Harmony One Sending Wrong IR Signals (1 Viewer)

[d3vkit]

I've been searching high and low, but can't find anything like this on the internet.
I previously had a Tira2 IR receiver in my old HTPC; it was hooked up to the internal USB headers. I have a Harmony One remote. I had set this up using eventghost to intercept the remote IR signals and translate them into key presses for MediaPortal. It worked great. Then, I replaced my HTPC entirely, and in the process hooked up my Tira2 wrong, destroying it. After a few months of no remote (except my phone), I finally got the money for another Tira2, and installed it a couple days ago. I figured since my software hadn't changed, everything would just work, and it almost does. Here's the problem:

In the Logitech remote setup, for my device I am using Computer -> HTPC -> Microsoft -> Windows Media Center.
This has always sent two different IR signals for each button press. I remember I read once why some remotes do this, but I can't remember now, but it wasn't a huge deal since I just had to assign two IR signals to each action, and it worked fine.
But now it seems to be intermittently sending new, random signals, SOMETIMES, and only when MP is in fullscreen. Here's what I've tested:

1. MP windowed, not always on top, eventghost off to one side to view codes as they come in. It seems to reliably work, only two different codes show up no matter how many times I press the same button.
2. MP in fullscreen, eventghost in tray. After a few button presses, I notice that a press doesn't seem to register - like a dead button. I minimize MP, look at eventghost, and see random IR signals that are not assigned to any action that are being sent instead of the two reliable ones I have assigned.

Distance hasn't changed, the IR receiver has changed but is still the same make and model, it seems like it ought to work fine.

This is driving me crazy, and nobody seems to have this issue. Ideally I would like my buttons to each send one signal, all the time.
Problems it might be:
1. Dying battery? It seems fine, no real indication that the battery is going dead.
2. Getting the IR receiver in my new case (nMediaPC 5000B) was a real pain, and I was worried it wouldn't line up with the window for the signal to get in. But a signal is ALWAYS received, just sometimes the wrong one.

If anyone has ideas or suggestions for getting this working, I'd love to hear them. I am fully prepared to scrap my old remote setup and start over, I just can't find good instructions for how to set this remote up for this situation. Everyone says, "Use MCE as the device and it will just work!"

Thanks in advance.

 

[d3vkit]

I know it's been a while and it doesn't look like anyone had any ideas or advice. But, I kept playing with the remote and found that although it was sending the wrong signal to event ghost way more frequently when MP was up and running, it had the same problem when MP was closed - just not as often so it was hard to tell, and is really weird because the remote has no idea what program is open or not. So there is one of two things happening:
1) Event Ghost is not interpreting the signals correctly (which I would find odd)
2) Remote is broken (seems most likely)

I had read about the battery swelling in some of the Ones, so I decided to take a look and it seems sort of swollen. I submitted a ticket to Logitech, hoping they'll cover it under warranty, but if not I'll just buy a new battery and hope that solves this problem. If it doesn't, I'll probably be right back here

 

[ferrocene]

That's strange. I use a Harmony One with EventGhost and MediaPortal. Works ok, trying to work out a few "bonus" features.

With the mediaportal plugin for eventghost, when i push a button, it triggers the mediaportal macro. only one button press shows up.

In the logitech software, I set the remote as a microsoft 1039 i think. Something similar to that.

Then I'm using the MessagePlugin with MCE remote to capture the eventghost windowing messages.

It also worked when I didn't use eventghost and just had mediaportal checked to use MCE remote. There were 2 problems though:

1. I can't start mediaportal this way. In eventghost, the power button launches the program.
2. If mediaportal doesn't have focus, it doesn't do anything! I have a dual-monitor setup, with the 46" LCD TV as the 2nd monitor and a 30' HDMI/DVI cable. If I start using my computer, the remote stops working. This way, with eventghost, even if I'm browsing the web, the remote still sends events to the right window.

I bought the Vista MCE remote just to get the IR receiver, it was like $25 online.

 

[d3vkit]

That's strange. I use a Harmony One with EventGhost and MediaPortal. Works ok, trying to work out a few "bonus" features.

With the mediaportal plugin for eventghost, when i push a button, it triggers the mediaportal macro. only one button press shows up.

In the logitech software, I set the remote as a microsoft 1039 i think. Something similar to that.

Then I'm using the MessagePlugin with MCE remote to capture the eventghost windowing messages.

