FAQ for the Upcoming Skip 1s

worksonmybox · January 12, 2023

Hello, I've received my Skip remote and I also have the FLIRC USB to pair with it. I'm a bit confused, I got the Skip remote to connect finally with software version 0.9.3.5247 [beta-0.9.3], and I have programmed it to work with a "Media Center PC" by choosing media center PC and the FLIRC brand option (the only option I believe) with Kodi set as the model. Mind you, this media center runs an Ubuntu flavor of Linux, which has the FLIRC USB software (v3.22.4) for Ubuntu via .deb file installed (from the downloads page). I tried just plugging in the FLIRC USB and using the Skip Remote (with media center activities added for Kodi via the Skip App) to control Kodi, but I didn't have much success there. Then I tried programming each key via the FLIRC USB GUI application on Linux (tried on Windows as well) - many of the keys would map but for some reason the center button on the skip remote refused to map to an enter key. I also tried to map the home button to the home key in the FLIRC USB app, it wouldn't take either. After being mostly successful (getting things to map in the FLIRC USB program), I attempted to use it in Kodi. This seemed to work much better than programming the Skip Remote in the Skip App in terms of compatibility, but still I couldn't get some of the keys to map (like the enter key to my center button on the Skip remote), so I can't select things in Kodi which hinders my ability to navigate Kodi effectively.

I'm curious what the end goal is here for people using Raspberry Pi's or Intel NUCs (or other small low power devices) running Kodi - is the end goal to plug the FLIRC USB in, program the Skip Remote via the Skip App and away we go? Or is the goal to program the Skip Remote in the Skip App and in the FLIRC USB App to get this to work well? I find it odd to have to program the thing twice, especially since most of the interesting functionality for the Remote can be programmed in the Skip App and not the FLIRC USB App, such as chaining commands for multiple devices to a single button and all that.

As a side note: I was also curious about the seemingly endless number of "RSVD" options listed in the Media Center PC/FLIRC/KODI activity buttons panel.

jason · January 12, 2023

48 minutes ago, worksonmybox said:

Hello, I've received my Skip remote and I also have the FLIRC USB to pair with it. I'm a bit confused, I got the Skip remote to connect finally with software version 0.9.3.5247 [beta-0.9.3], and I have programmed it to work with a "Media Center PC" by choosing media center PC and the FLIRC brand option (the only option I believe) with Kodi set as the model. Mind you, this media center runs an Ubuntu flavor of Linux, which has the FLIRC USB software (v3.22.4) for Ubuntu via .deb file installed (from the downloads page). I tried just plugging in the FLIRC USB and using the Skip Remote (with media center activities added for Kodi via the Skip App) to control Kodi, but I didn't have much success there. Then I tried programming each key via the FLIRC USB GUI application on Linux (tried on Windows as well) - many of the keys would map but for some reason the center button on the skip remote refused to map to an enter key. I also tried to map the home button to the home key in the FLIRC USB app, it wouldn't take either. After being mostly successful (getting things to map in the FLIRC USB program), I attempted to use it in Kodi. This seemed to work much better than programming the Skip Remote in the Skip App in terms of compatibility, but still I couldn't get some of the keys to map (like the enter key to my center button on the Skip remote), so I can't select things in Kodi which hinders my ability to navigate Kodi effectively.

I'm curious what the end goal is here for people using Raspberry Pi's or Intel NUCs (or other small low power devices) running Kodi - is the end goal to plug the FLIRC USB in, program the Skip Remote via the Skip App and away we go? Or is the goal to program the Skip Remote in the Skip App and in the FLIRC USB App to get this to work well? I find it odd to have to program the thing twice, especially since most of the interesting functionality for the Remote can be programmed in the Skip App and not the FLIRC USB App, such as chaining commands for multiple devices to a single button and all that.

As a side note: I was also curious about the seemingly endless number of "RSVD" options listed in the Media Center PC/FLIRC/KODI activity buttons panel.

