New MCE Remote Software

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by mikesm

On the power button issue, I didn't know there was a way to change the ir code that wakes up the system when using the MCE receiver.

My mistake, it seems that only the "Power" button can resume the computer.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

My mistake, it seems that only the "Power" button can resume the computer.

Right, so I would need to change the function of the "sleep" command since that's the only one I can control.

AS for the xbox 360 remote, I tried it and none of the keypresses were recieved by the MCE reciever and displayed by your tool, so very odd indeed, as I believe it's supposed to be compatible.

One other issue, I am getting 2 keypresses for certain keys in Sage, like the number keys. It's not set to use the MCE receiver, just keyboard commands. If I disable the keystroke send command for the key in your app, Sage sees no keypress at all for that ir command. If I tell Sage to display what function is linked to the key, when I press num-1, it says num-1, then unknown command 0x0. Any ideas as to what's going on?

thx
mike

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Right, so I would need to change the function of the "sleep" command since that's the only one I can control.

Yes. However what is exactly the issue with the WAF for not having a discrete on and off command ?

AS for the xbox 360 remote, I tried it and none of the keypresses were recieved by the MCE reciever and displayed by your tool, so very odd indeed, as I believe it's supposed to be compatible.

This feature (seing unrecognized codes) will be included in the next version not the actual one

One other issue, I am getting 2 keypresses for certain keys in Sage, like the number keys.../...If I tell Sage to display what function is linked to the key, when I press num-1, it says num-1, then unknown command 0x0. Any ideas as to what's going on?

I guess this is a wrong SageTV configuration. When I press "1" on the MCE remote, SageTV says "1 / Num-1" (also you should use the "PressKey" action for the numbers buttons, not the "Keystroke" action)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Yes. However what is exactly the issue with the WAF for not having a discrete on and off command ?

This feature (seing unrecognized codes) will be included in the next version not the actual one

I guess this is a wrong SageTV configuration. When I press "1" on the MCE remote, SageTV says "1 / Num-1" (also you should use the "PressKey" action for the numbers buttons, not the "Keystroke" action)

Regards,
Stéphane.

For some reason, maybe the kids playing with stuff, or just her not waiting long enough for the harmony to send all the ir codes out before setting the remote down, the PC client and the harmony get out of sync with each other on if the PC is on or not. Use of discrete codes for example would not turn the PC off if the harmony sends the on code, which happens now and then and is the source for a lot of confusion and lowered WAF.

For the life of me, I can never understand why people use power toggles at all.

Ok, that explains why no keys are being read. Let us know when the new version is ready for testing.

I'll switch the commands to presskey rather than keystroke, but what is the difference between the two? Is this documented somewhere, because I think the sage tv profile I downloaded had keystroke commands in it so I just kept using that.

Are there other keys that should be using presskey instead of keystroke?

thx
mike

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by mikesm

the PC client and the harmony get out of sync with each other on if the PC is on or not.

Then use the "Green Windows" button to:

1) Start SageTV in the default profile
2) Close SageTV and Shutdown the PC in the SageTV profile (this will be your "Off" discrete code)

And use the "Power" button as your discrete "On" code.

I'll switch the commands to presskey rather than keystroke, but what is the difference between the two?

"Keystroke" is the .Net way to send shortcuts, whereas "PressKey" and "KeyUp"/"KeyDown" use native win32 API. You must use "PressKey" or "KeyDown"/"KeyUp" for the MCE and Firefly Mini remote for the arrows/ok/number buttons at least in the default profile.

Otherwise you use one when the other doesn't work as it should (sometimes "keystroke" works, sometimes it doesn't)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[marcdbl]

Hi Stephane,

Is it possible to induce a short delay before blasting remote commands? I'll explain why I want to do this:

I use LM Remote to 'blast' the on/off signal to my Amplifier whenever I press the mute button on my MCE remote.

However, the MCE receiver is right next to the amplifier, and therefore when I press 'mute' the amplifer-onoff-signal is blasted at exactly the same time as the MCE remote sends the mce-mute-signal. This confuses the amplifier as it receives two IR signals simultaneously, so it does nothing.

If I make sure something (like my hand) blocks the mute signal from the amplifier, then it turns off as expected because it only receives the on-off signal.

However, it is not very practical to block the signal like this every time!

I hope that explanation makes sense, thanks...

