Author | Thread |
User 16.11.2014 16:50:49 | Trouble setting remote buddy to work with Harmony Smart | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. I have added the Harmony remote asa bluetooth device (Sony PS3) and the activity, now i would like to use the same activity to turn on my TV and Receiver., how can i do this? when i add the TV and Receiver to the remote buddy Activity, I cannot use increase the volume of the receiver with the Harmony remote, it takes on the actions of the receiver but not the Remote buddy behaviour.. Can anyone help.
| These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic: Configuration 1) Open the Remote Buddy Preferences via the pulldown-menu and choose "Mapping".
2) Choose the mapping you want to modify.
3) Select "Custom actions" for the button you want to map to an action of your own.
4) Create the action you need using the appearing editor.
Hardware - Apple® Remote
To enable you to use all capabilities of the IR Receiver of your Mac®, Remote Buddy is using its own driver. In contrast, all other applications with integrated Apple® Remote support usually use the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.
As long as you're running Remote Buddy, Remote Buddy and its driver are responsible for turning the received button presses into actions. As soon as you quit Remote Buddy, this task is again handled by the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.
If other applications don't use the interface to the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem correctly, this can lead to the effect that nothing happens when you press a button on your Apple® Remote. For as long as you're running Remote Buddy, issues like this are covered by Remote Buddy and it's driver and are therefore not visible to you. However, as soon as you quit Remote Buddy, the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem is back in control and any issues caused in it by other applications become visible.
Therefore Remote Buddy is neither the cause of the issue nor is it responsible for it. Instead, the cause of the issue exists independently of Remote Buddy. It's located elsewhere and can also only be solved there.
Although our products can't cause any such issues, we're regularly contacted about such issues and asked for help. In order to make locating and fixing the cause of such issues as easy and efficient as possible, we've developed a free diagnostics tool: Remote Control Diagnostics. It can locate issues with a single click and will provide you with information about the issue as well as with instructions on how you can fix it.
Hardware - Harmony® Smart Control
This can be due to a number of many, very different reasons:
- Wrong/No Activity: the Smart Control will only send your button presses to Remote Buddy if you've selected the "Remote Buddy" activity. Activities on the Harmony Smart Remote are chosen by pressing one of the buttons from the "Music, TV, Movie" row at the top of the remote. Please note: short and long presses of these buttons can select different activities.
- Bluetooth turned off: please make sure that Bluetooth on your Mac is turned on.
- Harmony Hub not paired: the Harmony Hub sometimes looses the Bluetooth pairing when making changes to its configuration. To initially establish - or re-establish - a Bluetooth pairing between the Harmony Hub and your Mac, follow this guide:
- Soft keyboard pairing: make sure you only have paired your Harmony Hub to your Mac as a "Sony Playstation 3". If you also pair your Harmony Hub as a soft keyboard, Remote Buddy will no longer be able to capture input events coming from it. Why is this? In "Sony Playstation 3" mode, the Harmony Hub identifies as "Consumer Control" device to your Mac. For this class of devices, any app is allowed to exclusively capture all input. For keyboards, however, OS X only allows access to apps running with root/administrator priviledges, locking out Remote Buddy. To properly remove the pairing as a keyboard, first use the Harmony in that mode, then remove "Harmony Keyboard" from System Preferences > Bluetooth - and finally remove the respective device from your Harmony's configuration. Since OS X caches the identity of Bluetooth devices, it may take some time, several attempts and maybe even a system restart before OS X sees your Harmony Hub as a "Consumer Control" device again and again allows Remote Buddy access to it.
- Empty batteries: if you can't control any devices with your Harmony Smart Remote at all, while using the "Harmony Control" app on your iOS device still works, chances are the battery of your remote needs to be replaced. Logitech provides instructions for this.
The table that follows lists the commands the Harmony software assigns to the respective buttons by default - and how these need to be changed for Remote Buddy. For Remote Buddy, the commands for short and long button presses should always be identical.
