First impressions - not great. But I recognize it's still consider beta ;-)

[Stack]

Greetings,
First, I fully recognize there's a lot to work out so please don't take this as a rant nor anything else personal - just a recounting of my issues that we can hopefully work through for the next guy down the line. :-)
 

TL;DR:
1. Upstairs TV works great with a slight lag
2. Skip 1s Remote feedback - Damn I wish it had a few more buttons; esp a dedicated subtitle.
3. Skip 1s Remote + Flirc 1gen + Kodi - Damn it's slow... miserably and painfully slow.
4. Downstairs TV - Haier le55b1381 - Dismal failure + lag.
5. Downstairs Kodi with Microsoft MCE IR - complete 100% failure.
6. Skip 1s Remote feedback - button glow configuration would be really nice when in a dark room... for hopefully obvious reasons :-D

I bought two remotes because I've got an upstairs and downstairs setup. Let's start with upstairs which is a TV and a Kodi box. It's an AOC TV - found it in the App DB and added it. Great! It works! No complaints other then there is a noticeable lag between this and the AOC remote. By which I mean on the AOC remote: *press* *action* However on the skip 1S it's more like *press* *a small lag less then a second* *action*. But hey, TV works with all the functionality I use anyway. A win!

So let's switch to Kodi. This is an RPi4 with a first gen Flirc (clear plastic - a bit of a bubble). Found it in the remote DB and added it. Eh... it kinda worked?? OK, first - the skip 1s has WAY less buttons then the generic remote I was using. This is both good and bad. Damn do I wish there was a dedicated subtitle button after only a few minutes of messing with it... But more then that, I found I had to "program" the interface with the app to do things I want. There's gotta be a better way of overloading buttons... I'm programming the number buttons to do things like bounce between the Kodi screen and the video playing or overloading the directional pad to skip both chapters and do jump a heads (which I KNOW I'm going to accidentally do the one that I didn't want to do and then get really pissed off during a show when my wife asks "can't we just go back like 10 seconds?" and it jumps back a full chapter then exits out.... grrrr... I'm pre-getting annoyed at the thought of buttons that do too much... :-D ) Anyway... going from a remote with dedicated buttons to collapsing down to just a few... I'm very hopeful the community comes up with better solution to having a good Kodi layout then overloading the number buttons...

However, I must admit - I didn't get as far in my testing of buttons and layouts as I wanted because the Skip 1s is MISERABLY S....L....OOOO....OOOOO....W....!! Most button presses are - not joking, not exaggerating - 5 to 10 seconds before the action actually happens. And heaven forbid if I hit too many at once - a HUGE lag followed by a bunch of presses /really/ quick together. However, if I switch back to the generic media center remote I've been using for years? Instant response. So it isn't Kodi, it isn't the RPi4, it isn't the first gen Flirc.... it's the Skip 1S.

OK, after an hour I'm done messing with the upstairs. I'm going downstairs!

Welp. That was nothing short of a colossal failure....

To start with the TV, it's a Haier le55b1381. There are like 6 code options for Haier and absolutely NO indicators of which I should use. I went through all of them. Code 1 - turns tv on and I can change volume and I can bring up the input menu (but I can't actually change the input) and I can bring up the settings (but I can't navigate in them at all). Code 5 - the only other one that turns on the tv and I can do almost everything Code 1 does, however, I can't change volume but I can move in the settings menu (but I can't select a change). I tried really hard to look up the tv and the remote - nothing tells me which of those Code options to select. I also noticed the lag here too. It's still under a second but it's slightly more noticeable then the AOC TV.

Then to the Kodi device fail. It's another RPi4, however, this time the receiver is an old Microsoft Media Center Entertainment setup... kinda... It's the IR605/A receiver from an old Microsoft Media Center Entertainment remote, but the remote actually died years ago. However, the xbox 360 remote has always worked perfectly with it and Kodi so... *shrug*... why not keep using it? Well, I think I found my answer... After nearly 45 minutes just futzing with this portion alone I'm wishing I'd just bought a new Flirc receiver. Hell, I still might just buy a new Flirc IR if that's just the easier answer and *IF* I can get the dang TV to work...