You are absolutely correct. I noticed this issue yesterday and I will patch the gui so we have all our included devices. You would only need to add them to the remote and not need to pair flirc.

Oh very good question on the reserved. So these are Flirc codes and don’t conflict with anything. I have premapped all the keys. But we have so many more possibilities, what if I didn’t do one for you? Why limit to my chosen pairs? These are for you to add to the remote and then use my flirc pairing pp to add any more that you would like.

So I will cha be this from reserved to UserCustom1? Let me know what makes more sense to you. Expect an update later today.

worksonmybox · January 12, 2023

15 minutes ago, jason said:

You are absolutely correct. I noticed this issue yesterday and I will patch the gui so we have all our included devices. You would only need to add them to the remote and not need to pair flirc.

Oh very good question on the reserved. So these are Flirc codes and don’t conflict with anything. I have premapped all the keys. But we have so many more possibilities, what if I didn’t do one for you? Why limit to my chosen pairs? These are for you to add to the remote and then use my flirc pairing pp to add any more that you would like.

So I will cha be this from reserved to UserCustom1? Let me know what makes more sense to you. Expect an update later today.

Thanks for getting back so fast. I'm happy to hear that the skip app will be providing the mapping functionality. So in my understanding the FLIRC USB App will be unnecessary, I just plug in the USB and utilize the Skip App/Remote. It took me a minute to figure out that RSVD meant "reserved", that was not immediately obvious to me at first - I'm happy to have them there so they can be useful, though changing the text to "Reserved" or "Custom" may make it more obvious, reserved makes it sound like I (the user) shouldn't touch it. Also, I think it would be nice for them to show up at the bottom of the list, or be separated somehow, or a scroll bar be added - I say this because having to scroll past 50 of those things every time I want to see what the options below them are is a minor irritation.

I would be happy to go over the UI issues that I have been finding and discuss them in detail - The majority of my work is in Networks and IT Infrastructure Automation for my own business these days, but I did Software Development for a few years before falling in love with Ansible and configuration management, and before that I did Software Quality Assurance for 5 years or so. If you are interested, let me know and I can dig into this a bit more. I'm a Linux/FOSS type, happy to troubleshoot and dig into things and provide useful feedback to positively impact the product.

wb6vpm · January 16, 2023

On 7/25/2022 at 11:19 AM, Nathan said:

Are the keys backlit?

No, we decided against this, it is hard on the battery. The profile Keys light up, and there are RGB leds in each segment of the cursor. All LEDS are designed into the plastic, no weird bumps, or separate pieces. All continuous pieces of beautiful plastic. See attached.

Please reconsider no backlight stance in a future revision, it makes for a very difficult experience when trying to do things in the dark!

jason · January 16, 2023

Just now, wb6vpm said:

Please reconsider no backlight stance in a future revision, it makes for a very difficult experience when trying to do things in the dark!

on 2xAAA it would have been a stretch. But definitely not out of the cards on future designs.

wb6vpm · January 16, 2023

Just now, jason said:

on 2xAAA it would have been a stretch. But definitely not out of the cards on future designs.

Fair enough, maybe either switch to AA, or over to a rechargeable Li-Ion battery via the USB-C port?

jason · January 16, 2023

Just now, wb6vpm said:

Fair enough, maybe either switch to AA, or over to a rechargeable Li-Ion battery via the USB-C port?

Definitely.

theboomr · January 18, 2023

On 1/16/2023 at 3:32 PM, wb6vpm said:

Fair enough, maybe either switch to AA, or over to a rechargeable Li-Ion battery via the USB-C port?

My personal opinion would be stick to removable batteries, switch to AA if you have to in order to have backlighting on all buttons. I think it's way nicer to use rechargeable AAs than have devices with built-in rechargeable batteries. Maybe it's possible to have charging circuitry in the remote that can charge AAs in it? That's prolly too complex though...

