[Harmony confusion -- which programming method to use?]

Thanks for the clarification.  I did add the device as instructed.  But I don't recall reading anywhere about having to create a new Activity.

 

So, I just did that.  It took me about an hour but I think I finally have everything figured out.  At first only a few of the buttons worked (and only when I was in Device mode on the remote), but I was able to reprogram them using the Harmony software so that they all now work when I'm in Activity mode.

 

Great. Glad to hear it's working!

 

Sounds like it was more confusion with the Harmony remote than the Flirc. The Activity part is *technically* not necessary, but that's really the whole idea behind those Harmony remotes: everything is activity-based, versus the more common device-based universal remotes. So instead of selecting your Cable box to watch TV, or XBMC to watch videos, you instead choose to just "Watch TV", or "Use my XBMC", and it makes sure the correct devices are turned on and set to the corresponding inputs, and configures your remote buttons so that they are sent to the correct device (channel changing goes to the cable box, volume to your reciever or TV, etc).

[Harmony confusion -- which programming method to use?]

Good to see I'm not the only one who's confused.  Yes, I followed the directions.  

 

Doesn't matter whether I plug the Flirc into my desktop or HTPC, it doesn't "react" to the Harmony at all.  The Flirc software can see it (that's how it updated the firmware) but that's it.  I can't reprogram buttons, or do anything at all with it, since it doesn't react to the Harmony.

 

Does it matter that I'm running XBMCbuntu?

You never answered my question about the setting for the Harmony.  Do I need to have the Harmony set in a particular way?  As I mentioned before, I added it as "Media Center PC 2" so that's what I had it set to when trying to control the Flirc, but it doesn't respond.

Is XBMC supposed to detect it as an input device?  Because mine does not.

 

Just to clarify: You should have added a new device to your Harmony Remote configuration (using the Harmony Software or the myharmony.com website) . This device would be identified in Harmony by having a manufacturer of "Flirc" and a device/model of "XBMC". We'll refer to this as the device "XBMC Device". Then you should have created an activity that uses the "XBMC Device". We'll refer to this as "XBMC Activity". The beta firmware for the Flirc device itself is preprogrammed to respond to the "XBMC Device" and send the appropriate key presses to the XBMC software. You should not have to use the Flirc software to program any keys. You may want to clear/reset the Flirc itself and redo all this just to be sure.

 

So now when you start the "XBMC Activity", or directly select tthe device "XBMC Device", you should then be able to control the XBMC software.

 

So to confirm: you've done all of that and it's still not working? Does the Harmony One indicate that it is sending an IR signal when you press the buttons (there should be a little radio-wave type icon that appears in the upper left next to the battery indicator whenever it sends a signal)?

[Harmony confusion -- which programming method to use?]

What do you think guys?

 

 

Awesome! That will make it much easier for future Harmony users. Thanks Chris!!

[Flirc XBMC Addon]

I had this issue after installing ONLY the XBMC plugin. I then also installed the Flirc package using apt-get, and I no longer get the error about missing libraries (I believe this package also adds the udev rule)..

 

I do, however, get another error now. Something about Flirc not being compatable with my hardware or something similar. I'll have to get the exact error message when I get home tonight. This is Ubunxu 12.04 x64.

 

Edit: This is the message I get: The FLIRC addon is not designed to run on your hardware

[Unsure whether to buy a Flirc? (PLEASE CONTRIBUTE)]

Remote being used
Harmony 650

using with built-in Harmony profile

running Lubuntu+XBMC

through a BAFX IR Repeater

Pros
+ Extremely easy to setup and get working

+ Very responsive

+ Great support, very responsive forums

+ Much easier to customize buttons than messing with keymaps, etc

+ Totally platform agnostic and easily swapped to another machine

+ Ongoing development means it's only getting better (and it's great to begin with!)

 

Cons
- Can be difficult to determine what the latest up-to-date information is. Some more advanced information isn't really well organized or consolidated.
- Difficult to add "custom" commands that aren't predefined in the Harmony Flirc profile (I think this being looked into)

 

Overall
I was hesitant to get one because I had tried the standard "MCE IR Receiver" that's usually recommended, with very poor results. My computer case has a built-in IR receiver that gives me ongoing problems. But this was so painless and easy to get working, I was just blown away. I wish I had known about this sooner, it would have saved me a LOT of headaches and time spent messing with LIRC configs, keymaps, etc. It even works great with my IR repeater, so I can stuff my HTPC in a closet, out-of-site.

 

I have not yet been able to get the XBMC plugin to work for programming the Flirc (it's still in beta), but I simply used my windows laptop to program some additional keys, and then plugged it back into my linux machine and it works great because everything is stored on the device itself.

[Harmony confusion -- which programming method to use?]

Awesome -- thanks so much Chris! for the super-fast response! I was able to get everything working very easily using the Harmony profile.

 

Just one note: It would be really great (if it's even possible) if there were some extra "custom" commands added to the Harmony profile. So, for instance, if I wanted to create a button to launch my Video listings directly: in my Harmony setup I could map one of these custom commands (say, "Custom1" or something) to my button, then use the Flirc software to map that button to the Ctrl-E keyboard shortcut. Otherwise I'll have to either 1) add an additional device to my Harmony and map a random button from that device (but I'm already maxed out because Logitech insists on arbitrarily limiting me to 5 devices on my 650); or 2) learn a random command from another remote I'm not using, and map that. Unless there's some easier way to do this that I'm completely missing? Is there somewhere I can file some sort of feature request for something like this?

 

Thanks again!

[Harmony confusion -- which programming method to use?]

I have a Harmony (650) and I'm setting up Flirc with XBMC. But I can't seem to find any definitive answer on the best method to use. There is a pinned post that describes using a Panasonic or Samsung TV profile to control XBMC (http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/22-harmony-remotes/), but that's dated from way back in 2011. Is it still the ideal way to go? Then there's the recent blog post about Flirc having it's own harmony profile now (http://blog.flirc.tv/flirc-has-a-harmony-profile/), and this is dated much more recenlty -- April 1st. However, following the link to the updated firmware that is supposedly needed shows a forum thread marked "(RETIRED)", which would lead me to believe this is no longer needed or supported (I'm not sure which). And when I use this method, nothing seems to work anyway.

 

So, I suppose the ultimate question is: At this point, which method is preferred for using Flirc with a Harmony Remote and XBMC?

 

I'm new here so I hope I'm not rehashing an old question. I might be missing something obvious, so apologies if I am, but I did look. Has there been discussion of creating a Wiki or something similar to consolidate information like this? Also, is there a page that lists the latest firmware versions (stable, beta, etc) so that I can determine if I'm up-to-date?