New Firefly Sofware (works also for Streamzap)

[ThickHead]

Hi Stéphane,
I'm new to LM RKM and would appreciate some help, I'm trying to configure this nmediapc remote so that I can use it within BTV, BM, PowerDVD, etc. can it work?

http://www.nmediapc.com/RFKB3.htm

I purchased your donator version assuming the nmediapc remote worked like a standard MCE remote, but I've since discovered that it doesn't. I've been unable to get LM RKM to do anything with it, I tried configuring it as an MCE Remote, but it's an RF HID-compliant consumer control device, not an IR remote like your typical MCE. Would the FireFly mini be a better starting point, would that even work?

I found a CheckScanCode utility on the HIP site, and was able to compile the attached scancode data from the nmediapc remote, maybe that will be of some use to you.

Thanks!

[richt]

Thickhead - If Stéphane doesn't have a solution, try EventGhost. It works with a lot of remotes as well.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by ThickHead

I've been unable to get LM RKM to do anything with it, I tried configuring it as an MCE Remote, but it's an RF HID-compliant consumer control device, not an IR remote like your typical MCE. Would the FireFly mini be a better starting point, would that even work?

You'll have to send me an e-mail at lmgestion@hotmail.com so that I can send you a HID test utility. With this application you'll be able to see if your remote can be supported or not.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[schmoppa]

Hi all, I found this thread via here, and it looks like this might be something of benefit to me.

I have a Logitech Harmony One universal remote, and an XP Pro-based HTPC running BTV (kept in standby mode), and I would like the remote to be able to:

1. wake the HTPC from sleep,
2. launch the BTV Viewscape with a button (since the HTPC won't go to sleep with the Viewscape open)
3. Navigate BTV Viewscape menus
4. close BTV, hopefully with a key stroke instead of going to the GUI close button
5. And make the computer go to sleep?

I have an HD-PVR. Would this LM Remote KeyMap software be what I am looking for? Currently I wake the HTPC from standby by moving my wireless mouse. Is there a way to make the HTPC to wake based on a particular IR signal (but not ALL signals, as I obviously use the remote for non-HTPC related activities and don't want to wake the computer every time I push an unrelated button (like volume or channel).

Any help or direction would be much appreciated!

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by schmoppa

1. wake the HTPC from sleep,
2. launch the BTV Viewscape with a button (since the HTPC won't go to sleep with the Viewscape open)
3. Navigate BTV Viewscape menus
4. close BTV, hopefully with a key stroke instead of going to the GUI close button
5. And make the computer go to sleep?

For all this you need either a MCE Remote or a USB-UIRT (those are the most common devices that can wake a computer from sleep)

Then you can use LM RKM (or another 3rd Party software) to customize the MCE Remote / USB-UIRT to be used with Beyond TV.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[schmoppa]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

For all this you need either a MCE Remote or a USB-UIRT (those are the most common devices that can wake a computer from sleep)

Then you can use LM RKM (or another 3rd Party software) to customize the MCE Remote / USB-UIRT to be used with Beyond TV.

Regards,
Stéphane.

Thanks for your response Stéphane.

So, if I get a USB-UIRT, the above will work? that's good news! My main concern is whether I can make sure that only a certain IR signal from my universal remote would wake the HTPC, so I don't wind up waking the HTPC under unrelated remote usage. Does that sound feasible?

I should have thrown in an alternate to #2 in my post: "auto-launch BTV Viewscape after HTPC wakes up based on an activity profile configuration in my universal remote" - meaning, I could set one activity for normal BTV usage with the universal remote (which wakes the HTPC and autostarts the Viewscape), and another activity that also wakes the HTPC but doesn't start Viewscape.

Do you think that is possible? I'm guessing I would have to set up some sort of delay in the programmed key stroke so that whatever launches Viewscape would wait a few seconds for the HTPC to wake up...

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by schmoppa

only a certain IR signal from my universal remote would wake the HTPC, so I don't wind up waking the HTPC under unrelated remote usage. Does that sound feasible?

Yes. This is done by using a software provided by USB-UIRT makers : it allow the USB-UIRT to learn the IR signal to use to wake the PC.

auto-launch BTV Viewscape after HTPC wakes up based on an activity profile configuration in my universal remote" - meaning, I could set one activity for normal BTV usage with the universal remote (which wakes the HTPC and autostarts the Viewscape), and another activity that also wakes the HTPC but doesn't start Viewscape.

You'll have to see your HTPC as a device with Inputs (just like a TV), BTV will be Input 1 and Desktop will be Input 2, and dedicate a button on the remote for starting Input 1 (launching BTV) and starting Input 2 (here it's easy Input 2 has nothing to launch)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[massey4]

I'm trying to migrate a BTV PC into a home theater system with the addition of a receiver and speakers and so forth. For all this to play together nicely I need to coordinate the operation of the receiver, BTV and the TV. I need to give up my RF Firefly remote and instead use IR remotes whose signals can be learned by a single universal remote. To this end I have acquired a Firefly Mini and an MX-900 universal remote. So far I have been able to get the MX-900 to control the BTV using the learned FF mini codes. I noticed that the BTV behavior changed a bit from the Firefly RF to Firefly mini and I was able to use LM Remote KeyMap to modify that behavior back to something more like what I enjoyed with the Firefly RF. To do this I had to tell the KeyMap software that I was using a FF mini and then I was allowed to specify all functions for all the known FF mini buttons.

