WholeHome

My last blog post received so much feedback and requests for more information, I was able to get my company as well as our North American Distributor to sponsor a full eBook on the subject.

Frankly, questions about what wires to put in walls before your home goes up are the most common inquiry we get at home shows, and other public forums. It is a universal desire to at least be prepared for the future.

I’ve published the first 4 chapters and you are welcome to get a copy by going to www.bocsco.com/prewire

I’m also looking for help – I’ve already got folks from AVSforum and cocoontech contributing, but I’m looking for the following:

• Pictures of your home installation – pre-wire, lighting systems, audio systems, home automation systems etc. Credits given on pics.
• Someone to write a chapter on home automation
• Someone to write a chapter on whole-home lighting systems
• Someone to write a chapter on home theater control systems

The table of contents (subject to change as we get going) is as follows:

• Seriously, Why bother?
• Can I actually get away with this?
  • Some tips to keep in mind as you arrange your project:
  • So, what can go wrong?
• The Absolute Minimum – and Why…
  • Bottom line – the list first:
  • Where to get supplies:
  • Details Outside-In:
    • 4RG6 for Satellite 9 2RG6, 1Cat5e to the Cable TV Demarc point
    • 2 Cat5e to the phone demarc point 10 Details Inside the Home:
    • 2-RG6, 3-Cat5e: From the media cabinet to each room
    • Dedicated line to Cable Modem:
    • 2 RG6: 11 3 Cat5e:
    • Surround Sound
    • Good general rules for speaker locations:
    • Doorbell and Basic Security System Planning:
    • The Official Standard TIA-570
    • Wire Types, Uses and Substitutions:
• Future Proofing Coming Soon
• The Actual Installation Coming Soon
• Overall Considerations Coming Soon
• Coordinate with your Electrician: Coming Soon
• Home Systems to Consider Coming Soon
• Things to avoid Coming Soon
• Home Distribution Systems Coming Soon
• Home Automation Systems Coming Soon
• Home Security Systems Coming Soon
• Problems you will encounter Coming Soon
• I forgot a wire – Retrofitting Coming Soon
• A Room by Room checklist Coming Soon

I look forward to any inputs yall can provide – this will end up being a great resource for the technical community.

DF

I’ve been getting a lot of questions on firmware and the features that each version supports – So – I’ve updated the “Firmware Features” post (See the little menu to the right) with a detailed accounting of more of the features as well as a little matrix so you can see what the version of firmware you have is capable of…

Again, the firmware was not really designed to be field upgradeable, but I’m happy to upgrade your equipment if you have a need or give you the information you need to upgrade the firmware yourself…

So – the big question I’m looking for help and advice from the community, how does one decide whether to allow source code (for the remote in particular) to be open source? Frankly, I get a kick out of being able to find a new situation, go spend half an hour hacking up code and being able to have a completely programmable, versatile remote control, and I think there is a decent community of folks that would like it. But what is the overall value, support would have to be – well – zero. What are the chances it would just irritate people? Anyone had experience with this?

A little more technical detail on how we do programming

We use the TI MSPFET430UIF interface (USB connected to a PC – last I checked they are about $100) and the FETPRO software (free of charge from the Elprotronic website, the free version will not update serial numbers but programs software, the link provided goes directly to their download site) and a little custom board that allows us to connect the Remote or BOCS device to either the UIF interface or a serial port to a PC for debugging. I’m attaching a schematic of the interface board below. The jumper is set in “external power” position when programming a BOCS unit (with its own power supply applied) and set in on-board power mode with batteries removed for programming remotes. When the interface board is plugged in (straight through cable pin 1 on interface board to pin one on BOCS unit or remote – they have different ends but both are straight through cables), the pull up/dn states on the interface board enable a tri-state amp on the device to be programmed which disconnects an on board serial port and hijacks that to talk to the processor… So – if all you want to do is program firmware, only a cable with proper pull up/dn pins is required. Firmware must be programmed through the jtag port, debug info is only available on the serial port.

DO NOT LET THIS SCHEMATIC INTIMIDATE YOU – I’m providing it for general interest – there is a very simple way to hook up to the remote and you do not have to even understand the schematic to do so…

EDIT:

Thought I’d add a couple of notes -

As you can see from the above diagram, the main programming interface is from the jtag two wire direct into the connector that goes to the remote – i.e. unless you have a specific need to use the serial interface (mostly for debugging but rarely used), you don’t need to complicated board shown in the schematic – a 4 wire jumper from the jtag programmer over to the remote would suffice.

