JP1 remote hacking for SqueezeBox

The SqueezeBox comes with a small remote control. It works OK to control the device. But I've got way too many remotes to want to add another. Now I'm learning about hacking remotes with JP1.

Speculation

Disclaimer: I do not grok how this all fits together.

It appears that everyone used the ir.exe program to actually talk to the UEI remote. the "ir.exe" program reads obscure hex codes to and from the remote.

The key question then becomes what do these codes mean, and how do I manipulate them?

It looks like there are at least two ways to manage the codes:

Assorted Excel spreadsheets such as KM.
the RemoteMaster program

I hate the idea of using Excel to write programs, the idea of instant legacies bothers me. So for now, I'll look at sourceforge's RemoteMaster.

Resources:

http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/
Remote Master, a sourceforge effort for hacking remotes
Don Grovestine's wonderful The What and Why of JP1
a local copy of Don Grovestine's wonderful The What and Why of JP1

Which way is up?

You plug it in with the "tail" of the cable towards the bottom of the remote. See the photo below.

Teaching the Slim

Squeezebox already understands the Tivo IR format. All you'll need to do to get it mostly working is to turn on the -d_ir debugging flag, and note the values that come in when you press each button. Then make a copy of Slim_Devices_Remote.ir - call it "Tivo.ir", and plug in the values.

One really nice thing about the Tivo remotes is they have a procedure for programming a remote to control more than one Tivo. I forget how you do this but basically you can assign a unit number from 0..9 which is encoded in the signal, and then switch back and forth.

So your one remote could control both Tivo and Squeezebox without interference. The only thing that might not work quite right is the repeat codes, since they're different from the Slim remote. However it should be only a very small tweak in the IR code on the server to make it work.