Author | Thread |
User 17.06.2013 00:52:30 | ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi all, I have just moved from the 2010 MacBook Pro (with handy ir receiver) to the new retina model (without handy ir receiver). Thinking that it would be simple to get a USB ir receiver I got a cheap one from Ebay. Needless to say, it doesn't work. Although I love my Apple Remote control I started thinking that Bluetooth would be a better option as the computer has this built in (so it must be better than infra-red right?) but it looks as though I'll need to buy a Wii or a Sony Ericsson phone to use Remote Buddy. I need some advice as to what I can make work. I use the remote mainly for iTunes but I don't want to pair my iPhone or iPod to my computer as I teach exercise classes and do a lot of jumping around. My Apple remote has been dropped countless times and I don't want to risk either of my more valuable pieces of equipment as I jump around like a fool or moving them continually in and out of my pocket. Any opinions would be gratefully received. Cheers, John | These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic: Hardware
- Please make sure you have the latest version of Remote Buddy installed. If in doubt, download the latest version, quit Remote Buddy, delete it, empty your trash, then copy the downloaded version of Remote Buddy to your harddrive and start it from there.
- Please make sure, that you have installed the latest version of the Remote Buddy drivers. You can install the drivers using the Setup Wizard (=> access it via the Remote Buddy pulldown menu).
- Check your Remote Buddy settings in the Hardware category. Your remote control should be listed there and the lamp next to it should be green. If you don't find your remote control there, either the Remote Buddy drivers were not installed or installed in an outdated version - or - there is a general problem with the device. For USB devices, plugging the device to another port or resetting the PMU and/or SMC-unit of your Mac® (=> find guides on how to do this for your Mac® in the support area of apple.com) may help. If you can't find it under "USB" in the System Profiler (=> /Applications/Utilities) either, a hardware defect is as well possible.
- Check the batteries of your remote control.
- If your remote control has an on/off switch: make sure that your remote control is switched on.
- If your remote control requires additional receiver hardware: make sure that it is correctly attached to your computer and that it turns up in System Profiler.
- If you use an Apple® Remote, you should also check your system settings. Quit Remote Buddy, then open System Preferences.app > Security. Please make sure that the option to disable the infrared receiver is NOT active and click on "Unpair" should you have paired your Apple® Remote with your Mac®. After that, start Remote Buddy. If your Apple® Remote still doesn't work with Remote Buddy, please also check its preferences for the Apple® Remote. They can be found at Preferences > Hardware > Built-in IR receiver. If support for multiple remote controls is enabled there, ensure that your remote control is checked in the right table (=> you can find the correct entry for your remote control by pressing a button on it).
- If you are using a Keyspan™ RF Remote for Front Row, re-pair its remote control and receiver by simultaneously pressing the small knob on the back of the remote control and the knob on the receiver stick (the knob looks like the blinking LED, except it does not blink).
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.
Please update your copy of Remote Buddy to version 1.15 or later.
Hardware - Harmony® Smart Control 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.
Hardware - iPhone™ / iPod® touch / AJAX Remote
The AJAX Remote of Remote Buddy, which you can view and use through your the browser on your iPhone™, works over TCP/IP and HTTP. The iPhone™ does only support these standards over WLAN and EDGE at this point, not via Bluetooth®. Please connect your iPhone™ to the same WLAN as your Mac®, then follow these instructions:
http://www.iospirit.com/products/remotebuddy/guides/ajaxremotesetup/
The Setup Wizard has been exclusively designed and developed for Bluetooth® remote controls, not mobile phones.
Currently, these browsers are officially supported by the AJAX Remote:
- Safari® on iPhone™ with OS 3.0 or later
- Safari® on iPod® Touch with OS 3.0 or later
- Safari® 4 or later
The AJAX Remote is using the latest web standards (like CSS3, which is often only supported sufficiently by Safari®) to utilize the available bandwidth and CPU power efficiently.
IMPORTANT: to use the AJAX Remote, your setup needs to meet all of the AJAX Remote requirements!
These are the most frequent causes for this kind of problem are:
- The AJAX Remote is not active. Please check in Remote Buddy's preferences, that you have enabled the AJAX Remote and that it shows the status "active".
- The OS X firewall is active and blocking incoming connections. Please read the entry "How can I define a rule to allow access to port 8888 with active Firewall?" for a step-by-step howto for fixing this problem.
- Bonjour® only works LAN-wide. In order to reach your computer by its Bonjour® name, it needs to be located in the same IP subnet - which in this case means that it must be connected to the same WiFi network. If your computer is connected to the same LAN (wired connection) as the WiFi Access Point, but not to the WiFi Access Point itself, your computer and your device are located in different subnets, whereas Bonjour® services usually can't be announced beyond the boundaries of subnets. Furthermore, the iPhone™ does only support Bonjour® addresses starting with firmware version 1.1.1. Older firmware releases can't make any sense of them.
The solution - in both cases - is to directly enter the IP of your computer on your device. Complete URLs for all network connections/interfaces of your computer can be found directly within Remote Buddy under "Preferences > AJAX Remote".
- A firewall / router does not forward connections. If you are trying to access your computer from the Internet, only a direct connection using the IP of your internet connection is possible.
- If your computer has a direct connection to the Internet without any intermediate router, Remote Buddy will show the correct IP address of your computer under "Preferences > AJAX Remote".
