Toolkit triggering of NIRT IR sequences is unreliable

I try to use toolkit to trigger NIRT IR transmission and mostly nothing is transmitted. There has been one occasion out of about 10 attempts recently where something was transmitted. The same NIRT sequences work fine when I trigger them from a PAC by setting the trigger group to the action selector. Is toolkit 'pulsing' the trigger group too short for the NIRT?

 

Toolkit. To test IR sequences what I was doing was going into toolkit, opening the Trigger Control group, selecting an Action Selector, right clicking and selecting 'Trigger Action Selector'. Sounded like it was going to do what I wanted.

I could test the sequences when connected to the NIRT via Serial but its not very convenient.

The NIRT is on my wired CBUS network and I was on my laptop going through a LAN CNI.

 

The toolkit version was the latest. v1.6.1.

So should this work or will I need to continue to hold my laptop precariously whilst RS232 connected to the NIRT in order to test IR sequences?

 

Nick,

I mean sending the same command multiple times *sometimes* works.

If this isn't an already known issue and its expected to work I'm happy to do more testing to quantify and expand on what I saw. I have tried this a few times and actually assumed it wasn't working at all until on one occassion my HVAC system turned on. I can also check to see if, in the case where it doesn't 'appear' to work, any IR is being emitted at all.

Brad.

 

Toolkit triggering of NIRT IR sequences is unreliable (NOT1)

Hi BradJ,

Would like to refer to your "problem" as we faced similar "problems" in Singapore. We documented the scenarios and found out some issues that we should be aware of before attempting the "learn" process and "pulsing" process:

Make sure your computer has a hardware RS232 port (like a physical one) instead of using USB->RS232 converters even like those good ones like Prolific RS232 bridges -- takes forever to download the IR code onto the unit.

Make sure that your IR Code is "clean" - like Ashleigh has said, they have a lot of codes (i.e. temperature, fan speed, cool mode, swing etc) injected onto the IR code you intend to learn, especially the ON/ OFF button -- there was one time we forgot to reset the timer button and learned the ON IR code with the timer, so everytime it fires the code, it will also set the timer as well, which solved the mystery why there was a "ghost" switching on the aircon ;-)

I don't really know the code strings format, but after you had learned, try learning it again to compare the difference. There would be a lot of trial and error as different IR codes have different formats.

If you have succeeded learning a proper one, back it up so that you can use it as a template later on; whilst you experiment with the next IR code.

Just my 2 cents' worth.

Let me know if you have any specific issues (i.e. like newer generation Daikin codes are difficult to learn and pulse out)

 

I am currently doing an installation with a Daikin VRV system with 5 units and using 5 NIRTs to control them. I experienced similar problems. My problem ended up being that after reading the remote and saving the file the NIRTs would transmit but not always activate the AC units. I found it was caused by the reader software changing the IR frequency slightly but enough to knock it of the required receiver specs (32767 instead of 32800). As discussed in other areas of the forum I fixed this by modifying the IR reader file with notepad and changed the frequency to the original specified by the reader but it then meant going back and deleting original circa files and starting again. This frequency change occured twice on the same job as I had to modify the requirements and reread the remotes.
Also a point to note is that some AC systems, particularly Daikin multihead systems with masters require a seperate power off button for heat and cooling. If you have read the power off button with cool temp it will turn the system off but can cause problems with the rest of the system.

 

I finally got around to doing some more tests with this.

When I trigger an IR sequence using the 'Trigger Action Selector' from the toolkit, the IR LED on my IR repeating network very faintly registers and the device doesn't respond to the IR. I triggered it about 30 times with the same result.

When I trigger the same IR sequence via 'SetTriggerLevel' in my PAC it works and my IR LED registers the activity with a nice bright pulse, every time.

I could go to the next step and capture the output on my pronto to see exactly what the output is but I suspect someone from CIS can just try it themselves and see the problem.

Its almost like when triggered from toolkit the 'pulse' is a lot shorter than when triggered from the PAC resulting in a truncated IR transmission.

If I can do anything else to help diagnose this, I'm happy to.

Brad.

 

Yes I had done a scan of the network first.

The NIRT is flashing in what looks to be the same way as when the PAC triggers the IR but my IR 'engine' hardware shows a feeble little IR flash, barely visible, and the equipemnt does not respond.