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When can we expect an update? Tons of 3.5 issues!


ExtremelyAnnoyed

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This is not a bug report thread. Rather I want to mention some of the MANY issues I've had with Flirc and the software. I was recommended I buy this device by a friend and have had nothing but problems for weeks, with no dev fixes.

 

Here is a list of some of the issues I've had. Please do not move this thread to the bug report forum as it needs some exposure.

  1. Firmware 3.5 has rendered my Logitech Harmony remote UNUSABLE (misses button clicks, double button clicks).
  2. No way to revert to earlier firmware versions provided in your software. Not documented anywhere.
  3. Updating firmware wipes out your config WITHOUT WARNING.
  4. Backing up your config, and restoring config after firmware update DOES NOT WORK.
  5. Clearing out config BROKEN, many random buttons have to be erased manually.
  6. 3.4 and 3.5 firmwares have massive key repeat issues, already tried all the supposed fixes, nothing works and the problem is even worse in 3.5 as compared to 3.4.

Seriously, how about some quality control? When can we expect an update? Been stuck for weeks now.

 

Please, if anyone is experiencing similar issues, mention your frustrations with dealing with them here as a means to a resolve.

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Try this:

https://flirc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203390449-Double-Key-Presses-with-Harmony-

What harmony are you using? What remote profile are you using on your harmony?

 

I tried setting this to 0 in Harmony, as well as setting interkey to 5 in Flirc, and unfortunately it does not have any effect with my Harmony 550 using Media Center PC profile. It basically ignores every other key press.

 

I am disappointed to say the least. I feel like this is an extremely common remote control that people have.

 

 

I apologize for your frustration. I will make it more obvious when upgrading that pre 3.x configurations are not compatible and repairing your remote is necessary. Please connect with me so I can help trouble shoot this.

 

What is the reference to pre 3.x configurations? When I upgraded from 3.4 to 3.5, my config got wiped and restoring my saved config wouldn't work.

 

It would honestly be easier to plug in my old IR receiver than to be bothered tweaking this device to an even baseline workable state, I feel it is not worth the frustration already.  <_<

 

It seemed that firmware 3.4 worked at least somewhat more consistently than 3.5, but where is the documentation on how to revert firmware to an older one?

Edited by ExtremelyAnnoyed
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Hi,

 

It's not true that the config is being wiped when upgrading firmware. Either you have a faulty Flirc unit or you've somehow cleared the config yourself. I don't remember anyone reporting such issue.

 

As for the Harmony, it's true that those are extremely common, but that doesn't mean they are superior in every aspect. Unfortunately most of them don't have enough CPU power for their functionality and are slow compared to dedicated remotes and simpler universal ones - this was one of the reasons I've resigned from buying one.

 

There is no documentation on reverting the firmware as it is not officially supported. If you really need to go back, then Jason can guide you through.

 

I tried setting this to 0 in Harmony, as well as setting interkey to 5 in Flirc, and unfortunately it does not have any effect with my Harmony 550 using Media Center PC profile. It basically ignores every other key press.

 

There were a lot of discussions on the forum (and I think it is now in the Knowledge base here https://flirc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us) on how MCE remotes operate. Please read this article https://flirc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201054238-Every-Second-Key-Press-Doesn-t-Work

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I think that article will fix what I need. It seems like an issue in flirc firmware 3.5 that didn't occur in 3.4

 

Does the Harmony 650 have the same lag/issues as the 550? I find the input delay to be annoying (harmony problem).

 

Again I ask, when is a fixed firmware update planned for release? Seeing as there is no way to downgrade?  :angry:

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It seems like an issue in flirc firmware 3.5 that didn't occur in 3.4

This issue has been around since the beginning of flirc. It is a typical problem with MCE based remote (the reason why is explained in the help article Yawor linked).

I depends what profile you use with Flirc

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OK solved it...

 

 

That was the exact symptom I had, but doing the above didn't fix anything.

 

As mentioned in another thread, THIS is what you have to do: https://flirc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200712568-Logitech-Harmony-Remotes

 

Setting up the Flirc profile in Harmony software resolved all the strange issues I was having. Basically I replaced my old "Media Center PC" profile with a new "Flirc / XBMC" profile.

 

Doesn't fix the inherent harmony remote lag, but it actually is the snappiest I've seen it so far, so seems good to me. Not sure what triggered off the difference between 3.4 to 3.5, but glad it is resolved now.

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OK solved it...

 

 

That was the exact symptom I had, but doing the above didn't fix anything.

 

As mentioned in another thread, THIS is what you have to do: https://flirc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200712568-Logitech-Harmony-Remotes

 

Setting up the Flirc profile in Harmony software resolved all the strange issues I was having. Basically I replaced my old "Media Center PC" profile with a new "Flirc / XBMC" profile.