EDIT: For the record, I also have basically the same question as OP about using the Skip remote with a Flirc USB. My Flirc USB is plugged into a Chromecast with Google TV, and I haven't tried much yet other than getting confused by how/where I should be adding the Flirc USB to an activity on the remote, and why the only Flirc option I could find under the PC section seems to not have any support for a Home button or a Select/Enter button, just as OP said.

Edited January 18, 2023 by theboomr

jason · January 18, 2023

3 minutes ago, theboomr said:

My personal opinion would be stick to removable batteries, switch to AA if you have to in order to have backlighting on all buttons. I think it's way nicer to use rechargeable AAs than have devices with built-in rechargeable batteries. Maybe it's possible to have charging circuitry in the remote that can charge AAs in it? That's prolly too complex though...

I wanted to have a charger in it but the regulatory requirements are not trivial so we held off “for now”.

theboomr · January 20, 2023

So, in my own use case of trying to set up the Skip remote with my Flirc USB that is plugged into a Chromecast with Google TV...what is the intended procedure at this point? @jason You say we should be able to do all setup only within the Skip App and not bother with the Flirc USB app, but if that's the case, how would the Flirc USB know what signal to send to the device its connected to? Right now when I set up a device on my Skip as a Media Center PC with Kodi (same as @worksonmybox ), none of the commands do anything. I haven't yet tried reconfiguring the Flirc USB though.

Also please feel free to ignore this question for now if you need to Jason as I know you have a ton on your plate at the moment with other issues!

Nathan · January 23, 2023

On 1/19/2023 at 6:33 PM, theboomr said:

So, in my own use case of trying to set up the Skip remote with my Flirc USB that is plugged into a Chromecast with Google TV...what is the intended procedure at this point? @jason You say we should be able to do all setup only within the Skip App and not bother with the Flirc USB app, but if that's the case, how would the Flirc USB know what signal to send to the device its connected to? Right now when I set up a device on my Skip as a Media Center PC with Kodi (same as @worksonmybox ), none of the commands do anything. I haven't yet tried reconfiguring the Flirc USB though.

Also please feel free to ignore this question for now if you need to Jason as I know you have a ton on your plate at the moment with other issues!

Flirc USB has some specific configurations already built in and shouldn't need the Flirc app to setup. That should include both Kodi and Google TV (via the NVIDIA Shield controller). Personally, I ignore that and still setup the Flirc USB because I like complete control over the process, but it's up to you.

If you have setup the Skip app to send Kodi Flirc USB signals, make sure those Kodi buttons have been dragged onto your remote from the Buttons Panel in the Skip App. See attached image.

DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT · February 2, 2023

Is it possible to just add high res images of the remote instead of the way you display it atm on flirc.tv website?
So frustrating! Must use a searchengine to get pictures.

And why is that scroll feature even there [see-attachment]?
Registered here to tell that that is not cool:

And last but not least: Where to find a remove account link?

Edited February 2, 2023 by carlasdda

worksonmybox · February 6, 2023

On 1/23/2023 at 2:21 PM, Nathan said:

Flirc USB has some specific configurations already built in and shouldn't need the Flirc app to setup. That should include both Kodi and Google TV (via the NVIDIA Shield controller). Personally, I ignore that and still setup the Flirc USB because I like complete control over the process, but it's up to you.

If you have setup the Skip app to send Kodi Flirc USB signals, make sure those Kodi buttons have been dragged onto your remote from the Buttons Panel in the Skip App. See attached image.

I have set mine up so "A" is running my Samsung TV, and B is running my Kodi setup which is running an Intel NUC (11th Gen) with the FLIRC USB plugged into the front USB-A port. Setting up the remote in the Skip App to run Kodi on the NUC via the PC/Media PC option doesn't do anything, and using the FLIRC USB app has been pretty fidgety. Sometimes it will pick up commands from my remote, sometimes not; sometimes I have to hold a button down for ~2 seconds to get it to record, and then when I use the remote to try and manipulate Kodi, it does nothing or I have to hold a button; the down button let's say, and it will take 2 seconds in between each time it will move the UI as expected, but this is very slow and tedious. So far this remote is a $50 paper weight.