We have, indeed, decided to go open source – I’ll post the details on avsforum.com so if you are interested in modifying anything for your own use or posting your updates back to the community, there is now a way to do just that.

David Feller

This will look much better in the Wiki version, but there are a few firmware versions out there now with a few slightly different features – yeah we learned a LOT by having a bunch of folks using the product literally every day and have upgraded some features from time to time.

Rather than doing the the traditional way – “1.1.1.2 changes these things” let’s flip it around – I’ll list the major changes (the ones an end user might notice) and let you know which firmware version it shows up in.

First – what does your remote look like – if it is this one (<- Left – with the circular top) you have an alpha unit – basically forget it – that is discontinued and firmware is completely incompatible. Call us for a replacement system. You were an early adopter so we will make you a very special deal. I really didn’t like this remote – buttons too small, too many buttons, too many colors…

If you have a production system you have a remote that looks like the one on the right –>

This is the only one we are supporting – but unless you have had your unit for more than a year – this is what you have… Don’t worry what the buttons or markings look like – as long as the pause button is not bright yellow you are good.

The firmware version can be found in the battery compartment under the left battery – you will see a label that looks like this: The Firmware version is the last 4 digits on the F/W line – so this version shown is 1114

Your serial number is the number after the S/N:

OK – now for features:

Learning:

Learning is the ability of a device in the Xtender system to “suck in” an IR code from an Original (OEM) remote that came with a device. By default, the Xtender has learning enabled – i.e. if you plug an ipod dock into the “Blue” channel – we don’t have codes already in there for iPod docks – so you put Xtender into learn mode (Red + enter) then press the play button on the BOCS remote (where you want to put the learned code) – then you point the OEM remote into the IR window on the front of Xtender and push the play button – Xtender sees the light flash, remembers it, and next time you press play on the blue channel it regurgitates that code into the little IR bug stuck to the front of the ipod dock. But the remote itself needs to be able to suck codes in as well – for controlling TVs and other devices that stay in the room with the remote and are controlled not through Xtender but via the little IR lights on the front of the remote itself…

Here is where we made a mistake – we assumed that needing learning on the remote itself would be rare (since we pretty much have every TV code ever made already stored in the remote) – but it turns out that people frequently want to customize the remote – like putting the TV input button somewhere they can remember on a particular button. So Remotes used to come with learning disabled by default. We did build in a cool little way to activate learning – in the beginning a customer would call up tech support, give a credit card number, we would charge $10 and provide an unlock code to activate learning… For now we are waiving the fee – just call tech support and we will provide a free upgrade code – you hold down a couple buttons, punch in a nine digit number unique to your serial number and learning is activated.

For all NEW remotes with firmware version 1450 or newer Learning is activated on the remote by default

Fast Tuning

Some TVs, when entering multiple digits to change channels, want to see +100, 1, 4 to go to ch 114, some want to see 1, 1, 4… and when tuning to a two digit channel some want to see 1, 4, enter or 1, 4, OK otherwise they dont change channels at all or there is a big delay after the second digit is pressed before it changes channel (waiting to see if you punch another digit)… So for firmware versions 1329 and above, we added a feature to allow adding OK or Enter after the two digits are sent to change to a BOCS channel (Red, Green, or Blue) – Hold Menu+5, then choose one of the options:

1=default, 2=+100 then two digits, 3=option1+OK, 4=option2+OK, 5=option1+enter, 6=option2+enter

So for most TVs, try 3 or 5 to speed up tuning…

Be sure to press OK to save your change before the power light goes out.

Low Battery Indicator

In early versions of firmware (1047 and older) the remote periodically checks to see if you have a low battery and if so flashes the power light briefly every 10 seconds or so… We quickly realized that turning yet another light on when your battery is already low tends to speed up the death process. So we switched to no indicator. Then we ran into a bad batch of Chinese batteries – really cheap ones apparently with little chemical mass – so poor that when we switch both IR LEDs on at the same time to change a channel that the IR chip goes into reset because the voltage is drawn down too far… Causing the remote to do really weird things – (The Local TV led would stay on for a long time and nothing was put out of the IR LEDs – so it kind of looks like the remote is doing something but it would no longer control the TV… not really intuitive that the batteries are low). So with firmware version 1317 and newer, we rapid flash the power led to show an error. Unfortunately the new plastic cases with the “Low Batt” marking in red next to the power led are still in works in China – so the indication is there but no marking yet to tell you what it means. Hopefully it is strange enough behavior that you will change the batteries.