- If your computer is connected to the Internet through an intermediate router, only that router knows your current IP on the Internet. Furthermore, you need to make sure, that it forward connections to port 8888 to your computer. Please consult the manual of your computer to learn whether your router supports that function and how you can set it up.
- Our service for you: you can let our server tell you your current Internet IP at http://www.iospirit.com/myip/.
Thanks for your interest in the future of Remote Buddy. Of course the iPhone™ SDK is also of interest to us.
Please understand, though, that we don't talk about future products or plans prior to to their close-to-complete-realization or release.
If you want to stay up to date on this topic, we recommend to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our newsletter or RSS feed (find all links at the footer of the product page). News will be available here, first.
| User 18.06.2013 00:32:01 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Thanks for asking. Technically, you remain the most flexible with an external IR receiver. And due to the lower technical complexity, IR remotes usually also give you much better battery life (turning on and off an IR diode upon a button press - vs - keeping an encrypted connection with a complex protocol open and alive). The advantage of Bluetooth is that you don’t need an extra receiver. It also doesn’t require a line of sight. However, you should be aware that the OS X Bluetooth stack has been having issues with handling some of the Bluetooth remotes supported by Remote Buddy since Apple added support for Bluetooth 4.0 in OS X 10.7. I do think Apple will eventually arrive at a version of the OS X Bluetooth stack that’s as stable as it has been in OS X 10.6. However, until then, you can never know whether or not your remote, keyboard or mouse will still perform fine with the next release - minor or major - of OS X. As for supported Bluetooth remotes, the only devices you should consider are the Sony BD Remote and the Wii Remote („basic“ version, the Wii Remote Plus is not supported as of this writing!). Support for Sony Ericcson phones has always been experimental and is more of an anecdote at that point. It will most likely be dropped in a future release. Another option you have, btw, is using a supported RF remote. The Keyspan RF Remote for Front Row is now longer made as far as I’m aware of, but it’s a solid piece of hardware that works well with Remote Buddy. Chances are you can find a good price for one of these on eBay, too. Which option is the right one for you is not upon me to decide though. It really depends on your individual needs. Regarding the IR Receiver you bought on eBay: what are its USB Product and Vendor ID (you can find that info in System Profiler > USB or System Information > USB)? If you provide me with the info, I can try to find out more about it. Best regards, Felix Schwarz
| User 27.06.2013 13:53:14 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi Felix, Thanks so much for your reply. I feel like an ir receiver is probably best for me, I just need to find one that works. The one I got from Ebay (that doesn't work) is shown here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Infrared-Remote-Control-Receiver-Emitter-USB-Adapter-IR-Extender-Repeater-FV88-/130818683865 I'm fairly sure I should have seen something on the page that would tell me that it wouldn't work, but even looking again I can't see it! I shall keep looking, and digesting the information you posted. Thanks again, John
| User 27.06.2013 14:06:01 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Thanks! Please see http://www.iospirit.com/products/remotebuddy/hardware/ for a list of compatible IR receivers. If you look for a compatible IR receiver: I found this kit to be compatible when I bought it years ago (though there’s always the risk they change the contents of the kit, so if you purchase one, please make sure you can return it just in case): http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000NMSI86 Alternatively, the "Manta TR1 Only“ offer here is also an option that is known to work and available (and Twisted Melon so far always let me know whenever they change the product, so I can make adjustments in time): http://twistedmelon.com/shop/ Best regards, Felix Schwarz
| User 01.07.2013 14:06:56 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Thanks again Felix. Your help is greatly appreciated. I've ordered the Griffin 4023-ACUSB AirClick USB which is listed on here as compatible (and has a nice small remote). Will let you know how it goes when it arrives. Cheers, John
| User 01.07.2013 22:32:01 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Happy if I can help. The AirClick USB really has a lot to like. The only thing that is really not ideal is it’s button layout. You can get around menus with it after some time of getting used to it, but the button layout really isn’t that suitable for directional control. Best regards, Felix Schwarz
| User 22.07.2013 02:20:40 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi Felix, The Griffin AirClick USB is a no go. It doesn't support the latest version of OSX. It has been discontinued so there will be no updated drivers. That'll teach me for not triple checking everything before ordering! Hopefully my mistake will serve to stop others doing the same. Will go back through your notes to see what I can try next! John
| User 22.07.2013 10:36:01 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi John, yes, as far as I know, Griffin has discontinued the AirClick USB as well as support for its accompanying OS X software. Remote Buddy users are not affected by this, though, since 1) you can only use _either_ Griffin’s software or Remote Buddy, but not both at the same time. If you want to use the remote with Remote Buddy, the Griffin software is not relevant at all. 2) Remote Buddy brings its own driver (Candelair) for the AirClick USB. Candelair is compatible with the latest version of OS X (10.8). This makes the lack of drivers from Griffin irrelevant to Remote Buddy users, who can use the AirClick USB regardless. Both Remote Buddy and Candelair are under active development. Best regards, Felix Schwarz
| User 27.09.2013 03:02:24 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi Felix, Solution found!!!! Yesterday I received my Mantra TR1 ir receiver and it works a treat. The AirClick didn't work for me; it may have been a faulty unit so I'm not saying it won't work for anyone. Thanks for your help. If anyone has the same issue, I highly recommend the Mantra TR1 as I can now use my remote again. Phew! John
| User 29.09.2013 01:14:22 | Re: ir receiver or bluetooth remote for MacBook Pro retina? | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Just to add I have the Manta TR1 also and it works very well with Remote Buddy.
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