This seem to be a very common problem. Do you test each dongel before you sell them? 

I'm beginning to think we've had a bad batch. I'll highlight this thread to Jason if he doesn't pick up on it soon

 

So sorry you guys are having issues with Flirc

I ordered my flirc about a month and a half ago, but I am just getting around to using it today.  I am having the same problems as others in this thread.  I try to program the flirc in windows 7 64 bit and it keeps registering phantom presses.  When I plug it into this computer without the flirc program running it starts registering key presses when no remote is being pressed.  If you find that this batch is defective or if there is a firmware fix please let me know.  I am really anxious to use this with my raspberry pi but it's going nuts right now.

Hi,

 

I found this thread while looking for help for my brand new FLIRC. I have similar issues with my unit (received last week) : when I try to record keys from the software, it will detect IR signals even when I don't press any key on my remote. I tried to put the laptop in a dark isolated room with no remote (just to be sure), and the same behaviour arises.

 

I think that there may be a faulty batch.

 

How can we proceed now ?

 

Regards,

Laurent

Hi all!

 

my solution was simply run away from all devices that can make IR-noise.. Simply go away in other room (my case it was bedroom) with notebook and "check the sound" for ghost key-presses. it must be quite (i mean no more key-presses). After that simple erase all and re-register Remote keys. All works perfect (have switched back from Win7 to raspberry pi simply by inserting flirc in pi)

Hi all!

 

my solution was simply run away from all devices that can make IR-noise.. Simply go away in other room (my case it was bedroom) with notebook and "check the sound" for ghost key-presses. it must be quite (i mean no more key-presses). After that simple erase all and re-register Remote keys. All works perfect (have switched back from Win7 to raspberry pi simply by inserting flirc in pi)

 

Yes that's what i did without success.

 

I went to the toilet, no light, only the laptop with me, and I covered the FLIRC device completely with my hand. Then I started the software and the learn process was still detecting IR signals ! I repeated the process several times. The delay to detect ghost IR signals varied from immediate to a few seconds.

 

It looks like my unit is defective :/

Yes that's what i did without success.

 

I went to the toilet, no light, only the laptop with me, and I covered the FLIRC device completely with my hand. Then I started the software and the learn process was still detecting IR signals ! I repeated the process several times. The delay to detect ghost IR signals varied from immediate to a few seconds.

 

It looks like my unit is defective :/

 

Can you try to check one more time with distance 10-20m from any TV/Recievers ect. with notebook with flirc? 

Can you try to check one more time with distance 10-20m from any TV/Recievers ect. with notebook with flirc? 

 

Since IR is direct sight line technology, my unit should not receive anything when I completely cover the FLIRC receiver.

 

Anyway, I tried now in my underground garage just to be sure, that's more than 20m from any electronic source : same result, for any random key the FLIRC software still "learns" ghost IR signals.

 

I am gonna send a message to the support now.

 

Regards,

Laurent

I am gonna send a message to the support now.

 

Good plan, I have mentioned this thread to Jason. We'll get you guys running don't worry :)

 

@kalhimeo: In the mean time can you try re-uploading the firmware then clearing the configuration - in case the firmware has randomly corrupted itself (very rare)

 

Sorry about this guys and gals!

Good plan, I have mentioned this thread to Jason. We'll get you guys running don't worry :)

 

@kalhimeo: In the mean time can you try re-uploading the firmware then clearing the configuration - in case the firmware has randomly corrupted itself (very rare)

 

Sorry about this guys and gals!

 

Thanks for your help Chris.

 

I did not mention it here (only in the ticket support), but I already tried to overwrite the firmware v1 before the above test, with no luck :/

So sorry for the delay, I'll figure it out.

 

@kalhimeo Could you do one more thing. Do you have another machine that you can try it on?

 

anti_ had the right idea by moving to another room without IR. I'm going to have a fix soon in the next revision of the firmware for this kind of thing, but for now, kalhimeo, your 'noise' source might very well be your computer. Give that a shot, I wont leave you hanging.

very nice jason, that worked out !

 

I tried in a friend's laptop and also with an USB extender cable on the faulty laptop (to put the FLIRC away from the laptop usb port), both worked.

 

I will now be able to do my first steps within FLIRC world, thank you very much !

 

PS: congrats to mum and dad ;-)

It worked as you said, in a dark room wothout any electronics, but I hope for an easier way to program my flircy in a very near future. 

BTW, the response is acceptable when it is dark,  but less responsive during daylight. WHY?

Further to my comments above...

 

1) Thank you to FLIRC support for following up and making suggestions which did in fact cure my problem. (Doing (another) reset.)

 

2) In following up this issue, I have found that using the FLIRC on my Raspberry Pi was what was causing it to go a bit wild.

It is in effect, reprogramming itself, or losing it's programming, depending on which way you are viewing the matter.

