Kodi Community Forum

Updated August 18, 2019

All I can say is grab this remote ASAP for just $14.99 (50% off regular price, probably not for long). It's a steal! (Not on sale anymore, but still a good buy)

All buttons, except for the Voice button, will work! I tested with both LibreELEC (an AMLogic S905X box) and CoreELEC (a S912 box). This remote will likely work with Raspberry Pi and Chromeboxes running LE as well if they have Bluetooth capability. Also works well with nVidia Shield & Mi Box (tested with both), and I'd expect w/Mi Box-es and some other Android boxes with Bluetooth. I bought 3 of them for all my other Kodi boxes .

My Amazon remote set-up with a S912 box & Odroid N2 (S922X), both w/CoreELEC installed:

Requirements to get the most out of this remote:

• A compatible Fire TV device (Stick 2nd gen, Stick 4K, Pendant or Cube) and the FTV remote that's already paired w/it (If you don't care for volume controls, then skip)
  
• Kodi program add-on Keymap Editor (from the official repository)
  

Steps:

Assuming you want volume controls, first pair your new FTV remote with compatible FTV device (listed above). To do this, use your original (already paired) FTV remote to go to Settings > Controllers & Bluetooth Devices...

Next up is setting up Equipment Control. As I had already done this with my Fire TV Stick 4K, the new Amazon remote also picked up my AVR's volume up/down and mute functionality. The Power button can be set-up with Equipment Control to power on/off your FTV device, AVR or soundbar and your TV. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with projectors (what I use), so my Power button turns on/off my AVR. So, keep in mind that whatever is/was programmed w/the Power button carries over after you pair with Kodi (CoreELEC or LibreELEC). In my case, I used Keymap Editor to have the Power button Reboot Kodi, and it worked, but it also turned off my AVR. A good way to detach the Power button's functionality from Amazon's Equipment Control was discovered by @axbmcuser later in this post (thanks for the nifty trick). If you haven't already set-up Equipment Control, and want volume control in Kodi, you should do so now...

Now, here are the final steps, to pair the new Amazon remote with Kodi. Before doing this, I'd suggest unplugging your Fire TV device (that the new remote is now paired to) so there isn't any interference. Let me show steps I used with a S912 box w/CoreELEC...

If pairing doesn't work with CoreELEC, keep trying (after deleting the AR bluebooth entry). After putting Amazon remote in pairing mode, and choosing AR, choose 'Trust and Connect' first, immediately followed by 'Pair'.

Things that make the new Amazon remote great are:
- Very responsive w/CE or LE
- Volume control for AVR or TV
- Solid buid quality, easy to hold, use
- 15 (out of the 16) buttons are usable, mappable
- Doesn't lose Bluetooth connection/pairing
- Cheap

Why? HDMI CEC (ARC) is superior. Single remote for all.

Believe this new Amazon remote is using HDMI-CEC protocol for Equipment Control (first introduced w/FTV Cube).

(2019-01-27, 19:12)hdmkv Wrote: [ -> ]Believe this new Amazon remote is using HDMI-CEC protocol for Equipment Control (first introduced w/FTV Cube).

 That's not correct.

The remote has IR as well as Bluetooth capabilities, and uses IR for TV control.

The confusion stems from Amazon using CEC (or EDID?) in the set-up process I think. Amazon have done some lateral thinking in FireTV OS and during set-up the Cube, Fire TV 4K, Fire TV Stick 4K etc. use the CEC protocol to interrogate the TV via the HDMI connection to find out what model it is, and then tell the remote control (I guess over Bluetooth) what brand the TV is to correctly program the IR codes in the remote.  CEC/EDID is only used for code setting of the volume/power commands during set-up, not day-to-day.

My Fire TV stick remote controls my TV power and volume with no other HDMI equipment connected to it, so it can't be using CEC (which is carried over specific HDMI pins) to control the TV.

This can cause issues if you use the remote with non-Fire TV OS devices once you've set it up.  The remote continues to send both Bluetooth and IR volume signals, with Fire TV OS ignoring the Bluetooth stuff if it knows the remote is configured for IR control of the TV.  However Kodi on third party products doesn't know this - so you get Kodi handling volume events (received by Bluetooth) AND your TV receiving IR volume instructions.

(A wireless remote on its own can't use CEC - only equipment physically connected via HDMI can)

Thanks for the insights @noggin. Still, being able to control Kodi and one's AVR/TV w/a simple (and well-built) remote is pretty cool. Not as enticing now though, as Amazon has bumped price back up to $29.99.

