Macro on Activity Buttons

[Benjamin1971]

Hi,

I'm playing with the skip1 remote software, and one thing I can't seem to do is program the activity buttons with a macro. My workflow with my current remote is to:

1. Press an activity button: turn on everything (either by discrete power commands, or toggle) related to that activity, switch to the appropriate inputs, and set the remote to the activity. This allows me to pick up the remote and jump right to an activity.
2. Press the power button: Switch everything to my default activity (e.g. watch tv), and then turn off everything in the entertainment center, either by discrete or power toggle commands. This allows me to set the entertainment center back to a default state (in my case, the Apple TV, where we spend 95% of my time).

Hopefully that makes sense. Is this possible with the skip1?

Thanks,

Ben

edit: typos

Edited January 9, 2023 by Benjamin Metzler

[Nathan]

You cannot program the activity buttons on the Skip. It works fundamentally differently than Harmony remotes. Pressing the activity button merely changes what all the other buttons do on the remote.  So if you want to create a macro for, for example, activity A. You’d have to press the A button, then press another button on your remote that contains that macro.

All buttons on the Skip can be programmed with macros except the activity buttons

so in your case, you’d likely just program all that into the power button for activity A, creating a power on and a power off macro

Edited January 11, 2023 by Nathan

[Benjamin1971]

Is there a technical reason why the activity buttons can't be used with macros? It seems, to me, more friendly to tell my partner that, to watch TV, "press the A button" instead of "press the A button, then press this other button".

Can I program the power button by pressing the power button? If I follow your example, I press the A button, then pressed the Power Button to turn everything on, can that then re-program the Power Button to turn everything off on the next press? Or do I need to have a different button to turn every thing on? Though now that I look at it, does the Skip1 keep track of the power states of the devices?

I hope you change your mind with macros on the activities because it really does make the remote more intuitive to use. I've used two remotes to control my entertainment center (in the last 20 years), the first the RadioShack RS2117 (with some JP1 modding); and then the Harmony Companion/Hub. Having the macro on the Activity button made it a much easier user experience. People just picked up the remote, pressed one button, and were watching TV.

[Nathan]

19 hours ago, Benjamin Metzler said:

Is there a technical reason why the activity buttons can't be used with macros? It seems, to me, more friendly to tell my partner that, to watch TV, "press the A button" instead of "press the A button, then press this other button".

Can I program the power button by pressing the power button? If I follow your example, I press the A button, then pressed the Power Button to turn everything on, can that then re-program the Power Button to turn everything off on the next press? Or do I need to have a different button to turn every thing on? Though now that I look at it, does the Skip1 keep track of the power states of the devices?

I hope you change your mind with macros on the activities because it really does make the remote more intuitive to use. I've used two remotes to control my entertainment center (in the last 20 years), the first the RadioShack RS2117 (with some JP1 modding); and then the Harmony Companion/Hub. Having the macro on the Activity button made it a much easier user experience. People just picked up the remote, pressed one button, and were watching TV.

This is being requested enough that we'll likely make adding buttons to the activity buttons an option in the future. It IS technically possible, it's just we only have so many developer hours a day. :) I believe right now the priority list is getting Windows as stable as possible, then making it possible for the Skip to learn a remote by "listening" when another remote is pointed at it, then activity button work (both this request and making 6 or more activities possible).

[Benjamin1971]

On 1/13/2023 at 3:35 PM, Nathan said:

It IS technically possible, it's just we only have so many developer hours a day. :)

That's easy, just hire more programmers it would improve your turn around time mythically :-).

Anyway, thanks for adding it to the list. I look forward to the changes. Now if you can just create a hub I can drop my aging Harmony.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Benjamin Metzler
typo

[infrb]

+1 to this request. If I could hit either A, B, or C and it either switches to the activity, or turns the activity on and doesn't require me to also hit the power button, that'd be great. 

Benjamin also asked about if the Skip 1s keeps track of power state. Does it? Because right now, if I'm in an activity, I have to hit the power button to shut down that activity, then hit the next activity button and then the power button, which results in powering off my TV and then powering it on again when I switch the activity. 

[borez]

On 1/12/2023 at 1:41 AM, Nathan said:

You cannot program the activity buttons on the Skip. It works fundamentally differently than Harmony remotes. Pressing the activity button merely changes what all the other buttons do on the remote.  So if you want to create a macro for, for example, activity A. You’d have to press the A button, then press another button on your remote that contains that macro.

All buttons on the Skip can be programmed with macros except the activity buttons

so in your case, you’d likely just program all that into the power button for activity A, creating a power on and a power off macro

Came here to +1 on this request.

Been using the remote more extensively and would be great if every physical button can be configured. In my case I'm struggling with the insufficient physical buttons as dedicated activity macros.

[jason]

This will come. I also intend on using the LED ring to show which device is being powered on/off while switching. Then, if a problem exists with the state of one of those devices, clicking the color in the ring will try and fix it. I am currently working on learning, and this is next.

[DougP]

Did this request ever come to anything? From the docs it looks like activity buttons still can't execute macros.

[Jilas671]

This one feature is all I need to make these units useful.  As it stands, the two I have, have been unused (beyond occasional testing) since I backed this.   While I know the windows app stability has been a royal pain, this is a firmware change, and hopefully a smaller adjustment to the app than dealing with all the usb/windows issues I know Jason and the team have faced.

It would be useful to get an idea when this feature will get added if at all.. As if not, then I may as well try to get some money back and sell my near mint units on ebay and hope someone that didn't come from a harmony world and are ok about the switching setup where switching modes does nothing, and you still needing to press another button to run a macro to activate the modes it should be controlling.

It's a shame as the hardware feels nice.