X10/ATI remote control

[Mark F]

Welcome to the Girder Forum!

As you already know, the ATI Remote Wonder receiver attaches to the PC via USB. This means it requires a spcific USB device driver to make it work. The only suitable, currently available, USB device driver for this device is the one supplied by ATI. ATI refuses to publish the device driver interface so the only way to make this remote work is with THEIR software. Their software does not allow the reprogramming of some of the buttons via a plugin, as you assumed. :)

As ertyu said, the X10 (RF) Mouse Remote works peachy. :D

I bought both during the last month. Jason beat me to the plugin for the ATI and the X10 works with the serial plugin and a device file.

[ertyu]

Yes, the X10 remotes work peachy.

[dbenari]

:-?
Is there a way to use X10 remote control with Girder?

To be more specific:
I have the new ATI rf remote control. There is a Girder plugin for this remote (Thanks to Jason aka KSnoopy). But -
This plugin does not read the remote commands directly, but through implementation of a plugin in the original ATI software.
The result - the main buttons TV-DVD-WEB still activate only the ATI software. I assume this is because ATI decides which buttons are programmable.

Thanks,
Doron.

[dbenari]

Mark, thank you very much for your answer.

:P
While writing this reply, I realized I have a way to use the remote with Girder!
Somewhat clumzy way, but it works.

ShowShifter implemented a reciever specially for this kind of remote control. It works perfectly with the ATI remote. I guess they got the codes somehow.
They even let you program ALL buttons, by changing the registry.
Unfortunatly, the flexibility of the program is far far from Gilder's.

So, what I just did, is to program the buttons to send keyboard events. Then Girder reads them using the plugin "Keyboard Ex" by Mario Ivankovits.
It works!

So here is some information, if anyone wants to try it, or even better, to write a plugin. From my expirience with both ATI and ShowShifter suppot, I believe they will be much more cooperating than ATI.

1. To get the "X10 RFAnywhere" from Showshifter:
Download and install showshifter from www.showshifter.com. Then you will find the software in ""C:\Program Files\Home Media Networks Limited\ShowShifter\RFAnywhere.exe"".

2. To get the registry keys for programing the remote:
Double click the software's tray icon, and press help.

3. ShowShifter support: support@ShowShifter.com.

4. "Keyboard Ex" plugin: "http://www.girder.nl/downloadn.php?Link=353"

[dbenari]

Vlado,

First, if I understand your question correctly, the answer is 74.

1. To get the full list of X10 commands, install ShowShifter's X10 RFAnywhere, and see the file "C:\Program Files\Home Media Networks Limited\ShowShifter\Docs\Help\RFAnywhere.html".
The value of X10CMD_BUTTON_A is 74.

2. You can find the list of virtual keys here http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wcesdkr/htm/_wcesdk_Virtual_Key_Codes.asp. Since I am using the RFAnywhere only to connect Girder to the remote, I only used this list to see what keys are undefined. I assigned undefined values to the remote control keys.

3. If you are interested in activating ShowShifter, you can install the ShowShifter SDK, and see the ShowShifter commands in file "...\ShowShifter SDK\include\IRVCommands.h".

[Vlado]

Mark, thank you very much for your answer.

:P
While writing this reply, I realized I have a way to use the remote with Girder!
Somewhat clumzy way, but it works.

ShowShifter implemented a reciever specially for this kind of remote control. It works perfectly with the ATI remote. I guess they got the codes somehow.
They even let you program ALL buttons, by changing the registry.
Unfortunatly, the flexibility of the program is far far from girder's.

So, what I just did, is to program the buttons to send keyboard events. Then Girder reads them using the plugin "Keyboard Ex" by Mario Ivankovits.
It works!

So here is some information, if anyone wants to try it, or even better, to write a plugin. From my expirience with both ATI and ShowShifter suppot, I believe they will be much more cooperating than ATI.

1. To get the "X10 RFAnywhere" from Showshifter:
Download and install showshifter from www.showshifter.com. Then you will find the software in ""C:\Program Files\Home Media Networks Limited\ShowShifter\RFAnywhere.exe"".

2. To get the registry keys for programing the remote:
Double click the software's tray icon, and press help.

3. ShowShifter support: support@ShowShifter.com.

4. "Keyboard Ex" plugin: "http://www.girder.nl/downloadn.php?Link=353"

what registry setting you you for bind "a" key (what commandID) parameter you use?

[Vlado]

Vlado,

First, if I understand your question correctly, the answer is 74.

1. To get the full list of X10 commands, install ShowShifter's X10 RFAnywhere, and see the file "C:\Program Files\Home Media Networks Limited\ShowShifter\Docs\Help\RFAnywhere.html".
The value of X10CMD_BUTTON_A is 74.

