[theredguy]

Suddenly this evening my key repeat situation seems to have changed.

I had never checked the "repeat" box for my arrow key mappings, and things had been working perfectly. When scrolling in XBMC if I held the down arrow, it would start scrolling slowly, then speed up the longer I held it down.

Now tonight if I hold that button down it just moves once. If I turn on repeat in PS3blumote I can get it to repeat, but very slowly. If I decrease repeat rate in settings.ini I can speed it up, but if I change it to something acceptably fast, I am no longer to move just one if I want to.

I'm not sure what has changed, or if I have changed something. I have been mucking with a lot of settings, but I didn't think I changed anything that would cause this.

If I press the down key on an actual keyboard the behaviour is still normal.

Any thoughts?

[ftix]

Hi,
I have the SMK Blu-Link universal remote (VP3700) which I have tested and is working perfectly with blumote 2.0.4 under win7 64. The only problem I have is that the available buttons in blumote mappings list are only for the official ps3 remote so there are some buttons on the vp3700 that remain unused (e.g. exit, mute etc.). Is it possible to add these extra buttons to the mappings list so they can be assigned to keystrokes?

Thanks

[theredguy]

Suddenly this evening my key repeat situation seems to have changed.

I had never checked the "repeat" box for my arrow key mappings, and things had been working perfectly. When scrolling in XBMC if I held the down arrow, it would start scrolling slowly, then speed up the longer I held it down.

Now tonight if I hold that button down it just moves once. If I turn on repeat in PS3blumote I can get it to repeat, but very slowly. If I decrease repeat rate in settings.ini I can speed it up, but if I change it to something acceptably fast, I am no longer to move just one if I want to.

I'm not sure what has changed, or if I have changed something. I have been mucking with a lot of settings, but I didn't think I changed anything that would cause this.

If I press the down key on an actual keyboard the behaviour is still normal.

Any thoughts?

I've been fooling around with this and I am not making any progress. I think the issue started after the remote control did this weird thing where the PS3 button started flashing red and wouldn't stop. Eventually I held down enter for a while and it stopped (or maybe I pulled the batteries, can't remember). Could this be something about Windows recognizing it as a game controller vs HID device? I've tried removing and adding various parts to no avail. Is there some way do to a "factory reset" on the remote control itself in case it got itself into some weird state? It's like pressing and holding down used to emulate pressing and holding a key, but now it's just like hitting the key once.

Also can someone confirm that if you press and hold down or up, it does in fact scroll through your entries? Now I'm starting to think I dreamed that behaviour.

[navigates]

Suddenly this evening my key repeat situation seems to have changed.

I had never checked the "repeat" box for my arrow key mappings, and things had been working perfectly. When scrolling in XBMC if I held the down arrow, it would start scrolling slowly, then speed up the longer I held it down.

Now tonight if I hold that button down it just moves once. If I turn on repeat in PS3blumote I can get it to repeat, but very slowly. If I decrease repeat rate in settings.ini I can speed it up, but if I change it to something acceptably fast, I am no longer to move just one if I want to.

I'm not sure what has changed, or if I have changed something. I have been mucking with a lot of settings, but I didn't think I changed anything that would cause this.

If I press the down key on an actual keyboard the behaviour is still normal.

Any thoughts?

I've been fooling around with this and I am not making any progress. I think the issue started after the remote control did this weird thing where the PS3 button started flashing red and wouldn't stop. Eventually I held down enter for a while and it stopped (or maybe I pulled the batteries, can't remember). Could this be something about Windows recognizing it as a game controller vs HID device? I've tried removing and adding various parts to no avail. Is there some way do to a "factory reset" on the remote control itself in case it got itself into some weird state? It's like pressing and holding down used to emulate pressing and holding a key, but now it's just like hitting the key once.

Also can someone confirm that if you press and hold down or up, it does in fact scroll through your entries? Now I'm starting to think I dreamed that behaviour.

