New Firefly and Firefly Mini Software

[StephaneM]

Hello All,

I created a replacement software for the Firefly and Firefly Mini PC Remote. With it you can really configure your Firefly buttons to your liking for all applications. It is specifically intended for those who are expecting a little more for the Firefly mini and for those who do not want to modify the xml files for the Firefly.

So among other things you will be able to :

* create more than one remote profile for matching applications (window title and or window class name)
* assign each button an action to do (sending keystrokes, messages, app command and so on)
* nice transparent OSD for volume
* menu system with OSD for having keys with more than one function (donators only)
* OSD for multipress keys (tap one it does one thing, tap twice it does another thing).
* Mouse modes
* Sharing your profiles

You can download and read about it on my web site.

License : Donationware

Note : you still need to shutdown the Firefly software (Beyond Media Basic for Firefly RF and the Firefly Mini software for the Mini). To revert to the default Firefly software all you have to do is to quit my utility and relaunch the default one.

For the Firefly RF remote you can also uninstall Beyond Media Basic and install the drivers only for the Firefly (see my web site for downloading the drivers).

Best Regards,
Stéphane.

[x[corwyn]]

Dude you rock. I havent felt like dinking with Girder, nd my Firefly remote which worked great with version Sage 2.x now is just sitting useless in my room. I look forward to trying this out.

[StephaneM]

Hello All,

If you downloaded the version 1.7 for the Firefly or Streamzap edition, the download links were swapped. So you ended with the wrong edition of the software. You'll need to download it again.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[flavius]

The xml file for firefly you can download here works with any version of Sage.

[StephaneM]

Hi,

Originally Posted by flavius

The xml file for firefly you can download here works with any version of Sage.

Yes you can customize the profile for SageTV with the default Firefly software. It didn't imply that the default Firefly software is not able to control SageTV.

However there is some flaws with the default Firefly software, like memory footprint or responsivness and some users asked me to create this utility (I originally made it for my Streamzap remote as it cannot be customized without Girder or Event Ghost) and later to create one for the Firefly mini (it cannot be customized as well with its default software).

So my software is only useful if you want to get rid of Beyond Media Basic but doesn't want to invest time (and money) with Girder. And I think you cannot find another software for customizing the Firefly mini.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dlandrum]

I have multiple firefly remotes in my house in range of each other's receivers.

In the donation version, can one restrict LM Remote to only respond to a specific channel?

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by dlandrum

can one restrict LM Remote to only respond to a specific channel?

Yes you can (donator edition or not), there is a hidden setting for doing this. Look in the FAQ, it will explain how to change this settings.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dlandrum]

Thanks. I have the donator version working. I downloaded the SageTV config, got it working for SageTV Client, and uploaded it.

I can't seem to get the firefly button to bring SageTV client to the forefront. I will play with it Sunday when I have some free time.

You made a good little app. It is well suited for mapping application specific actions to remove events. I still use eventghost for global operations; startup/shutdown, sleep timers, off timers, wake on LAN, etc.

Baring some instability, I'll make another donation next week.

Nice job!

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dlandrum

I can't seem to get the firefly button to bring SageTV client to the forefront. I will play with it Sunday when I have some free time.

You can either use:

* the automatic foreground setting for the profile. But this require that you force the SageTV profile (with a "ChangeProfile" action on the button that is launching SageTV) and also that you do not use "Executable name" for the SageTV profile. Also don't forget to "ChangeProfile" back to the default profile upon exiting SageTV with the "Power" button (for instance).

* Or if you just want the "Firefly" button to bring SageTV to the foreground, you can add a "FindWindow" action with the SageTV window title, followed by a "Foreground" action and this will do the trick (You can very well use this if the Firefly button is used to launch SageTV, though you may use a "Wait" action to be sure that SageTV is fully launched before executing the "FindWindow" action and "Foreground" action).

I still use eventghost for global operations; startup/shutdown, sleep timers, off timers, wake on LAN, etc.

I'm open to suggestions for adding new actions. I suppose "Sleep Timer" is something like "Put the computer to sleep XX minutes after pressing a button" (the same goes for "Off Timer").

And one question : how can you startup the computer with Event Ghost when the Firefly is not able to wake up the computer? Is this with the "Wake On Lan" trick (using another PC listening also to the Firefly)?

Baring some instability

I'm using it (Streamzap edition) for three month now and all is fine, but if you find some quirks let me know.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dlandrum]

I am having an issue where I press a button, and multiple keystrokes are sent to Sage. keys: channel up/down, arrows, select, stop, etc.

I played around with sending two keystrokes for 'stop', but removed it. I confirmed that I am only mapping one keystroke per button.

This makes navigating the SageMC menus very difficult.

Any ideas?

[StephaneM]

Hello David,

Originally Posted by dlandrum

I am having an issue where I press a button, and multiple keystrokes are sent to Sage. keys: channel up/down, arrows, select, stop, etc.

