Newb Help: Simple SW Remote to control devices through UIRT

ShiftyPowers · Post by **ShiftyPowers** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:42 pm

Ok, I've been batting my head and searching all over the forum forever to try and figure this out and I finally gave up. So I managed to install the USB UIRT plugin and set up 2 remotes and taught HB the commands for each control (Set Top Box and Receiver are the remotes).

So now in my HB I have two remotes in the Remote Control Library. I can go in there and test out the commands and they actually work.

Now I want to translate these USB UIRT commands to my first ever software remote. Can someone help me out with this?

I created a new control and made it a button but after that I'm stuck as to how to get it to work.

What I'd like to do several times is have something like this:

1. One big button with a label that when I press it it sends the appropriate IR command through the USB UIRT (such as "Power Receiver On" or "Channel Up", etc.).

Can anyone help me out with this?

Thanks,

Post by **ScottBot** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:09 am

Your missing step is to create an IR Device and associate it with the USB-UIRT Hardware Interface. The IR Device that you create will have certain properties that will map to the IR Codes that you learned. Then from the Theme Button, you can change the properties of the device, which will cause the IR codes to be sent through the USB-UIRT.

You can read into the specifics of creating your own IR Device to match the functionality of your equipment by selecting "Help/Plugin Help..." from the main menu. Then select the Tuner Device and press the View Help button. This will describe how to setup and configure an IR device. Once that's setup and configured, you should be able to control the device using the Theme controls.

ShiftyPowers · Post by **ShiftyPowers** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:57 am

Yeah I managed to get this to work, looking good. Even have my first remote going. Very basic, just a bunch of buttons.

What I'm trying to do now is figure out a good way to do a Volume slider or pair of buttons. Any idea how to do those?

EDIT:

I managed to create some volume buttons with alpha properties that essentially mimic pressing the up or down volume buttons on the control (no numeric values). However, if you hold the button for too long the volume gets REAAAAALLLY high. Any ideas? My repeat timing is set to 100ms, the minimum

dlmorgan999 · Post by **dlmorgan999** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:32 am

I ran into the same problem myself and the solution (as odd as it seems) is to actually *increase* the "Every" value. What happens is that the USB-UIRT takes about 350-400ms to send an IR command. You're telling HouseBot to send one every 100ms.

Even though the UIRT can't send commands that fast it still buffers all the requests. So if you have it set to repeat every 100ms and hold the button for your "Button held for" value plus one second it will send 10 IR commands but the UIRT will take 3-4 seconds to send them all. So for your volume example the volume will keep increasing for several seconds after you release the button!

In my configuration I am using 500ms. I suspect I could get away with 350-400 but I haven't done any testing yet so I'm using 500ms as a safe value.

-- Dave

ShiftyPowers · Post by **ShiftyPowers** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 1:17 pm

so let me get this straight....you set your "every" button to 500ms, but what did you set the other "button held for" value to?

dlmorgan999 · Post by **dlmorgan999** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 2:12 pm

I have my "button held for" set to 500ms as well. What this means is that if I hold the button for more than 1/2 second (500 ms) send the repeat command every 1/2 second until I release the button.

-- Dave