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Flirc randomly unresponsive - covering receiver helps


drfahrenheit

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Setup: HTPC with FLIRC-SE, Harmony 900, Harmony One.

Problem: Flirc becomes unresponsive at random times. Worked great for a year, but the last month its been unstable. Might work perfect for a few minutes, then goes "deaf" and ignores most commands. Spamming or holding buttons works, so the commands are correct.

What I know so far:

  • Its not the remotes, they work flawlessly with all other connected devices
  • Latest firmware and software 
  • Noise cancelling and harmony settings dont make a difference
  • Nothing changed in my setup: Same devices, placement, lighting, etc. 
  • Covering the ir-receiver with a piece of cloth seems to solve it - noise of some sort?

So my working theory is that theres some sort of noise disturbing the flirc, blocking out my remotes signals. But I can't figure out what, I didn't change anything in my living room besides the sofa (replaced black leather with light grey fabric) and I can't imagine THAT is the problem.. And whatever is interfering, doesn't seem to bother any of the other 8 devices I control with the Harmony remotes. There has to be a better solution then draping my T-shirt over the HTPC!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update: After some searching I found a post by someone who had the same problem and solved it with a lens from a pair of sunglasses! I tested this, and it actually works pretty great. Now I'm on my next issue; figuring out the ideal setting where I get neither double-clicks or slow/missed presses.. But I would really appreciate some input on what might be causing the disturbance, and if theres some setting that can imitate what filtering the sunglasses or cloth does to make it work. Noise canceling doesn't help.

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regarding your double-click issue, I feel your pain.   I have two Flirc/FireTV systems, one using a Logitech 550 and a second using a 650.  The 550 has always worked flawlessly with the Flirc since day one.  The 650 has always suffered from double/multiple clicks when sending a command to the Flirc, but never a problem when sending commands to TV, DVR, BluRay, receiver, etc.  I've tried the full range of delays in the Harmony software--no improvement.  I've tried the Flirc's inter-key delays (0-7), ditto--I can make the problem worse, but never better.  I've swapped the Flircs between the two remotes(obviously reprogramming them), no change--the 550 works great, the 650 suffers from multiple clicks.  For whatever reason my Harmony 650 just doesn't play well with the Flirc.   I feel like it's my particular 650, otherwise the forum would be swamped with similar complaints. 

That being said, about 2 weeks ago I noticed some posts referencing a new firmware version.  I re-downloaded the Flirc software and forced a firmware upgrade on my 650.  After reprogramming and setting inter-key delay to 5, I'd say  my incidence of double clicks has dropped by 75%.  Still not perfect (I should probably be playing around with my inter-key delay instead of writing this), but much, much better.  Maybe worth a try?  Good luck!

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That sounds awfully familiar. I had a 555 that worked great, got a One that worked almost as well, and finally switched to a 900 that does this a lot. No settings seem to solve it, its either double clicks or missed clicks, nothing inbetween. Hopefully the ir-blasters will help once I get around to setting those up, close signals might fix missing commands. Perhaps having a blaster right in front of the receiver will solve the original problem as well, but it still annoys me that it should be an issue at all. And that a pice of cloth fixes it is just provoking! :p

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  • 2 months later...

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