Ok so spent a bit mor time with remote and thank you for the people who responded to my post.
What I can confirm is the following (dCs remote with Bartok):
Power on/off - works
Volume - works ( btw it’s smooth ant not scratchy)
Next track (with Roon) - works (but for some reason need to press the >> twice, first initalise the Bartok, second to action). I have not tried it with Bartok connected directly to my NAS via Mosaic as my NAS is waiting for a replacement disk)
Source select with the"DAC In" button - works. As mentioned it cycles through the digital inputs, but will not cycle back to Roon as Roon gets paused when Bartok goes to a different input. But again have to press the button twice, one to initiate then to action
Play/Pause - works (With Roon, need to try with NAS input)
Stop - works with Roon ( will try with NAS later)
Display - works
So I stand corrected, The remote does work within it limit on the Bartok
Rohan, do you have your display set to turn itself off?
If so, you’re seeing the same behaviour I do on mine — the first press of a button turns on the display, which the dCS needs to be receptive to the button press that actually does something.
Hi. yes I too have the display set to ‘off’ to increase the life of the OLED display (althought I have the dSC logo ‘on’ - making the assumption that the logo is not a OLED but just an LED) and I see the same response as you… first push of a button wake, second push make the action ahppen
Does anyone know if the dCS remote would operate a Philips based OEM cd transport? I thought I read somewhere that they used the same codes but I could be wrong.
I believe that dCS IR codes are based on the Philips RC5 protocol. However these are configured in such a way that different types of component can be identified to prevent clashes. The result is that it is not possible to guarantee that the combination of a dCS remote with an unidentified Philips based OEM transport will work ( incidentally dCS have only used a Philips manufactured transport on one model way in the past). So it might work or might work for some commands or not at all.
I’m not sure on the exact codes Phillips use, but as Pete says the codes we use are based on the Phillips RC5 protocol. You can see the exact codes used here.
If you have the Lina DAC on software 2.0, it will work with the dCS Universal Remote as well as with early generation Apple TV IR remote controls. You can set which of these is used in the menu of the DAC.
I should note that this Apple TV IR remote functionality is specific to the Lina DAC.
In the Lina Settings configuration, set [IR Control] to “IR” instead of “dCS” and the Apple remote will start to function for Lina, including Menu button, Transport controls, and Volume buttons.
There are only a couple of use cases for a remote. The most important is needing a pause, in case the phone rings or somebody is at the door. It takes too long to open my iPad, find the app, and wait for it to connect. It is also handy to skip a track in a playlist.
There’s no way I would pay $750 or want that big plank thing. The other alternatives are too big also. So I decided to make my own! I used this cheap donor from Amazon. It is the size of an Apple TV remote.
It works great and it can do
Volume up and down
Pause
Mute
Skip forward or backward in a playlist
Stop a playlist
Change phase
Cycle through inputs
Cycle through filters
Enter or Exit power standby.
Cool project! But for those who are not in the “design my own board” camp, there are lots of cheap learning remotes available on Amazon/AliExpress. I got this very nice aluminum one for about US$30 on AliExpress and used my Plank to train it. So long as you can borrow the dCS Plank for an afternoon from someone, you can use it to program any of these cheap learning remotes.
Great but not if you also have a dCS transport to control. The plank supports 25 commands ( as per the number of buttons) so the rather nice substitute shown will not support a 4 box system (12 commands available ?).
But a great solution for Bartok and Rossini owners who don’t need all those transport buttons! The numbers seem particularly old fashioned, as I haven’t had a CD player/transport in more than a decade now!
