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IR control of Amazon Fire TV stick?

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:41 am
by quartermain
I got one of these a while ago so now I have two remotes instead of one. I've seen a couple of threads about IR control but their conclusion was yes for the original Fire TV but no for the Stick.

However I now see that a company called Inteset is selling an IR receiver which they claim will work with the Stick. It's available on Amazon (US and UK at least). You also need a three way OTG cable to connect it and still pass power to the Stick. They sell one of these; it is listed on Amazon US but not UK.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried one of these and if so what the results were. I'd really like to go back to using one remote for everything. I know the Harmony Hub can do Bluetooth but I'd prefer not to have to learn a whole new way of setting remotes up.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 3:31 pm
by mdavej
Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to buy one and will report back. That makes two such devices that I know of, the other called IRUSB from Video Storm:
http://video-storm.com/proddetail.asp?prod=irusb

Several combinations of the Inteset IR dongle:
https://www.amazon.com/Inteset-Receiver ... 077MRD2P4/
https://www.amazon.com/Inteset-Receiver ... 07KPPQFF8/
https://www.amazon.com/Inteset-Universa ... 07612LMHF/
https://www.amazon.com/Inteset-INT422-3 ... 07KPPWRQH/

and just the USB Y cable that's needed for Fire Stick:
https://www.amazon.com/New-Inteset-Cont ... B07HHLBRGZ

Keep in mind that the Fire Stick can be mostly controlled via many TVs and HDMI-CEC. I currently control mine with Sony TV Bravia Sync codes. But I'm missing the Menu command. Hopefully the Inteset will provide that.

Here's a device upgrade that should work for the Inteset IR dongle. I'll update this file after I get the device:
https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=25479

Inteset says this device uses the same codes as Microsoft Xbox 360. So any of our Xbox 360 upgrades (MCE 116.15) should work as well.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:22 pm
by MaskedMan
You can buy the remote, y adapter, and IR receiver from Inteset on ebay cheaper then buying them separately on amazon:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Inteset-Univer ... :rk:3:pf:0

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:44 am
by quartermain
OK so this seems to work fine. Strangely the blue light on the IR receiver flashes when I use other remotes.

The Bluetooth remote no longer functions when the IR receiver is connected.

I haven't so far found any button which maps to the context menu button on the original remote. I'm using a URC-6440 to test.

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 12:49 pm
by quartermain
Context menu is the yellow button.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 2:07 pm
by mdavej
Got mine as well. Original remote still works. Just prompts you to pair again the first time you plug in the Inteset.

Updated original file with correct Menu, Home and Info commands and added Search command.

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:22 am
by madbrain
I got mine. It works with the attached device upgrade.

However, I find that I lose the Gigabit ethernet connection to my Fire Stick 4K when I use this. This isn't the fault of this adapter. The problem is that the NIC that comes with the Fire Stick is itself an OTG cable. You would need to use a USB hub in order to connect both the IR adapter and the NIC. However, you would also need a regular USB NIC - not one with a built-in OTG cable.
So far, unfortunately, I have not succeeded in using both the wired NIC and IR receiver at once with my Fire stick 4K.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2020 9:07 am
by chuliu
I also ordered an inteset ir dongle and received it a few weeks ago.
I works great and I noticed that it includes numeric buttons as well.
It is useful when I watch slingplayer on fire tv stick when I switch channels. I can just enter the channel number directly and press select on the remote instead of browsing into the menu of the slingplayer.

I have a question though: how do I control the volume up and down with the ir dongle? I use a pair of echo dot and set up a home cinema system with my fire tv. I am able to control the vol up and down on the fire tv remote to control the volume of the echo dot, but not with the jp1l remote.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2020 11:53 am
by mdavej
Post your RMIR file. My guess is your vol keys are locked to a different device.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2020 11:21 pm
by chuliu

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:06 am
by mdavej
I see the Fire upgrade on TV3. None of your activities has volume mapped to TV3.

Otherwise, vol should work in TV3 device mode. If it doesn't, then I have to conclude that the vol functions were not implemented in the Inteset. So you'd have to control the final volume device directly, if possible. I realize that's not possible with an Echo Dot via IR.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:33 am
by nielo
Many thanks for posting the "Inteset IReTV.rmdu" file mdavej. I bought a "Inteset IReTV USB IR Receiver" fro Amazon.co.uk - interestingly, the product description header did not mention Amazon Fire TV! This is what it said:

"Inteset IReTV USB IR Receiver for use with Nvidia Shield (2nd Gen & 2019 Pro), Kodi, MCE, Raspberry Pi & other Streamers with the Inteset INT422 & Harmony Remotes (Remote not included)"

Anyhow, I created an empty "dummy" device on my Nevo C2 (ARRX18G / URC8603) then loaded the .rmdu file. After switching on the TV and pointing the HDMI switch at our Amazon Fire TV box, I inserted the Inteset cable and - BINGO! It worked straight away.

After loading the .rmdu file, RMIR warned me that some of the functions defined in the device upgrade were assigned to buttons that did not match buttons on the newly selected remote. The functions and the corresponding button names from the original remote were listed as:

Info - Info
Ok - Ok

RMIR told me to use the "Layout" panel to assign those buttons properly, which I did, and all works well.

Thanks again.

Oh, and for anyone who thinks I must be bonkers paying almost £21 for that cable - the Fire TV was driving me mad as it seemed to go through batteries like nobody's business! In 12 months, I reckon I'll have made my money back!!!

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:20 am
by chuliu
mdavej wrote:I see the Fire upgrade on TV3. None of your activities has volume mapped to TV3.

Otherwise, vol should work in TV3 device mode. If it doesn't, then I have to conclude that the vol functions were not implemented in the Inteset. So you'd have to control the final volume device directly, if possible. I realize that's not possible with an Echo Dot via IR.
Thanks for reply.
I think I might have found the reason why vol buttons won't work.
The fire tv remote can be programmed to control either volume on tv or echo dot (if you set up a home cinema) There is not vol function built in fire tv stick like some remote to certain stb. It may have vol buttons but they send signal for tv only.

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:07 pm
by madbrain
Thank you very much for this device upgrade. It works fine with a Fire stick 4K, as well as the brand new Chromecast with Google TV.

However, I want to have both in one room, and control them both.

The IreTV allows for this situation by responding to 4 different sets of IR codes. You posted one set. Would know where to get the codes for the other 3 sets of IR codes for the IReTV ? This would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Julien

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 8:30 am
by The Robman
Were you given any instructions on how to control multiple units in one location? I ask because the instructions might give us a clue as to what the other codesets look like.