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User

01.03.2010 17:01:46

Using Harmony One remote with Remote Buddy

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Hi all,

I've just received a Harmony One remote which is really handy to control my audio systems and home automation (I am a paraplegic). I would like to set up my Mac mini as a media centre with Plex but I don't seem to understand how to get the Harmony remote to work with the mini,RB, and Plex.

I suppose my questions may have been been asked and possibly before, sorry for any inconvenience but I would really appreciate any help you might give me:

- Both multiple remotes and automatic authorisation is selected but pressing keys on the Harmony has no effect nothing seems to happen, i. e. no other remotes appear.
- RB multiple devices panel shows that the Apple remote has an ID of 134, is this the aluminium Apple remote?
- When - and if - I can get the Harmony recognised by RB how do I get the Control (C key) added without too much change to the RB Plex mapping?
- Do I need to pair twice the remotes (Al. Apple and Harmony) in the security prefpane?
- If I need to pair and start again from scratch will some kind soul help me with step by step instructions to use the Harmony with RB?. I've tried to follow the instruction manual in Help but I must be a klutz cause I'm getting nowhere.

Thanks

Paul

Paul Alphandery
p.alphandery@bluewin.ch

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.
After updating to OS X 10.6.2, my Apple® Remote is no longer available for selection in Remote Buddy. (FAQ015E0236)
Please update your copy of Remote Buddy to version 1.15 or later.
Can I also use other remote controls than the Apple® Remote with the IR receiver of my Mac®? (FAQ015E0154)
No. The receiver does analyze the signals in hardware and does only seem to support the signals of an Apple® Remote (that of course includes programmable remotes that can exactly mimic the signals of the Apple® Remote).

Hardware - Harmony® Smart Control

When the Harmony Hub connects to my Mac, I'm asked for a PIN. (FAQ015E0262)
Please enter 0000.

Hardware - iPhone™ / iPod® touch / AJAX Remote

How do I set up the AJAX Remote? (FAQ015E0224)
Please see the AJAX Remote Setup Guide.

User

02.03.2010 08:50:46

Re: Using Harmony One remote with Remote Buddy

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

Thanks for asking.

Please see my answers below.

Just a short notice regarding this one: the Harmony One "multiple remote" setup is not officially supported by Remote Buddy. The support for multiple remotes in Remote Buddy is designed for use with multiple, actual Apple Remotes.

I suppose my questions may have been been asked and possibly before, sorry for any inconvenience but I would really appreciate any help you might give me:

- Both multiple remotes and automatic authorisation is selected but pressing keys on the Harmony has no effect nothing seems to happen, i. e. no other remotes appear.

This really depends on what profile you're using with your Harmony at that time, which IR protocol and codes that profile contains and which buttons actually have an IR code assigned.

If Remote Buddy receives an IR code from an a previously "unknown" Apple Remote, it'll add an entry. For technical reasons (the Apple IR Receiver *only* understands Apple Remote codes and won't report anything when you point another remote at it), Remote Buddy will not be able to inform you about button presses encoded with protocols other than the one used by the Apple Remote.

If you want your Harmony remote to emulate multiple Apple Remotes, you either can try training your Harmony Remote with different Apple Remotes - or - use the Plex profile available in the Harmony Setup. Be warned, though, that some of the buttons in the Plex profile weren't trained correctly and a single button press there will send multiple real button presses, which *will* lead to undesired side effects outside the use as outlined in the blog post linked at the end of this email.

- RB multiple devices panel shows that the Apple remote has an ID of 134, is this the aluminium Apple remote?

Every Apple Remote - both white plastic and aluminum - can have one of the 256 possible IDs between 0-255.

- When - and if - I can get the Harmony recognised by RB how do I get the Control (C key) added without too much change to the RB Plex mapping?

You can do this via a custom action. Please see Remote Buddy Help > How-Tos for step-by-step instructions.

- Do I need to pair twice the remotes (Al. Apple and Harmony) in the security prefpane?

You shouldn't pair any remote there, if you want to use more than one Apple Remote with your Apple IR Receiver. Pairing means "only accept IR codes of the Apple Remote with this particular ID and ignore all other IR codes coming from all other Apple Remotes".

- If I need to pair and start again from scratch will some kind soul help me with step by step instructions to use the Harmony with RB?. I've tried to follow the instruction manual in Help but I must be a klutz cause I'm getting nowhere.

I recommend to use the normal Apple Remote profile of the Harmony Remote with Remote Buddy. And, if you want to use the Universal Remote mode of Plex, Boxee, XBMC, etc., there's only very, very little setup required:

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

Regarding the creation of custom actions, you'll find step-by-step instructions at Remote Buddy Help > How-Tos.

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

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