I've been doing some hacking with Flirc and EventGhost to get the best possible setup. I wanted all the keys to be intercepted by EventGhost so I could do some more advanced control schemes. My problem was that I don't like mapping remote keys to some arbitrary shortcuts. The problem here is that in Windows I cannot stop key presses just from a specific keyboard (Flirc in this case) so I loose those shortcuts if I use them in Flirc and EG.

Now here comes a little trick. Media buttons are not treated as Keyboard events (they are not intercepted by HID keyboard filter driver) but are available to Generic HID plugin in EventGhost. Why is that? Because media keys are not from default keyboard HID usage table but from the "consumer" one. Media keys in EventGhost's Generic HID are received as decimal value of HID code for those buttons. Unfortunatelly Flirc GUI (and CLI too) doesn't have much media keys available to be used. Fortunatelly saved config file has very simple structure :). I've assigned every button on remote to Play button for a reference and then replaced play button code to ranges that are not officially used in Consumer HID Table, from 0x04 to 0x1F, then from 0x23 to 0x2F - this was enough for my remote but there are other unused ranges. Those can be found here http://www.freebsddiary.org/APC/usb_hid_usages.php, table 12 - Consumer. After loading the config back into Flirc I'm getting correct HID codes in EventGhost when I'm pressing buttons.

Here are my two suggestions:

1. I don't know if this can be somehow done in the firmware, but when I hold the button pressed on the remote I'm getting a stream of button press events in HID instead of just one (this also happens for not modified config with standard media buttons). When I release the button then HID gets release event correctly. For now I've modified Generic HID plugin to remember last event and not issue it again if enduring events are enabled (required for long press detection and action repeat configuration). Maybe I'm wrong (I don't know HID specifics) but I think Flirc should only send one key press event (on press and hold) and then one release event. If not then forget this suggestion.

2. It would be nice to be able to set arbitrary codes from Consumer table (possibly using hex notation or detected by 0x before the code) using at least the CLI. Maybe new command in CLI like record_hid or something. I know that Flirc can only store 2 bytes per key (modifier + HID code for keyboard table and HID code + 0x66 as a marker for consumer table) so we cannot access codes above 0xFF but I think this is enough for most cases. This would be great feature for advanced users.

So I can't fast forward/rewind (only skip forward and skip back) and some apps require a long press for the select button (pandora "Are you still listening" requires a long press)

I thought solving that issue would be trivial by using one ir signal for the record and a different ir signal for record_lp but Flirc will only permit the same signal to be used for both the short press and the long press.

Would it be possible to permit a different signal to be used for long presses?

I have written drivers for every device in the house and integrated them through this single interface (RadioRa, DSC Security, Autonomic MMS, DirecTV, Kodi, DBX ZonePro, Luma NVR).

The only thing I'm missing is the ability to long press in Flirc.

The Flirc is almost perfect. It is perfect to the point where I very pricey can control the different devices.

Where is a little weak, is to reach every device. It is simply not designed to emit the IR signal in all directions.

What I would love is a Flirc, that has the same hardware as the current one, just with more IR emitters. Probably designed like the many IR Smart Remotes on the market.

I'm not suggesting a device with Wi-Fi and other features from the IR Smart Remotes. Just a Flirc with multiple IR emitters.

• MCE
• RC6
• WMC
• rsbrux

For the first three, the search engine would probably like to have  a search expression longer than 3 characters.  If this is so, why doesn't it say so?

and works. Please add Google Streamer profile to Flirc programming utility

1. So first save your flirc configuration file via the flirc gui that you use normally and put in in some folder, importantly before saving change the power on/off button on your remote in Flirc to map onto an arbitrary (not used) key.

2. Then, make a new configuration and here you only want the on/off remote key to be mapped onto the wake/sleep button, no other mappings. Also save and put into the same folder as previous config.

3. Then, make a bat file (open notepad, put in commands below, and save as "All files" and name as "anyname.bat").

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Flirc"
flirc_util.exe loadconfig "C:\[filepath of config]\[configname].fcfg"

For the first line put the path of the flirc files, should be same as in my code for windows users.

For second line put the filepath and name of your usual use config that you just saved.

4. Make another bat file, this time for the other config created.

5. (Optional): You can created a further 2 bat files that open the above two bat files silently (will only flash on screen) by adding the command: START /MIN CMD.EXE /C "C:\[filepath to bat file]\[name of bat file].bat"

Voila! You now have 2 bat files, one that needs to be ran before the PC goes to sleep (only has wake/sleep button mapped) and another that needs to be ran when the PC wakes up (restores your usual mappings). No more accidental power on of PC with other remote buttons.

