DVICO Fusion Remote gone, trying to figure out replacement

[Rurik]

After many years of faithful service, our DVICO Fusion remote is gone (and in a house with a one year old, that means it won't be found for at least six months). The buttons were all worn down so we needed a replacement anyway.

I still have the USB IR receiver for the Fusion in place. Can this receiver be used for other universal remotes or do I need to buy additional hardware?

One of my favorite features about the Fusion was that its driver showed a virtual remote on the screen for easy programming. Are there any other remotes with a similar feature.

This is not for a universal remote. I like segregated remotes for each device, so this will be for SageTV only.

[iannbrown]

Hi
I have a few speare Fusion remotes and you can have one for free if you send me your address to ian@brownhq.com...

[gplasky]

Your other option could probably be anyone of the Logitech Harmony remotes. I believe the Divco Fusion is in their database and should work with the existing receiver. And you won't have to learn it the commands. It's also a learning remote but as you said yours is lost.

Gerry

[Rurik]

Thanks for the suggestions. And iannbrown I'm shooting you an email now, thank you.

[jchiso]

If you can still find an old One For All or Radio Shack upgradeable remote you can program it with a cheap JP1 interface cable and a PC, if you're even slightly intrepid. The USB-based IR receiver is the more-valuable portion of the setup. I wish there were someplace that still stocked the receivers ...

[Rurik]

An update after five months.

We found the remote in January, but the "Enter" button no longer worked on it. So, we haven't used our Sage box for about six months now, relying solely on Xbox Netflix. This weekend my wife ordered the Sage box gone since it's just sitting there. I've searched daily for Dvico remotes, and setup eBay alerts. One has appeared on eBay and I was outbid in the last second.

I'd still like to keep it, but not at the crazy expense of a Harmony remote or the aggravation and time commitment of configuring an all-in-one through JP1.

Are those my only options?

[jchiso]

Perhaps it's beating a dead horse here, but if you still have the USB IR receiver you are most of the way there. ironically, I just performed SageTV remote updates on a couple of JP1 remotes, since I just bought two HD300s. The JP1 stuff is really not that challenging if you can get your hands on a remote and the necessary hardware. It may take a week or two to get it all together, but that's would still bring you in a less than the "six months" you expected to be without remote control.

Other than that, you can search for cheap learning remotes in closeout stores or on e-bay, but that's always a crapshoot ...

[Rurik]

Thank you. I'm working towards the JP1 route now, but finding a remote is a bit arduous. The Radio Shack in my area did not have any remotes that were JP1 (I Google the part #s from the store). They have some, but none in stock in my state.

I just bought two remotes that both claimed to be JP1, but were missing the pins. So it looks like I'll be doing some soldering this month. Fingers crossed that this will go well and I can be back on my way.

[Rurik]

I apologize for the drama, but I want to warn others from maybe going down the same road.

I've spent nearly $90 in remotes and cables and have spent a good 12 hours on the JP1. There are no previously detailed remote keymaps for this receiver and my DVICO remote is dead so it's impossible to create one.

It's truly amazing. I bought this remote and IR receiver (http://www.linhes.org/bugs/attachmen...sionRemote.jpg) for $30 brand new a few years ago. Plugged it in and used its built-in tool to assign a SageTV keyboard shortcut to each button. Had the entire remote configured in 15 minutes. These remotes are nearly impossible to find now.

[jchiso]

What kind of JP1 remote do you have? I've modified Fusion remote keymaps for a few different models. It was all pretty straightforward using RemoteMaster and IR software from the JP1 forums. I also have one of those Fusion remotes you referenced. They are really great and so simplistic that you'd think a few other vendors would have made similar products ...

[Rurik]

I have the RCA RCRP05B. Once I got through the learning hoops, it was pretty straight forward. It was just a lot of time of trying custom codes, writing, testing, trying new ones. And the VERY frequent corruption of the codes on the remote It's one of those things where if you don't have a remoe, and no one has seen the receiver before, it's near impossible to make work.

Luckily, I just found a replacement remote on eBay. My eBay alerts didn't catch it because it was generically named. So, at the least, I can rip the codes off of it finally and share with others that have JP1.

[jchiso]

I haven't seen the RCA remote, though I've heard it is one of the more readily-available recent JP1 remotes. I picked up two JP1 models a couple of weeks ago from guys on the JP1 website's Marketplace. I got a (second) Radio Shack 15-134 and a OFA Kameleon for a total of $34, delivered. I paid $0.97 for my first 15-134 during the in-store closeout.

You can usually find reliable, upgraded and fully-JP1-capable remotes for sale in the Marketplace.