Firefly Mini/Harmony Remote Thread

[lesd]

Hello fellow HTPCers,

I wanted to start a thread to gather the experience of Logiteh Harmony remote users who have attempted to use the Firefly Mini IR Reciever to control Snapstream Beyond TV. Hopefully out of this we can come up with a "FAQ" of sorts for Harmony Users wanting to control BTV as well as some feature suggestions/requests for the Firefly Mini Software.

I'll post some of my experience after this in separate posts.

-- Les

[lesd]

First, my experience with setting up the Harmony Remote. A little background - I have been using a Harmony 880 along with a Firefly (Senior, Standard?) and wanted to consolidate and only use the 880. I knew that a USB UIRT and Girder would let me do what I wanted, but the Firefly Mini seemed like a cheaper and easier alternative, so I gave it a shot.

I started by just adding a new HTPC device in the Harmony software. Firefly Mini does show up as an option, and I added a "Snapstream DVR" activity on the remote. Updated the remote and I had basic functionality - pretty easy!

My one gripe so far with the way things work is that, during playback of a recorded show, the "skip forward" and "skip backwards" buttons do not function like the Firefly Standard. In fact, they don't do anything! On the Firefly Standard, skip forward goes 30 secs ahead and skip backwards backs up 7 or 8 seconds. This is very useful for getting around commercials when SmartSkip doesn't work perfectly. Please note this is a general problem with the Firefly Mini and not just the Harmony Remote.

[lesd]

Product Suggestion/Feature Request:

Since the Firefly Mini driver makes it look just like a keyboard to windows, why not add some functionality to the software to allow custom mapping of IR codes to keyboard shortcuts? Then any function in BTV that has a keyboard shortcut can be programmed into a universal remote.

[Kilrsat]

There are skip forward and skip backward buttons on the Firefly Mini that do the 30/7 second skips. They are mapped correctly on my Harmony 880, so it sounds like there is some setup issue that isn't quite right with yours.


Once I went in and changed the interkey delay to 0 and set the ir repeat to 0 I was quite happy with my Harmony. I'll put up some more detailed notes later.

[dubbedout]

I just recently purchased the Firefly mini and a Harmony 680, works great. On the harmony website I have the HTPC setup as a Snapstream PVR, model: Firefly Mini - all commands work great. Easiest setup for a universal remote ever! well worth the $$.

[btvfreak]

The skip forward/back buttons work on my Firefly Mini and Harmony 659. As mentioned it's probably a setup issue. Go into your Snapstream DVR activity and customize the remote buttons. You can see the mapping there. If it is mapped correctly, but still doesn't do anything, then you may want to just create custom codes and teach the Harmony directly from the Mini, then map those codes to the proper Harmony buttons.

My Firefly Mini experience is posted here:
http://htpc.threesixty.cc/2006/03/09...-firefly-mini/

[lesd]

Hmm. Thanks for the feedback.

The skip forward/back doesn't work even directly with my firefly mini, so it's not the Harmony setup. I updated all of my software yesterday, so it's the latest and greatest.

Should I try uninstalling the standard Firefly software?


-- Les

[Kilrsat]

The important settings that made my Harmony 880 respond just as fast as the actual Firefly Mini.


On the computer "device":
Inter-key Delay: 0
Inter-Device Delay: 0

And then the trick to stop the harmony from repeating commands.
Troubleshoot ->
Show me more problems ->
Computer doesn't appear to receive every command correctly. ->
The device responds too much to some commands (for example, volume up increases the volume too quickly). ->

Set this to 0 as well.


I keep a "Firefly" button and a Close button in the LCD custom button area.

[Hemway]

I have the Harmony 880 and I have a question. When I purchased my copy of BTV4, I purchased a bundle package that included a Firefly (RF) remote/receiver, a PVR 150 card, and BTV4. I added to the order a FusionHDTV5 Gold Plus card that included an IR remote/receiver.



I’ve got the both the IR & RF receivers plugged into USB ports along with the receiver for my wireless keyboard/mouse unit (can’t remember if it is IR or RF).



My question is, can I use the IR receiver that came with my HD card as my receiver for the Harmony? I’ve configured the 880 to emulate the Firefly Mini but when I tried it, it didn’t work. What do I need to do to make the Harmony control Firefly & BTV systems?

[queonda]

Does anyone have the IR codes for the firefly mini?

[queonda]

How do you start BTV or LINK with the firefly mini/harmony?

[queonda]

Ok, I have a USB-irt (just moved and gotta look for it). Do you have a different program using IR commands to start programs? If so, which commands and program are you using for the harmony? I just got a 890 and still customizing.

[queonda]

Originally Posted by queonda

How do you start BTV or LINK with the firefly mini/harmony?

Ok, I found a program C:\Program Files\SnapStream Media\Firefly Mini
In that folder I installed the fireflymini.exe. I tried the default codes on my harmony remote and no sucess. Does anyone have the hexidecimal codes or pronto codes for the firefly mini?

Also, Can the usb-irt be used? Or do I need to use what should come with the firefly mini?

[milpool]

I'm having a similar skip/back problem with the Mini, although it only occurs on downloaded shows; when playing back anything recorded by BTV the skip/back buttons will work.

The only way around it that I have figured out so far is to ALT-TAB or click somewhere on the page; that seems to cause the focus to go back to BTV, and allows the skip/back buttons to work.