When I press the down button it goes down at a single click rate and does not improve in the speed. When I do the same with the keyboard, its normal by the fact that it increases in speed. I have the repeat checked on ps3blumote along with the mili seconds to 350 i think,

[CaptainTivo]

Hello All, (but mainly miljbee)

I had been using an old Snapstream Firefly RF (X10) remote with XBMC, which worked fine until I switched to Windows 7. After that, I could not get an X10 driver to work.
I really liked the RF remote so when I found this thread, I was in heaven.

I downloaded 2.03 and it worked great, until the batteries died. So I downloaded 2.04 and enabled automatic hibernation and expected the problem to be solved. Nope. The batteries last around 4 days.

So I finally decided to investigate. I put an ammeter in the battery circuit and did some experiments.
Pretty much told me what I already knew, even though Blumote says it is hibernating the remote, it is not.
I then got the PS3RemoteSleep program. This works, but it also puts up notifications that the the BT device is installing, and that the device driver was installed, every time it runs. It is odd that PS3RemoteSleep should work since miljbee said he used the same code and the InTheHand.Net.Personal.dll.

Anyway, 2.04 will not actually hibernate the remote (even though it says it does in the log file).
I then tried the pushing the Playstation button for 6 seconds. This hibernates the remote reliably. However, it has a problem too.
Most times a button press after hibernating this way results in instantly awakening the remote and Blumote gets the button press.
Sometimes, however, the PS3 LED on the remote starts blinking and it takes 10 or 20 seconds to awaken and it usually loses that button press. This is definitely not optimal for WAF.

Here is my setup:
ASUS USB BT211 dongle, Windows 7, using ASUS driver.

While measuring the current, I found that the remote draws a more or less constant 17 mA while active and close to 0 when "hibernating".

Since I already had it set up with the ammeter, I also paired it with my PS3. The behavior of the remote with the PS3 is very different. It drew a constant 4 mA and never went into hibernation (at least while I was using it for an hour watching a Bluray disc. When I pressed the PS3 button for a few seconds, the Playstation asked if I wanted to shut off the console and I did. Then the current draw went to zero.

So. Any ideas as to why hibernation does not work with 2.04? I would really like to solve this and implement identical setups on all my Xbmc-running HTPCs.

Thanks.

[navigates]

Not True. With my configuration, the remote does hibernate. Without hibernation battery lasts 3 days. with hibernation it goes on for 45 days. I did notice if I boot directly to xbmc as shell, the hibernate feature does not work and the battery dies in 3 days. I went through two rounds of batteries until i switched back to desktop mode.

[CaptainTivo]

Not True. With my configuration, the remote does hibernate. Without hibernation battery lasts 3 days. with hibernation it goes on for 45 days. I did notice if I boot directly to xbmc as shell, the hibernate feature does not work and the battery dies in 3 days. I went through two rounds of batteries until i switched back to desktop mode.

Not sure what you mean by "boot directly to xbmc as shell"? Can you please explain? Can you also give your configuration: what BT dongle do you have, what version of OS, etc?

I am running Windows 7 with updates with an ASUS USB BT211 dongle. I boot windows. I pair the remote control, I then run PS3Blumote. I then run XBMC. I have enabled the auto hibernation feature with a one minute timeout. I verify in the debug log that hibernation is attempted. I correlate the time that Blumote indicates that it has hibernated the remote with the current draw at that time and there is NO reduction or fluctuation of the current. As I said, I have tried PS3RemoteSleep and it will hibernate the remote. Since miljbee says he used this same code in his version of PS3Blumote (2.04), it should function just like PS3RemoteSleep, but it does not. I assure you that my configuration does not work. The question is: why not?

[navigates]

Not True. With my configuration, the remote does hibernate. Without hibernation battery lasts 3 days. with hibernation it goes on for 45 days. I did notice if I boot directly to xbmc as shell, the hibernate feature does not work and the battery dies in 3 days. I went through two rounds of batteries until i switched back to desktop mode.

