433Mhz HID receiver or ...?

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:09 am

Hi All,

It is really interesting how much my home setup has simplified over the years. I went from having 8+ devices with tons of functions to really just 3 with a small number of functions.

Anyway currently I have my Xsight touch driving RF to a REX 433 receiver which then goes to IR to my Denon receiver and a Flirc in my ShieldTV.

I would really like to get the IR out of the ShieldTV path.

So - to that end - any thoughts on how I can get rid of it?

I have thought of:
1. Find a 433Mhz HID USB dongle (no idea if such a thing exists)
2. Snip the IR LEDs inside another USB receiver and connect them directly a line from the REX433 - basically short the transmit/receive LEDs.

Thoughts?

xnappo

P.S. I want to do this because right or wrong, I feel the responsiveness will be better.

pH7_jp1 · Post by **pH7_jp1** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:10 am

I'm just curious why you use FLIRC with the Shield. I have a NVIDIA Shield and control it directly with IR. No problems. I realize this is no help with your goal of completely avoiding IR.

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:15 am

I like having additional keyboard controls for Kodi like page up/page down, dedicated context menu button etc.

Unless there is another way to do that?

xnappo

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:19 am

Sigh - looking at the upgrade in the download section, it is indeed daft to be using FLIRC with it

I may try this and see if it is more responsive than FLIRC.

pH7_jp1 · Post by **pH7_jp1** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:53 am

Good luck. I don't use Kodi enough to have investigated the other commands, but hope it works well for you.

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 7:02 pm

Okay, now I feel less dumb

They removed the IR receiver from the 2017 model. I thought it would be strange for me to completely overlook built-in IR!

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:37 pm

@barf , do you have a tool to output FLIRC hex instead of relying on crappy learns?

Barf · Post by **Barf** » Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:58 am

What is "FLIRC hex"? If you can point me to a specification, it can probably be done. (I own a FLIRC dongle).

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Tue Jan 30, 2018 7:14 am

Well, yeah I don't know that the exact info needed is available.

What I do know:

1. When you save a .cfg file, it appears that each key code appears with a 32-bit hex number representing the data to transmit.
2. If you turn on debugging, you can see what was captured in a format described here: http://blog.flirc.tv/index.php/2017/08/ ... t-support/
3. SDK is available here: https://github.com/flirc/sdk

He seems fairly open to collaboration..

Thanks,
xnappo

pH7_jp1 · Post by **pH7_jp1** » Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:30 am

xnappo wrote:They removed the IR receiver from the 2017 model.

I'm glad I bought mine before then. Omitting IR seems to be a trend in streaming devices. I guess a manufacturer can assume that anyone buying their product will also have Wi-Fi. Since the devices must already have the necessary H/W & S/W to interface to the network, then using that for remote control avoids mfg. costs of additional H/W for IR. Probably pennies, but pennies count. Soon we will need a universal remote that can do both to achieve the control we are used to.

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:34 am

Yep. There are remotes like this that do it:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XW ... _i=desktop

But the IR is too limited and the layout not the best..

pH7_jp1 · Post by **pH7_jp1** » Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:04 am

VERY limited IR capability and it looks like it only talks to it's own USB receiver. It didn't mention the ability to talk to multiple USB receivers and since they didn't try to sell you more, I assume it can't.

I was thinking along the lines of a universal remote that could be programmed to send commands to multiple devices (from multiple manufacturers) connected on the same Wi-Fi network.

VIZIO released a TV a couple of years ago that had very limited IR commands, but a free app for your phone that had complete control via commands over Wi-Fi, as long as they were on the same network. They have since released a firmware upgrade with improved IR support. But 3 devices like this in your home theater would be a real challenge right now.

xnappo · Post by **xnappo** » Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:13 am

Created topic over at FLIRC forum:
http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/ ... -sequence/