I would however like to have more functions than there are buttons on the FF mini. The MX-900 certainly supports more. I have other remotes, including one from Hauppauge, which could serve as the source of IR codes which could be learned and used as triggers for events. What I don't see is a way to add additional button definitions to a pre-defined remote like the mini within the LM Remote KeyMap software. Does the capability to add buttons exist?

I also have a USB-UIRT interface and I started out trying to make that work with the LM Remote KeyMap but had difficulty getting that setup working properly. For whatever reason, the LM Remote KeyMap software did not want to capture the IR code from the "FIREFLY" button of the FF mini when used with the USB-UIRT interface. Is there any known problem with this? The FF mini software was not running at the time I was having the problems. All other buttons were learned without difficulty.

I switched to the FF Mini receiver, told LM Remote KeyMap that I had a Firefly mini and then did get that combination working properly. Perhaps, now that I understand LM Remote KeyMap better, I should re-try the USB-UIRT interface again because its "virtual remote" would certainly address my need for added buttons.

While setting up the mini with LM Remote KeyMap I noticed that the APPCOMMAND_CLOSE command, which is one of the commands defined here by Snapstream for use by the mini, was missing from the KeyMap choices. After some digging I found that Keystroke Ctrl-Shift-F1 ( ^+{F1} ) accomplished the effect but it may make sense to include the APPCOMMAND_CLOSE in the choices available.

One of the things that took me the most time to figure out was how to launch BTV using the FF mini's Firefly button. I kept trying to setup the "Launch the BTV application" function within the KeyMap profile for all the other BTV functions. It was only after much head-scratching that I realized that the BTV profile is not active until BTV is running, so it cannot launch itself if it is not running and it does not need to if it is running.

The “default” profile is the correct place to configure the launch of the BTV application. FWIW, the software might be easier to use if the setup of the application launch could be done within the profile for that application, even if the work to do that launch then did get shoved up to the default layer.

[massey4]

(duplicate)

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by massey4

What I don't see is a way to add additional button definitions to a pre-defined remote like the mini within the LM Remote KeyMap software. [B]Does the capability to add buttons exist?

No, you can't add buttons because

1) LM RKM must support only one remote layout (for profiles to be exchanged)
2) Receiver usually support only their own IR codes (so only one layout), this is the case for the FF Mini

For whatever reason, the LM Remote KeyMap software did not want to capture the IR code from the "FIREFLY" button of the FF mini when used with the USB-UIRT interface. [B]Is there any known problem with this?

Some IR codes may not be recognized by the USB-UIRT (I have seen this with a Hauppauge remote for instance)

I should re-try the USB-UIRT interface again because its "virtual remote" would certainly address my need for added buttons.

Or you can use a "DisplayMenu" action to attach more than one use for a button.

the APPCOMMAND_CLOSE command.../...was missing from the KeyMap choices.

That's because APPCOMMAND_CLOSE is misleading: it is used to close a window and not necessarily to close an application.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[massey4]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

No, you can't add buttons because

Some IR codes may not be recognized by the USB-UIRT (I have seen this with a Hauppauge remote for instance)

Regards,
Stéphane.

Actually this turned to be that LM RKM was ignoring the USB-UIRT input. I finally fixed it by uninstalling and then reinstalling LM RKM. I figured out that there was a problem when the LRNHELPER utility available for use with the USB-UIRT worked fine with all the FF mini buttons and LM RKM was no longer responding to any of them. I now have the FF mini mostly working through the USB-UIRT.

One item that still remains to be fixed is that neither UP nor DOWN Keystroke events are repeating when the button is held down. The remote has been setup for a 300mS repeat delay and a 200mS repeat rate and the "Repeat button press when steadily pressing..." is checked. I can see that the remote is continuing to transmit an IR stream because the USB-UIRT continues to wink back at me as long as I hold the button down. Looking at the Trace Viewer, I only see one group of events (with only one action in the group) when I press and hold down a button. Do you have any suggestion how I might be able to get the repeat to start working?

Also, how do you change the trace level on the trace viewer? Mine is stuck at verbose in the trace view window even though the trace level menu says that it should be at the info or lower level. I've tried stopping and restarting the LM RKM (at least the piece in the system tray) and that does not help. I also tried to stop & restart the LM RKM Blaster system service that seems to continue to run even while the other stuff is shut down and that did not help this either.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by massey4

Actually this turned to be that LM RKM was ignoring the USB-UIRT input .../... I figured out that there was a problem when the LRNHELPER utility available for use with the USB-UIRT worked fine with all the FF mini buttons

This may be because of a limitation of the USB-UIRT drivers: two application running in a different security context cannot use the USB-UIRT at the same time. For instance you cannot run the LM RKM blaster service and the LrnHelper utility at the same time.

