"Philips MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plus" (shipping with some Zotac Boxes) (1 Viewer)

[belcom]

Hi paolo_nl!

From your problem report I understand that you are using the "Philips MCE USB IR Receiver- spinel plus" as your external remote receiver. As remote control device you are NOT using the one shipped with the remote receiver but anoter "MCE" one.
By now, we don't know if the Philips receiver works with remotes other then the bundled ones.
But as Hibernate and Wakeup is working, it is to assume that your remote may also work with the receiver.

Do arrow keys, ok button, numbers and volume control work in other (normal) windows? (you can test in notepad)
If not, please post commented screenshots of your HID test program.
If yes, we will go further in next post.

Yours,
belcom.

 

[paolo_nl]

I indeed am trying to use a generic (harmony) remote to work with this IR receiver. When I program my harmony remote as a MCE remote, I can't use any buttons. When I program it as a asus remote (either bravo or bravo 220) the arrow buttons, number buttons, on/of (edit --> ok button) and mute button are working. I don't need to run IRSS though to get them to work. If i do use IRSS nothing changes. The buttons will work when used as the Asus bravo remote, and won't work if programmed as a MCE remote.

 

[belcom]

First, for not getting confused, we should talk about the term "MCE".
"MCE" means "Media Center Edition" and is in no means a technical specification.
What Microsoft tried to say with "MCE Remote" when they released their first MCE Remote was, that you can control Windows Media Center with it.

Knowing that, let's go to the technical stuff.
All newer IR Receivers have USB interface and identify themselves as HID-Device against the Operating System (we won't speak about old HW with serial connection or other USB implementations here).
HIDs (Human Interface Devices) can send "commands" to the OS.
To serve different types of HID devices, the HID specification splits the devices in some groups. E.g. HID-Mouse, HID-Keyboard, HID-Gamepad, HID-Whatsoever.
So, every USB HID-Device does not only identify as HID-Device, but also as (virtual) sub-devices.
Our Philips receiver for example identifies as
- HID-Keyboard (Arrow Keys, Number Keys, Enter and everything you find on a normal keyboard is grouped here)
- HID-Powermanagement (Wakeup, Hibernate, Standby, Shutdown, ...)
- HID-Media (Volume, Mute, Play, Pause, ...)
- HID-Custom (Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Teletext, DVD, TV, Music, Photo, Guide, ...)

Windows itself takes full control over HID-Keyboard, HID-Mouse, HID-Powermanagement and the volume part of HID-Media. So, if a HID Device sends appropriate commands over one of those interfaces (virtual connections), Windows handles them on its own.
Handling HID-Media (other than Volume) and HID-Custom needs support of additional software.
Windows Media Center has a built-in support for those non-windows handled virtual devices, and that's where the term MCE comes back.
Every receiver which sends commands being able to be handled by Windows Media Center has the "MCE" in its name or at least in its description.

And here comes the big BUT:
A MCE Receiver doesn't straight forward "MCE" commands coming from MCE remotes to USB/HID.
In fact, IR receivers translate (proprietary) IR signals coming from IR remotes into corresponding (well known) HID commands.
These IR signals can be ANY signals, they change between manufactures and even between models of the same manufacture.
So the goal for every generic/non bundled remote is to match ALL the IR signals (IR codes) the receiver understands and can translate.

Most generic remotes can learn IR signals from other remotes. If possible, use the bundled remote to program your generic remote.
A second option is to see if there is a database for your generic remote, holding a IR signal table for your receiver (e.g. Logitech Harmony has databases). Hint: In such databases, receivers are often not named correctly, but having the name of the product it was bundled with. So try to find a bunch of products having the same receiver bundled and try those setups.
Third option is to try to program other receivers into your generic remote and test it by try&error.

Let's come to our actual issue:
A quick google "Harmony Philips spinel plus" returned a forum post where "Targa traveller 1577" (as setup for harmony) was meant to be working.
To use the HID-Custom buttons (see above) in MediaPortal you need to install IRSS.

 

[paolo_nl]

okay, got your point. The USB receiver wich identifies as an Philips mce usb ir receiver is programmed differently to every remote it is shipped with? In my case, it has been shipped with an Asus bravo 220 graphics card , and thus, programmed to the small asus bravo remote. When i set up this remote (asusBravo) in my harmony the keys described above work well. When i program my harmony with the "targa traveller 1577" nothing happens. Is there a way to program extra keys in this setup for example, play, stop, guide etcetera? On this matter , i would like to find a way to get this receiver working, just out of curiosity. Perhaps, In order to save me some time, it's better to buy a new ir receiver. which one should I buy?

 

[belcom]

Try use ASUS Bravo setup, having IRSS running.
Open Debug Client (IRSS), click Connect and tell what you see when pressing some of the custom buttons (the ones mentioned under HID-Custom above)

 

[paolo_nl]

IRSS is running, with philips MCE usb receiver.... and windows messages checked (receive) . in debug mode i can't get any reaction when custom (or otherr) buttons pressed. however i can control the selection with my arrow keys en ok button works as enter.

(edit)
in HID test program i do get readings for all the buttons pressed

 

[belcom]

Sorry for the delay paolo, I was busy.
Please tell me what program you exactly mean with "HID test program".
Can you make and post a screenshot where I can see the readings?
This way I may figure out what your receiver doesn't do or does different than mine.

 

[paolo_nl]

Hey Belcom,

no problem. I assume you too have got a normal day job which needs your attention! ;-)
I use a HID test program from assembla.com (https://www.assembla.com/spaces/melloware/wiki/Test_USB_Remote_Procedure)

on this screenshot you see the output for the buttons "guide" "play" and "green button" when harmony programmed as a MCE remote
http://www.wittehal.com/wp-content/gallery/mediaportal/guide_play_greenbutton.jpg

in this scrrenshot you see the output for the buttons "volume uo", "volume down" and "info" when harmony programmed as a asus bravo remote
http://www.wittehal.com/wp-content/gallery/mediaportal/volup_voldown_info.png

Tonight I tried to add some extra buttons to the Asus bravo setup without success. I really have no idea what to do next in order to get this to work.

 

[belcom]

Ok, just had a look on this HID Test Program.
It can export all the usage info which is nice to have when programming.
So please, select each Philips entry in the list, click "Info", save it to a text file and post all these text files here.
Then I can analize our issue better.

 

[belcom]

Also, it would be cool if you could press all buttons with HID Test running, copy the output to a textfile and comment there which button you have pressed.
Do this for Asus, MCE and maybe with other Harmony setups which show something in HID Test.

Thanks