yawor

Sorry, I don't have windows 8 so I can't tell you if it's good or bad. I've also never used media center in windows 7 as its codec support was rather poor.

It's a nice solution. There are usually multiple ways to achieve required functionality. I've mentioned GhostEvent as I'm using it myself as the basic functionality of Flirc also wasn't enough for me. But I still think that Flirc is a very good product for what it is inteded for, because it is simple and can be set up very quickly if what you need is a basic keyboard emulation functionality (with mapping 1 remote button to 1 key combo). But if you want more advanced usage you can always use software like AHK or GE to achieve that.

It all depends on the application you want to control on the HTPC. For example XBMC can be 100% controlled from keyboard and works very well with Flirc, as Flirc emulates USB HID keyboard. This has nothing to do with the remote you'll be using with it can learn IR signals from the remote and having universal remote you should be able to find a device code (on the remote) which would allow to use all the remote's buttons without interferring with your TV or Bluray. As for the remote I would suggest One-For-All Simple 4 (URC-6440) or OARUSB04G (US version of URC-6440). It is very nice remote with backlight and you can set it up in a way that every button on remote controls your HTPC but volume keys are sent to the TV directly without the need to switch selected device (this is called Combi Control on these remotes). I have URC-6440 and it is very nice and it's not expensive. You can also upgrade it online if it doesn't support your TV/bluray out of the box.

YellowDog, Create (as a root) a file named 51-flirc.rules in directory /etc/udev/rules.d/ with this content: SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="20a0", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0001", MODE="0666" and then plug in the Flirc again. This should make Flirc device readable/writable from any user. You can of course make it more secure by assigning flirc to be writable by only a specific group and assign yourself to this user group.

I also get this error message for flirc_util status but I don't bother because everything works very well. For flirc software to work on Linux without sudo an udev rule is required which would change permissions for USB dev node. I would create a new user group and allow read/write access to the flirc using udev rule. Then the user could just add itself to the flirc group. BTW on Arch Linux everything is working correctly without the need for root.

Fezz0 you are mistaking key combination with key sequence. You can only make key combinations using modifier keys with a single non-modifier key. Alt, shift, win and control are modifier keys. Space is a non-modifier key. The thing you want is key sequence which consist of pressing alt+space and then letter n in a sequence. Flirc doesn't support sequences or macros on its own. Using ahk you were able to create key sequence. You can also use ghostevent where you can create minimize window action which is using windows api instead of using key sequence.

Have you tried selecting the drivers which are in Flirc installation folder?

Is any of the hardware in your setup properly grounded? All devices should share a common ground but it should also be grounded as a whole. Are your electric sockets grounded? I don't know what is the socket standard where you live.

OK sorry I've reread the first post and you already tried changing power supply etc. From what I understand (but I can be wrong) touching the ground on the Flirc can have 2 possible effects on the device: you either make better ground connection or provide additional capacitance, but I don't know how is this actually helping. BTW you haven't mentioned this in your post: have you swapped both units so the one you have upstairs (the one which works properly) is plugged in the RPi downstairs?

Maybe there is some problem with ground connection. Have you tried with different cable or even PC? Maybe the PC or the USB ports on the MoBo are not grounded properly. BTW I have the same OFA URC-6440 (Simple 4) remote :).

You can remove Flirc's case itself making the stick smaller. Rather than the receiver sticking out from the case I would rather make a rectangular hole in your modded case and mask it with a plastic window like those in remotes or receivers in RTV hardware and just hide Flirc (with or without its case) behind it. You can save some space by desoldering the USB plug and solder wires directly to the PCB. From electrical point of view I think USB is a better choice as this would be no different than just using extension cable and it's data signaling is protected from electromagnetic noise because it uses differential pair signaling. On the other hand IR receiver doesn't have any means to cancel out the noise when you connect it with a wire. Please look around on the forum and you will see that people here often have a problem with Flirc getting background noise from different sources and by adding extra wire between IR receiver and PCB you would probably add another possible source of noise.

You can try learning other remotes (these non-universal ones you mentioned you have). Save your current config using Flirc GUI so you can restore it after tests, then format Flirc and learn new keys and check responsiveness. BTW try to avoid MCE remotes as those are cycling multiple IR codes per button.

I wouldn't place the receiver on a cable. This is asking for trouble. Maybe just use USB extension cable, plug the Flirc into one end and plug the cable into the USB port. You can always look for adapter to connect other end of the cable directly to the USB pin header on the motherboard.

