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User

14.12.2009 20:25:03

Strategy for Starting Over from Scratch?

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

I'm planning on scrubbing my current Harmony remote integration and starting over. Basically, I only use the Harmony to control EyeTV, but I'd like to add a much more feature rich experience. Since there isn't any way to decrement remote IDs I've discovered the only way to expand on my current set up is to add additional virtual remotes and have the Harmony learn the commands. But I feel this is clunky since I have unused virtual remote buttons on my current setup. So, I think I'll start from scratch.

My question is what do most users do to start? I'm thinking I'll literally count the number of buttons on my Harmony remote (including the soft buttons which I believe they allow up to 8) and divide that total number by 6. That will tell me the maximum number of virtual remotes needed. Then I'll have the Harmony learn each command all at once so that at any given time as I incrementally expand I can assign out more buttons as needed.

What does everyone else do? I've seen lots of spreadsheets and what not online, but that is because only certain buttons are used on each remote and learned by the Harmony leading to all kinds of confusion. But I'm curios what other people do.

These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic:

Hardware - Apple® Remote

After uninstalling/quitting Remote Buddy, my Mac® no longer reacts to the Apple® Remote. (FAQ015E0241)
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 - EyeTV Receiver

Which receivers are supported? (FAQ015E0211)
The latest info on hard- and software-requirements including info on support hardware can be found on the dedicated page for EyeTV receivers.

Please consider making use of the free Remote Buddy trial version to test your device for compatibility directly on your computer.

Hardware - Harmony® Smart Control

How do I set up the Harmony Smart Control and connect it to Remote Buddy on my Mac? (FAQ015E0264)
Please see the detailed HowTo on this topic in our blog.

Which Harmony commands need to be assigned to the respective buttons on the Smart Control so that I can use all buttons with Remote Buddy? (FAQ015E0265)

If I haven't used the Harmony Smart Remote for a few minutes, Remote Buddy does not react to the first button press. (FAQ015E0263)
Please verify that no power saving options are enabled at "Remote Buddy > Preferences > Hardware > Bluetooth Receiver".

User

26.03.2010 02:34:59

Re: Strategy for Starting Over from Scratch?

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Do I have the right line of thinking to add up all the buttons and divide by 6? Will that give me enough? Do I ever need more virtual remotes than I do buttons on my Harmony?

User

26.03.2010 20:58:50

Re: Strategy for Starting Over from Scratch?

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

I can't tell from your posts—are you aware of and using the Plex device for Harmony remotes? If not, you need it; it's 10 Apple remotes in one Harmony device. It gives you 59 buttons (it should be 60 but one button doesn't seem to be assigned) that you can assign to any function. Do you have this?

User

28.03.2010 17:43:06

Re: Strategy for Starting Over from Scratch?

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Hi Dave. I do run a HTPC with Plex. I currently don't have Plex added as a device to my Harmony because when I've tried this in the past I was never able to get RB and Plex to play nice. It seemed RB was blocking the remote codes from passing through to Plex so once I launched Plex, nothing would respond. (I was using the native Harmony support in Plex.) I then deleted Plex device from Harmony and have just been using a Keyboard/Mouse combo anytime I'm doing anything other than EyeTV (which I have programmed through RB).

So if I understand what you are suggesting, I should add back in the Plex device to my Harmony and then simply re-assign all the buttons to be whatever I want instead of working with Plex. But if I do that, I won't be able to actually use the Harmony natively with Plex, correct? I was going to try this again during my "start over" process.

Also if I do this, will I have enough buttons? The one thing I can't seem to get straight in my head is if I need one unique button for each function I'm trying to perform? Or can I reuse buttons so long as I'm in different behaviors within RB?

User

30.03.2010 11:16:47

Re: Re: Strategy for Starting Over from Scratch?

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Remote Buddy isn't blocking any codes. It interprets the codes and executes the actions that are assigned to the respective buttons just as specified at Prefs > Mapping > [Name of app]. If, instead, you want to pass through Apple Remote codes for a specific application, you can do this as well by selecting the respective "Virtual Remote action".

You can find details on this in particular (Harmony/Plex/Remote Buddy) here:

http://www.iospirit.com/blog/article/131/Remote-Buddy-and-Boxee-Plex-and-XBMC/

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

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