Curtis

Actually the best way may be by doing both. Since flirc itself has no control on how keys are mapped between different version of XBMC?Kodi, one thing for sure certain core keys will always or should remain the same. Now i myself have not played with Kodi yet so don't know the differences yet but there may be some. One of the major reasons i purchased the flirc was due to the fact that it already had a logictech harmony profile as that was a major selling point for me as it would not only allow me to customize the buttons to my own likes (which the flirc software interface also does) but the fact that i can then utilize the services of harmony to control all of my devices by setting all the correct inputs based upon all devices involved within an activity with one button press of an activity function (which the flirc does not provide this functionality and not designed to do so) was the one thing that made me click "Add to Cart" button and in your forum now there are lots of posts of folks using a harmony remote and thus a big additional major selling point of the flirc as they like to keep this feature also. As your market grows im sure more and more harmony remote users will be grateful for this feature to be taken advantage of.... I also do like what yawor mentioned about having some externalized profiles that could be created and loaded in via your software and it be in a ini like format that can be user modified and community supported which gives a lot of flexibility. So there are benefits to both being in place for several reasons. First the logitech profile profiles simplicity for existing and new harmony users to get onboard very quickly. Once i got my harmony profile setup and synced, 95% of the functionality worked without any modifications on my part and that is a BIG Selling point. So all time told less than 10 minutes on my part adding the addtional buttons i wanted to customize to myharmony. If you got rid of it, then everyone would have to use the interface within the tool and thus need to for one know more on the actual keyboard shortcuts than they care to know and then spend much more time in setting up, along with the fact that this remote no longer works with the harmony remote and thus remove a big selling point for those who have harmony remotes. In time Logitech will most likely be discontinuing their legacy remotes more in favor of their new Hub related interface which for one solves many problems they have had. Their new Hub approach is much better in the fact that now they also offer limited home automation along with exiting activities of which the flirc XBMC profile would be a involved as an activity for its area of expertise and function, along with like it or not the smartphone/tablet app for the Harmony Hub as an additional benefit and this is in my opinion where the largest bulk of remote sales will be made in the future is the integration of entertainment/home automation remotes as the market matures. My suggestion would to be first be sure the existing profile is sending the right keys for XBMC as that is where the largest market is for now and less customization as that caused a lot of my personal frustration when the keys sent were not correct in couple instances and i have to go and create a special keyboard.xml file to handle the wrong keys being sent. Kodi is still in release candidate status and not everyone is going to abandon their existing setup unless Kodi offers them something new that they really want and need to justify the upgrade hassles and reconfiguring stuff after the upgrade. Heck they just stop supporting Eden just recently. Right now u seem to capture the majority of keys for the XBMC profile that worked right out of the gate and btw thank you very much for that. Second, later on you could add an XBMC-Kodi profile if you saw fit, but there may be a way to not have to do that as third, you could create a special keymap app much like you do now with the flirc software tool and as an addon or part of this same software provide the option to take any set of remappings due to version levels of XBMC-kodi and remapped the differences between XBMC and Kodi (or let the customer remap) and then create a keyboard.xml that the user can then substitute as a new map layout for Kodi by overriding the meaning of certain keys to map to Kodi correctly or even new mappings for XBMC versions for those who need the extra customization and then upload those customizations to harmony as a custom command thru another remote. Now yes i know there is an addon within within XBMC that can added to do this mapping but that once again requires more advanced knowledge on the user's part on the internal setup of the keyboard.xml file and how things work, of which many may not want to go down that route but still allows the advanced users to customize to their delight. Finally i would suggest making a video that shows how to teach the harmony new commands and thus allowing customers to see first hand how to do it and how simple it really can be programmed once they understand. Most advanced users will figure this out quickly but for the bulk of non technical users it will be a confidence booster. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million words and requires less support. Anyway this is my two cents worth.

