NEOHacker Files

NEOHacker
5/13/2002
Written by ChocoboLee

First things first. Make sure you have backup copies of your NCF files. This is beta software, so I'm not responsible if it corrupts your files. I have done a lot of testing and it never corrupted my NCF files, but you never know. :)

Getting started
---------------

Although the ProntoNeo remote is a great remote, Philips released it before it was really ready for the general public. So it shipped with buggy firmware and buggy software. Though their recent firmware/software release fixes a lot of these problems, there are still quite a few crucial onces that they haven't fixed or don't plan to.

One of the main problems with the ProntoNEO is that you can't create your own startup page. You have to use the default auto-generated one that their software, NEOedit, creates. So I originally wrote NEOHacker to fix help me easily fixup the NCF file so that I can have my own startup page replace the auto-generated one. Now, NEOHacker, is becoming a general hacking tool that lets me modify NCF files in lots of different ways.

You need a a JRE to run it. You can download the latest JRE from http://java.sun.com. If you are using Windows, just double-click on the NEOHacker.jar file to start it. Otherwise, run "javaw -jar NEOHacker.jar"

What NEOHacker does
-------------------

You can replace the auto-generated device overview page with your device's first page. Just select the device you want. Then select the menu option 'Set As Startup Device' (Ctrl-D) Once you've done that, save the file. (Save it in a new location if you have not backed up your NCF file) Now, open this file in NEOedit and download it to your ProntoNEO. Note that if you then  upload from the Pronto again, you would not be able to get back your custom startup page, because ProntoNEO will automatically replace that page when you save the uploaded data. So it is recommended that you make a backup of your custom startup page before you hack it using NEOHacker and download it to your Pronto. Of course that is only if you plan on learning some IR codes and need to upload that information. When you upload from your ProntoNEO, you will see that there's a new device named 'Device'. Fell free to delete this device, as this is just the automatically generated Device Overview page.

By replacing the default Device Overview page, you can basically hide any device. As long as you do not jump to it in your pages, you will not be able to reach those hidden pages. This is a very welcome side benefit to creating your own startup page.

You can also edit most of the parameters in the ConfigEdit.xml file. These includes changing button locations and dimensions, changing labels, changing actions, and even changing learned IR codes. Try playing around with them and let me know what you find. One neat thing is that you no longer have to obey NEOedit's rule of not letting two bitmaps intersect each other. Now with NEOHacker, you can have bitmaps intersect each other! I haven't played around with it too much, but it seems like you can even have a background bitmap image. You can also changed the learned codes. I have been able to crack the codes partially. So you can enter the code in either the ProntoNEO's learned IR code format or that Pronto's HEX IR format. The conversion process is still a work in progress, so it might not work 100 percent.

You can change the settings values. This means you can change the default key press sound's duration, frequency, and volume. I have included a Win32 program, 'PlaySound.exe', with NEOHacker. Use this to test the sound without having to download the configuration to your ProntoNEO. (This Win32 program might not work in Win95 and Win98) You can also make the lcd backlight timeout time different from the button backlight timeout time. Note that the timeout values are stored in hexadecimal format.

When you open an NCF file in NEOHacker, a tree will be displayed that shows all the major elements in the ConfigEdit.xml file. If a tree node is blue, that means you can edit the parameters of that node. Just click on the node, and at the bottom of the window, there will be a place for you to edit the parameters. Just change the value to whatever you want and click on the 'Save Parameter' button.

You can also select which parameters you want to see. Use the menu 'Parameter'.
'Show UI Parameters' determines if UI parameters like positions, dimensions, and bitmaps are shown. This is on by default.
'Show Fixed Parameters' determines if the fixed paramters are shown. These are the parameters that NEOHacker does not let you change. This is on by default.
'Show Complex Parameters' determines if some of the more complicated parameters are shown. These include the the codeset, device, and brand ids for the devices, and other fairly technical parameters that you probably wouldn't want to edit it outside of NEOedit anyways. This is off by default.

NEOHacker is also compatible with RC3200 ncf files. If you want to save a ProntoNEO file as a RC3200 file or vice versa, then in the 'Save as...' dialog box, select the type in the drop down box.

What NEOHacker is not
---------------------

NEOHacker does not let you add any new things to the NCF file. It only lets you edit the values. That's because I didn't write NEOHacker to replace NEOedit. You should always use NEOedit to create your NCF file. NEOHacker is just for editing your NCF file in ways that NEOedit wouldn't let you.

Version History
---------------

0.7:
- Incorporated Pat Spector's Pronto2Neo converter. So now, Pronto codes with 2 burst pairs can be converted also. Big thanks to Pat Spector for reverse engineering that!
- Makes the input window expand as necessary. This makes entering learned codes easier
- Now allows you to change a Normal IR action to a Learned IR action. Just enter the learned code in the input area as you would for a Learned IR action.

0.6:
- Made it compatible with RC3200 ncf files
- Fixed a bug that happens when you have devices without any pages
- Made various unknown types show up properly

0.5:
- Can now modify settings including lcd timeouts, backlight timeouts, and key press duration, frequency, and volume.
- Does not allow you to save over the same file unless you specifically request it to. By default it appends '-hacked' to your file name when you click 'Save As...". This way it will be less likely for you to accidently overwrite your 'master' file.
- Included a Win32 program, 'PlaySound.exe'. This is useful for testing out what a sound will sound like without having to download your configuration to your ProntoNEO. I'm not sure if this will work on Win95 or Win98. It works on WinNT and Win2000.

0.4:
- You can now enter the learned IR codes in Pronto's HEX IR format. You can get those codes here: http://www.remotecentral.com/files/main-hex.htm
Right now it's still incomplete, but I believe simple codes will work. Codes with 2 burst sequences will not work.

0.3:
- Added the ability to hide/show different types of parameters.
- Made the node labels more descriptive so you do not have to expand the node to know what its children are.

0.2:
- Now allows you to modify most of the parameters in the ConfigEdit.xml file
- Let's you examine and change learned IR codes

0.1:
- Allows you to move any device to be the first page shown.
- Has Open, Close, Save, Save as, Exit, Move up, and Move down commands.

Future Upgrades
---------------

- Allow replacement of bitmaps
- Make it more user-friendly. Right now a lot of parameters are still quite cryptic.


Please distribute freely, but please include this readme.txt file.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them to Yahoo's pronto_neo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pronto_neo/
I go by the username ChocoboLee.
Or you can always send me email at charlesblee@yahoo.com.
Please don't send me more junkmail... I already have enough as it is. :)