Not sure what you mean by "boot directly to xbmc as shell"? Can you please explain? Can you also give your configuration: what BT dongle do you have, what version of OS, etc?

I am running Windows 7 with updates with an ASUS USB BT211 dongle. I boot windows. I pair the remote control, I then run PS3Blumote. I then run XBMC. I have enabled the auto hibernation feature with a one minute timeout. I verify in the debug log that hibernation is attempted. I correlate the time that Blumote indicates that it has hibernated the remote with the current draw at that time and there is NO reduction or fluctuation of the current. As I said, I have tried PS3RemoteSleep and it will hibernate the remote. Since miljbee says he used this same code in his version of PS3Blumote (2.04), it should function just like PS3RemoteSleep, but it does not. I assure you that my configuration does not work. The question is: why not?

By direct to shell I mean that the windows explorer does not boot and I boot to xbmc as a shell. You have to make a bootup file in a config folder to load all the startup items before xbmc. However that disables the hibernate feature of the ps3blumote.

Question. When the ps3blumote application goes in hibernate, do you see the blue play sign go light blue? If not then I don't think its hibernating. I can check my log file to validate it as well.

Hi. I'm on Windows 7 with the Intel NUC i5 version. I have made the similar configurations fro others on the i3 version of the NUC as well. I use the intel internal wifi and bluetooth card made by Intel. I had tried the bluetooth dongle with the Lenovo Q190 and that was a nightmare in getting the remote to sync and stay synced. With the intel nuc the resync is instant. I can validate the battery draw for you if you'd like. I just don't know how to. Can you specify so I can do it as well?

---

I just purchased a Red LED Panel Meter Mini Lithium Battery Digital Voltmeter DC 3.3V - 17V S9
Hope to get conclusive answers once i receive it. Since the meter is coming from China to LA I guess that will take time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...0629381271

[CaptainTivo]

Not True. With my configuration, the remote does hibernate. Without hibernation battery lasts 3 days. with hibernation it goes on for 45 days. I did notice if I boot directly to xbmc as shell, the hibernate feature does not work and the battery dies in 3 days. I went through two rounds of batteries until i switched back to desktop mode.

Not sure what you mean by "boot directly to xbmc as shell"? Can you please explain? Can you also give your configuration: what BT dongle do you have, what version of OS, etc?

I am running Windows 7 with updates with an ASUS USB BT211 dongle. I boot windows. I pair the remote control, I then run PS3Blumote. I then run XBMC. I have enabled the auto hibernation feature with a one minute timeout. I verify in the debug log that hibernation is attempted. I correlate the time that Blumote indicates that it has hibernated the remote with the current draw at that time and there is NO reduction or fluctuation of the current. As I said, I have tried PS3RemoteSleep and it will hibernate the remote. Since miljbee says he used this same code in his version of PS3Blumote (2.04), it should function just like PS3RemoteSleep, but it does not. I assure you that my configuration does not work. The question is: why not?

By direct to shell I mean that the windows explorer does not boot and I boot to xbmc as a shell. You have to make a bootup file in a config folder to load all the startup items before xbmc. However that disables the hibernate feature of the ps3blumote.

Question. When the ps3blumote application goes in hibernate, do you see the blue play sign go light blue? If not then I don't think its hibernating. I can check my log file to validate it as well.

Hi. I'm on Windows 7 with the Intel NUC i5 version. I have made the similar configurations fro others on the i3 version of the NUC as well. I use the intel internal wifi and bluetooth card made by Intel. I had tried the bluetooth dongle with the Lenovo Q190 and that was a nightmare in getting the remote to sync and stay synced. With the intel nuc the resync is instant. I can validate the battery draw for you if you'd like. I just don't know how to. Can you specify so I can do it as well?

