Anyone who’s tried to control an Xbox 360 with a programmable remote or home automation system probably know how hard it is. I mean, I’ve been playing with this stuff for about six years and never in my life have I seen a device act so odd. The two main things I noticed was that sometimes it won’t respond to any codes at all until some obscure button is pressed. But the worst is that Microsoft doesn’t provide discrete IR codes and the ones that can be found online aren’t really discrete. What I mean to say is that the discrete ‘on’ works to turn the system on until you either turn the 360 off with the remote or the button on the front, and then from that point forward it is a discrete ‘off’ code. Which really defeats the entire point of having discrete IR codes.
Well luckily, I was persistent and after lots of reading online I found the solution. I found this post on Remote Central and to my surprise it actually works. What you do is create two macros, one for on and another of off, using two separate commands each. Here are pronto hex codes.
Power On Macro
(#a)
0000 0072 0000 0021 0062 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 0020 002F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 0020 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 0981
(Power On)
0000 0073 0000 0020 0060 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0010 0020 0031 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0020 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0020 0010 09C1
Here are the two commands to issue for off.
Power Off Macro
(#b)
0000 0072 0022 0022 0062 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 0020 002F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 0020 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 0981 0062 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 0020 002F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0012 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 0020 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 000F 0020 000F 000F 000F 0981
(Power Off)
0000 0073 0000 001F 0060 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0010 0020 0031 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0020 0020 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0020 0020 0020 0020 0010 0010 0020 09D1
Now to my surprise these not only turn the 360 on and off reliably, but to top it off, it responds correctly to the other IR commands without any other funny business.
I don’t know how estech from the Remote Central forums figured this out, but I’d really like to thank him for saving me some hair — now if only my new fans from ConsoleShop.com would get here.
Ben,
First let me say thanks for your enthusiasm for the Digital Lifestyle. I’m really very new to all of this and have found your writings and Podcasts to be very helpful.
I was wondering what your using to distribute your IR and RF signals through out your house. I recently set up my Xbox360 as an extender to My HTPC (Connected to my Direct Tv STB) and realized that I never purchased an Ir Blaster to send the commands from the Xbox to the HTPC and eventually to the IR on the STB.
I am planning on moving all my equipment into a rack in a closet eventually for WAF and would like to purchase a system that will be expandable for some of the new technology that I will be adding to my home.
Thanks for the help and for the post on the discrete IR codes.
Dallas Knox
Dallas,
Glad I could be of help, just trying to share the things I learn along the way.
This is probably a good topic for a post, but to give you the basics you need some automation software like Mainlobby or mControl and some IR hardware. I use both a USB-UIRT and a Global Cache GC-100. The first is just a USB transceiver for the PC which is useful because the MS IR transceiver is limited to MC duties like controlling a STB etc. The second is an IR/RS-232 ethernet bridge which is great for when your controller is in different room than your equipment and you want to control it via rs-232 or IR. All you have to do is run one ethernet cable.
On the other end of it is getting the IR from your HT to your controller, for this I use a Xantech IR repeater system. It consists of at least three pieces; one receiver, one amp block and one blaster.
If you’re just trying to control a DirecTV STB with Media Center, then you just need a basic MC remote kit.
Ben,
Thanks for the reply, I will look into the system you described.I’m leaning toward a NevoQ50 or S70 for an all in one remote for the house. I know there is no perfect solution, but these Nevo remotes are as close as it gets from the preliminary research I have done. Their only down side is their custom install only so no consumer support. You have to buy it off eBay with no warranty. It should integrate nicely into the system you described.
Thanks
Dallas Knox
P.S. I dont know if you have seen this thread on AVS, but I have been reading it from the beginning for the last two weeks. They are doing some really fascinating stuff with WHS and its storage potential. One guy is testing out a theory using SAS expander that may allow WHS to store over 100TB of data from several 2TB drives in multiple arrays all added to the pool. Might be worth a look.It really starts to get in depth around pg 20.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1071162
Ben,
Thank you! You don’t know it, but you just helped me finish part of my senior design project.
Using these pronto hex codes, I wrote some code that sits on a networked Arduino board, and turns all my AV equipment on/off.
It took a lot of thinking and a little bit of work in excel, but I wouldn’t have figured out the macro without your post.
Figures that your personal blog would be a perfect source for home automation…if I’d read this article earlier, I’d have saved myself 6 hours in the lab of getting no results.
Best,
dishbreak
Glad you found it useful in fact the only reason I posted it was because I found it so difficult to locate online. Figured the least I could was to make it easier for Google to index and thus for others to find it.
Ben – Thank you very much for this extremely helpful post!!! This has been the most annoying problem I’ve faced with my home automation setup, and your advice was the perfect solution!
David