I bought today on uk amazon and works perfect with my nvidia shield. I will buy another one for my brother mi box :-)

Woooow, i've been struggling to connect this one. I didn't know it only works when pairing straight on. When using first trust and connect and then pair, it won't. You have to pair it straight away. Working now

I can get my amazon remote paired and connected OK but when in keymap editor none of the buttons will map, they're totally unresponsive. Tried on two different LibreElec boxes and it's the same on both Any ideas?

@roidy I think you might have the same problem I had. It says the device is connected but no buttons work. So, go into the bluetooth settings and remove/delete the device "AR". Then set the remote control in pairing mode by holding home button until orange light starts blinking. After your device is found select it and choose the first option. Should work after that.

@bechrissed Thanks, but I've tried that several times, I've tried resetting the remote by holding menu+back+left at the same time, still nothing. It shows as connected but none of the buttons respond.

OK, so after some more faffing around it's finally working, don't know what I did to make it work but hey I wont complain

And as an extra bonus that voice control button the OP said couldn't be mapped works fine for me, it maps as key id 61620, I think it may be because I reset my remote so it's not paired to any fireTV or setup for any other TV functions like volume.

Edit:
If someone also has problems with seeing the "AR" BT device on a LE device - try a different USB BT dongle. I had to try out 4. Only 1 of my dongles shows/detects the new Fire TV Remote with volume buttons named "AR", the other 3 only work with the older version of the remote which is identifies as "Amazon Fire TV Remote".

Now that i have successfully paired the "AR" remote on my LE device - i have the same problem as mentioned:

- Any button press on the remote does nothing, despite being successfully paired.

I already tried cleaning the config, resetted the AR remote, paired again. Pairing - no problem - button presses - they do nothing. :-(

Any idea? Thank you!

Edit 1:
Now it's working. Can't really say what's the fix. Fiddled around again and again following this steps:
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/amazon-alexa...l/78724/16

Happy now

Edit 2:
If you want to make this (meeaning the new "AR" remote) also work on older LibreELEC 8.2 systems, you have to upgrade bluez from 5.43 to 5.50 for your build.

Glad you got it working... takes persistence sometimes. I usually do 'Trust and Connect' first, then immediately follow with 'Pair'. Sometimes it just doesn't work... had this just happen w/a BT adapter I bought for my Odroid N2. After 7 tries, it worked.

I'm glad, too. Almost gave up on it because it did not look like a temporary problem which could be overcome by just fiddling around again and again and again.


First everyday use with my older LE 8.2 system (updated bluez 5.43 to 5.50) using the new Alexa Remote ("AR") went successful. No further connection problems so far. Also no problems "auto-reconnecting" the remote after reboots.


Still, there must be an issue which made all that retrying necessary - it's obviously not normal that the device is successfully paired countless times but does nothing button-press-wise.
Never had any issues at all with the older model of the remote. And the newer AR-remote connects flawless on all other systems i tried (like Mac OS). Maybe it'll get better with a future update of bluez? Not that familiar with linux.

One thing i had to do:
- I first configured the "AR"-remote on a FireTV to get the infrared volume-buttons for the AVR working. No problems here.
- But this results in these "infrared-sending" configured buttons still sending bluetooth button presses to KODI at the same time, which results in total mayhem, as you would expect. :-)
- I solved this by adding:

xml:
      <key id="61662">Noop</key>

      <key id="61625">Noop</key>

      <key id="61624">Noop</key>

      <key id="61623">Noop</key>

to ALL <keyboard> sections of my keyboard.xml keymaps file. (meaning within "global", "LoginScreen", "Home" etc. - 58 times in my case)
to be sure the buttons really stay "dead" regarding sending button presses via bluetooth.

Button presses overview:
61662 power
61620 voice
61625 vol up
61624 vol down
61623 mute

2 cents side note:

The previous Fire TV Remote without the volume button has been the best KODI BT-remote for a long time imho. (great almost instant reaction time to button presses besides obvious upsides of using BT over IR etc.)
The new one is even better with the great option to configure vol up/down, mute and power button for your AVR and TV sending infrared-commands.

This alone would be great, but the addtional option that all of these mentioned buttons including the voice-button can also be used as regular bluetooth button presses is more than i expected would be possible. Every button is mappable if you don't need the infrared-option.