It also worked when I didn't use eventghost and just had mediaportal checked to use MCE remote. There were 2 problems though:

1. I can't start mediaportal this way. In eventghost, the power button launches the program.
2. If mediaportal doesn't have focus, it doesn't do anything! I have a dual-monitor setup, with the 46" LCD TV as the 2nd monitor and a 30' HDMI/DVI cable. If I start using my computer, the remote stops working. This way, with eventghost, even if I'm browsing the web, the remote still sends events to the right window.

I bought the Vista MCE remote just to get the IR receiver, it was like $25 online.

Thanks for the input, especially the remote you used in the Logitech software. I'll try this out when I get home. I always hated that it sent two different signals for each button, but when it was consistently two it was easy enough to account for. Hopefully this other remote type will be more consistent. Does it allow input from most of the One's buttons? That was one thing that I think was happening with other remote types I set it to - it didn't have settings for all of the hard buttons, so it was too limiting. Can't wait to try this out and hopefully get some good results! Since the battery is holding a charge well (I think, I left it off the cradle for over a day and it was still full), and doesn't seem very swollen, I am thinking there is another problem here.

 

[ferrocene]

Actually I just checked and I'm using the MediaPortal device in the Harmony One software. This uses every button on the remote. I forgot about it..I was using the Microsoft MCE at one point.

To add it, go to Add Device and select (Device) Media Center PC -> (Manufacturer) MediaPortal, and call it whatever you like.

The cool thing about this is after you add it, you can customize the soft buttons/LCD on the remote too. For instance, I have Watch Live TV, Watch Recorded TV, Listen to Radio, etc. on the LCD screen. Pretty sweet.

 

[d3vkit]

Actually I just checked and I'm using the MediaPortal device in the Harmony One software. This uses every button on the remote. I forgot about it..I was using the Microsoft MCE at one point.

To add it, go to Add Device and select (Device) Media Center PC -> (Manufacturer) MediaPortal, and call it whatever you like.

The cool thing about this is after you add it, you can customize the soft buttons/LCD on the remote too. For instance, I have Watch Live TV, Watch Recorded TV, Listen to Radio, etc. on the LCD screen. Pretty sweet.

I believe I saw that option but thought I might have added it myself, so I figured it wouldn't do me much good (I think there is that option). I'll definitely double check tonight!

 

[d3vkit]

I am not having any luck using Media Portal as the device. I added it as a device, then added that to my activity, and went to customize the buttons. When I select it as the device, the command box shows up but is empty. Same with customizing buttons in the device itself. When I press the button it sends nothing, eventghost just sits there.

This page suggests using a tv, so I might try that. I just need a device that sends consistent signals of any sort for event ghost to interpret. Just weird that the device for MediaPortal doesn't do anything, feel like I'm missing something.

 

[ferrocene]

I am not having any luck using Media Portal as the device. I added it as a device, then added that to my activity, and went to customize the buttons. When I select it as the device, the command box shows up but is empty. Same with customizing buttons in the device itself. When I press the button it sends nothing, eventghost just sits there.

This page suggests using a tv, so I might try that. I just need a device that sends consistent signals of any sort for event ghost to interpret. Just weird that the device for MediaPortal doesn't do anything, feel like I'm missing something.

That's really strange. The device to add is specifically Media Center PC (Media Portal RSC-1000) according to Harmony Software. Here are some screenshots:

 

[d3vkit]

After some more messing around, I noticed that eventghost sometimes is receiving signals from my IR receiver when nothing is happening. Placing my hand over the front of it makes the signals stop, removing my hand makes them continue. There is something wrong with the IR receiver, but I've had no time to figure out what, or if I can fix it. Thanks for all the patient help you've given me in trying to figure this out. I'll probably be back with more news on this in a couple weeks, when I get some time to mess with this some more.

 

[d3vkit]

Well, I finally found the time/energy to tackle this problem again, and found a fix. Plasma TV's emit random amounts of IR, apparently, and about a year ago I bought a 50" plasma to replace my old 32" LCD. The fix is to block the low-level background IR and still let the remote IR through. I used masking tape, per this useful thread at AVSForum. I am not sure why I never had this problem with my old computer - maybe the placement of the receiver, or the old case, who knows. But now my remote seems to be sending much more consistent signals (or rather the receiver is receiving them correctly). It still occasionally picks up the wrong signal for when I push right (it goes left), and the okay button misfires and does nothing, but it's WAY more responsive than before - it used to be one of maybe 5 presses would respond, now it's every time. Worst part is that my sweet piano-black case has a couple of ugly yellow masking tape strips on it's face, but a more aesthetic solution will have to come later. Thanks again for bouncing ideas around with me.