[mythtv-users] extra buttons on WinFast TV2000 CoolCommand remote

[Joel McKee Cooper]

Greetings all!

I've been configuring lirc for my WinFast TV2000 CoolCommand remote 
(Y0400046), and I made a small discovery that I thought I'd pass along.

I was a little frustrated with the limited number of buttons, especially 
since so many of them are duplicates (e.g., "TV/FM" and "Back" buttons 
both send 0x05).  Not only that, but if you look at lircd.conf.tv2000 
you'll notice that 5 of the 32 5-bit codes are missing:  0x15, 0x17, 
0x1a, 0x1c and 0x1d.  I verified with irrecord that none of the buttons 
on the remote send those codes.  Now I won't physically be using the 
CoolCommand remote - I've got a universal remote that I'm programming to 
do the job, so I figured that I should be able to somehow get my 
universal remote to send out those additional five codes.  I thought of 
multiple ways of doing that, none of which really sounded worth the time 
and effort.  But I'm an engineer, so for lack of a more detailed plan I 
figured I'd start by taking apart the CoolCommand :)

Luckily, my destructive nature paid off instantly - upon removing the 
case (no screws, just little plastic tabs along side seams) 12 "hidden" 
buttons were revealed.  The top cover doesn't have any holes for them, 
but they do exist and are functional.  Many of them are just more 
duplicates, but five of them do send the missing codes!  Since they're 
only accessible with the remote taken apart, they're not particularly 
helpful if you plan on using the remote itself.  But for people like me 
using a programmable remote instead, this gives access to the full 32 
buttons (yes!)

-Joel