XM Sattellite radio

[guest]

I found the pronto codes for the XM sattellite radio and I was able to get them working with Homeseer 2. But strangely, I am unable to send two of the same digits in a row. For example, if I send 11 the channel changes to 1, if I send 113 the channel changes to 13; 22 becomes 2, etc.

Is this a problem with the XM receiver or does the USBUIRT cancel the second consecutive digit because it thinks it is key-bounce. Any ideas?

Steve Q

[jrhees]

Steve,

The XM likely toggles between two codes for each button press (known as Parity). If you have access to an XM remote you can learn both codes. Sometimes pronto users only capture a single code and then work around this by sending a 'dummy' code between each digit (a dummy code would be some button that has no effect on tuning in digits).

-Jon

[Steve]

Jon,

Thanks for the advice. I purchased the remote for the XM radio. I relearned the #1 button with Homeseer 2. I then set up an event to send 111 to the XM radio. My blinking LED stick on IR emitter blinks 3 times but only 1 appears in the display and the radio changes to channel 1; same behavior as before. Upon examination of the registry, the code format appears to be similar for all the XM buttons. I did not restart Homeseer after I retrained the button. Do I need to? I also used lrnhelper.exe to look at the code generated by the XM remote control. It is quite different than the pronto code.

Not sure where to go from here?

Steve

[Steve]

Jon,

OK I think I figured it out. I assume that "parity" means that the code sent by the remote toggles between parity 1 and parity 0 (or even / odd, or whatever) with each successive button press. So I created two buttons for each number button on the remote. Labelled 1 and 1B, etc. I then trained Homeseer to learn each successive key press. The tricky part was not to press the key the second time as requested during the learn process. I used a different remote to send a dummy code ( I used the SAT enter button) at the verification step in the training process. [You have provided this information before in several previous posts]

This worked! Now I can change the channel to 111 by telling Homeseer to send the IR codes for button 1, 1B, 1. It seems to work fine.

I am still confused about how Homeseer uses zones and IR matching. It seems more complicated than it should be. I use 3 zones in my system and I use IR matching to control i-tunes via my universal remote. It has taken me a long time to get IR control of my 8 devices working but I love it when Homeseer adjusts the brightness of my TV 30 minutes after sunset. Or when the TV is automatically muted to make sure we hear the announcement that tomorrow is trash day! Thanks for the USBUIRT; it makes it all possible.

Steve