The bat file that you need to run when the PC wakes up can be easily ran automatically via windows task scheduler. For the bat that needs running before PC goes to sleep you need to make the arbitrary button that is now mapped for the on/off key during PC use ran the bat file itself and then make the PC go to sleep. I'm sure many approaches would work, as stated above I use autohotkey and its dead easy to map the arbitrary key via:

[arbitrary key]::
{
Run "C:\Users\[username]\Documents\flirc_configs\load_load_sleeping_config.bat"
Sleep 5000
DllCall("PowrProf\SetSuspendState", "Int", 0, "Int", 0, "Int", 0)
}

First, I run the bat that silently runs the bat that loads the config, then wait a bit (you never know if for some reason loading takes some time), and then put PC to sleep.

Hope this helps someone having the same issue, I did not find direct solutions on this forum.

I know you can read and record specific remotes on the Skip app with the Skip remote however, if you just have a specific button, you’re trying to replicate it would be nice to record that specific key. because I have a Samsung TV remote and it has a set top box key that I was unable to replicate with the base Samsung pre-programmed keys so for now I just recorded a custom remote with just the one button and I’m using that.

EDIT:
after looking more into at the site and these forums support for this thing looks to be dead regardless of platform. back in the box it goes, not sure why it was sold with the skip remote if its no longer supported.

EDIT2:
Found the latest release at http://apt.flirc.tv/arch/x86_64/
and figured out it needed libhidapi-dev installed from apt

sudo apt install libhidapi-dev

and running the program with sudo from the terminal.

sudo ./Flirc

A little project of mine is to use Flirc USB as generic IR receiver instead of a keyboard emulator. The ideal situation would be something that grabs received codes and fire them onto a MQTT topic that would later be handled by Node RED.

Until recently, I though I would have to record a bunch of keys to essentially map well known IR codes to corresponding keyboard keys such that I could just get the event. However, recently I noticed that irtools decode -l was doing almost exactly what I wanted already !

I could build a wrapper that launches irtools decode -l and try to parse its output but I'd much rather have that functionality built in a library.

Do you plan to have that happen eventually ?

Thanks,

I have managed to make the 'internet radio (dedicated) mini pc' not to repeat the keystroke while it's held down, but I couldn't do that in the non-graphical boot stage. (I figured it would boot faster without a window manager. Bit of a challenge.)

(I'm happy to use the Tags field in the forum, but I'm probably not helping to make up words there.)

I have managed to get my remote working with bluestacks which is an android emulator for windows. I disabled virtual keyboard in the software android settings to enable the physical keyboard. However, when navigating the only way to select a video on youtube is by left clicking on the mouse. AFAIK no other key will allow it to be selected. Navigation does work with up down left right. Since windows allows you to use mouse keys, I could use numpad 5 as a physical left mouse click. However the flirc software's full keyboard only seems to show 84 keys and not the full 104 keys on a full keyboard with numpad. Does anyone have a solution?

-Jeremy

I may have used this command correctly to do just that:
sudo ./flirc_util record_api 1 165

The '1' is the Left Ctrl modifier key, and the '165' is the Left Ctrl key in the 'IEEE HID' list. (Found in Whole world Google but also attached for your reference. As used by Flirc.)

By the way it has to be said; the shipping company FedEx knew quite late about the import taxes into another country, they could have found out sooner, to avoid them being surprised. Like paying an exit fee. So they got that part back. (Thanks for the Skip 1s, no regrets:)

Flirc IEEE HID keyboard keypad table info.txt

The FLIRC USB device is a fantastic product.  It has been very useful for my HTPC setup.

I have some feature request.  Could you please add a user adjustable key debounce timer in the firmware?

The remote I am using has lousy key debouncing and it would be useful to have an adjustment in
the the FLIRC USB PC software.

Thanks for a great product.

I know that running a small company is very hard.  But documentation and website really need some work to build a bit more confidence beyond "it's marvelous and will solve your problem".  As everybody knows, the modern TVs, meda centres, and their remotes are borderline unusable.  Is this different?  Will it really help? 

I'm certain it's great (all Flircs other products are) but I'm trying to understand what it's going to be great at, Do I have to buy one to find out the answers?