 

Remembering the addage that "90% of all Raspberry Pi problems are caused by an inadequate power supply", I replaced my cheap ebay 5V USB charger with an industrial strength unit capable of 8Amps delivery at 5V. (Although that amount of power is certainly not required...)

The problem went away. It's been steady as a rock now for over a week.

 

So it seems that the FLIRC is a bit succeptible to a fluctuating power delivery, in my case caused by a cheap PSU, but in the past I have seen slightly wobbly USB sockets cause power problems with connected devices.

 

Hope this helps somebody.

@rbridd: This is something i'd never considered in the past but will from now on. Makes sense.

Thanks for posting :)

I'm having the same problem with constant phantom keypresses when the flirc is plugged in. Like other users, it happens even when taking the batteries out of the remote. I'm running Windows 8 and I have a Harmony 300 remote. Everything was working fine until I tried to program a few keys last night.

Here's what I've tried so far, with no success:

• Moved the flirc to a different usb port.
• Moved the flirc away from the computer with a 6' usb extension cable.
• Tried using the flirc at night/day, with room lights on/off.
• Tried running the GUI and pressing DEL to remove the problem keypresses.
• Tried clearing the configuration in the GUI, although I can no longer even do that because I can't access the dialog box with all of the phantom keypresses.
• Tried plugging the flirc into another computer, cleared the configuration, updated the firmware to v256.

Nothing has worked, the computer is completely unusable whenever the flirc is plugged in. I have to unplug the flirc just to be able to log on to the computer since I can't get past the password entry screen. Please help!

I'm having the same problem with constant phantom keypresses when the flirc is plugged in. Like other users, it happens even when taking the batteries out of the remote. I'm running Windows 8 and I have a Harmony 300 remote. Everything was working fine until I tried to program a few keys last night.

Here's what I've tried so far, with no success:

• Moved the flirc to a different usb port.
• Moved the flirc away from the computer with a 6' usb extension cable.
• Tried using the flirc at night/day, with room lights on/off.
• Tried running the GUI and pressing DEL to remove the problem keypresses.
• Tried clearing the configuration in the GUI, although I can no longer even do that because I can't access the dialog box with all of the phantom keypresses.
• Tried plugging the flirc into another computer, cleared the configuration, updated the firmware to v256.

Nothing has worked, the computer is completely unusable whenever the flirc is plugged in. I have to unplug the flirc just to be able to log on to the computer since I can't get past the password entry screen. Please help!

When you tried it in the other computer did it react the same way?

When you tried it in the other computer did it react the same way?

 

No, it doesn't seem to. I've got the same Windows 8 drivers installed using zadig on both computers. It was working fine on the problem computer for months, just started having a problem last night after trying to reprogram a few keys.

I'm going to post an update this weekend to address this. Keep a close eye on the beta forum. I'm going to put in a bit of noise detection, this feature will have to be enabled, (not on by default).

Various updates are coming along with a new beta GUI. 

Not to worry guys, I've had a proposed fix in for a while, I just have to publish it.

I went back to the computer that is working with flirc and reset everything from scratch. Confirmed it was working and the keys were programmed correctly using Notepad. Plugged the flirc back into the problem computer. Things are working better, it's not going completely crazy with non-stop phantom keypresses. But I tested it in Notepad and it was sometimes giving me multiple keypresses when I pushed a remote button once. So I adjusted my Windows keyboard settings and that seemed to help with this problem.

 

The Enter key is still being sent periodically, however. I tried setting the interkey delay using the CLI, but couldn't even do that because it sends the Enter key before I can type the command. Is there any way to narrow down what is sending the Enter command?

 

EDIT: Adjusting the Windows keyboard setting didn't help with multiple key presses. It is still randomly sending multiple key presses when I press the remote button once.

Did a little more testing in Notepad. It's sending the Enter key on average once per second. Some are slower, but then there will be a burst of several key presses. The computer is not very usable like this, I have to unplug the flirc to get anything done.

Did a little more testing in Notepad. It's sending the Enter key on average once per second. Some are slower, but then there will be a burst of several key presses. The computer is not very usable like this, I have to unplug the flirc to get anything done.

 

Don't worry, I'm already convinced everyone's issues are real. This isn't a hardware problem, I test every one I sell, so it's definitely environmental and firmware inhibited. I'll post a fix tomorrow. I'm not going to leave you guys hanging.

Thanks Jason, looking forward to it.

okay, just another day or so, I'm going to release a gui update too. I'm almost there. I'll point you to the release forum.

okay, just another day or so, I'm going to release a gui update too. I'm almost there. I'll point you to the release forum.

I getting a transfer error, went try to setup my keys,

Any update on when the new firmware will be posted? It's been painful using my keyboard instead of my remote the past week or two.