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Using Flirc with Amazon fireTV


tonyski

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Logitech has issued recent updates to their remotes, make sure you update your profiles.

As for other remotes, it's strictly amazon's issue. It's their keyboard input delay. It's like 40ms or something stupid. If you grab their remote they sell with the fire tv and emulate pushing the button as you would a larger gummy remote button, it also feels sticky. 

I've told them, and can only convince them when enough people complain to them. 

 

I can't do anything on my end. It would be a hack for a single device that would cause problems on everything else. I keep in touch with them, so maybe I can convince them sooner than later.

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OK, i'm new to all of this so bear with me.

 

my setup to "watch TV" is as follows:

 

Toshiba TV, Kinivo HDMI switch, stereo receiver, Flirc, and Harmony One.

 

In the MyHarmony software, I have it setup that tv shows video, receiver does audio, and Flirc changes channels.  The Flirc was added to MyHarmony devices as Flirc::FireTV.

 

I plugged in the flirc into computer, made sure firmware was up to date, loaded the controller profile for Amazon Fire TV.  I put my remote in Watch TV mode, and went through the process of Flirc learning my buttons.  

 

Plugged the Flirc into FireTV, booted it up and... nothing.   Now, the odd thing is, if i go on my remote to Devices::Toshiba TV, my buttons work!!

 

what am i doing wrong? lol

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and just as a test, i wiped out all devices and activities from my Harmony One.

 

added Flirc::FireTV as the only device.

 

Plugged in Flirc, wiped configuration, loaded FireTV controller, mapped all of the buttons from my Harmony One.  

Plugged Flirc into FireTV, booted up, nothing...

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and just as a test, i wiped out all devices and activities from my Harmony One.

 

added Flirc::FireTV as the only device.

 

Plugged in Flirc, wiped configuration, loaded FireTV controller, mapped all of the buttons from my Harmony One.  

Plugged Flirc into FireTV, booted up, nothing...

Khaki:  The Flirc is only going to control the device it is plugged into.  I'm assuming your "Watch TV" activity is just that, you want to watch OTA or cable televison, in which case the TV or set-top box should be what is changing channels, not the FireTV.  In fact the FireTV wouldn't even be involved in this activity.  You need to set up another activity ("Watch FireTV"?) which switches TV to the correct HDMI input and audio to receiver or TV depending on how you have it physically connected.  Then use the keys you've programmed on the Harmony to control the FireTV via Flirc.  Hope that helps.

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I have confirmed with them that there are bugs on certain harmony remotes with repeats. I have the harmony one, I don't have the repeat problem, I also just got an ultimate, and that has the issue. I will try to get a list of remotes that have the issue.

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Please add Harmony 650 to your list of remotes that have this key-repeat problem, Jason.

 

Also, remember when you changed the button label on the FireTV profile from "app menu" to "Options"? Well, that same change needs to be made to the dialog boxes that appear when we are teaching commands to the Flirc.

 

Also, I'm confused as to why anyone would be using the Flirc with a Harmony One or Harmony Ultimate. Don't those remotes have RF capabilities and can therefore send RF commands directly to the FireTV?

Edited by Herman Trivilino
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Confirming my Harmony One+ does not have the repeat problem but my 350 does which is the one I really want to use.

 

Do you think there is any chance that Harmony will fix the bug and issue new firmware ?

 

Can someone tell me which profiles to use to control the Fire TV and Kodi without having seperate profiles ?

Edited by jakey
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  • 1 month later...

I am trying to set up flirc to work with the amazon fire tv but it doesn't seem to be working, some buttons seem to work while others do not when I use the Filrc - Amazon Fire TV profile in the Harmony 650. Would buttons not working be a sign of the multiple button presses being sent, or is there something else I should be looking at?

 

I admit it has been a while since I messed with the Harmony remote as things had been working well for my set up for some time, but now that a device failed I'm exploring other options for Kodi which led me to the amazon fire tv. I am assuming then when I upgraded the Harmony software, my remote was updated to the latest firmware.