Nathan · February 7, 2023

On 2/6/2023 at 7:04 AM, worksonmybox said:

I have set mine up so "A" is running my Samsung TV, and B is running my Kodi setup which is running an Intel NUC (11th Gen) with the FLIRC USB plugged into the front USB-A port. Setting up the remote in the Skip App to run Kodi on the NUC via the PC/Media PC option doesn't do anything, and using the FLIRC USB app has been pretty fidgety. Sometimes it will pick up commands from my remote, sometimes not; sometimes I have to hold a button down for ~2 seconds to get it to record, and then when I use the remote to try and manipulate Kodi, it does nothing or I have to hold a button; the down button let's say, and it will take 2 seconds in between each time it will move the UI as expected, but this is very slow and tedious. So far this remote is a $50 paper weight.

It should not have any trouble picking up commands and it certainly shouldn't take holding down a button and waiting 2 seconds for the UI to move. @jason is the expert on the Flirc USB, but it sounds like something in your room is creating IR interference. On A, is the Samsung TV working correctly?

worksonmybox · February 8, 2023

19 hours ago, Nathan said:

It should not have any trouble picking up commands and it certainly shouldn't take holding down a button and waiting 2 seconds for the UI to move. @jason is the expert on the Flirc USB, but it sounds like something in your room is creating IR interference. On A, is the Samsung TV working correctly?

So when I initially did this, it seemed to work fine. When I updated from 0.9.3 I started seeing the issues I mentioned in my last post. The A configuration seems to work fine on the TV. I don't know if setting the remote up in the Skip App and the FLIRC USB maybe is messing something up? I'm not really sure. I may wipe the configurations off the remote and try and start from scratch.

RemotelyInteresting · February 8, 2023

I found that the built-in profiles on the Flirc USB were causing conflicts when I attempted to customize some of the output from the Skip's buttons. Specifically, when I attempted to reassign the Skip's buttons using Flirc USB's full keyboard layout, my Plex program was still receiving the profile's built-in commands.

That resulted in some of the behaviors reported above (i.e., sluggish response and odd behavior).

After clearing everything out on both the Skip and the Flirc USB, I mapped the Kodi buttons to the Skip, unchecked all of the built-in USB profiles and individually assigned the Skip's buttons to keyboard keystrokes. Everything works smoothly now.

p.s. I ran into a similar situation with my Harmony remote years ago.

worksonmybox · February 9, 2023

23 hours ago, rdn said:

I found that the built-in profiles on the Flirc USB were causing conflicts when I attempted to customize some of the output from the Skip's buttons. Specifically, when I attempted to reassign the Skip's buttons using Flirc USB's full keyboard layout, my Plex program was still receiving the profile's built-in commands.

That resulted in some of the behaviors reported above (i.e., sluggish response and odd behavior).

After clearing everything out on both the Skip and the Flirc USB, I mapped the Kodi buttons to the Skip, unchecked all of the built-in USB profiles and individually assigned the Skip's buttons to keyboard keystrokes. Everything works smoothly now.

p.s. I ran into a similar situation with my Harmony remote years ago.

I will give this a shot this weekend. Thanks for the tips!

kiteless · February 17, 2023

Hi, I'm a bit confused about this product. I'm looking for a device to replace my Harmony. My AV rig is in a closet, with a receiver that supports IR. I need to trigger it from the seating area with no line of sight.

Your website shows the Flirc USB as having an IR transmitter in one of the blown-apart diagrams. Can I get a Skip 1s with the USB, and use the Skip 1s remote to cause the Flirc USB, plugged into.. some device, (an HTPC, a raspberry pi, wall power?), and trigger IR to control my receiver? More generally, is there an RF, bluetooth or similar connection between the Skip 1s and the Flirc USB?

