IR Server Suite - Feature Requests and Roadmap

[MJGraf]

You're the man!

Many thanks for all you've done!

Michael

[riadmelb]

Hi Aaron,

Can you please include window minimize/maximize/restore macro items? What I'm trying to do is while I'm in MP I would like to press a remote button to call a macro which will minimize MP and launch an app, then once I'm done with the app I press another remote button which will close the app and maximize MP.

Thank you Aaron for your time in developing such a great suite.

Riad

[lulsam]

First of all, I wanna report the version 1.0.41 is working out absolutely great for me with a MCE remote (plus its dongle).

Recently I bought a nice silverstone Grandia gd01-mxr and would like to use the ir receiver bult in (with the mce remote that I already have or with the imon remote) so I can clean of external wires the htpc environment. AFAIK there are several people out there using MP with imon, so could mean an extra group of users!!!

Also I read in other threads that you are working as well in some experimental code to support Hauppauge blaster, which will mean for me the best option to keep out all the cables as I also have a hvr-1300 getting dust out of my htpc => grandia / imon ir receiver + hauppauge ir blaster (sure it will take a lot of time to implement it, but you ask for ideas...)

IMHO your suite is a great software, but from what i've read your support is even better!!! Many thanks from myself and the MP community

[alexbzg]

Is support of Tekram IRMate 210 possible? It works with LIRC, but not with WinLIRC.

[Neptuni]

Hi Aaron,

I would like to control some LED's on my livingroom client to show status for the server; recording, timeshift at minimum.
I'm thinking on replacing the audio input/output 3.5 mm jacks on my Antec Fusion case for two 3 mm status LED's.

The events in the IR-server suite, are they TV-server aware or just local?

I'm thinking on maybe intregrate some of the functionality from your tvserver monitor.

The printerport could be used to control them or maybe a Velleman K8055 kit (analog/digital in/out) with has a well documented dll to use (Velleman Components n.v. ).

I would love to be able to use the Velleman unit to interface to the real world (fan control, temperature reading, analog LED lightning control etc)


/Mikael

[and-81]

riadmelb:

I'll try to get this included for the next version, but if I don't manage to get it done in time you could use an exe to do this.

Try NirCmd:
NirCmd - Freeware command-line tool

It does a LOT of useful stuff...

lulsam:

Supporting Imon receivers is now on my To Do list, but I don't have one so it might take a while.

As far as Hauppauge support goes: I am adding receiver support a the moment, and I have a small exe for doing channel changes on an STB. But using it as a general IR blaster is not going to happen any time soon, if it all. There is some pretty complicated code being used in Lirc to do it. But without a unit of my own to test with it would take a LOT of trial and error to get it working in IR Server Suite.

alexbzg:

To make IRDA devices (like the Tekram IRMate 210) work like remote receivers in Windows requires a pretty huge effort. Even Lirc can only get a small number of them to work on Linux. I just don't think I could take the time away from everything else to get IRDA support to work. And given the small number of IRDA devices that would work I doubt it's worth the large effort required.

Sorry mate.

Neptuni:

The only TV Server aware events are handled in the TV3 Blaster plugin... And there's not much you can do with that plugin apart from tune channels on an STB.

I could make a TV Server Event Mapper plugin that could execute IR Server Suite commands on TV Server events...

I could also add a Parallel port control command like I already have for Serial Port...

Supporting the Velleman K8055 is probably a little specific for inclusion, but when I get to version 1.0.5.0 you will be able to add extra command types to the IR Server Suite very easily... just by copying a dll file into the right folder... so supporting it then would be easy and could be offered as an additional download.

I've downloaded some files from the Velleman site and I'll take a look at how hard it would be to support it. I like the idea.

everyone:

Thanks for your suggestions, keep them coming.

Cheers,

[Neptuni]

Hi Aaron,

I would like to have the possibilty to set/clear the DTR and CTS output lines of the serial ports.
It would make an very easy way to control two status LED's.

/Mikael

[and-81]

Neptuni:

Hmm, might be tricky ...

I'd need to keep the port open all the time ... Which is probably a job for a separate program ... but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for the idea,

[Neptuni]

Hi Aaron,

I looked at the internet a bit and found info at this page

The interesting stuff:

The serial port DTR and RTS pins can be controlled by directly writing to the I/O-port address which is the RS-232 port base address + 4.

The bits what you should set to that port are following:

Bit D0: DTR pin state (0 = -12V, 1 = +12V)
Bit D1: RTS pin state (0 = -12V, 1 = +12V)
Bits D2-D7: Leave those to be 0
In the relay controlling circuit examples above +12V energizes the relay and -12V does not nergize it. Here is a short table of different values you send to serial port and the states different pins get:

Value DTR RTS
sent state state

0 -12V -12V
1 +12V -12V
2 -12V +12V
3 +12V +12V

The standard I/O port addresses for different COM ports are following (in some systems are are some different one used sometimes):

Serial Typical I/O Memory location (in DOS) where
port address I/O address in use can be read

COM1 3F8h 0040:0000
COM2 2F8h 0040:0002
COM4 378h 0040:0004
COM4 278h 0040:0006

Straigt controlling the I/O ports if the serial port controlling chip is usually the mist straightforward way to do the relay controlling.
For actual programming code examples take a look at my Parallel port interfacing made easy article program examples. Just change the I/O port addresses and the values uou send to the port to match the one tols this article and the examples are usable.

Maybe it could be helpful, I thought the output pins are latched?

Thanks for an excellent software!


/Mikael

[Snoopy08]

Hi Aaron

I have Silverstone case with the Imon inbuilt sensor and would really love to be able to use it with media portal
for thae same reason as many, no loose cables..

For me and i would say many this would be a really important addition to make MP more functional as a media centre.

Looking at what you have done so far is brillent along with all the other MP developers ,and im sure in the future
the whole thing will be one of the best around..

Anyway like many i would love to see support for the Imon inbuilt reciever..