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by marcdbl

Is it possible to induce a short delay before blasting remote commands?

Sure, use a "Pause" action before using the "Blast" action (something between 250ms and 500ms)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[marcdbl]

Oh of course!! That was really obvious - what a stupid question.

Thanks Stephane!

[ppa]

When I try to open the program, I get this error, "LM Remote KeyMap has experienced an unexpected error (Root element is missing.) and needs to close, please contact our support team through our web site." I've tried repairing, uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail. The only way around this is to reinstall my OS (Vista) from scratch and I would like to avoid that if possible. Thank You in advance.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by ppa

When I try to open the program, I get this error, "LM Remote KeyMap has experienced an unexpected error (Root element is missing.)

You have one corrupted xml file in the C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Application Data\LM Gestion\LM Remote KeyMap or C:\ProgramData\LM Gestion\LM Remote KeyMap. It's either settings.xml, svc_settings.xml, devices.xml or profiles.xml.

You'll have to delete the corrupt file (it should be an empty file as the error message is suggestion) then restart LM RKM so as it will recreate it.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[marcdbl]

I am using LM Remote Keymap with an MCE remote.

However, even when I have nothing mapped to keys like 'play' 'pause' 'rewind' under any of the profiles, sage still responds to these keys!

I think this is because they are still being passed as Windows MediaKeys, is there a way to block this?

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by marcdbl

However, even when I have nothing mapped to keys like 'play' 'pause' 'rewind' under any of the profiles, sage still responds to these keys! I think this is because they are still being passed as Windows MediaKeys, is there a way to block this?

No, the Power, Record, Pause, Rewind, FastForward, Play, Info, Green Button, Channel Up, Channel Down, Video, Guide, TV, DVD, Teletext, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow buttons cannot be totally blocked.

So SageTV, or a keyboard software can very well do something with them (Also be careful that if you don't assign an action for a button in an application profile, LM RKM will use the actions of the default profile. If you want to block a button in an application profile use a "None" action)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[popechild]

Stephane,
sent you a PM regarding the LMGestion.USBUIRT.Surrogate.exe service, and whether or not there's any way to prevent it from running.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by popechild

sent you a PM regarding the LMGestion.USBUIRT.Surrogate.exe service, and whether or not there's any way to prevent it from running.

The USBUIRT Surrogate is the process that allow LM RKM to get acces to the USBUIRT Receiver or Transmitter.

So this process is launched if you either choose to use USB-UIRT as a remote or as a blaster in LM RKM.

If you choose another remote and another blaster, then LM RKM will shutdown this process.

This is because LM RKM use only one process to control the USBUIRT that you can use it as a receiver and transmitter in LM RKM with SageTV.

Regards,
Stéphane

[kenny782]

This little app is great, finally a simple way to do this.
Thanks for your work on it

I'm running XP and have an MS MCE Remote and MCE Blaster, and I have selected both in the app.

Question-
I'm really only trying to map two buttons, one is my "Windows Button" and the other is my "My Videos Button"

The windows button worked fine but the my videos button did not.

I did a trace and got this:
20081208 16:45:41.890 - Verbose - MCE Remote HID Code not handled : 001 000 000 000 074 132 015 128 032 000 000 000 000

Now from what I've read on this thread I don't think this is something I can fix on my own but maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks in advance,

Kenny

[StephaneM]

Hi Kenny,

Originally Posted by kenny782

The windows button worked fine but the my videos button did not.

I did a trace and got this:
20081208 16:45:41.890 - Verbose - MCE Remote HID Code not handled : 001 000 000 000 074 132 015 128 032 000 000 000 000

Now from what I've read on this thread I don't think this is something I can fix on my own but maybe I'm wrong.

Yes you can't fix it, your remote has a custom layout. You'll have to send me a picture of your remote at lmgestion@hotmail.com and I'll include it in an upcoming version.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[lfilomeno]

Stephane,

I finally took the plunge and built a SageTV media center server. I have read every post regarding how to install your software to take advantage of the MCE remote blaster/emmiters. I install it and even though the siftware saw the remote right away, the IR blaster option was greyed out, I chose MCE IR blaster many times to no avail. I checked to see if the LM blaster service was running and it was not. trying to restart the service did not worked either. Now what?

