Need help with some things I'm trying to do

Lachlan · Post by **Lachlan** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 2:06 pm

I'm getting my 15-2116 where I want it to be, but there are a couple of things I don't know how to do. I've got it mimicking my firefly mini remote to control beyond TV and power DVD on my HTPC. The problem is that firefly mini is very pnp, and not very programable. What I'd like to do is get it so that pushing the power button in TV mode will alternately open and close BTV, and pushing power in the DVD mode will alternately open and close power DVD. I'd also like to program a button to open and close the DVD drive in DVD mode. can anyone help me get started here?

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:15 pm

I think it would help if you explain what some of the terminology means, such as...

beyond TV
power DVD
pnp
close BTV

Lachlan · Post by **Lachlan** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:40 pm

beyond TV --program
power DVD --program
pnp-- plug n play
close BTV -- close beyond TV

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:58 pm

so when you say "close power DVD" you don't mean close the DVD draw, you mean close the program on your PC.

Do you have buttons that can start and stop these programs today? Is the problem that you just have discrete buttons and no toggle buttons? If so, you might be able to use Toadtog to sort this out (but you'll need help from others, as I'm not the Toadtog expert).

Lachlan · Post by **Lachlan** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:05 pm

Right, but I do want to do both. That is, open and close the program with the dvd/power button, and have another button to open and close the DVD drawer itself. So far I can't get the firefly remote to do these things on its own.

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:56 pm

The Robman wrote:Do you have buttons that can start and stop these programs today?

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:59 pm

I don't use the specific applications or remote that you have but I do control several applications on my PCs using a serial remote receiver.

If the Firefly remote and application do not perform the actions you need then JP1 won't help unless you are looking for unknown additional commands that the application will recognise but that the remote does not have the buttons for. This is not very likely, but I'm not a Firefly user.

Does the software have the ability to add additional functions? If so then you can create additional commands on the 15-2116 but you will have to turn your learned commands into a standard JP1 upgrade to do that.

Another direction would be to use the Firefly receiver with "Girder". There is a plugin for the remote receiver, http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15033
You would use Girder to learn commands and translate them into the desired actions. One technique is to mimic keyboard commands with remote signals. There is a very steep learning curve with Girder.

Lachlan · Post by **Lachlan** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:49 pm

I made my own IR receiver and started using WinLIRC and IREX software if you are familiar with them. The work together to let you assign keystrokes, launch programs, etc. Similar to girder but much, much simpler and limited. It does a good job, but for some reason when I open up BTV (tuner software) and display video, WinLIRC stops listening to the IR receiver, and I have no idea why. Is anyone here familiar with WinLIRC that could help, or recommend a similar software that doesn't have the interference problems?

Thanks for the girder idea, but that plugin is for the firefly (RF) not the firefly mini (IR) which is what I'm using. The plugin won't work for it.