Ability to learn remote commands

[Nick1]

Hi, I've just purchased a Flirc and should be receiving it today.  I've tried searching for the answer but couldn't find it.

Does Flirc have the ability to learn a remote command (via Harmony) and assign it to a keyboard key, in turn assigning it to the Flirc itself?

[yawor]

I don't understand what you mean by saying "ability to learn via Harmony".

Using Flirc software you can learn signals from almost any IR remote control and assign them to keyboard keys. That's the main feature of Flirc.

[Nick1]

What I mean is... if an original remote has a specific command, or IR code, the Harmony has the ability to learn it so you can use it.

What I want to do is keep an original command from a remote, its not specifically a keyboard key.   So in other words, I'd like Harmony to learn it as it always does, and have flirc relay that command to my HTPC.

I'm hoping that makes more sense.

 

[yawor]

Well, if the original remote is not incompatible with Flirc (there are some that cause some issues) and Harmony is able to correctly learn the signal and replicate it on some button, then you should be able to record it in Flirc (by pressing the button on the Harmony when asked by Flirc software) and assign it to some keyboard key combination.

But it's hard to tell unless you do it. With learning remotes like Harmony, it's not always possible to 100% correctly replicate the signal from the original remote. With Flirc it should still work to some degree because Flirc doesn't try to decode the data in the signal, but uses signal timings to calculate a hash value it then uses internally.

[Nick1]

I just want to make sure I got this straight.

My understanding is.. Flirc will recognize a certain signal from a remote, and when this signal is received it will press an assigned keyboard key. 

However, my question is.  Say I want to make a certain keyboard key, say the letter L for instance, work as an IR signal instead of the letter L.  and when the IR signal is received, FLIRC will send that IR signal to the PC.  Sort of like a pass-through.

So best way to describe it.  My HTPC has IR signals that will move the mouse in a certain direction.  So what I want to do, is what I have done with my Harmony.  My harmony's direction buttons have been learned to incorporate mouse movement based on the IR signal of the original remote.  I want flirc to pass this command to the PC to have it move the mouse as well. 

I've read that flirc doesn't do mouse movement, but if there is a command from a remote that already does so, I'm wondering if FLIRC can learn that specific command and do the same thing.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Nick1

[yawor]

There's no option to pass-through the IR directly to PC. If you want to control your mouse with Flirc then you need to assign direction buttons to some keyboard combinations and then use some software solution that will capture the keys and control the mouse instead.

It depends on your OS in the HTPC. For Windows, you can enable mouse keys:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14204/windows-7-use-mouse-keys-to-move-mouse-pointer
It's not ideal, but it's built into the system. You can also use software like EventGhost.

For Linux you would need to do some research.

There's also a chance that Flirc will add a mouse control sometime in the future. I'm a big proponent of that feature myself.

[Nick1]

Ya, I've already tried mouse keys... and its quite slow and cumbersome.

Thanks... guess I'll try FLIRC out and see if I'll keep it.  Was hoping to get all the functionality of the original remote with the added features of keyboard keys, but doesn't look like it will work.   We shall see.

Thanks.

[TheRealMadmax]

How to learn missing commands to the harmony:

First you have to create the flirc device and the mce one in myharmony

Second Syncronise you harmony with myharmony

Navigate to the "student" device in myharmony
Create the new key and learn it from the harmony
by selecting the other device on the harmony and
send the desired key.

Hope that helps you