It can be very difficult from within the company to know what's confusing to people who've never seen it before. "Famliarity Blindness", and so in a spirit of making a list of things which you might want to address:

1. It's described as something to control your media centre with your remote control.
2. But the hardware image only shows a transmitter (image upload seems not to work, it's here https://flirc.com/image/catalog/sliderNewHardware.jpg)
3. Configurations are saved "on your device".  Do you mean the Flirc or the thing it's plugged into?
4. The specs say there's a transmitter and a receiver with various ranges
5. The manual says "it's a keyboard", but the drivers are 13 Mbyte, a keyboard should be usable without a driver.  Or did I miss something?
6. The manual says "has its own IR protocol so it doesn't clash".  Must be transmitting then?  To what?
7. The links to the generic linux software are all http, not https, which causes a download problem for many browsers
8. If you edit the urls to be HTTPS, the certificates expired.
9. Tried looking at the software, but it's a big installer blob.
10. Tried looking at the SDK, really needs an overview to make sense of it.  I was hoping to see if there's some clear protocol for the meta-communications with the Flirc, or some way to use it as a generic IR comms device (could it IRDA, for example).

Thanks for any enlightenment.

Confused, but optimistic!

Jonathan.

The specific use case is to have one remote with all media buttons mapped for kodi, which obviously currently possible. What's missing is the ability to map the power button on the remote to an arbitrary IR transmit sequence on the Flirc dongle - this would allow it to be mapped to the IR sequence of the TV remote, doing away with the need for two remotes.

An additional case would be to make it so you could make the volume buttons control the AV reviewer, not the instance of kodi.  This could work well with the "long keypress" feature, so a normal press on the power/volume will be blasted to the TV/AV receiver, whereas a long press could be mapped to kodi.

KenJs: Any insight as to when this will be available? I bought the device after seeing that it had a transmitter, so its a bit disappointing not to be able to use the transmitter...

yawor: unfortunately there's no timeline yet on when that feature will be implemented. There's still no consensus on how the blaster will be accessible to the OS and apps/scripts.

http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/2386-sending-ir-commands-through-script/&do=findComment&comment=13437

Let me give you an example use case, and explain how I think the IR blaster should be supported :

1.   In the FLIRC configurator app, create a new tab or mode switch gadget that enables scripting the IR blaster.  When the user flips the switch:
2.   FLIRC configurator says: "press the key that you want to script on your primary remote"
3.   press the Power key on your primary remote (the one that you use to control your media center PC)
4.   FLIRC configurator says: "On any remote, press the key(s) that you want FLIRC to broadcast"
5.   press Power button on your TV remote
6.   press Power button on your Sound Bar remote
7.   select END RECORDING in the FLIRC configurator app

Result: When you press the power button on your media center remote, FLIRC will hear this and broadcast the IR codes to turn on the TV and sound bar.  Now you only need one remote to control your media center (instead of three.)  You dont even need a media center PC if you just plug FLIRC into a USB power supply on (or near) the TV.  So FLIRC now appeals to a much wider audience:

I could program a FLIRC device and give it to the client.  There is no need to buy a big scripting remote that will intimidate them with its cost & complexity.  If my clients have a remote control which they know and love, and they do not want to replace it, FLIRC can add the extra functionality which it needs to support power switching on multiple devices.  (In most cases, that is all my clients want.)

yawor: There's no built-in automation for transmitting. The Flirc's main focus is still on controlling the PC (or other USB Host hardware) to which the Flirc is connected. This means that you can't configure the IR signal to be automatically transmitted by the Flirc itself in response to a different IR signal.

http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/2786-control-tv-volume-wflirc/&tab=comments#comment-15412

--->   I think it is time to implement this feature, since it would resolve 95% of my clients complaints, and significantly expand the number of applications where FLIRC could be useful.

yawor: The IR control is prone to interference if more than one IR transmitter is sending control signals at the same time.

http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/2786-control-tv-volume-wflirc/&tab=comments#comment-15412

In the scenario which I just described, where the essential TV/Sound Bar/Kodi functions that you would use on a daily basis are all integrated into one remote, interference from other remotes should not be an issue.

The IR transmitter in FLIRC could also be programmed to wait about 1/4 or 1/2 second after the last IR reception before broadcasting an IR macro.  Also bear in mind that it takes about 5 or 10 seconds for the TV to boot.  So the user wont typically be mashing any other keys on his IR remote while he waits for an HDMI signal to appear on the screen.  For this reason, I really think that broadcasting IR power commands will work just fine in most applications, and it solves the most common complaint that I get as a home automation consultant.

---> Even if your media center PC is on a shelf below the TV, and the TV cannot see the FLIRC IR broadcast, you could use an IR repeater to expand FLIRC's broadcast coverage.  For example:

BlastIR
8 Best Remote Extenders

You can even buy an IR extender that piggybacks IR signals on the HDMI cable, so both components of the extender can be placed within your media cabinet where they are less likely to be disturbed by family or pets.

https://sewelldirect.com/sewell-dual-band-injectir-ir-over-hdmi-for-remote-controls