---

I just purchased a Red LED Panel Meter Mini Lithium Battery Digital Voltmeter DC 3.3V - 17V S9
Hope to get conclusive answers once i receive it. Since the meter is coming from China to LA I guess that will take time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...0629381271

Hmm. I dont see how running XBMC rather than the windows shell would affect hibernation since it is Blumote that is running the code to cause the hibernation, but I'll take your word that it does not work.

Anyway, I thought about it some more and I found the answer. First, started with a totally different computer, which I am not using for a home theater PC. It is also running Windows 7. I first simply inserted the Asus BT adapter. Windows complained that it could not find a driver. I then downloaded the driver installation (100 Mb!) from Asus web site and installed it. Then inserted the BT adapter and it installed fine. I take this to mean that it is not using the Windows BT drivers. I then downloaded Blumote 2.04 via the new link in the first post. Before, I had downloaded it from the link in miljbee's post.

Running Blumote, it complains that there is no settings file and it creates a new one. Then I set auto hibernate to 1 minute. And lo and behold: It did hibernate the remote. Hmmm. I then took the remote back to my HTPC, where it did not work before. I downloaded and installed the "new" 2.04. This did NOT fix it (no hibernation). Hmmm. I then remembered that the new installation on the other machine had created a new settings file. Maybe that was the cause. I opened the settings file in a text editor. It seems to be and XML file. But here is the key, there is a tag which identifies the BT address of the adapter:

<btaddress>34:c7:31:01:e2:52</btaddress>

I then opened the BT device in the Devices and Printers app and looked that the properties of the adapter device. The BT unique ID was not the same as the one in the settings.ini file! Then I remembered. I had downloaded the ini file from this thread http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1451571 to get the key mappings. The problem is, this ini file already had a BT address in it. So I assume PS3Blumote is trying to hibernate the wrong BT device. I replaced the btaddress tag with the BT ID for my device and voila, it worked.

So the lesson is: if you replace the settings.ini file, make sure you set the btaddress to the one for your own BT device.

Now, the only problem I have is that same one that many other people are having. Most of the time, after the remote is hibernated and you press a button, it comes out of hibernation immediately and the button press is captured by PS3Blumote. However, sometimes, the remote will go into a mode in which it starts blinking the PS3 LED-lit button and it will not wake from hibernation for up to 20 seconds. The problem is that if you don't get an immediate response, the natural action is to press more buttons. If you press more that one key, these seem to be queued and, after the exit from hibernation, are sent to PS3Blumote all at once. Does anyone know why this behavior happens? I have tried waiting various time periods after hibernation to press a button but I dont see an obvious correlation between the wait time and whether it will go into the led-blink mode. The led-blinking reminds me of when you put the remote into discover mode by pressing Start and Enter at the same time. Is is possible that it is somehow going into discover mode?

[navigates]

@CaptainTivo:
Great Find. I will check that part for myself. I remember my friend also complains that this battery dies very often. I had given him my ini file as well. Thanks a lot for this find. Since I'm waiting for my voltameter. I will rename my ini file and let pstblumote recreate it and check the bluetooth address.

As for your problem with the remote lights, here is my theory. May be wrong. I had a similar problem with the ps3 remote which I had purchased from best buy. My wife did her nails and but the thinner cotton on the remote which made the corner discolored. Being the OCD I am I returned the remote to bestbuy and purchased another one from amazon as an amazon seller.

The remote that came from amazon never gets into the blinking mode which looks like discovery. I'm not sure but I feel since my experience. I doubt that it may be the remote iteself. but you never know. I purchased another ps3 remote from amazon for a friend and his too does not go into the discovery mode.

But another point to note. we both are running nucs with internal bluetooth adapter. Does your other PC have an internal bluetooth. Can you test this functionality there to do a POC?

[CaptainTivo]

@CaptainTivo:
Great Find. I will check that part for myself. I remember my friend also complains that this battery dies very often. I had given him my ini file as well. Thanks a lot for this find. Since I'm waiting for my voltameter. I will rename my ini file and let pstblumote recreate it and check the bluetooth address.