 

Doesn't fix the inherent harmony remote lag, but it actually is the snappiest I've seen it so far, so seems good to me. Not sure what triggered off the difference between 3.4 to 3.5, but glad it is resolved now.

I've spoken to the harmony guys, it's built in. (the lag)

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I think that article will fix what I need. It seems like an issue in flirc firmware 3.5 that didn't occur in 3.4

 

Does the Harmony 650 have the same lag/issues as the 550? I find the input delay to be annoying (harmony problem).

 

Again I ask, when is a fixed firmware update planned for release? Seeing as there is no way to downgrade?  :angry:

The problem does indeed exist with the Harmony 650.   I have 3 of these and 3 Flircs.    All were running 3.0.  When I upgraded one of the Flirc devices to 3.5, it became practically unusable.   I did change the delay as indicated on the Flirc to the maximum value, which impoved things a bit, but it's not perfect, double clicks about 1 out of 15 times now, and now the entire setup is pretty sluggish compared to the other two HTPCs. 

 

If I could downgrade to 3.0 I would, but after seeing the commentary in this topic, I'm rather afraid to try it as I don't want to end up with a completely non-working setup.  

Edited by dobie2564
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The problem does indeed exist with the Harmony 650.   I have 3 of these and 3 Flircs.    All were running 3.0.  When I upgraded one of the Flirc devices to 3.5, it became practically unusable.   I did change the delay as indicated on the Flirc to the maximum value, which impoved things a bit, but it's not perfect, double clicks about 1 out of 15 times now, and now the entire setup is pretty sluggish compared to the other two HTPCs. 

 

If I could downgrade to 3.0 I would, but after seeing the commentary in this topic, I'm rather afraid to try it as I don't want to end up with a completely non-working setup.  

what's sluggish? You are referring to the harmony?

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The problem does indeed exist with the Harmony 650.   I have 3 of these and 3 Flircs.    All were running 3.0.  When I upgraded one of the Flirc devices to 3.5, it became practically unusable.   I did change the delay as indicated on the Flirc to the maximum value, which impoved things a bit, but it's not perfect, double clicks about 1 out of 15 times now, and now the entire setup is pretty sluggish compared to the other two HTPCs. 

 

If I could downgrade to 3.0 I would, but after seeing the commentary in this topic, I'm rather afraid to try it as I don't want to end up with a completely non-working setup.  

Can you give me more info? What are you running this on? What kind of remote are you using? Is the only problem double clicks?

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Can you give me more info? What are you running this on? What kind of remote are you using? Is the only problem double clicks?

After I made that post I did somre work with it and got it to work.   Here is what I did. 

  • Used the Flirc software to set the delay to maximum as indicated above. 
  • I also deselected all the other options that were preselected.    (I think these were XBMC & the Harmony ones)
  • Using the Harmony software I set the remote as indicated in one of your links above. 

After making these changes the Harmony/Flirc combination works fine now.   While I did the programming of both devices on a Win 7 computer, the Flirc is actually installed in a small scratch built HTPC running Mythbuntu 14.0x and only acting as a frontend.     It's an I3 with dedicated Nvidia GPU so there is no lack of mips here for what it does.  

 

I should have spent more time with it before I made the post above so my apologies for the false trouble report.  

Edited by dobie2564
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After I made that post I did somre work with it and got it to work.   Here is what I did. 

  • Used the Flirc software to set the delay to maximum as indicated above. 
  • I also deselected all the other options that were preselected.    (I think these were XBMC & the Harmony ones)
  • Using the Harmony software I set the remote as indicated in one of your links above. 

After making these changes the Harmony/Flirc combination works fine now.   While I did the programming of both devices on a Win 7 computer, the Flirc is actually installed in a small scratch built HTPC running Mythbuntu 14.0x and only acting as a frontend.     It's an I3 with dedicated Nvidia GPU so there is no lack of mips here for what it does.  

 

I should have spent more time with it before I made the post above so my apologies for the false trouble report.  

No apology necessary, and I apologize greatly for any frustration or confusion. My product is supposed to take any of that away, so I feel at a great loss when someone gets stuck or struggles. 

So do you think it was the options in the advanced configuration?  Any chance you can tell us what that is? (may help others) perhaps, 'sequence modifiers' was selected, and that can definitely cause problems.

Thank you for following up.

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.....

So do you think it was the options in the advanced configuration?  ...

 

Unfortunately I didn't do a proper analysis to make this determination.   i.e.  I changed more than one thing at a time before trying it out.  

 

My "guess" without knowing how your code works, is that it was this combination of things. 

