the irremote.ini file in the C:\windows directory.  That could be useful to me later as I continue to optimize this new to me NextPVR set up.

(the .ini files are editable using notepad btw, you just have to make a backup in another location and then save not as a text file but as an "all files" .ini, and then copy back into the c:\windows folder, after making a backup of the original file of course).

Second limitation and a capability, the Hauppauge remote learning software (BlastCfg.exe) did in fact, learn the remote codes for my Bell/Arris 2502 STB, but only after replacing my IR blaster cable with a new one from Hauppauge (they told me they are prone to failing), and then placing the transmitter right against the IR sensor next to the USB port on the STB front, and holding my Bell STB remote within an inch of the Hauppauge IR receiver end and repeatedly pressing the appropriate button in the Advanced Learning mode.  I then used the Test (transmit) mode to confirm that the Hauppauge software did learn my Bell STB codes for both Power and Enter/Select. 

I turned my attention to HCWBlast.ini in C:\Windows.  There I learned that you can manually flip the commands that Hauppauge BlastCfg.exe lets you select.  For example, you can change SendPowerOn=1 to turn it on or SendPowerOn=0 to turn it off.  Same with NeedsEnter=0 to NeedsEnter=1 and it will send whatever IR code you taught Hauppauge BlastCfg.exe.  The limitation is that it will only send commands in the following order: A. Power, B. Channel, C. Enter.  As I have mentioned previously my Bell STB (and Rogers STB from what others have told me) goes to sleep and needs a Select/Enter or Power to wake up.  When I configured Power to On (1), the Hauppauge blaster sent Power to wake the STB, then the channel number (I had to adjust the PowerOnDelay value to adjust the timing of the channel transmission), and I left Needs Enter as Off (0).  With this configuration, I am happy to report that NextPVR is able to record a show in the middle of the night IF my STB is in sleep mode at the time of the recording.  Of course, with this configuration, if you are in WinTV or NextPVR and you are watching TV and want to change the channel, the Hauppauge blaster will first send a power command and your STB will turn off before you change the channel.  I have to manually select the show again in the schedule to turn the STB on again and send the channel number to the STB.  A bit of a pain but given the purpose of the NextPVR to record I can live with this limitation for now.  When I want to watch something, I can go through the bother of selecting the show twice in the guide.

(For the record, I did try to send the Enter command before the channel instead of Power, but Hauppauge IR would not send a channel number if the Enter came first)

There are other settings in the HCWBlast.ini that I am not sure about, namely TuneDelay, OneDigitDelay, and UseMajorMinor.  If anyone has a clue what these are please tell me.  Maybe they can help.

I also found on an old Sage TV forum page, mention of an .exe that could send commands to the Hauppauge IR blaster.  With the help of Internet Archives I was able to download it but it can only send channel numbers, not Power or Enter it seems.  I am going to look at that executable more closely to see if I can change it somehow.

Here is the internet archive link to that .exe:
https://web.archive.org/web/200711130305.../download/
there is a download button for a .zip file

I will give another try with WinLIRC and Harmony remote software (if it is still supported) and maybe even the IR Server suite mentioned above.  I have a variety of IR transmitters and receivers (Iguana, Global Cache iTach, etc.) that I have collected over the years in multiple failed attempts to get a PVR going after EyeTV on my mac started to fail due to gradual and sad lack of support by Geniatech in recent years.

I believe the IRBlast that was referred to by Dean in the first reply to my query is an older version of the current Hauppauge BlastCfg.

For now, I have something that works for a single recording of a show or movie up to 4 hours IF MY STB IS IN SLEEP MODE AT THE TIME OF THE RECORDING.

Any further suggestions welcomed.

Here is the core of my HCWBlast.ini that works for now:

[Config_2_10000]
SendPowerOn=1
PowerOnDelay=800
MinDigits=4
DigitDelay=0
NeedsEnter=0
EnterDelay=0
TuneDelay=0
OneDigitDelay=0
UseMajorMinor=0

Note that the [Config_2_10000] could be a different value, it should be the corresponding value to the codes that were learned.  In my case, the codes were listed under [2_10000] for the buttons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, Power (Hauppauge A415-HPG remote button 11), and Enter (Hauppauge A415-HPG remote button 43)

I tested all of this using the Hauppauge Colossus 2 PCI card running on Windows 10 and I will next test it with a Hauppauge PVR2 1512 running on a 2014 Mac Mini Windows 10 in Apple Bootcamp (mac bootable as windows).  Still miss EyeTV though...it was slick when it worked.

[mvallevand]

FWIW, I use the Iguana LIRC driver and can control every key on my Rogers Xfinity Aris box remote except voice https://images.ctfassets.net/8utyj17y1go...rogers.png, using either the mult device and single device versions.

If you can't figure out LIRC Windows, one of my setups has the Iguana device hooked up to an RPi3. This is used with a network a capture device where I also pass through the STB HDMI to my TV when I don't want to use NextPVR.

Martin

[sub]

I also found on an old Sage TV forum page, mention of an .exe that could send commands to the Hauppauge IR blaster.  With the help of Internet Archives I was able to download it but it can only send channel numbers, not Power or Enter it seems.  I am going to look at that executable more closely to see if I can change it somehow.

Here is the internet archive link to that .exe:
https://web.archive.org/web/200711130305.../download/
there is a download button for a .zip file

I think this is effectively the same as HaupBlast.exe, which is a tiny program, like 10 lines of code, that can simply call the Hauppauge api and pass a requested channel number. Their api has nothing further we can control - we simply pass the channel number, and they do the blasting based on the configuration you've set in blastcfg. We can't explicitly ask it to do other stuff like send other keys etc.