As for your problem with the remote lights, here is my theory. May be wrong. I had a similar problem with the ps3 remote which I had purchased from best buy. My wife did her nails and but the thinner cotton on the remote which made the corner discolored. Being the OCD I am I returned the remote to bestbuy and purchased another one from amazon as an amazon seller.

The remote that came from amazon never gets into the blinking mode which looks like discovery. I'm not sure but I feel since my experience. I doubt that it may be the remote iteself. but you never know. I purchased another ps3 remote from amazon for a friend and his too does not go into the discovery mode.

But another point to note. we both are running nucs with internal bluetooth adapter. Does your other PC have an internal bluetooth. Can you test this functionality there to do a POC?

Both of my remotes are Sony models CECH-ZRC1U puchased from Amazon. They both exhibit the same behavior. It appears to be time related. If a button is pressed with a few minutes after hibernation, it comes out of hibernation immediately. If I leave overnight, then I get the blinking search. Eventually it does respond, though, so it is probably not really in pairing mode. None of my machines has internal BT. I am using the ASUS USB dongle on all of them.

While I like the Sony PS3 remote, I have to say that the old Firefly that I had was better. The batteries lasted for many months. I had integrated it with Eventghost and was able to have XBMC launch Total Media Theater 5 to play Blu ray rips and it would then switch to keyboard mapping for the TM5. I need to think about how to replicate that setup using the Sony now.

[theredguy]

Mine does the blinking thing occasionally as well. I haven't figured out what scenario triggers it, or how to gracefully get out of it.

[navigates]

@CaptainTivo:
Great Find. I will check that part for myself. I remember my friend also complains that this battery dies very often. I had given him my ini file as well. Thanks a lot for this find. Since I'm waiting for my voltameter. I will rename my ini file and let pstblumote recreate it and check the bluetooth address.

As for your problem with the remote lights, here is my theory. May be wrong. I had a similar problem with the ps3 remote which I had purchased from best buy. My wife did her nails and but the thinner cotton on the remote which made the corner discolored. Being the OCD I am I returned the remote to bestbuy and purchased another one from amazon as an amazon seller.

The remote that came from amazon never gets into the blinking mode which looks like discovery. I'm not sure but I feel since my experience. I doubt that it may be the remote iteself. but you never know. I purchased another ps3 remote from amazon for a friend and his too does not go into the discovery mode.

But another point to note. we both are running nucs with internal bluetooth adapter. Does your other PC have an internal bluetooth. Can you test this functionality there to do a POC?

Both of my remotes are Sony models CECH-ZRC1U puchased from Amazon. They both exhibit the same behavior. It appears to be time related. If a button is pressed with a few minutes after hibernation, it comes out of hibernation immediately. If I leave overnight, then I get the blinking search. Eventually it does respond, though, so it is probably not really in pairing mode. None of my machines has internal BT. I am using the ASUS USB dongle on all of them.

While I like the Sony PS3 remote, I have to say that the old Firefly that I had was better. The batteries lasted for many months. I had integrated it with Eventghost and was able to have XBMC launch Total Media Theater 5 to play Blu ray rips and it would then switch to keyboard mapping for the TM5. I need to think about how to replicate that setup using the Sony now.

I've heard of rave reviews for FLIRC. I have that as well but it didn't work well in my configuration. I have ordered another infra red remote fro WD Play live. Lets see how that works but for now the ps3 remote works.

[theredguy]

Is it possible to wake your computer from sleep with this remote? I am also using a Logitech bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo and the keyboard will wake the computer from sleep. Is the Logitech bluetooth dongle doing some kind of magic that can't be done with the remote control?

[navigates]

Is it possible to wake your computer from sleep with this remote? I am also using a Logitech bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo and the keyboard will wake the computer from sleep. Is the Logitech bluetooth dongle doing some kind of magic that can't be done with the remote control?

Not that I know off. I use Wakeup on LAN to wake the PC up. I've also finally installed FLIRC on the WD Live PlayTV remote and that seems to be working well.