KidZone PIN / Passcode Lost

[Boricle]

So my children have entered the KidZone and forgotten the PIN on my chipped/modded TiVo HD.

Is there any way to reset the PIN / Passcode short of trying every combination?

The nearest answer on the forum here was https://forums.oztivo.net/showthread.php?2911-resetting-post-code-for-kidzone - which essentially suggested trying it manually.

If there isn't some way of doing it (via the SSH or similar), then I guess it's time to finally make something useful out of the arduino bits-and-pieces I have lying around.

(Or make the kids type out all the values).

Kind Regards,

Gavan.

[Darren King]

Sorry Gavan unless the software gurus have come up with an answer I would enlist your kids to do every combination and/or a full clear and delete everything to restore the TiVo :(

[Boricle]

After quite some time, I've gotten around to making an Arduino based remote control that iterates through the 10,000 combinations. It takes around 8-9 hours to go through them all and has worked twice for me.

I'll try and post the hardware fritzing diagram, and the sketch code that it uses (I need to simplify it a bit as I made mine with a display - which isn't really needed).

I think the kids have changed the sorting of the main program list to Alphabetical - this puts "Enter KidsZone" as the first item - so if your remote control gets squashed on the couch, or played with - it's more likely to be accidentally locked out.

Possibly also worth noting that there might be an option to issue the commands via the ssh session - but I wasn't able to find my IP to connect while I was in KidsZone.

[Darren King]

That's fantastic. Please do pass on the details as I occasionally get a TiVo in that is locked and this would expedite things... Plus I'm sure there are others out there who would appreciate it!

[Boricle]

Hi Darren,

I've documented my very primitive Arduino setup and sketch here: https://github.com/gavanm/TivoBruteForce

Please let me know if you have any questions (I just need to figure out how to subscribe to notifications on this thread) - given the mods and repairs you do, I can't see you having any problems - but i'm more than happy to help on both the Arduino programming (this is about as complex as I've done) or the circuit / hardware (also about as complex as I've done).

I guess if there's a need for it, I could try and cobble together something in a kit box that you just point and plug in. Let me know. I'm no expert on it - but I'm happy to try.

Also, for anyone else that wants to program / integrate with their TiVo using an Arduino, you can find a list of all the IR codes for the remote (excluding the "programmed" TV buttons) in the GitHub site here https://github.com/gavanm/TivoBruteForce/blob/master/TiVo_IR_Codes.txt.

Kind Regards,

Gavan.