eskro Wrote:wow o.O 5-6 feet away it completely stopped working!!

How could they do that!!

thats a shame!!

i wonder if you plug your HP MCE USB IR where the ASROCK one was,
PowerON/OFF still works??

voip-ninja Wrote:However power toggle has worked on every MCE receiver I have tried. It just can't do a cold boot from the remote.

eskro Wrote:ok hold on, im getting confused

if i got it right,
using your HP IR receiver plugged in where the ASROCK one was,
you cant PowerON/OFF your HTPC?
meaning, you need specifically the ASROCK receiver for PowerON/OFF!?

voip-ninja Wrote:Okay, I've got it more or less working. Initially I did not think that the power toggle for the "ms keyboard" was working, but after testing it appears that it does. The only remaining issue now is that the inter-key delay is not very good.

Here's what I have done.

I build a new custom Harmony activity that included;

1. AVR
2. Media Center PC
3. Media Center KB
4. TV

I then mapped whichever buttons I wanted from whichever device. I also manually added a "power toggle" from the Media Center PC remote to both start and stop of my "use XBMC PC" activity... just in case the Power Toggle for the Media Center KB was not picked up.

I have observed that the Media Center KB seems to have poor inter-key delay times compared to the Media Center PC... so I just mapped those buttons for the up/down/left/right/ok rather than messing around with playing with the button timings in the Harmony activity.

It is working fairly well. I have observed that the range and angle of the ASRock USB CIR is not really all that great, so I might run a USB extension so that I can position it more in the center of my media rack.

I still need some help debugging remaining playback issues, but that can go into another more appropriate thread.

voip-ninja Wrote:Okay, I have found something about the ASRock CIR that is probably a deal breaker for most of those here.

The whole time I had been testing it, I was just a few feet away from the sensor. As soon as I moved more than 5-6 feet away it completely stopped working. The range is terrible!

I plugged in my heavy duty HP MCE USB IR and it works from across the room over 15 feet away.

So, looks like the ASRock will not work for me after all, I will have to power up/down the box the old fashioned way. At least I'm only out $8.

rufrothy Wrote:I think he's saying that plugging in the HP into another USB slot yields similar functionality minus the cold start.

Bummer regardless. I'll post my observations when mine arrives....

eskro Wrote:ok hold on, im getting confused

if i got it right,
using your HP IR receiver plugged in where the ASROCK one was,
you cant PowerON/OFF your HTPC?
meaning, you need specifically the ASROCK receiver for PowerON/OFF!?

voip-ninja Wrote:Okay, I have gotten some requests to provide some specifics on the USB IR that I am going to order directly from ASRock.

1. I'm not responsible if you try to order this and they say "who the hell are you", "no" or simply ignore you (I included a printout of the support response that indicated they could sell me one when I ordered mine to try to avoid that possibility).

2. I'm not responsible if this thing does not work with your motherboard (or your universal remote).

3. From doing research on this, the profile for Microsoft MCE should simply "work" with this thing, but I'm not sure about the power on/off functionality, I will know more if/when mine arrives.

4. The nice folks at ASRock told me I could get the USB adapter + remote control directly from Super Biiz, so you could always try going that route too.

5. Maybe if enough people flood them with checks requesting these devices they will realize there is a retail market for it and make the part available on Newegg and elsewhere.... or, they could decide they don't want to deal with end users and stop offering it. I don't know. Caveat Emptor.

So, here's the info.