Button |
Harmony Default: Short |
Harmony Default: Long |
Adapted for Remote Buddy: short & long |
Rewind |
ScanPrev |
Prev |
ScanPrev |
Fast Forward |
ScanNext |
ScanNext |
ScanNext |
Play |
Play |
Play |
Play |
Pause |
Pause |
Pause |
Pause |
Record |
- |
- |
Circle |
Stop |
Stop |
Eject |
Stop |
Red |
Red |
Red |
Red |
Green |
Green |
Green |
Green |
Yellow |
Yellow |
Yellow |
Yellow |
Blue |
Blue |
Blue |
Blue |
DVR |
- |
- |
Triangle |
Guide |
- |
- |
TopMenu |
Info |
- |
- |
Display |
Exit |
- |
- |
InstantLeft |
Vol + |
- |
- |
L1 |
Vol - |
- |
- |
L2 |
Mute |
- |
- |
L3 |
Menu |
Popup/Menu |
Popup/Menu |
Popup/Menu |
Ch/Pg + |
ChannelUp |
ChannelUp |
ChannelUp |
Ch/Pg - |
ChannelDown |
ChannelDown |
ChannelDown |
Return |
Return |
Return |
Return |
Left |
DirectionLeft |
DirectionLeft |
DirectionLeft |
Right |
DirectionRight |
DirectionRight |
DirectionRight |
Up |
DirectionUp |
DirectionUp |
DirectionUp |
Down |
DirectionDown |
DirectionDown |
DirectionDown |
OK |
Enter |
Enter |
Enter |
0-9 |
0-9 |
0-9 |
0-9 |
.- |
-/-- |
-/-- |
-/-- |
E |
- |
- |
InstantRight |
Here's where and how you can make the changes:
Unlocking all buttons of the Smart Control Show
Please verify that no power saving options are enabled at "Remote Buddy > Preferences > Hardware > Bluetooth Receiver".
Hardware - Sony® BD Remote Control
There's a bug in the Bluetooth®-stack of OS X® 10.8/10.9 in the context of pairing a Sony® PS3 BD Remote. OS X® 10.8/10.9 will ask you to enter a PIN code when you try to connect your remote control. This problem is known by Apple®.
If you pair your Sony® PS3 BD Remote with your Mac® for the first time
- Use Remote Buddy's Setup Wizard to pair your remote control
- Restart your Mac® directly after the pairing was successful, while the remote is still connected.
- The remote should now work without problems.
If you've already paired the Sony® PS3 BD Remote with your Mac®
- 10.9 only: Try entering 0000 as PIN and reboot. If you're lucky, that was all you needed to do. If this does not solve your issue, please continue with the steps that follow.
- First, we'll need to remove the Link Key of your Mac® from the memory of your remote control. Since this remote control can only store one Link Key, it's as easy as pairing the remote control with another Mac®. To do so, open System Preferences > Bluetooth on another Mac® and pair your remote with it.
- All steps that follow should be performed on the Mac® that you want to use your remote control with.
- Remove - if it exists - the entry of your remote control at Remote Buddy > Preferences > Hardware ® Bluetooth Receiver. The entry usually is titled "BD Remote".
- If existant, remove the device "BD Remote" from System Preferences > Bluetooth.
- Delete the Bluetooth preferences files by entering the following in Terminal.app and hitting return (Warning: this deletes all information about all paired Bluetooth® devices):
sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
sudo rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
sudo rm ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.*.plist
Please enter your admin password when requested. Then restart your Mac®.
- Use Remote Buddy's Setup Wizard to pair your remote control
- Restart your Mac® directly after the pairing was successful, while the remote is still connected.
- The remote should now work without problems.
Hardware - Wii™ Remote In order to automatically activate the Bluetooth® Receiver on startup, enter the settings, choose "Hardware", then click on "Bluetooth® Receiver". Finally activate the checkbox "Search for supported remotes on startup". Remote Buddy will then automatically look for remote control paired through the "Setup Wizard" on next startup.
| User 21.11.2014 15:10:01 | Re: Trouble setting remote buddy to work with Harmony Smart | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. I have not had a chance to try to set up the Harmony Smart Remote with a setup involving several devices, so the following is more or less a guess at my part. Chances are that, when you add a device to an activity, the Harmony software tries to be smart about it and assign particular keys to particular devices automatically. You should be able to select the commands of your choice for the buttons on your remote the same way that you'd use in the section "Unlocking all buttons of the Smart Control" in this blog post: https://www.iospirit.com/blog/article/184/-/ For a complete overview of what command you'd need to assign to a button to send it to Remote Buddy, the table in this FAQ should help: https://www.iospirit.com/support/faqs/remotebuddy/category/23/Hardware-Harmony-Smart-Control/entry/265/-/ To my understanding, Harmony will send power on and power off commands to the devices in an activity depending on your settings in the respective part of the app. You might have success by tweaking the settings mentioned in "Tweaking power settings" in https://www.iospirit.com/blog/article/184/-/ (again) (but this time for your TV and receiver). You may also find additional help in Logitech's support resources for their remotes, including forums, a knowledge base and direct customer support at http://support.myharmony.com/ . Hope that helps. Best regards, Felix Schwarz
| User 22.11.2014 17:12:10 | Re: Trouble setting remote buddy to work with Harmony Smart | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi Felix, you advice was great, what you posted got me thinking that all i needed to do was add the required Devices to the Remote buddy Activity and then check the mapping of the keys to ensure they control the device i wanted. Guess what it worked. It took around an hour to remap some of the keys as adding the devices (TV & Receiver) some keys were automatically mapped to them. I left the volume key mapped to the audio receiver and then changed the other keys so they were mapped to Remote buddy (adding the TV and Audio changed the mapping), after fixing this everything worked as i had originally intended. A lot less complicated, less time consuming and conveinent than the 10 apple remote method. Now I'd like to map the Green ,Blue, Red and Yellow keys to directly launch applications whilst using the remote buddy activity, can this be done and how. BTW I have also paired the Harmony bluetooth keyboard which also needs re-mapping, it works but the trackpad is not active. but to get it to work i had to add either a device as Plex or a device as Apple computer. I'm a little lost how to get both working smoothly with Remote buddy. Once again thanks Felix for your help.