2. You can find the list of virtual keys here http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wcesdkr/htm/_wcesdk_Virtual_Key_Codes.asp. Since I am using the RFAnywhere only to connect Girder to the remote, I only used this list to see what keys are undefined. I assigned undefined values to the remote control keys.

3. If you are interested in activating ShowShifter, you can install the ShowShifter SDK, and see the ShowShifter commands in file "...\ShowShifter SDK\include\IRVCommands.h".


i do this:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Home Media Networks\ShowShifter\Configuration\Controllers\X10 \RFAnywhere\commands\6]
"actiontype"=dword:00000003
"ekeystate"=dword:00000002
"commandid"=dword:41000000

in registy, but it´s not working .... how can i bind "a" key for "play" button ??

[Vlado]

or cen you export your registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Home Media Networks\ShowShifter\Configuration\Controllers\X10 \RFAnywhere\commands\

and write it here?

[Vlado]

can you send me your regiry "dump"(export) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Home Media Networks\ShowShifter\Configuration\Controllers\X10 \RFAnywhere\commands\

to "1.vlado@atlas.cz" ?
please

[bricamac]

I am trying to use RFanywhere.exe to send message directly to girder.
I put this entry in my registry

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Home Media Networks\ShowShifter\Configuration\Controllers\X10 \RFAnywhere\Commands\40]
"ActionType"=dword:00000003
"CommandLine"=""
"EKeyState"=dword:00000001
"lSequence"=dword:00000000
"CommandID"=dword:00000041
"nModifiers"=dword:00000000

now when launch RFanywhere and I press the button "Mute" of the ATI remote control..RFanywhere send "a" to any application...for example notepad...but I don't understand why girder doesn't see this event ?

do you have an idea ?

Thanks in advance.

[bricamac]

Thanks so much for your help. It's works very fine !!!! :lol:

[mythtook]

I'm using RFAnywhere to generate Gerder events using the -eventstring command line paramater. It works great. Here is a sample out of my registry so you can see how I'm doing it.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Home Media Networks\ShowShifter\Configuration\Controllers\X10 \RFAnywhere\Commands\81]
"ActionType"=dword:00000002
"EKeyState"=dword:00000001
"CommandLine"="C:\\Program Files\\Girder31\\Girder.exe -eventstring X10CMD_DVDMODE"

As you can see I'm still using Girder 3.1 (Because it still supports my RedRat2) but this should work for 3.2 also. I've mapped every button on my ATI Remote Wonder with the exception of the two mouse buttons and the mouse movement pad. I'd be happy to share my .reg file if anyone is interested. It would have to be tweeked a little based on the location of Girder.exe but that is a simple search and replace.

Remember, eventstrings on the command line have to be learned just like any other event.

[jppanchaud]

I seem to have a big problem!

I have Showshifter 1.75.938 installed on my system with rfanywhere. Rfanywhere has control of the ATI specific Remote Wonder buttons as it directs them towards showshifter.

Unfortunately when I open the registry the tree stops before I can find a \controllers\x10\rfanywhere\commands\etc... tree. I have searched all over the registry for various of those keywords but no luck, its nowhere.

I have tried installing Showshifter 1.70.638 but the same problem - rfanywhere works fine but no entry in the registry...

Ermm help! Any ideas?

[jppanchaud]

OK I might just take my question back, Have trawled through the web and for those confused like me, apparently this registry entry does not exist but works if you add it!

This brings me on to my next question: I had assumed that previously and therefore tried to add that registry. I obviously got it wrong :roll: !

Anyc hance someone could email me an exported registry file, just for one command so I can see where I messed up?

Thanks v much, my email is my username at hotmail.com.

[ermon]

Hi all..

I wrote a plugin for the X10/ATI remotes that interfaces directly to the X10 dll (x10net.dll) and bypasses ATI's software. This is probably what showshifter does as well.

It's in the plugin download page, if anybody is interested..

Enjoy,
-Eyal

[JSMain]

Thank You ermon!

I own one of the ATI wonder remotes, and also an X10 mouse remote. I had been considering buying another for my ATI system. I will wait now until I have tried your plugin, as it would be a shame to waste such a good remote.

[Hocky]

Your new plugin is working great for me. All buttons are working as they should be without the ATI software.

[mythtook]

Hi all..

I wrote a plugin for the X10/ATI remotes that interfaces directly to the X10 dll (x10net.dll) and bypasses ATI's software. This is probably what showshifter does as well.

It's in the plugin download page, if anybody is interested..

Enjoy,
-Eyal

Eyal,

Have you made the source code for this available anywhere? I'd be very interested to see it. I've played with it on my test system and it seemed to work great. I plan to implement it on my living room HTPC as soon as I finish debugging the RedRat2 plugin for Girder 3.2.