Author | Thread |
User 04.01.2007 20:13:41 |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi, I think some improvements will be nice regarding the saving of the batteries of the Wii Remote. 1. When putting the Mac on sleep why not power off the remote? 2. When coming back from a sleep why not try to reconnect the remote? 3. Is it technical possible to pair the remote only pressing the 1,2 buttons without interaction on remote buddy? If I press 1&2, remote buddy can't detect that there is a remote? Last edited: 04.01.2007 23:00:11
| These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic: 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 - Wii™ Remote Please go through all of the following points to check your setup for possible errors:
- Please make sure that your computer is equipped with Bluetooth® and that it is active. You can enable and disable Bluetooth® at any time through System Preferences.
- If you only switch on Bluetooth® occassionally: the Bluetooth® stack used by Apple® does seem to need up to a minute after it has been activated, before it can establish connections to devices. During this time, Bluetooth® appears to be active to applications, but isn't fully there just yet.
- Please make sure the Bluetooth® Receiver in Remote Buddy is active (green "light" in front of its entry in the menu).
- Before you can use a Wii™ Remote with Remote Buddy for the first time, you need to pair it through the "Setup Wizard". For pairing, open the "Setup Wizard" of Remote Buddy (you can access it in the pull down menu to be found in your system's menu bar behind the Remote Buddy icon) and follow its instructions. If the pair option is greyed out, use the Setup Wizard to install the Remote Buddy Kernel Extension, first.
- If a remote control has been connected through the setup wizard once, an active Bluetooth™ Receiver in Remote Buddy and pressing buttons 1 and 2 at the same time are sufficient to establish a connection.
- If not all four LEDs are blinking when pressing button 1 and 2 - or if they blink with different brightness - your battery may no longer hold enough power for the operation of the remote control. Fresh batteries then solve the problem.
- If the combination of buttons 1 and 2 does not lead to a successful pairing, you'll find a small red knob after removing the battery door, which, when pressed, will also trigger the pairing.
- In rare cases (we currently know of only one), the remote control itself needs to be reset. Therefore, remove the batteries for at least 30 seconds, then insert them again and try anew to establish a connection. You may possibly have to pair the remote anew, first.
In some cases, the Bluetooth®-stack of OS X does not deliver the names of devices to Remote Buddy, making it impossible for Remote Buddy to detect a new remote control. If you experience this case, you can use the OS X Bluetooth® Wizard in order to work around this problem upon your first connection. Therefore, please follow these instructions:
- Open "System Preferences"
- Select "Bluetooth"
- Click on "Set Up New Device…". The Bluetooth assistant will now open.
- Click on "Continue" to get beyond the "Introduction" message.
- Select "Any device" and click "Continue".
- Now press button 1 and 2 simultaneously on your remote control
- If the name of your remote control appears on screen, select it from the list and click on "Continue"
- Continue to click on "Continue" until you are prompted to enter a number on your Bluetooth® device. If you have reached that screen, quit the assistant.
- Now use Remote Buddy's own "Setup Wizard" to pair your remote with your computer.
| User 04.01.2007 22:59:01 | Re: Wii Remote suggestions | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hey Davide, thanks for all the input! Your suggestions are very welcome! I've just found my way into OS X Bluetooth development, so I'm not an expert on that matter yet. So please keep in mind that I can only answer your questions with what I know up to this point - and that I may prove myself wrong later in the development cycle :-) 1.+2.) It would be easy to power off the LED (< 10-20 lines of code mostly for detecting the Mac going to sleep), but - from what I know up to this point - really sleeping the Wii Remote would require to disconnect and re-pair after system wake. What is also possible - and what Remote Buddy is also planned to do - is to shut down all parts of the remote (motion, IR sensors) it can shut down when the Mac is going to sleep. That'll already help saving a lot of battery power. 3.) I haven't finished my investigation on this yet. As said, I'm pretty much a Bluetooth newbie at that point. But as far as I can see, this is not possible - unless of course Remote Buddy would inquire about new devices all of the time (basically what Remote Buddy already can do for you minus the bezel messages). I do see problems, if you try to pair the Remote with your Wii next time, though ;-) Best regards, Felix
| User 04.01.2007 23:30:26 | Re: Wii Remote suggestions | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. 3) The all time search option would be great for a Mac Mini Media Center! I bought the Wii Remote for that! Coupled with the "sensor bar", when implemented, it will be possible to use it as a emergency "living room" mouse. I tried yesterday the candle trick with the DarwiinRemote and it's really usable. Another question: how the original system works? I mean, you have only to pair one time the console with the remote. Why this is not possible on a Mac? What's special about the Wiimote power button? The last suggestion for today: what do you think about an action to power off the remote? The scenario: the mac mini is always on to act as a home server. When I want to use it to watch a movie, I power on the projector, I push 1+2 on the Wiimote and voilà, I'm ready. When I finish to watch my movie I choose the action "disconnect the remote"...
| User 07.01.2007 03:02:03 | Re: Re: Wii Remote suggestions | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hello Davide, I'll think about the inquire-all-the-time option and how to implement it best. Not owning a Wii console, I'm using candles to simulate a sensor bar as well ;-) I've not had the time to dig deep enough into the Bluetooth APIs of OS X to really be able to answer that question. Sorry. I'll consider the suggestion. It'll only be little work. Probably around 10 lines of code. But you already have that action available right on your remote: hit the power button and the remote will disconnect and power off. Your scenario should work just fine once the inquire-all-the-time option is in place. Best regards, Felix
| User 07.01.2007 19:38:45 | Re: Wii Remote suggestions | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Thank you very much, this would be perfect! And what about the option "Allow bluetooth devices to wake this computer"? Maybe this should be possible to use it with the Wiimote...
| User 09.01.2007 23:15:02 | Re: Re: Wii Remote suggestions | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hello Davide, as far as I can see from my limited experience with driver programming on the Mac, you need to write a kernel extension to wake the computer from sleep. Rest assured, I'll keep it in mind, though. Best regards, Felix
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