Remote Control Thru Serial Port

[FactorOfX]

Is there a way to remote control the DirecTiVo thru the Bash shell or the serial port?

Essentially I want to be able to send a command thru the serial interface to do something as simple as change the channels on the DirecTV..

Any ideas?

I know it is possible to do it with the regular DTV rcvrs thru their wideband, lowspeed, and home control ports.

Thanks,

-FactorOfX

[John]

Have you checked Tivoweb.Not sure if it works with Directivo or not but it has a remote in it .search tivoweb and a few other things

[ID_MAn]

Yes there is, and I have it working as we speak. The method is slightly convoluted. I'll describe the items used and how it works below.

What you will need:

- The X10 mp3 Anywhere remote. This is a very cool RF remote with a reciever that plugs into the serial port of your PC

- IRAssistant for Windoze. Gives you the ability to run macros on your PC based on the buttons pressed on the RF remote.

- TivoWeb running on the Tivo via PPP on the serial port.

- wget.exe for your Windoze machine. A simple command line app that retrieves the html from a web page. Very cool.

Here is how all of this works together.

1. A button is pressed on the X10 remote (from anywhere in the house, it's RF)

2. The command is picked up by the RF reciever on the PC, and IRAssistant launches a .bat file corresponding to the button pressed. (for our example, Channel Up)

3. The .bat file contains a wget.exe command to retrieve one of the TivoWeb pages on the virtual remote. (wget.exe http://192.168.10.2/sendkey/ChanUp)

4. Hitting that page causes TivoWeb to pump the Channel Up command string into the IR tty port, causing the channel to change.

Ok, I know this is a bit of a kludge, but it does work! I hope this helps!

--ID_Man

[FactorOfX]

That was a nice idea ID_Man.. But not exactly what I was looking for. What I really wanted to know if there was a set of commands that you can send thru the Serial port or even the bash prompt to make changes on the Unit..

I.E.

BASH# change channel up

BASH# change channel 356

etc etc...

Know what I mean?

Thanks,

FactorOfX

[BubbaJ]

I recall seeing something like that in TCL somewhere, but you could roll your own too..
basically a script like such:

#!/bin/bash
#channel changer script

CH_up=<code for up>
CH_down=<code for down>
PF_0=<code for 0>
..
PF_9=<code for 9>

case [ $1 ]
up:
echo $CH_up >/dev/ttyS1
down:
echo $CH_down >/dev/ttyS1
??number??
echo <appropriate sequence> >/dev/ttyS1
esac

obviously, this code isn't real, but with a bash programming manual and the appropriate codes, it should eb a breeze to get going.. (if you can't find TCL that already does it)

[TheDoctor]

Check out the sendkey script at http://tivo.samba.org/download/tridge/SendKey
It allows you to use the tivosh SendKey utility from the bash prompt.

[Toadfish]

I think this is what your looking for. Pretty cool util
it'll work on my 4 gen sony but haven't looked at my dsr6k
http://www.pcmx.net/dtvcon/

[Toadfish]

dunno why it posted 2x?

[FactorOfX]

Yea I saw that program and that's what started this whole thing. My hughes doesn't have WideBand LowSpeed or Home Control ports on it, only the Serial for the BASH..

I guess its easy to send the command to the thing thru the BASH prompt. Just type them in. Question is:

What are the control commands?

Thanks to BubbaJ I am on the right track. Now I just need to know where to find those control commands and we will be set.

-FactorOfX

[BubbaJ]

Tridges sendkey loop should work..

Thanks TheDoctor

SendKey 2 4 5 enter

would tune to 245

and you could wrap it with something that breaks apart the keys and adds the enter


//!!//Start
#!/bin/bash
#channel changer script - usage: cc <channel>

mI=$1
until [ "$mI" -eq 0 ]; do
lM=$(($mI % 10))
SendKey $lM
mI=$(($mI / 10))
done

SendKey enter
//!!//End


should do the trick

[JJBliss]

Originally posted by BubbaJ
Tridges sendkey loop should work..

Thanks TheDoctor

SendKey 2 4 5 enter

would tune to 245

and you could wrap it with something that breaks apart the keys and adds the enter


//!!//Start
#!/bin/bash
#channel changer script - usage: cc <channel>

mI=$1
until [ "$mI" -eq 0 ]; do
lM=$(($mI % 10))
SendKey $lM
mI=$(($mI / 10))
done

SendKey enter
//!!//End


should do the trick

Nice one....

Except, this is my output....

------------------------------

bash-2.02# cc 596
<166>Jan 23 22:48:30 tcl[679]: Tcl created pool of 1458176 bytes
<166>Jan 23 22:48:30 ContextTests[679]: 6
6
<166>Jan 23 22:48:31 tcl[680]: Tcl created pool of 1458176 bytes
<166>Jan 23 22:48:32 ContextTests[680]: 9
9
<166>Jan 23 22:48:33 tcl[681]: Tcl created pool of 1458176 bytes
<166>Jan 23 22:48:34 ContextTests[681]: 5
5
<166>Jan 23 22:48:35 tcl[682]: Tcl created pool of 1458176 bytes
<166>Jan 23 22:48:36 ContextTests[682]: enter
enter
bash-2.02#

---------------------------------

<giggle> It parses it backwards...

JJ

[JJBliss]

Instead of just complaining.. I was looking at the code that BubbaJ wrote above... I added 10 seconds worth of coding for those of you guys who want a "cooler" look.. Not much skill involved..

------------------

#!/bin/bash
#channel changer script - usage: cc <channel>

mI=$1
until [ "$mI" -eq 0 ]; do
lM=$(($mI % 10))
SendKey $lM > /dev/null
mI=$(($mI / 10))
done

echo "Changing Channel to '$1' "

SendKey enter > /dev/null

-------------------------------

It still parses backwards, but I'm looking at why. Hopefully BubbaJ will get here before my puny head explodes.

If I knew an ounce about linux or tcl it would help. I think we could just load up an array with the channel numbers, and pick them up in reverse order..

No ?


JJ

[chinhster]

It's parsing backwards because from the logic:

245 % 10 = 5 <--
245/10 = 24

24 % 10 = 4 <--
24/10 = 2

2 % 10 = 2 <--

% means modulus

[BubbaJ]

oops..

and merely swapping the logic won't work either.. (it'll lose channels ending in 0)

so.. here ti si..
------------------

#!/bin/bash
#channel changer script - usage: cc <channel>
mI=$1

mI3=$(($mI % 10))
mI=$(($mI / 10))
mI2=$(($mI % 10))
mI=$(($mI / 10))
mI1=$(($mI % 10))
mI=$(($mI / 10))
mI0=$(($mI % 10))
mI=$(($mI / 10))

echo "Changing Channel to '$1' "

SendKey $mI0 > /dev/null
SendKey $mI1 > /dev/null
SendKey $mI2 > /dev/null
SendKey $mI3 > /dev/null
SendKey enter > /dev/null



-------------------------------

[chinhster]

How about:

------------------

#!/bin/bash
#channel changer script - usage: cc <channel>

num=$1
div=1000
until [ "$div" -eq 0 ]
do
key=$(($num / $div))
SendKey $key > /dev/null
num=$(($num % $div))
div=$(($div / 10))
done

echo "Changing Channel to '$1' "

SendKey enter > /dev/null

-------------------------------

Dominion insists that I mention that he fixed my syntax errors.

Oops, BubbaJ beat me to it. I just took out the logic to remove the leading 0's.