| User 01.12.2014 22:33:01 | Re: Trouble setting remote buddy to work with Harmony Smart | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Now I'd like to map the Green ,Blue, Red and Yellow keys to directly launch applications whilst using the remote buddy activity, can this be done and how. Sure, this can be done. If you want these buttons to only do one thing - launch these apps - then: 1) Go to Prefs > Mapping > Global mapping 2) Select the respective action "Behaviour > Activate [name of app] Behaviour" for the respective buttons BTW I have also paired the Harmony bluetooth keyboard which also needs re-mapping, it works but the trackpad is not active. but to get it to work i had to add either a device as Plex or a device as Apple computer. I'm a little lost how to get both working smoothly with Remote buddy. Due to the design of the OS X Bluetooth stack, you're likely to run into issues when trying to pair the same Harmony Hub with two different identities (PS3 Remote, Keyboard, ..) to the same Mac. For details, please see "4. soft keyboard pairing" in this FAQ: https://www.iospirit.com/support/faqs/remotebuddy/category/23/Hardware-Harmony-Smart-Control/entry/261/Nothing-happens-when-I-press-a-button-on-the-Smart-Control-/ Cheers, Felix
| User 03.12.2014 00:34:01 | Re: Re: Trouble setting remote buddy to work with
Harmony Smart | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. On a somewhat related note... I have very good remote control using Harmony with Remote Buddy for Plex running on Mac Mini. (Harmony Smart Control as PS3 over Bluetooth) The setup information Felix cited here were accurate and sufficient for nearly all my needs. The one application that is still not cooperating is the (not so super) DVD drive on the Mini. Can anyone recommend either a better DVD player or tips on RB setup? I don't seem to have any keys on the Harmony that the Apple app responds to. I'm very open to upgrading to a more capable device, as long as it works well on the Mini. Thanks in advance Yours in RB happiness, Keith Harmony Smart Control Mac Mini with Remote Buddy TCL LCD TV (L40FHDF11TA) AV receiver (Yamaha RX-V673) Roku 3 Keith On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 6:28 PM, Keith Corbett <> wrote: On a somewhat related note... I have very good remote control using Harmony with Remote Buddy for Plex running on Mac Mini. (Harmony Smart Control as PS3 over Bluetooth) The setup information Felix cited here were accurate and sufficient for nearly all my needs. The one application that is still not cooperating is the (not so super) DVD drive on the Mini. Can anyone recommend either a better DVD player or tips on RB setup? I don't seem to have any keys on the Harmony that the Apple app responds to. I'm very open to upgrading to a more capable device, as long as it works well on the Mini. Thanks in advance Yours in RB happiness, Keith Harmony Smart Control Mac Mini with Remote Buddy TCL LCD TV (L40FHDF11TA) AV receiver (Yamaha RX-V673) Roku 3 Keith On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Felix wrote: Now I'd like to map the Green ,Blue, Red and Yellow keys to directly launch applications whilst using the remote buddy activity, can this be done and how. Sure, this can be done. If you want these buttons to only do one thing - launch these apps - then: 1) Go to Prefs > Mapping > Global mapping 2) Select the respective action "Behaviour > Activate [name of app] Behaviour" for the respective buttons BTW I have also paired the Harmony bluetooth keyboard which also needs re-mapping, it works but the trackpad is not active. but to get it to work i had to add either a device as Plex or a device as Apple computer. I'm a little lost how to get both working smoothly with Remote buddy. Due to the design of the OS X Bluetooth stack, you're likely to run into issues when trying to pair the same Harmony Hub with two different identities (PS3 Remote, Keyboard, ..) to the same Mac. For details, please see "4. soft keyboard pairing" in this FAQ: https://www.iospirit.com/support/faqs/remotebuddy/category/23/Hardware-Harmony-Smart-Control/entry/261/Nothing-happens-when-I-press-a-button-on-the-Smart-Control-/ Cheers, Felix [standard mail footer removed] |
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