[clockbox]

I purchased this remote to go with a new HTPC build:
Rosewill MCE Remote

I did a clean install of Live Dharma and the remote is not working. I discovered that its VID/PID are not in the Lirc driver, so I added them and rebuilt the modules. I now get all the keypresses showing up when I use "irw".

My problem is that XBMC doesn't not recognize any of the buttons. If I let the screen dim from inactivity, pressing a button will brighten it again, but none of the buttons do anything.

Is there a step I'm missing to getting a remote working with XBMC in Linux?

[drzoo2]

I purchased this remote to go with a new HTPC build:
Rosewill MCE Remote

I did a clean install of Live Dharma and the remote is not working. I discovered that its VID/PID are not in the Lirc driver, so I added them and rebuilt the modules. I now get all the keypresses showing up when I use "irw".

My problem is that XBMC doesn't not recognize any of the buttons. If I let the screen dim from inactivity, pressing a button will brighten it again, but none of the buttons do anything.

Is there a step I'm missing to getting a remote working with XBMC in Linux?

I'm not sure if the live version differs as I compile on Linux, but you have to add the remote device name in your lircd.conf to the lircmap file located in the users/.xbmc/userdata/ directory.

lircd.conf.......

Code:

begin remote

  name  Xbox_Remote

lircmap in user directory......

Code:

<lircmap>
    <remote device="Xbox_Remote">

Also make sure your button press names are the same
lircd.conf.......

begin codes
left 0xA9
up 0xA6
right 0xA8
down 0xA7
enter 0x0B
1 0xCE
2 0xCD
3 0xCC
4 0xCB
5 0xCA
6 0xC9
7 0xC8
8 0xC7
9 0xC6
0 0xCF
menu 0xF7
display 0xD5
rewind 0xE2
ffwd 0xE3
play 0xEA
pause 0xE6
stop 0xE0
skip- 0xDD
skip+ 0xDF
title 0xE5
info 0xC3
back 0xD8
end codes

lircmap

<play>play</play>
<pause>pause</pause>
<stop>stop</stop>
<forward>forward</forward>
<reverse>reverse</reverse>
<left>left</left>
<right>right</right>
<up>up</up>
<down>down</down>
<select>enter</select>
<back>back</back>
<menu>menu</menu>
<title>title</title>
<info>info</info>
<skipplus>skip+</skipplus>
<skipminus>skip-</skipminus>
<display>display</display>
<one>1</one>
<two>2</two>
<three>3</three>
<four>4</four>
<five>5</five>
<six>6</six>
<seven>7</seven>
<eight>8</eight>
<nine>9</nine>
<zero>0</zero>
</remote>

Notice "play" is lower case in both spots and spelled the same in both locations. The same for the rest of the button press mnemonics.

[clockbox]

I tried copying the Lircmap.xml from the /usr/share/xbmc/system folder to my .xbmc/userdata folder since it used the appropriate lirc device name (mceusb), but that didn't have any effect.

I did stumble onto the solution, which turned out not to be configuration related at all. You see, I have my little Ion Netbox sitting on the floor in front of the tv while I configure everything. I noticed that even without the Lircmap file I could occasionally get the menu to move if I held a button down for several seconds. This meant that XBMC could get the keys from lirc and that something else was the problem.

I discovered that if I covered the receiver with my hand and left only a small opening for the remote, I could get the buttons to work fine. At this point I noticed there is a tiny red LED inside the receiver that lights up when it's receiving a command. When I had it covered, it would light up each time I pressed a button. When I uncovered it the LED was on constantly. I realized that the remote was essentially getting jammed by some other infrared source.

After moving my hand around to see where I needed to shade it from I discovered that it was the television. Moving the receiver so that it was not in direct line with the tv image made everything work. It appears that my tv (Panasonic plasma) is putting off infrared light interferes with remote control receivers. I was able to get success with irw because the tv was on the console, which doesn't output much light. When I was on XBMC the bright, pretty images blinded the receiver.

I never would have thought that the tv could interfere with the remote control receiver!

[drzoo2]

I tried copying the Lircmap.xml from the /usr/share/xbmc/system folder to my .xbmc/userdata folder since it used the appropriate lirc device name (mceusb), but that didn't have any effect.

I did stumble onto the solution, which turned out not to be configuration related at all. You see, I have my little Ion Netbox sitting on the floor in front of the tv while I configure everything. I noticed that even without the Lircmap file I could occasionally get the menu to move if I held a button down for several seconds. This meant that XBMC could get the keys from lirc and that something else was the problem.

I discovered that if I covered the receiver with my hand and left only a small opening for the remote, I could get the buttons to work fine. At this point I noticed there is a tiny red LED inside the receiver that lights up when it's receiving a command. When I had it covered, it would light up each time I pressed a button. When I uncovered it the LED was on constantly. I realized that the remote was essentially getting jammed by some other infrared source.

After moving my hand around to see where I needed to shade it from I discovered that it was the television. Moving the receiver so that it was not in direct line with the tv image made everything work. It appears that my tv (Panasonic plasma) is putting off infrared light interferes with remote control receivers. I was able to get success with irw because the tv was on the console, which doesn't output much light. When I was on XBMC the bright, pretty images blinded the receiver.

I never would have thought that the tv could interfere with the remote control receiver!

The TV uses this to determine how much intensity to set the backlight based on Room darkness. On my Sammy it's part of the ECO setting. Try turning it off. I have heard off this creating noise for the IR.

z


Edit: I found this on the Roku forums.
http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=25550

[clockbox]

The TV uses this to determine how much intensity to set the backlight based on Room darkness. On my Sammy it's part of the ECO setting. Try turning it off. I have heard off this creating noise for the IR.

z


Edit: I found this on the Roku forums.
http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=25550

As far as I can tell, my tv does not have that feature. I think that's usually an LCD feature anyway as it just adjusts the backlight brightness. It seems to be the display itself that is putting out IR in addition to visible light.

Everything seems to be working now that I have it in the tv stand, out of a direct path to the screen. It does still pick up the tv from the reflection off the coffee table, but it seems to be weak enough that an actual remote code gets picked up. It appears that this receiver is just very sensitive.