Several keys in the logitech profile either sends wrong values or is translated incorrectly by flirc ParentFolder sends a space character which while the video is being watched in standard xbmc is also the Pause button. BigStepBack sends nothing and does nothing for xbmc as it expects the ket "]" keystoke. ToggleFullScreen sends a forward slash "/" instead of a backslash "\"

Yawor, Thanks for that input. Just my luck my tv's are LG's so can't use that remote and i thought there might be an issue with using a MCE type remote as i have a mediagate that i was using before and that's why i asked just in case. I could possibly try my Dish remote but set it on a separate device or find some other old tv remote. Btw how did u find out which protocols a certain tv remote is using? The nice thing about the harmony remotes is that with one button you press an activity like "Watch a Movie" and the harmony remotes handle all switching of inputs on the tv and avr and all other devices involved in that activity to the right inputs automatically which makes life easier. The Harmony Smart Remote is more minimalist has basic controls are all there but it allows overloading each button with either a short press or long press, which allows you to assign a specific button to have one or two roles depending on the press length. Default if not overridden is that a short or long press will send the exact same command unless you set it up to have two different commands based upon a long or short button press. I also have the harmony 650, but the down arrow button in center stopped working and it uses discontinued ps3 adapter to send the Bluetooth commands as the harmony ultimate hub sends the Bluetooth commands directly to the PS3. My adapter still works but its only a matter of time before it craps out and thus the handwriting is on the wall to upgrade.

Yawor, Thanks for your advice however i do have limitations with the harmony hub as it will only send out the commands its been programmed for using its profile. The smart remote i think only communicates with the hub using RF protocols and it's the Hub itself that sends out a IR signal or Bluetooth signal for the playstation3. So it looks like for me to get the extra keys that i want to use i will need to program the Harmony Hub with the new values by using some existing remote and then go back and map flirc using the updated command with the mapped Smart Remote. I could always use a spare remote and program flirc with it for additional stuff, but that then defeats the purpose of using the Harmony setup with just one remote. Now are there any specific types of remotes i should not use for creating these custom commands with the harmony so that there is no confusion and or overlapping between different devices i have?

Thanks for the reply but i myself disagree personally. I understand the support issues that can arise from having multiple firmwares to be supported and it becomes a support nightmare and like most manufacturers (Hardware & Software) any new major support issues for most part requires customer to load latest fixpack and/or firmware update so that the issue can be reproduced. Meanwhile customer can download to previous working version until the fix is place in the new firmware. As it stands now customer is left hanging until the issue with new firmware gets resolved. A policy could be set that you would only support the current new released firmware with any updates, but it does allow customer to go back to previous working level until the issue gets resolved or some other workaround is found. I'm not saying you should have all previous firmware releases on the support site, but just give customer the option to back up current firmware until the issue they are having is fixed in new firmware. That's my 2 cents worth. And once again thanks for your reply and don't take anything i say as a personal attack on you or the product and hope u understand from my point of view

Thanks for the quick posts and additional links, which i had already reviewed for most part. So for further clarification when using the controllers anytime i switch controllers, then those preset values for that chosen controller is automatically updated on the fly to the EEProm in real time and thus either overriding all previous values already stored there or merging pre existing values with the new values from the Controller Preset and/or overriding the current used values with its own values? And is it merge or complete override? I'm trying to discover if i just got lucky since i originally bought this to use for xbmc and switched to the XBMC Controller and automatically got those presets, then found out about the Logitech Profile for XBMC and then setup my profile on myharmony.com and since the two matched for the most part i in-fact got lucky with the actual setup as 98% of it worked right from the start. Your last post suggests you are going to update the docs on the flirc to reflect the fact that once you switch controllers its automatically loaded in real time which is good from a user perspective. But will you please also while doing so clarify if its a total write over or a merge of unused keys and override of existing keys programmed so everyone will know up front without making any assumptions like i been doing. In reference to the profile limitations on the Logitech Database all users are basically stuck with just using those keys that were defined that the harmony remotes will use and thus for example if there were say 30 keys defined in the logitech profile and i want to use say 40 keys there is no way i can do that using the harmony remote unless i programmed another remote with the additional 10 codes i want it to use and then use that remote to get the Harmony Hub to record the values sent and store it in the database and then i can use it. But on the other hand if there were a profile that had all of the xbmc codes in an advanced profile (at least total number flirc supports) then no one would have to do any custom remote programming using some other remote thus making things simpler for advanced users to get up and running more quickly as this advanced profile only needs to be setup once and thus saving everyone time spent on getting those additional codes running and also time saved from your side from having to ask questions on getting around the limitation. Also can you fix the BigStepBack and any other missing keys on the logitech profile from sending a "Space" char and have it send the ket "]". Don't know if that has to be fixed on their profile or your software. Sure i can override with the GUI but once again saved steps on everyone's part. Finally a suggestion to add an option in the GUI to be able to backup the current firmware to our local hard drive for reloading in case something goes wrong with the new firmware so that users are not stuck waiting for the fix to the new firmware they can just reload the previous one they had (Another option would to put the previous firmwares on the site and users can then just download it and then upload the old working firmware for their setup until the new firmware is fixed). No customer should have to wait for a previous firmware to be emailed to them or something. Its like when you build you own pc from parts purchased and you upgraded to the latest firmware provided by say the motherboard manufacturer and it breaks your system, that you can't download the previous release your working motherboard was using and then reload it until their issue gets fixed but are stuck with the issue the new firmware caused until someone gets the time and resources allocated to get the issue fixed thus frustrating your customers even further. So far i have not found a location to download any previous versions or just point me to the right location where its at? I will say that i like the concept of your product very much and it has great potential and thus far with some limitations it has exceeded some of my expectations and once i get this thing fully figured out will be buying many more over time, and also the response from some of your advanced flirc'ers providing extra tips and such as Yawor of which i read several of his posts and they were very informative and provided additional insight on certain things along with others (Chris). One final question in the meantime if i decide to do custom programming with another remote, are there certain types of remotes i should use or stay away from to prevent conflicts (i.e existing MCE type remotes)?

