[Flirc, Harmony, Kodi and Suspend]

If you have been wondering on how to make Kodi work with Flirc and Harmony remotes to automatically suspend without you having to call up the shutdown menu or be stuck with the other methods that limit suspend commands to the home screen of Kodi this is how to do it with Kodi v15 at time of writing. Thx to GoodOmens for the tip though his info is a little out of date now so this is a guide on how to do it all.

 

Kodi/Openelec

Go to system information and make a note of it's IP address

Turn on SSH in Kodi services

 

Harmony Software

Devices

Flirc Media Player

Change Device Settings

Power Settings

I want to turn this device off when not in use

I press the same button for on and off

Add command and select PowerOff (if you have messed with poweroff before finding this guide choose the fix command and reset IR code for PowerOff)

Sync remote

 

Go to Flirc software

Select file clear configuration

Select full keyboard

Select Ctrl+F12 (as Kodi wont respond to this at least not yet)

Go to devices on Harmony remote and select Flirc media player then hit the power off key to map it to Ctrl+F12 (requires harmony with display screen or map power off to physical button)

 

From Windows

Download WinSCP

Select SFTP

Input Kodi IP address

Username = root and password = openelec

Once logged in select options\preferences\panels and tick the box for “show hidden files”

Browse to /storage/.kodi/userdata/keymaps folder

Create a file called remote.xml

Copy and paste in the text below, then save (old floppy disk icon)

<keymap>
 <global>
  <keyboard>
   <f12 mod="ctrl">XBMC.Suspend()</f12>
  </keyboard>
 </global>
</keymap>

 

Exit WinSCP

 

Kodi/Openelec

Reboot the system (required for new xml to take effect)

 

Now if all goes well when using Harmony activities the system should go into suspend.

If you've been wondering why not just use the stock Flirc/Kodi power off command combined with the Kodi settings\power saving changing it from shutdown to suspend, this doesn't work. If you go this path the system will always wake up when using any activity and not go into suspend, the stock power off command is bugged somehow like it's being sent multiple times.

[Harmony One - starting new activity (TV/PS3/PS4) wakes up HTPC]

The stock Flirc profile for Harmony must be misaligned as I get this too. The default is no power settings at all on Flirc/Kodi profile with "power off" being the only command. If you change the power profile in Harmony to use this by putting the system into suspend (via Kodi settings power off = suspend) it doesn't work, it will always wake the system no matter what you select on the remote.

If you don't use the built in power off command in the Harmony Flirc profile and instead do as you suggest by setting power off = number 0 then set this to Ctrl+End in Flirc software the system works as expected going to sleep when selecting another activity or powering off.

So there must be some difference between stock "power off" and "ctrl+end" the Harmony Flirc profile is sending the power off twice or something like that.

 

Update: After some research I have found a better way that makes suspend work in any area of Kodi UI, wrote a guide on how to do it all.