TV input

OK – I admit it, I missed a button – TV input. For almost all firmware versions, it can be sent to the TV in Local TV mode by pressing shift then Live-TV but frankly, that is a pain – so with 1114 and newer we mapped it – when in Local TV mode – to the shift-Live TV button. But this is easy to solve with any remote by simply learning your input button – well – wherever you’d like to put it. Note that the A, B, C, D buttons (shifted to access) are mapped to direct TV inputs – different for each TV but they take you directly to specific inputs instead of having to cycle through them.

I still didn’t like it, so with 1385 and newer, it is mapped to the unshifted Live-TV button when in TV mode. no more having to push shift to change TV input.

Some learned codes do not work

We noticed that some IR codes for Sony products could not be learned either into the Xtender or into a remote. Long story short, we learn the code properly but when we regurgitate, we do not put out the code long enough (Sony and a few others want to see the code repeated a few times before they recognize it – dumb if you asked me but no one did)…

So – firmware version 1133 and higher we added a feature that if a code is learned and does not work, you can have the Remote and/or the Xtender repeat the code a while longer to make it work… You hold down the “record” and “mode of interest” button (mode of interest means Red, Green, Blue, Local TV, DVD, CBL or Aux button – whichever one you learned codes into) then select a repeat length – default is 1, but you can choose 2, 3, 4, or 5 (2 or 3 usually work just fine) then press OK to save. If you learned into multiple “mode of interest” buttons you have to repeat this for each one you want to “stretch” the IR code length for.

Favorite Channel when going to Local TV

On all remotes, when you press Local TV it (by default) goes to channel 9 – mostly so something changes when you press the button to return to local TV control – otherwise you could still be watching, say, the Red channel but since you pressed the Local TV button the remote is now only controlling the local TV and not the Red channel – confusing – so we have it go to a channel so at least something changes. Apparently change is good.

You can set any default channel to go to that you like (instead of channel 9) just press local TV, the channel you want, and then local TV again – the remote will remember that channel and go to it every time you press the Local TV button.

But – for some rooms, I really do not want the remote to go to any particular channel. So for firmware versions 1114 and higher, if you enter 00 (That is zero zero then press TV) as your favorite the remote will no longer change to any channel when you press local TV.

Why would you ever want this? – well – for instance I have this weird TV in my bedroom that cannot be changed to channel 96 by pressing 96 (I think it is a firmware glitch on Magnavox’s part – so to get to my Blue channel I hit Green (which goes to 98) then hit Local TV, channel Down, then Blue… yeah a little weird but it works – so I disabled the local TV default channel change to I could do this without holding my hand over the front of the remote. OK, I admit it, if you understood that you are special.

The Cisco PNG Set Top box from Comcast

I’m sure it is making its way out to other cable companies in other parts of the country, but if you live in Houston, you may very well get one of these boxes. (See my post specifically about how crappy the box is). But it took a firmware upgrade for BOCS to be able to control it. So, if you have that box (Or any similar STB that uses the XMP protocol) you need version 1400 or newer. Long story short, that particular code is built into the firmware and added to the list as soon as you put the batteries in – the code is 06078.

The most common firmware that you will run into right now, however is 1043

And No, firmware is not field upgradeable – it takes special PC software, very special adapters and cables etc. But if there is a feature here that sounds really good to you feel free to give me a buzz – I’m sure we could arrange a Remote swap if you cover the shipping.

No question HD is the next big wave – and to make sure everyone is comfortable, let me assure you that we are on it.

Our approach to this is to provide HD distribution as an add-on-module to the current Xtender system. While HD capable TVs are flying off the shelves, the percentage of folks who actually put an HD signal into them in more than one room of the home has been very slow to grow. Sure, most of us have invested in at least one nice big HDTV and now have a HD cable box and perhaps a Blue-Ray under it but surprisingly even those folks who have a 32″ LCD HDTV in their bedroom (the most common second HDTV purchase) are not plugging HD sources into it as the industry expected they would.

So, that puts a kink in the whole “product planning thing” – how many HD distribution channels does a home need? One, two, and how many sources that you want in another room just as bad are fine with staying an SD signal? Frankly, I’d love to get as much input as possible from as many people as possible so we get those kinds of things right – but in the meantime, the key seems to be flexibility.

Our approach, therefore is not to ask anyone to replace the system you already have, just run down to your friendly neighborhood [un-named] store and pick up the BOCS HD modulator (available fall of ’09). It sits on top of your Xtender, takes an HD input, replaces one of your SD channels, and upgrades that channel to HD. That way you get to decide how many SD, how many HD and how it all fits in your home.

St this early date, that is about all I can share – but this is your chance – tell me what you want and how you use it!!