  • 3.5 is more "sensitive" to the Harmony 650 than 3.0.   This can be mitigated for existing installations as I indicated above.
  • I noticed that the default inter key delay setting for 3.0 was 5 whereas on 3.5 it is 3.  So an upgrade changes this important value.  (I verified this by re-instaling 3.0 on that Win 7 machine and looking at the differences compared to 3.5)

So after upgrading, you end up with software that is more "sensitive" and a changed inter key delay setting.   I hope that helps.   Given the littany of remotes out there, it's probably impossible to test every possible scenario before releasing a new level of software.  

Edited by dobie2564
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I am going to post my issues on this thread.

 

I upgraded to 3.5 in order to try to map the Media Center Skip buttons without the need for Autohotkeys.  I have posts on another thread concerning that attempt.

 

I spent some time yesterday reinstalling 3.5 in case it was corrupt, force upgrading the firmware to rewrite it to the FLIRC, clearing the FLIRC and reprogramming it, making sure the remote was not pointed directly at it and it worked that evening rather well.

 

Today, after working for a while, the skip buttons stopped working. 

 

When I ran the flirc_util settings command, the two keys (square brackets) I programmed to remap with AHK were no longer displayed.  It showed that I still have 35 keys programmed, but did not show those two.

 

So, I reprogrammed those two keys again and its working, and reports 2 more key indexes with the [ and ] keys remapped.

 

I really think that the 3.5 firmware corrupts memory over time.  It would explain many peoples issues with the firmware.  I purchased my FLIRC in December.  I haven't had it but a little over a month, i don't think its hardware related.

 

BTW, when I ran flirc_util status, it reported Last Update Status: Error

 

Is this a problem with that option, or is it telling me my last firmware update wasn't successful?

 

Why does the settings command only show the indexes for single key mappings?

 

What would be a good version to revert back to in order to not have to fight the FLIRC every day, several times a day?

 

Thanks for any help.

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I am going to post my issues on this thread.

 

I upgraded to 3.5 in order to try to map the Media Center Skip buttons without the need for Autohotkeys.  I have posts on another thread concerning that attempt.

 

I spent some time yesterday reinstalling 3.5 in case it was corrupt, force upgrading the firmware to rewrite it to the FLIRC, clearing the FLIRC and reprogramming it, making sure the remote was not pointed directly at it and it worked that evening rather well.

 

Today, after working for a while, the skip buttons stopped working. 

 

When I ran the flirc_util settings command, the two keys (square brackets) I programmed to remap with AHK were no longer displayed.  It showed that I still have 35 keys programmed, but did not show those two.

 

So, I reprogrammed those two keys again and its working, and reports 2 more key indexes with the [ and ] keys remapped.

 

I really think that the 3.5 firmware corrupts memory over time.  It would explain many peoples issues with the firmware.  I purchased my FLIRC in December.  I haven't had it but a little over a month, i don't think its hardware related.

 

BTW, when I ran flirc_util status, it reported Last Update Status: Error

 

Is this a problem with that option, or is it telling me my last firmware update wasn't successful?

 

Why does the settings command only show the indexes for single key mappings?

 

What would be a good version to revert back to in order to not have to fight the FLIRC every day, several times a day?

 

Thanks for any help.

flirc_util has a bug, I don't show some keys (the ones with modifiers).

 

The 'Error' status, it's also erroneous.

 

Your best bet, is to save your config after you're set up, and the save your config after it's broken. And then show me both.

 

Try disabling 'sequence key' modifiers in the advanced section of the gui. If it was already disabled, try it enabled. 

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Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I haven't had a problem with it since I've been home.  They kids say they have to hit other buttons before hitting the play control buttons (Pause, Play, Skip, etc.) but i haven't been able to confirm it. 

 

I checked the settings and the key indexes look the same as yesterday.  So, that's good.

 

Current Settings:

flirc_util version v1.3.4 [v1.3.4+]
  Firmware: v3.5 [77E94DBB]
 
Settings:
  sleep detection:  Enabled
  noise canceler:   Disabled
  inter-key delay:  3
  seq. modifiers:   Disabled
  state:            0
  builtin profiles: Enable
 
Memory Info:
  keys recorded:  37
  keys remaining: 132
  memory used:   28%
 
Recorded Keys:
Index  hash        key
-----  ---------   ---
    5  D528005B    backspace
    7  79DDAE1B    return
    9  F0036282    pageup
   10  E57FD4BB    pagedown
   17  4B8CDDB5    ]
   18  FC64E7B5    [
   20  95B61417    1
   21  8B326A57    2
   22  7ADE4D09    3
   23  BA27A578    4
   24  1FE56C30    5
   25  1561DE69    6
   26  50DA522    7
   27  769F25F0    8
   28  664B08A2    9
   29  796828A9    0
   30  63016D31    delete
   31  EFAE5602    up
   32  E5271129    down
   33  D4D2F3DB    left
   34  8A31E762    right
   35  5A2FC3D4    [
   36  78188DD4    ]
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