I see on your signature that you are using a Firefly (RF) remote, is this correct? If you are indeed using the Firefly (RF) remote then the only reasons two keystrokes could get fired are :

* You are still running Beyond Media Basic or another software that also listen to the remote
* The profiles may be wrong

Is this happen only in SageTV? To make sure it happens only in SageTV, create a Notepad profile (for this profile use the "Window class" and type "Notepad" without the quotes) and then assign a keystroke action for problematics buttons and make LM Remote type the name of the button (for instance for "Channel Up" button type "Channel Up{ENTER}" as the keystroke. Then load notepad and press on the "Channel Up" button. Does "Channel Up" get typed twice in Notepad ?

You can also enable the verbose trace in LM Remote KeyMap to see if the application is receiving indeed two events. To enable tracing follow the instructions in the FAQ and review the trace.log file that is in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\LM Gestion\LM Remote KeyMap (you need to shutdow LM Remote KeyMap to enable tracing, and to shutdown it again so that the trace is really flushed to disk).

If you want you can send me the trace.log file as well as your profiles.xml file to lmgestion@hotmail.com for reviewing.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dlandrum]

I uninstalled BM and BM Basic.

I do have EventGhost listening to firefly. It only takes action on the "B", "C", and "D" keys .. and it never sends key-press events.

I have 2 profiles loaded: BeyondTV Link and SageTV Client.
I used trace=4 to trap the title/class/executable for the profiles.

In the trace, it appears that LM Remote thinks I hit the button two times in a row. I am pressing the button a lightly as possible and releasing it quickly.

HDTV signals bounce off of buildings and arrive out of synch to an antenna ... could this be the same type of thing? ... multi-path?

I tested this by using the firefly 6in from the receiver vs 12ft from the receiver. The multi-press issue did not happen from 6".

Maybe you could keep a variable storing the last button pressed and the time since you last took action.
---------
if ((the new button press is the same as the last one) && (the time expired since the last action taken is less than XXms))
{do nothing}
else {do something}
---------

Maybe this is the downside of having a more-responsive app than BM Basic? ... or maybe BM Basic was finding someway to compensate?

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dlandrum

In the trace, it appears that LM Remote thinks I hit the button two times in a row. I am pressing the button a lightly as possible and releasing it quickly.

Send me your trace and I'll work with you on this issue.

HDTV signals bounce off of buildings and arrive out of synch to an antenna ... could this be the same type of thing? ... multi-path?

I tested this by using the firefly 6in from the receiver vs 12ft from the receiver. The multi-press issue did not happen from 6".

I think you have found the source of the issue. Now I may know why this doesn't happens with Event Ghost: The firefly remote is sending three messages Down / Repeat / Up for each button press; in LM Remote KeyMap only the "Down" event is processed (because other remotes doesn't send the other events, and also because it's faster to drop the repeat / up). So maybe the reflection issue you have indeed send a delayed radio signal like this : Down / Down / Up / Up. It seems then perfectly logical that LM RKM triggers two button press, whereas Event Ghost only sees one (because there is only one Down - Up sequence).

Maybe you could keep a variable storing the last button pressed and the time since you last took action.

I'm already doing this for the Streamzap. We will see together how to resolve it properly for the Firefly.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dlandrum]

I spent a few hours playing with this tonight as when Sage was open, I would get the double key events in EventGhost too.

I did a few system restores and determined the issue started when I upgraded to Sage 6.0.19.

I did a fresh install of Sage Client 6.0.19 and SageMC 6.3.1.

All is well now.

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by JDizzy

I have tried though to map a key to set the aspect ratio to 16x9 and Sage says to use Control +O or ^O.

Just use "^o" (without the quotes and the O is lower case => it sometimes better to use lower case otherwise some application can understand this as Ctrl+Shift+O).

Anyway this keyboard shortcut on my SageTV setup is equivalent to Escape ("{ESC}"), that is it bring up the option menu and inside this menu you'll find the aspect ratio switcher. Escape works on all screen and not only during video playback (and should be mapped to the "Option" button).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[JDizzy]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Hello,

Just use "^o" (without the quotes and the O is lower case => it sometimes better to use lower case otherwise some application can understand this as Ctrl+Shift+O).

Thanks, I figured out to use lowercase and it worked.
I deleted my post figuring I wouldn't bother you... you must have replied right as I was deleting

I also had trouble with my remote buttons being too sensitive and doing 2 keypresses everytime I pressed a key.
I follow the instructions below to fix it: (500 and 250 also worked for me)

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Shut down sage and open your sage.properties file (or sageclient.properties if you are using the service). Find the following lines and increase the values (in milliseconds).

Code:
infrared_receive_repeat_delay=250
infrared_receive_repeat_period=150

Restart sage and test. Rinse and repeat until you find values that you are happy with. I found that I had to go to 500 and 250, respectively, and now it works like a charm.

Hope this helps.

Aloha,
Mike

Thanks for this great utility!
-JD