I check the LM remote logs and the service was not loading because of a security issue! Like if I did not have rights to start the process! I was logon as the administrator! I wiped-out the server, load the OS (Windows XP PRO), the your app. I loaded the config windows and this time the IR blaster option was available. I was able to create a profile and learn the codes form the STB remote. I tested the IR emmiter channel changing capabilities and it did work! I did all this from your app and nit thru Sage. I have read many post with similar problems that end once you rebuild the media center PC. Can this be a bug? I will load sageTV today and load the LM remote profile for Sage to see if it will let me change the channels. Like I said before, from the LM remote ap, I was able to do it, so I asume (I know never assume anything!) it has to work with Sage once the LM remte profile is loaded into the program.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by lfilomeno

I have read many post with similar problems that end once you rebuild the media center PC. Can this be a bug?

Not necessarily, if you had keep the logs from the first install I could tell you if the service was not loading because of something locking the blaster (though the service should load anyway)

[lfilomeno]

I did not kept them! Sorry about that! But I send a donation via Paypal. Your software save me some $$! Otherwise, I had to buy a remote with the IR receiver, a USB-UIRT, and come IR Emitters! Even thought I have not test the setup in SAgeTV yet, I belive if I was able to chage channels through your app I should not have any problems doing it through SAgeTV.

[RyanW]

I just got LM RKM working on my machine. I tried to find some built in support for generating IR blasts when I wake from sleep, but I didn't find any.

I brewed my own using the Task Scheduler in Vista, triggering off of the following event:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Power-Troubleshooter
Date: 1/7/2009 11:23:33 PM
Event ID: 1

I have determined that for my MCE Remote/Blaster setup, this event only occurs when my PC is woken up by my MCE Remote. Which is the only time I want to execute this behavior, so I have scheduled a task to run based on this task. (If the PC wakes up because Sage wants to record a show, that event won't happen and the TV stays off) The task runs the following VBScript (adopted from the example on the LM RKM COM page).

'Stall enough time to let LM RemoteKeyMap wake up. 20 seconds seems to work
Dim start, etime
start = Now()
etime = DateAdd("s", 20, start)
do while Now() < etime
loop

'First we create our main IRDevices object
Dim oIRDevices
Set oIRDevices = WScript.CreateObject("LMRemoteKeyMap.IRDevices")

Dim aDevice, aButton
'Then we get a IR device by its name
Set aDevice = oIRDevices.GetDeviceByName("TV")
If Not aDevice Is Nothing Then
    'Once we get the device, get a button by its name
    Set aButton = aDevice.GetButtonByName("Power")
    'We blast the IR code
    If Not aButton Is Nothing Then aButton.Blast()
    'We destroy the button object to be clean
    Set aButton = Nothing
End If

'Then we get a IR device by its name
Set aDevice = oIRDevices.GetDeviceByName("Amp")
If Not aDevice Is Nothing Then
    'Once we get the device, get a button by its name
    Set aButton = aDevice.GetButtonByName("Power")
    'We blast the IR code
    If Not aButton Is Nothing Then aButton.Blast()
    'We destroy the button object to be clean
    Set aButton = Nothing
End If

'A little clean up
Set aDevice = Nothing
Set oIRDevices = Nothing

I've reprogrammed the default action in LM RKM to do the power off blasts when I put the system to sleep. This works, but that 20 second delay is painfully slow. Especially when you add the warm-up time of the TV.

Originally I had no delay, and that didn't work. I then tried a long 30 second delay, which worked. I then played with the delay until I got it as short as reliably possible.

Why does LM RKM take so long to be ready to respond to these COM events? I see a LM RK event recorded in the application event log in the event viewer, and basically my COM requests can't happen until 20 seconds after that event shows up in the log. If that's just a fact of life, would it be possible for you to make a LM RKM command line blaster utility? One that accepts some parameters to issue IR blasts, but operates fast and immediately? I could call that from my VBScript instead.

The solution that would be nicest of course we be some sort of virtual event inside LM RKM that triggers activity when you wake. You'd really need at least two events though. One that is triggered when the PC is woken by the remote, and another when the PC is woken by other reasons.

update: Looks like my event isn't specific enough. I see there is a "USB Root Hub" string in the event log that does uniquely identify the event I'm looking for. That's just not something the Task Scheduler GUI will help me search for. I'll have to either manually update the XPATH string, or add something to the VBScript. I'll post that solution, later for those interested, when I find it.

-Ryan