So, I know this is beta but three hours in and I was hoping for more of a win then replacing the upstairs TV remote. Especially since it's the downstairs TV remote that chomps through 2xAA batteries every 6 months for doing almost nothing then a few button presses (gah, I want that remote gone... ;-).

But the lag between pressing a button and something happening, that's gotta get fixed.

Lastly, how do I keep the light glow on longer? It's a "oh hey, buttons light up! Oh, and now they are gone." In a dim room with a new remote - I can't see the damn button placement! I dug through the settings and found I could change the color of the remote led (whooo?? *shrug*)... but where is the "when a button is pressed, keep glowing for 10 seconds" setting? Am I just misunderstanding something?

Thanks for listening to me recount my evening putzing with the Skip 1S...

[Nathan]

There's clearly something wrong. In all those instances, there should be zero lag. Can you visit the firmware update thread and make sure you're running the latest firmware?

And can you also send over your logs. 

 

[Stack]

Greetings,
I'm sorry for the delay. I've been out on work related travel. I will check as soon as I can. Thanks for responding!

[Stack]

Greetings @Nathan!
Finally got some time to mess about with this. Updated the firmware on the upstairs remote. The AOC TV is now working perfectly. Zero lag. Works great. Going to "hide" the AOC remote so that I start test driving the Skip 1S on a regular basis. As for the upstairs Kodi which is "RPi4 with a first gen Flirc (clear plastic - a bit of a bubble)" and was painfully slow 5-10 second lag time, well, mostly good news! The average now between button press and menu action is close to 1 second now. Which is far slower then the universal remote I was using but isn't unusable in slowness. However, there is this thing that if I hit the button too fast, each action takes a long time.

I wrote a paragraph and didn't feel like I was explaining it well so here's a video. :-)
 

I'm about to start on the downstairs now.

Thanks!
~Stack~

[Edit half an hour later]
Ran out of time before kids got up from nap.... Downstairs had some success but not to the point I'll use it regularly yet.

The Haier TV, I still can't find button options that let me scroll through the menus. But it's more responsive with the latest firmware.

The Kodi system, I have WAY more success with the MCE then I did the first time. It too is slow and has the same problem as upstairs Kodi.

Also, the menu options are just enough different that it's getting annoying between the MCE and the Kodi profiles... I need to spend some time mapping them out so that the buttons on the upstairs do the same as they do on the downstairs.

So... improvements! Huzzah! :-D

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Stack

[Stack]

Greetings @Nathan,

Any thoughts on the slowness of the 1S as shown in that video?

Thanks!

[Nathan]

I wonder if this is a first generation Flirc thing. I'm currently using a modern flirc with a skip remote on my computer, and there's zero of the lag you're showing. Though if it is, I don't know why the other remote wouldn't lag. Might need Jason or a dev to take a look and see if they can replicate on a 1st gen flirc. 

[Stack]

I had some time to mess about with this tonight. Had big updates on the App and the firmware :-)
The downstairs Haier TV? Works wonderfully now. Huzzah!
The downstairs Kodi with the MCE adapter? Functions tremendously better. Enough so that I believe I can start using the Skip1s regularly now! Huzzah!
The upstairs AOC TV? Still works wonderfully!
The upstairs Kodi with the first gen Flirc? Um... Yeah. It's worse. It's still P...A...I...N...F...U...L...L...Y...S...L...O...W...! Before I could hit the button five times and eventually it would make it through each of the five buttons. However now? If I hit too many too fast, I get one button press then the remote lights up in multicolors, then turns red, then turns off. The only way to get the remote to do anything afterwards is to pull the batteries for 10 seconds. 

Serious question, is there hope for the first gen Flirc? It works well with the universal remote so I don't want to throw it away, but if I just need to buy a newer one and e-recycle the old to use my remote then I suppose that is what I will do. Ideally I'd like to keep using it so if there is hope for a future enhancement then I will keep on hoping...