One item that still remains to be fixed is that neither UP nor DOWN Keystroke events are repeating when the button is held down. The remote has been setup for a 300mS repeat delay and a 200mS repeat rate and the "Repeat button press when steadily pressing..." is checked.

The "Repeat button press..." is the only thing needed (for some remotes). To verify that your button will repeat in LM RKM: shut down LM RKM and LM RKM blaster service, then launch LrnHelper. In LrnHelper there is also an option "Stop as Repeat" that you must select, then press a button on your remote, does the short IR code displayed in LrnHelper is blinking red? If yes, LM RKM should see the repeat, if not then you may have an issue with your universal remote and you should try the same thing with the FF Mini.

Also, how do you change the trace level on the trace viewer? Mine is stuck at verbose in the trace view window even though the trace level menu says that it should be at the info or lower level.

The trace viewer will always display all events (Verbose). The level you can choose from the taskbar notification icon apply to the log files only.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[massey4]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

This may be because of a limitation of the USB-UIRT drivers: two application running in a different security context cannot use the USB-UIRT at the same time. For instance you cannot run the LM RKM blaster service and the LrnHelper utility at the same time.

No, it was not because two applications were running at the same time. I discovered early on that LM RKM could prevent LMHELPER from running properly and was then careful to only have one running at a time. To that end I created three batch files for starting/stopping/toggling the LM RKM Blaster service. I have attached them in case anyone else might find them to be useful. Mine are stored in the LM RKM folder and I keep a shortcut to the Toggle one on my desktop. These work on an XP system; I don't know what Vista will do with them.

Anyway, at the time I thought that the problem with LM RKM not wanting to receive input from the USB-UIRT was because it was refusing to work with the real USB-UIRT hardware since I had seen lots of references to a "USB-UIRT surrogate" in the log files, but it appears now that that is just a pseudo device that the blaster service creates when it's running. Something else just got messed up along the way.

The "Repeat button press..." is the only thing needed (for some remotes). To verify that your button will repeat in LM RKM: shut down LM RKM and LM RKM blaster service, then launch LrnHelper. In LrnHelper there is also an option "Stop as Repeat" that you must select, then press a button on your remote, does the short IR code displayed in LrnHelper is blinking red? If yes, LM RKM should see the repeat, if not then you may have an issue with your universal remote and you should try the same thing with the FF Mini.

Thanks! I am running the latest version of LrnHelper that I could find over at USBUIRT which is "0.0.5" (download from here: http://www.usbuirt.com/lrnhelper_0_0_5.zip ) and in this version the setting that needs to be checked is "Pass Stop Codes as Repeated Events".

Once I had that checked, the repeats sent by the FF mini started getting passed along to the LM RKM app and things appear to be working well now with the FF mini. My MX-900 universal remote, while it is sending some sort of IR stream while a button is held down (Hint: a digital camera in video mode can be used to watch the flashing of the IR LEDs on the end of a remote) the LrnHelper application only sees it as one button press and I need to figure out what going on with that. In any case, it is not a problem with LM RKM.

Thanks for your help!

A followup to this item is worth inserting here. I, like so many others, have recently suffered through the Comcast "upgrade" to my cable system. As part of that I got two of the Pace DC50X DTA boxes that I hung off the inputs to a pair of Hauppauge analog input cards. They are controlled using a pair of IR bugs off of a USB-UIRT. When I got to the point in the BTV input setup for external cable boxes where you have the USB-UIRT learn the remote codes for changing channels from the DC50X remote, the learning process within the BTV setup wizard just would NOT learn the codes. I could see that information was being received but no learning was taking place. Eventually I figured out that the problem was that I had neglected to shut down LM RKM and the services that support it. Once I got those stopped. then the IR code learning within the BTV wizard was accomplished without a problem.

[massey4]

Originally Posted by massey4

My MX-900 universal remote, while it is sending some sort of IR stream while a button is held down (Hint: a digital camera in video mode can be used to watch the flashing of the IR LEDs on the end of a remote) the LrnHelper application only sees it as one button press and I need to figure out what going on with that.

Just a quick followup here. Over in the RemoteCentral Forums I found this tidbit from Curtis-r:

"What I have discovered is apparently there is an initial IR code for up/down/left/right, followed by another subsequent code when you hold the button to repeat. I was successful in learning the initial code and the subsequent "repeat" code (which apparently is the same "repeat" code for up/down/left/right) to another button."

I went back through the learning process with the MX-900 with the FF mini as the source and this time made sure that I held the button down on the mini for a time long enough to ensure that both the starting code and repeat code were both learned and now the MX-900 is working as well as the FF mini.

[massey4]

Is there any way to manage the automatic repeat characteristics of individual commands? For example, I'd like the arrow-up/down commands to repeat quickly and easily and most other commands I'd rather that they did not repeat automatically at all. I know about setting up the two time values that define when repeats start and the rate of repeats but I'm having trouble getting a balance that allows repeats when I want them and not when I don't.