You can try set up different device on Harmony for use with Flirc. There is a lot of RC protocols and not all of them work properly with Flirc. I don't have Harmony but I also use an universal remote and from my experience Samsung TV controls work very good. Unless you have a Samsung TV I would suggest you use that. If you need to use Flirc with XBMC only then you can always use Flirc profile which is available in Harmony setup and should work out of the box.

Hi Juro, You can use command line app that is provided in Flirc install. It's called flirc_util.exe (it's in the folder where you installed flirc app). You can use it for example to list recorded keys and to delete specific ones using key's index. I'm not entirely sure that this will work for you as the util doesn't display all keys sometimes (for example those which use at least one of modifier keys). Use flirc_util help to get information on possible operations.

IceDiver you can always try to record keys using flirc_util in command line. Just assign remote's vol up and down buttons to the key scan codes where your layout has + and - keys. From what I could find, on Swedish keyboard + sign has scan code 0x0c (decimal 12), and - sign has scan code 0x35 (decimal 53) both without modifiers. The commands you need to execute: flirc_util record_api 0 12 flirc_util record_api 0 53 After each press enter and then press a button on the remote. First one is for +, second is for -.

If you are able to connect USB keyboard to the device then Flirc should work, but to be sure someone would need to try it and share the result. The question is if the wake up would work.

Unfortunatelly you cannot assign the button already assigned to WAKE to another key. There is no way around this. It's already been suggested but I don't know if such a feature is even possible to be implemented.

LinuxMan it doesn't really matter what power supply you are using to power up the RPi. USB host ports are still limitted in their power output with polyfuses which limit the output current to 140mA in constant draw. It is recommended not to draw more than 100mA and even with only 100mA the output voltage can drop almost 0.5v from 5v to 4.5v. Use powered USB hub between RPi and devices which are powered from USB. USB ports on RPi were not designed to power other devices.

LG Magic Remote has 2 modes of work. If it is not paired to TV then it uses IR but if it is paired then it uses bluetooth and only the power button uses IR as bluetooth adapter (depending on TV model it is integrated or plugged in USB port of TV) doesn't support turning the TV on and off. There is a way to use it because LG allows you to configure the remote for another device. You need to map device type and manufacturer to the input on which you have your PC/HTPC. After that when you switch input in TV to this one the Magic Remote (or maybe the TV changes it). I think it works like this: 1. Button on MR pressed 2. Information sent to TV over bluetooth 3. TV informs MR what IR code should it send 4. MR sends IR code I think that this works this way because when in this mode, you can display an on screen remote and by clicking the buttons on it MR sends IR codes to the selected device. BTW I'm writing this based on my own experience as I own LG TV with Magic Remote MR400.

I think that it would be better if the firmware would allow to assign the same remote code to wake and another key and just switch their function depending on power state. So if the PC is suspended or hibernated, then it is waked but when it is on, then should just send whatever is assigned to it. And if switching function on power state is not an option then maybe a long press for wake up would be more viable option.

I would still suggest a different remote unless you don't need many keys. You need to remember that Flirc doesn't have unlimited storage and can only remember about 169 different remote codes. There is a lot of nice universal remotes out there that can be a lot better than most MCE remotes and you can use multiple device profiles on those so you can have multiple mappings in Flirc (for example PVR buttons mapped to one set of keys and then DVD buttons to different). I'm using OneForAll Simple4 (URC-6440) which has very nice big rubber buttons with backlight and good layout. I'm using Samsung TV profile and it works very well with Flirc.

MCE remotes are using protocol which cycle through different codes on each key press. So every button can have multiple codes (I think usually there are 2 codes per button alternated on each press). You can record each button 2 times (or more if you have buttons which emit more than 2 codes) and assign all codes from each button to the same key in Flirc.

Yes. It is possible depending on the protocol used by the remote. I've also had such situation when I was checking some devices on my universal remote which one will work best with Flirc. It reported that key is already recorded for multiple keys. I just used a code for Samsung TV as I have LG one so they won't interfere with each other and everything works smoothly. You can use flirc_util.exe in command line. There is a format command, but it just do the same thing that clear configuration does. You can check if there is anything recorded using flirc_util space command which will print how many buttons are stored in flirc memory. After clearing it should show 0.

I don't have Harmony so I can only speculate based on knowledge I've gained doing research on them (I've decided to go for OneForAll Simple 4 remote instead). I think you are in activity mode which allows you to send commands to different devices without switching between them. So you started the activity which was configured to send TV commands on some keys and the ones for Flirc on others and then you recorded these buttons. So in the end the remote is sending a single command but both your tv and flirc are reacting to it. You should disable activity, clear Flirc and then set harmony to a single device mode and record commands one more time.