After a week, I love this thing, but...

[guyman]

I've been using my Skip remote for about a week now and it really is a great device, but the software has so many problems that I believe too many people would be completely turned off of using it.

Pros:

• Build quality
  • The remote feels amazing, there aren't any too sharp corners, the buttons are stable, and they have a nice satisfying click. The USB C port is tight and works with a variety of cables without clearance issues.
• Speed
  • The remote is super responsive, no lag unlike my harmony. I can press the arrow 5 times in a row and it won't start falling behind or reject other inputs.
• Pronto HEX support
  • I had very little problems adding unsupported devices manually using Pronto hex codes (on a working system)

These things alone make this the remote that I want to leave next to my TV, but getting to the point where this was an option was a huge undertaking.

Cons:

• Windows and Linux
  • The software was clearly designed with MacOS in mind. On 2 separate machines I had many issues getting the Skip App to work properly.
  • On my main desktop, under windows, I installed the software and driver with no issues, but I was completely unable to communicate with the remote in the Skip App. I tried with Linux, and the Linux software was able to communicate, but failed to actually send any information. I later found out that this is because Firmware updates are only available on Windows and MacOS.
  • On a second Windows machine, I was having trouble installing the application. I needed to manually install the msix using PowerShell as Admin to get the installation to complete. Once the install completed, I had no issues using the software to flash the firmware.
  • On my M1 Mac, I had no issues at all. Everything went smoothly.
• Flirc USB Integration
  • I bought the bundle with the Flirc USB thinking that the integration would be smoother than trying to use a WMCE receiver. However, I quickly realized that aside from the few built in profiles, there is no obvious way to add custom bindings. I wanted to add custom bindings for ESC, Alt+F4, i, j, J, and other keys to the many buttons on my remote.
  • With my harmony and WMCE, I was able to just set the bindings with the Harmony and the WMCE had no problems interpreting the codes. For the Flirc, I had to add a bogus device to my activity, then use the Flirc software to bind those bogus codes to my necessary keys.
• Key holding
  • The previous section led me to find this issue. Since I had used the codes for a Motorola STB, I was unable to hold the arrow or enter key. I tried setting the Flirc software to hold mode, however the receiver wasn't receiving any hold signal. My solution was to add both the STB and the Flirc Kodi as 2 separate devices, then leave the Flirc Kodi as the arrow+enter keys, and the rest of the keys dedicated to the STB.
  • This led me to the issue of the enter key double clicking. There is about a 50% chance that when I press the enter key, it will double click. I don't have this issue on any of the keys that I bound via the STB, like the play/pause button on top. I would imagine this is some sort of de bounce or reflection issue with the IR signal, but I haven't debugged it.
• Default activities don't make sense
  • As an example, I will make a new activity with an LG TV (Code Group 1), a Yamaha Soundbar (YAS Series), and a Flirc Kodi.
  • 
  • The default power activity does not wake the PC (?), uses a Toggle for the TV power when there are already Discrete codes available in the database, and does not turn the soundbar on at all.
  • Any time I add a new device to an activity, these defaults overwrite my handmade one.
• General bugs
  • The software has way too many drawn out animations. If I do actions too quickly before animations finish, the software starts bugging out and the transitions render me unable to click anything or to close and restart the process I was in. On machines without GPU Acceleration (like a VM), the Skip App is completely unusable.
  • The Linux version doubles up any actions that I drag to the remote.
• Forums
  • I understand that you guys are running a very small shop, and I'm sure that this isn't an easy project for you to be working on. However, I find the amount of questions that remain unanswered or with no conclusion astounding.
  • There are even scam links being posted in different sections of the forum for almost a month now that haven't been removed.
  • Plenty of useful and important information is scattered all around the forums with no conclusive location to see all of it. An example of this is the fact that the firmware cannot be flashed on Linux, or that the Logitech LampArray service can cause issues and should be disabled, or even where the latest version of tools like SkipUpdate can be found.

 

I really like this device, and I really want to see it succeed, but I also hope that the issues that I have outlined above will actually be fixed, because otherwise I find it very difficult to recommend that anyone actually buy one of these remotes unless they have a simple setup and a lot of time to kill.

[astevens999]

Agreed, I have been enjoying my remote but the random issues are frustrating.  The batteries died in my remote the other day, and since replacing them, the remote no longer turns on or off my Denon receiver.  OK, no problem I thought, I'll just go resync the settings.  However, when I plugged the remote in to my computer and launched the app, it told me a firmware update was available.  I clicked update, thinking that would help.. boy was I wrong.  Now the remote appears to be completely bricked.

Does anyone have an actual solution to this?  None of the steps I found seem to do anything.  Windows doesn't even recognize a USB device is connected.