Love how the hardware looks (and the price point!) and really hoping this can be a Harmony killer.

Nathan · February 17, 2023

39 minutes ago, kiteless said:

Hi, I'm a bit confused about this product. I'm looking for a device to replace my Harmony. My AV rig is in a closet, with a receiver that supports IR. I need to trigger it from the seating area with no line of sight.

Your website shows the Flirc USB as having an IR transmitter in one of the blown-apart diagrams. Can I get a Skip 1s with the USB, and use the Skip 1s remote to cause the Flirc USB, plugged into.. some device, (an HTPC, a raspberry pi, wall power?), and trigger IR to control my receiver? More generally, is there an RF, bluetooth or similar connection between the Skip 1s and the Flirc USB?

Love how the hardware looks (and the price point!) and really hoping this can be a Harmony killer.

No, the Skip 1s is entirely IR. There is no RF, bluetooth, or similar connection. There are IR repeaters out there and we've talked about making one as well, but right now some amount of line of sight is required.

Benjamin Metzler · February 17, 2023

5 hours ago, kiteless said:

Hi, I'm a bit confused about this product. I'm looking for a device to replace my Harmony. My AV rig is in a closet, with a receiver that supports IR. I need to trigger it from the seating area with no line of sight.

Your website shows the Flirc USB as having an IR transmitter in one of the blown-apart diagrams. Can I get a Skip 1s with the USB, and use the Skip 1s remote to cause the Flirc USB, plugged into.. some device, (an HTPC, a raspberry pi, wall power?), and trigger IR to control my receiver? More generally, is there an RF, bluetooth or similar connection between the Skip 1s and the Flirc USB?

Love how the hardware looks (and the price point!) and really hoping this can be a Harmony killer.

I use the below IR repeater for my setup, but it requires that you run lines:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NK74M5R

Alternately, you can pick up an IR/RF extender like the ones listed in the below link:
https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=IR+transmitter+RF&i=electronics

Piotr · February 27, 2023

What is the timeline for desktop Linux or mobile Android support?

I got my Skip 1s today and was really bummed to see that there's only MacOS and Windows support, neither of which I have access to. Somehow I assumed that it will have mobile app support day one, so I though I could do with just managing it using Android phone.

sjhlax89 · February 28, 2023

On 2/27/2023 at 5:42 AM, Piotr said:

What is the timeline for desktop Linux or mobile Android support?

I got my Skip 1s today and was really bummed to see that there's only MacOS and Windows support, neither of which I have access to. Somehow I assumed that it will have mobile app support day one, so I though I could do with just managing it using Android phone.

I'm in a similar situation. Happy to test out the Linux software when it's available!

Remotely Used · March 17, 2023

I have a Cocktail Audio X45 Pro (by Novatron). It is a music server and DAC (for Audiophiles).

How can I get support for this device (remote) and how is the support file downloaded into the Skip?

Thanks Adrian

Nathan · March 17, 2023

10 hours ago, Remotely Used said:

I have a Cocktail Audio X45 Pro (by Novatron). It is a music server and DAC (for Audiophiles).

How can I get support for this device (remote) and how is the support file downloaded into the Skip?

Thanks Adrian

Please post your device in the Supported Devices subforum. https://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/forum/101-supported-devices-databases/

You can learn how to add the support file in the first pinned post there.

Piotr · March 19, 2023

On 3/17/2023 at 5:13 PM, Nathan said:

Please post your device in the Supported Devices subforum. https://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/forum/101-supported-devices-databases/

You can learn how to add the support file in the first pinned post there.

I like how you completely ignored mine and sjhlax89's posts and answered the following from Remotely Used. Nice post sale support there.

FAQ for the Upcoming Skip 1s

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