Remote Problems... Please help. (1 Viewer)

[TonyPeperoni]

Firstly, apologies if this topic has been covered before. I've scoured the forums and could not find the answer.

I've just switched to the wonderful Mediaportal using my PCMCIA DVB TV Tuner Card (ADS Tech PTV-335) and it's all great, apart from the fact that I cannot get the remote to work at all. There is a IR receiver built in to the card which works fine with the supplied software (Ulead Instamedia 2.1). I've tried Girder, Hips, WinLirc to no avail. I've had no response from ADS TEch Technical Support and I'm hoping someone here could steer me in the right direction.

There is a small application running in the background (rmc.exe) that detects the power button and starts the main application. It doesn't appear to emulate keystrokes. If I could just figure out where the command is sent once parsed, it would be easy to write a small app to send keystrokes to MP.

I'd really appreciate any help anyone could give & many thanks for this first-class software!

Tony

 

[Marcusb]

hi, I don't know much about that specific remote, but if you are using HIP or Girder, it may be necessary to stop that process that is running, since it may be blocking access to the hardware for the other apps.

It is also possible that this remote hasn't been set to work with Girder or HIP, in which case you may be out of luck.

My recommendations are:
1) try again without any of the software for the receiver running.
2) try the MCE Receiver app that comes with MP (you could be lucky, but doubtful)
3) wait for a response from the people that made the card.
4) test to see if it is sending signals via HID protocols
5) contact And-81, who wrote the MCE app for MP. He's our resident Remote Control whiz kid he may be able to help.
6) give up and buy a MS MCE receiver and remote (simplest solution, but you probably don't want extra gear hanging out your laptop.

 

[TonyPeperoni]

Thank-you so much for your help.

I've tried this without the receiver software running in the background.
The applicable remote data is located in a file called 'ADS_335_RCPLIB.dll'.
I'm not sure if I've managed to correctly setup HIP or Girder. Any tips on how to do this? I really am new to this.
The MCE receiver app doesn't work.
How would I test to see if it is sending signals via HID protocols?
How do I contact And-81?
I'm not going to give up on this and add extra hardware. There must be a way to do this.

How does one intercept the App_Commands that are sent by software or access the hardware itself? I am a confident programmer, and would be happy to create a solution to distribute here. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be a straight forward case of accessing a COM port.

Thanks again!

 

[and-81]

Just got contacted by Tony, so I'll reply here instead of in PM.

I'll help if I can, but it is always difficult with devices like this...

If the standard software is delivering app commands or simulating keystrokes then you could capture those (HIP and Girder can both do that pretty easily)

Does the ir receiver show up in Device Manager at all? Under "Human Interface Devices" ?

Perhaps you can send me the dll file to have a look at...

Cheers,

 

[TonyPeperoni]

Thanks for helping

Thanks for your quick reply.

I've attached the dll file. The device does not appear in Device Manager as a HID.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[and-81]

ok, I've created a test app to try and gather some information.

It uses the ADS_335_RCPLIB.dll, which needs to be in the same folder.

Basically, it tries to initialize the device, then get a keypress and then de-initialize the device.

It then repeats the process using a slightly different method.

The whole test is logged to a file that is created in the same folder, so give it a shot and post back the log.

maybe run it a couple of times and see if you can get anything out of it... try pressing buttons on the remote while it runs to see if that has any effect...

If the test works then I should be able to turn it into something usable in no time...

The program runs on my pc without crashing, but of course I don't have the device attached so the results are meaningless.

Good luck!

Cheers,

 

[TonyPeperoni]

Hi,

I ran the app a few times and it seems to work and consistently return codes for key presses on the remote. I've attached the log files.

Really appreciate your time...cheers!

Tony

 

[and-81]

ok, it looks like my second method for retrieving codes is working consistently.

One question: If you don't press a remote button what happens in the second test? Does it sit and wait? Or does it fall through?

I'm starting on the support right now. I'll add it to my IR Server Suite (which is actually easier to add a device for than MediaPortal itself), this will give you a way to replace the default software and control your whole PC (including MediaPortal) with it.

A MediaPortal plugin would let you control MediaPortal but would interfere with the original software for the remote.

EDIT: While I'm asking questions ... This support will need the ADS_335_RCPLIB.dll to work, where is this file usually found?

Cheers,

 

[TonyPeperoni]

Hi.

That's great!

If you don't press a key, the program does not wait for a key press. I've attached the log file generated in this case.

The dll file is usually located in Instamedia's root folder (C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead InstaMedia 2.1).

I wouldn't worry about interfering with the original software as it's junk compared to MP & I'll be uninstalling it shortly.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[and-81]

ok, gimme 15 minutes and I'll have something you can test.

Cheers,