I'm finally working on porting my PEP 1.2.6.0 XCF to PEP 2.4.23.0. It's not until recently that I've had some extra time and motivation to deal with losing link functionality (ProntoTunes, which requires PEP 2.x is one motivator).

I've spent a bit of time looking at old threads to try to get answers to these questions, but I didn't find definitive answers. My questions are:

1. I finally have all my IR codes in the PEP 1.x "My Database". I noticed that if I change an IR code in the PEP 1.x "My Database", the change is not automatically propagated to my PEP 1.x XCF. I believe I have to select the Properties page of a device and click on "Reassign". Since my PEP 1.x uses links, I only have to do the "Reassign" in one device. However, in case there's buttons in other devices that use the "My Database" code directly (instead of links), they won't be reassigned.

Question is: how does this work with PEP 2.x? Does PEP 2.x have some global reassign function, so if I change an IR code in "My Database", all references to that code in the XCF will be updated with minimal manual work?

2. The help of PEP 2.4.23.0 says that it supports "multiple page view". It says to "double click a tab in the WYSIWYG to undock it". I tried double-clicking on a tab, and nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

3. My RFX9600 uses firmware version 1.1.36. Does the latest RFX9600 firmware (version 1.4.7) care what firmware is used in the TSU9400?

4. Do I need to use PEP 2.x in order to upgrade my TUS9400's firmware to the latest version (version 7.3.3)? The documentation for firmware 7.3.3 says it's "not guaranteed to be compliant with PEP1 software". I'm interested in switching to WPA. Others have posted that they upgraded the firmware but stayed with PEP 1.x (it wasn't clear what firmware they upgraded to). Can I upgrade w/o any problems?

5. Assuming I can upgrade the firmware but stick with PEP 1.x, will WPA start showing up as a choice in the System Properties->Encryption menu? Right now, it only shows options for WEP.

6. I have some pages that use 8 point font. The 8 point font looks just fine in PEP 1.x and in the TSU9400. However, when I port the PEP 1.x XCF to PEP 2.x, the WYSIWYG in PEP 2.x shows 8 point fonts as blocky, and they are difficult to read. Any suggestions on this? FWIW, I'm doing the editing on Windows XP.

7. I see the latest PEP 2.x has a feature that supports macros. Does it provide the same capability of reusing code like PEP 1.x provided via links? Any gotchas or things to watch out for?

8. I believe I read in an old thread that there is no need to port the PEP 1.x My Database to the PEP 2.x My Database. All I need to do is import my PEP 1.x XCF and PEP 2.x will automatically create devices in My Database? (At this point, my PEP 1.x XCF uses My Database).

Thanks,

randman

EDIT: fixed question numbers

1. go to my database and on the device functions. You'll see a yellow triangle with a ! if you hover with it it will tell you that the code in the database is different from the one in the project. Click on the tirangle and you'll get an interface to fix it.

2. never tried it.

3. yes, update

4. for WPA you have to opgrade firmware, don't know what happens to PEP1

5. I doubt that PEP1 has that option programmed in.

4. change the font. ProntoMaesto always looked strange to me (font's on the remote don't look like in the editor, in the editor they are shown thicker)

5., 6. no idea wait for others.

Thanks, BluPhenix. For #3, you said "yes, update". Did you mean "no"? Wanted to verify - it's okay to upgrade to latest RFX9600 firmware even while still using an old TSU9400?

Upgrade the RFX firmware. I think it should work just fine. If not, you can back it out.

Left click on the tab and drag it to the middle of the screen. Several boxes with arrows will appear. Drag and release the tab on one of those arrowed boxes.


No. You have to use PEP2 to access WPA


It is very similar to the way links used to work. I haven't found any issues.

Note that port from PEP1 to PEP2 does NOT update your links. At first, all your linked buttons will have their actionlists duplicated. You will then have to copy/paste the actions that were duplicated and make your own macro. At this point, you can then relink your original buttons such that they use the new macros.

If this is unclear, go ahead and do the port from PEP1 to PEP2. Then, open up PEP1 and PEP2 side by side and look at how PEP2 handled your old PEP1 macro.

When opening a PEP v1 XCF in PEP v2 all link actions are resolved. Each link action is replaced with the individual action list items that link action was pointing to. At that point if you want the ability to link to a given action list throughout your configuration file you must create that action list under the Reusable Macros section of the tree view, a special activity used solely to store macros which can then be linked to throughout your configuration file. Think of the Reusable Macros section of the tree as simply an activity without pages. Rather than adding a page to the activity you are adding a category. Under a given category you then add macros rather than buttons building the action list for each accordingly. You are then able to link to those macros from any button throughout your configuration file. Very limiting when compared to PEP v1 where you could simply link to the action list of any button throughout your configuration file from a given button. That being said, depending on how extensive you used the link action in PEP v1 the task of replicating that same structure in PEP v2 per the Reusable Macros section of the tree could be quite time consuming as you are having to recreate a given macro under the Reusable Macros section, then updating each action list throughout your configuration file to once again link to that macro instead.

Lowpro,

Thanks for the very detailed description. I was at work (my day job) when I typed the above and did not have time to elaborate.

Much appreciated.

Lyndel

Welcome. :-)

Many thanks for all your input! Converting my XCF to use "My Database" was the first pain. The next pain is having to manually recreate all my macros. That will be very time consuming. At least the conversion process "copies" over the individual macro commands. But still very time consuming to recreate.

Whether or not Pronto will be discontinued, after some analysis on Pronto's competitors, I've come to the conclusion that the Pronto remotes will still be very useful for my home use for a good long while. Other remotes that are as or more powerful just aren't accessible to the DIYers while the remotes targeted at the DIYers just aren't powerful enough for true customizability. In the future maybe there will be a remote that has the features of the latest Prontos with some of the usability and connectivity and apps like iOS devices, but I don't see that becoming available anytime soon. Till then, Pronto is it!!!

I have done it over time. When I first converted the file, I just made sure it worked. As Lyndel and lowpro said it will automatically duplicate the buttons so macros are not necessary right away.
Then as I had time or when I was making changes I created macros, first for source selection, then for other things.

In other threads in this forum, it was mentioned that an "error list" is generated when importing a PEP1 XCF to PEP2. How do I see this "error list"? I don't see it anywhere accessible in the GUI. I also looked at some Windows directories and I didn't find it. Or, is this "error list" supposed to come up in a window automatically IF there are migration errors, and I was just lucky enough not to have any errors?

Thanks.

From what I remember the error list popped up automatically. Sounds like you got lucky.