On the plus side...Flirc-USB integration

[Dragonfly]

After being somewhat frustrated with the whole 'Activity' debacle, I decided to reset my Skip 1s and restart.

I primarily use a Nvidia Shield and use Kodi to watch/stream any content out here. I rarely watch TV. I do have a TV (Samsung 85QN900A) and used its remote, through HDMI-CEC to control Kodi. However, its one of those minimalist remotes with only a few (programmable) buttons. Too few to control Kodi the way I want to.

I decided to start with only one device under Activity A: Under MISC -> Flirc -> model Kodi (Set Top Box,Misc,PC,Misc) and synced the remote with the default button mappings.

I was pleasantly surprised that all (default) button mappings where working within Kodi. Kudos! No need to reprogram the Flirc-USB via the Flirc software. It probably uses the built-in profile. There a plenty of Kodi built-in functions available in the Buttons Panel. To test those functions, I assigned 'Next Subtitle' to button 1 and synced the remote. And voila, it was working. That's easy! All without updating the Flirc-USB.

 

In the Kodi log, I noticed the keystroke 'L" was send to Kodi upon pressing 1 on the remote. That what it's supposed to do.
However......I tried assigning other functions to buttons, thinking that would work also:

• Zoom + to button FFwd           
• Zoom -  to button Rew
• Subtitle Delay + to Ch Up
• Subtitle Delay + to Ch Down

Sadly, it didn't...

• Zoom + sends a 'equals'          generates Volume Up
• Zoom -  sends a 'minus'           generates Volume Down
• Delay + sends a 'f6'                  generates F6 (has no default action)
• Delay + sends a 'f5'                  generates F5 (has no default action)

I need an additional custom Kodi keymap.xml, don't I? Is that available somewhere or do I need to make one?

If so, why bother to give them that specific function name in the Buttons panel? Just name them F1, F2 ....etc. or show the actual keystroke in parentheses next to the function description (*). At this moment I have to assign/map every function in the Button Panel, execute them in Kodi and subsequently dive deep into the Kodi logfile to find out what actually was sent with every button press. Or....Am I doing it wrong entirely? Do I need to update the Flirc-USB? Or something else?

Anyway, It's not documented as far as I know. It would be nice to show some helpful contextual information in your Tips area. Not only for this, but for every function in the software that needs more clarification. It would solve a lot of headaches.

 

Edit1: Outdated and inconsistent profiles
I did find some presets in the Flirc forum, but those outdated and for the Flirc-USB software. The Button panel in the Skip 1s software has more functions.

Edit2: Button output/inconsistencies and software overrides
Been testing and trying relentlessly to get this to work. Browsing through the Kodi log-file I could find alphanumeric key/media codes but buttons like FFwd and REW buttons where not registered. Not within Kodi, nor with a Keylogger. But they do work! In the attached Excel-sheet a comparison of Kodi default keys and the Skip 1s generated keys in relation to the Flirc Kodi profile shown in the Buttons Panel:

• Nearly all buttons generate a readable keystroke, except FWD, REW and BIG STEP FORWARD/BACKWARD
  (*) Anyway to find out what is actually sent? It would be nice so have some sort an advanced user mode, showing the actual action (be it a keystroke, keycode or other human readable output.
• Notice that some keys Like GREEN, YELLOW and BLUE etc. either have same effect as some other functions or clash with some Kodi defaults (shown in Red)

So, for some clarification and any other missing functions I decided to program via the Flirc-USB software. Now we've got two pieces of software to program buttons. The Skip 1s software and the Flirc one. But does one supersede the other?

• In the Skip 1s software, I've used the default Flirc Kodi (Set Top Box,Misc,PC,Misc) profile
• Added a random Kodi function to the empty buttons (Apparently you can't program a button in the Flirc software if it hasn't been assigned with something yet)
• Subsequently erased and recorded those and added new keystrokes from the Full keyboard profile in the Flirc software

After testing, I've found I somehow programmed two buttons (Record and Zero) with the same action ('Tab'), so I needed to correct that. Using the Skip 1s software, I noticed the Zero button was still using 'Digit 0'. Erased that button and re-assigned it with 'Digit 0' and synced. But it's still sending a Tab. Does the Flirc USB have a higher priority? Do I need to keep track of which buttons I programmed in which piece of software?

Edit3: Adding devices to existing Activities
Having used the Skip 1s software with only one device added, I needed an extra device (TV) to control its power state and other functions. The only way (that I know of) to add an extra device is via the Activity Manager -> wizard or mappings. But when I added the TV, all my Flirc device button mappings where in the default state! Obviously I have made a backup, but by restoring this I would loose the extra added device again.

This can't be right. Is that normal behavior? Adding an extra device should retain the settings of the existing ones and not reset their mappings. Is there another way to add a device and not loose previous changes made or to I have to add all devices beforehand? What if a devices changes (another TV). How do I change that without losing carefully made mappings?

Please shed some clarification (preferably to all of the above questions)

 

Flirc_vs_Kodi.xlsx

Edited July 6, 2023 by Dragonfly

[Dragonfly]

Does this post needs to be in another subforum like Skip App/Gereral questions to get some answers from the developers/administrators?

I'm having serious issues here that I'd like to have resolved

[kodi_linuxuser]

Hi,

also new user here.

I solved my Kodi / Linux / TV Problems in the following way:

First, as you also pointed out, Flirc -> Kodi from Misc

Then i added to every Button of the Skip 1, which was not yet used, a action which i wouldn't need. 

Like Zoom1, Zoom2 and so on. (Also removed the Power Off function from the TV because Kodi needs additional input for Power Off) (Synced the remote)

Then opened the flirc SW in Linux (Sorry, but on the website is not one working way described, got it working with the forum here, also the certificate of the repo is not valid since May 2022)

With the Flirc SW, I deleted the “not used Buttons” and remapped it to functions I wanted. Furthermore, some Buttons behaved first wrongly, but could be easily remapped.

In this way, I got it all working very fast.

But as you already pointed out: If one device is added or another activity is added, everything i did (like the extra Buttons to Zoom1 ...), is deleted and has to be done again, including setup Flirc once more.

In my opinion, this is a big no-go.