Multiple OSMC RPi's in One Room w. Logitech Harmony

Help and Support
1

Hello,

Been using OSMC both on RPi and more recently a Vero4k for a while now, and its been a great experience.

I am looking for some guidance/advice for a specific setup I am looking to achieve in my Bar/ManCave in my home. I am looking to setup one large main TV, with 3 smaller auxiliary TVs. Each TV must be able to display video from an independent source (multiple football games at once, or basketball games etc). Audio will be played via a Denon AV receiver on the main large TV.

This should be fairly easy to accomplish by installing OSMC on 4 RPis, each hooked up to its own TV. Where I need help is in the configuration of one remote control for all via Logitech Harmony 650 all in one remote. I have used this dongle in the past to add IR capabilities to my media server and RPi instance of OSMC (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J5NRWFO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1). However, it seems that any time I move the blaster from device to device, the Logitech Remote programming is retained. Where this worries me is that I will not be able to achieve independent IR control of each OSMC on each RPi.

I guess I am looking for the best way to accomplish IR control of each OSMC instance independently, while also maintaining the use of a universal remote. I was thinking there must be a way to program the frequencies each OSMC uses for a particular button press, but am completely lost as to how to accomplish it. Any help or tips for reading would be appreciated. Thanks!

TL:DR-
Want to control 4 OSMC RPis independently in the same room. Have no clue how to achieve independent IR control using a Logitech IR Remote.

Edit: I thought about CEC, but since the TVs are all from the same manufacturer, remote codes are the same.

2

I’m no expert, but if you can’t figure it out with the CEC function, maybe you could try a phone app (Yatse, for Android comes to mind).

Good luck.

3

Thats a good idea.

I forgot all about the android app Kodi remotes. Ideally, I’d like to keep one remote for volume, the tvs and OSMC, but this is a great fallback. Appreciate it!

4

I have a pi and a Vero4k in the same room and control them with a Harmony 650.
I simply used two different IR remote profiles:

  • xbox360
  • Hama MCE

Why not looking for two further wide spread/often used IR remotes and configure them for the other pis?

5

Hm, that sounds like a good idea. So basically in the Harmony setup, configure each device as a unique remote type (media center, xbox etc), then pick that remote as the remote profile within OSMC.

Ill give this a shot, with my test Pi today and report back!

Thanks

6

Where did you get the Hama MCE remote profile? Found it in Harmony no problem, but do not see the profile within the MyOSMC section on the Pi

7

You don’t have to explicitly set a profile for MCE remote profiles.

8

Hmm, I still wasnt getting a response from OSMC when using the Hama MCE as my entry into Harmony.

Oh well, I figured out how to manually build remote maps using irrecord, and have been doing that. Its a bit of a PITA but have been able to successfully get my PI and Vero to operate independently when using the Harmony remote.