 

Also, can anyone chime in with using a Harmony with a Flirc to control KODI from the amazon fire tv? I've had a go at setting it up but again my results were that some buttons worked while others did not. I tried the method that Hypnoz suggesed in this post: 

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I am trying to set up flirc to work with the amazon fire tv but it doesn't seem to be working, some buttons seem to work while others do not when I use the Filrc - Amazon Fire TV profile in the Harmony 650. Would buttons not working be a sign of the multiple button presses being sent, or is there something else I should be looking at?

 

I admit it has been a while since I messed with the Harmony remote as things had been working well for my set up for some time, but now that a device failed I'm exploring other options for Kodi which led me to the amazon fire tv. I am assuming then when I upgraded the Harmony software, my remote was updated to the latest firmware.

 

Also, can anyone chime in with using a Harmony with a Flirc to control KODI from the amazon fire tv? I've had a go at setting it up but again my results were that some buttons worked while others did not. I tried the method that Hypnoz suggesed in this post: 

 

Logitech has a known problem. They are going to fix it but it's taken a bit of time.

I'm working on some experimental firmware to handle repeats on my device, but I need another week or so. Can you hang in there Nick? I'll make an announcement on my blog and on the forums beta section.

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Also, can anyone chime in with using a Harmony with a Flirc to control KODI from the amazon fire tv?

I've got two Harmony/Flirc setups, main one using a 650 , secondary using a 550.  Logitech had no profile for the Flirc when I bought them so I just programmed  manually.  In the Harmony software I set the Flircs up as Media Center PC.  Any Harmony buttons that weren't given a function by the Harmony software I programmed manually using an old TWC cable box remote(including several softkeys).  In my experience (again, manually programming vs using a pre-populated profile) it doesn't matter what command/signal you teach the Harmony to output when you push a button as long as it is a unique IR command--that is, different from all other IR commands used by your system. 

Once the Harmony is set up, I move on to the Flirc.  I start by assigning the navigation arrows, select, return, home,  and info buttons with the Flirc's FireTV interface.  Then I switch the Flirc to the full keyboard interface and assign the remaining keys (play as P, pause as spacebar, etc).  I like taking advantage of some of the more niche keyboard commands like ' for jumping back 7 seconds, switching subtitle languages, next audio lang, etc, and so that's why I always go to the trouble to teach every button on the Harmony. 

One other thing I do when programming the Flirc is make a list of the Harmony key and the corresponding Flirc/Kodi command.  Once I'm all done I fire up the system and run down the list to make sure everything is working as expected.  Anything that isn't gets reprogrammed, and the list ensures that I'm consistent with my button assignments.  Hope this was helpful.

Having said all that, my 550 has always worked perfectly (probably shouldn't have said that).  My 650 is another story.  Lots of problems with double key presses.  I've experimented with every value for Interkey delay, bouncing the IR off 2 walls when programming the Flirc, following Harmony's troubleshooting for "my device responds too much".  Nothing seems to make it work as well as it does with the 550.  I've swapped the Flirc's, updated to latest FW, yet it's always the 650 that misbehaves.  The 650 has no problems with any other gear in my system, yet the Flirc works as advertised with my 550, Unfortunately they just don't seem to play well together. 

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I'm not sure what you are trying to do. Can you fire up the GUI, head to the FireTV window under controllers, and manually pair your buttons?

For those getting no response at all read below:

 

Looking through pages and pages of fantastic documentation and i basically had the same issue with my harmony 700 remote, no response no matter what setting i selected. It turned out to be that I had debugging turned ON for the USB device on the AFTV. That pretty much disables the USB port on your AFTV device. 

 

I'm still getting the occasional repeats (up/down) but that's manageable for me.

Edited by erros007
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  • 5 months later...

Is there anyway to get this working with no arrow key repeats with urc's mx 780?  Really frustrated at not being able to use this device.

 

*EDIT*  Nevermind!  Run as admin let me change advanced settings, and inter key delay to 0.  Remote now works.  It ain't flawless.  The home key is jenky, but it's now useable.