hi, i just recently purchased the flirc and liked what i read about it and in some demos. Now comes a few questions. First i see the various controllers and how they can be used to quickly set something up, however how are the settings actually saved to the flirc? As i was loading different controllers and saw what they offered, of course i was thinking on using the XBMC controller and wanted to save that profile but when i hit the Save Configuration menu item and dialog window prompt came up for saving the config to the local hard drive. So i stopped right there until i got some questions answered on exactly the steps needed to actually save any changes that were made to the flirc itself. My assumption here is that you make your changes and then click the save option which saves the file, then use the load configuration to go back to the same file just saved and load that configuration into the flirc? Also what exactly does Clear Configuration do and its impact? Meanwhile i came across another post that mentioned that there was a logitech XBMC profile already created and since im using their ultimate smart remote that was great as it would handle all of the switching of inputs and make things more streamlined. So i setup a new profile on my account and was finally able to locate the flirc xbmc device and was able to map buttons to my new remote and it worked right out of the box so too speak with few issues most i got resolved but have a few left. In the profile for logitech i noticed that a couple of them were not working correctly. After using a utility that would show the keystroke received when the button was pushed. i found that a couple options as follows were either sending the wrong keystroke or no keystroke at all as follows: ParentFolder sends a space character which while the video is being watched in standard xbmc is also the Pause button. BigStepBack sends nothing and does nothing for xbmc as it expects the ket "]" keystoke. I did modify my keyboard.xml in my userdata folder to try and override the ParentFolder = space to do what i wanted but did not work, tried couple things but still did not work, so in meantime i reused the toggleWatched keystroke and overrode it for my own use with updated keyboard.xml. These changes worked as expected. I have not checked out some of the other options in the logitech profile to be sure something else was missing. which brings me to a couple logitech profile questions. Other than using their custom setup which requires to program it using some other remote it would be much easier and nicer from my point of view if there were more options available say with either adding to the existing logitech profile or creating an Advanced Profile that would have more keys mapped or user defined keys? Meanwhile i think i read here on this forum that it is possible to add additional keys or redirect with the gui on that actual keystrokes to be sent totally different than what is in the profile by overriding it? What would be the steps to do this? In other words how to take my existing flirc that is working with xbmc now and then have the GUI update override it to use a different keystroke by selecting its button and then pressing the button on the Flirc. Which then brings me back to the first question and that is how the actual save to the device accomplished? As i would want to basically load the logitech xbmc config into the say the xbmc controller and thus have to do no changes, then make my additional changes and then save it as a backup but also load it into the flirc just so i'm clear on the procedure and not making any assumptions. One other thing i noticed is that there is a option to upgrade firmware but no option to backup the existing firmware in case something happens during the firmware so if in that event you can reload the previous working firmware. Is there something hidden in order for the backup firmware to show up and also a load firmware button? Also where to find the firmware on this site so i know im using the latest stable release version?