Edited by berstuck
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Hi there. I need your support. My setup:

Amazon Fire TV 1st gen.
FLIRC as IR remote
Logitech Harmony 600

I don't have this double key issue. Everything is working fine. But one problem I have to solve. How can I get de FTV into sleep mode? If I press the matching Homebutton longer (2 seconds) I can see on the harmony display only a short signal. Any ideas? Thanks.

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  • 2 months later...

Morning folks, just about to place an order for a FLIRC for use with my Harmony Touch / Fire TV 2 and wanted to confirm something first.

As the USB socket on the Fire TV is on the back and mine is situated in a TV unit, I assume I will have to use my IR Repeater to reliably send signals to the FLIRC and wondered if anyone has successfully used the DBPOWER IR Repeater with the FLIRC?

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I would actually think it will work anyway without a repeater and you should try that first. FLIRC is quite sensitive and can respond to reflected IR signals.  If that doesn't work I'd go with a usb extension cable or even a hub if you happen to have one of those it could provide additional functionality for the fire tv too.

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My FLIRC arrived today and I almost have it working fully.

When learning the commands from my Harmony Touch to the Fire TV profile when I get to the "Info" button it says it is already exists and if I redo it and test it on the Fire TV it acts as the down button (Which is why I assume it says it already exists as I have already programmed that button)?

Is this the Harmony profile I am using that has those two buttons duplicated or am I simply doing something wrong (Probably the latter!)?

From reading while typing this I gather I don't have to actually learn FLIRC anything for it to work with Kodi but I was hoping to simply duplicate the key operation of the Fire TV remote not necessarily use it as a full Kodi remote.

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Evening Jason, sorry, I did mean to mention I had done that after reading your response to another question about Harmony remotes.

It appears the Harmony device profile I am using (FLIRC >  Fire TV) has duplicate keys for "Down" and "Info" (From viewing the profile in MyHarmony), there is another profile (FLIRC > XBMC) that has the correct "Info" key but that doesn't have the Home button in there for Fire TV.

I could add both devices to my activity and choose the relevant buttons from both device profiles but that isn't ideal.

Could I also please ask, how many post do I need to make before I am allowed to view the attachments in the first post of this thread?

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Evening Jason, sorry, I did mean to mention I had done that after reading your response to another question about Harmony remotes.

It appears the Harmony device profile I am using (FLIRC >  Fire TV) has duplicate keys for "Down" and "Info" (From viewing the profile in MyHarmony), there is another profile (FLIRC > XBMC) that has the correct "Info" key but that doesn't have the Home button in there for Fire TV.

I could add both devices to my activity and choose the relevant buttons from both device profiles but that isn't ideal.

Could I also please ask, how many post do I need to make before I am allowed to view the attachments in the first post of this thread?

Do you mean the attachments in Chris' posts? I'm not sure what they were, they weren't showing up for me. What particularly were you looking for.
 

The FireTV profile shouldn't have had any duplicate buttons, especially down and info. That's just strange. I'll have to try to confirm that.

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By default (Here anyway), Direction Down and Info are both mapped to DirectionDown (Long and Short Press) and there is no button labelled Info but from fiddling around I just discovered Menu actually send the Info command so will remap that to the Info button and start over to test.

I assumed there was some kind of spreadsheet attachment in the first post but it says...

 No permission

Sorry, we can't show this content because you do not have permission to see it.

EDIT: I have attached my current .fcfg file which works correctly using the Harmony device profile FLIRC > Fire TV

FLIRC USB Dongle (Amazon Fire TV).fcfg

Edited by D-an-W
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Everything is working great so far, would it be possible however to add a standard keyboard "Enter" key (Or even Left mouse click?!?) to my current Fire TV config so I can also use the FLIRC in TWRP on the Fire TV (I can move the cursor up/down/left/right already just can't click to select)?

EDIT: Didn't think it would be that easy! Followed the post by randyth earlier in this thread (Deleted the default Ok/Enter key and learned it as the full keyboard Enter key) and it now works in both TWRP recovery and the Fire TV GUI.

Loving FLIRC!!!

Edited by D-an-W
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