Using the Ortek VRC-1100 IR Dongle with OSMC

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
21

@jahutchi @sam_nazarko We have to be careful regarding

KEY_SLEEP = KEY_POWER # Sleep

With 1.3.0 and before this brought the shutdown menu and waits for user input

… but with 1.3.1 and the modified evmap this will introduce a hard shutdown. I feel this is the correct behaviour but in example all people using a Logitech Harmony and the Logitech’s Hama MCE Remote profile with their Harmony will wonder why their OSMC device is now shutdowning whenever they use the power button on the Harmony.

They have to explicitly change the Harmony’s configuration to let the “Hama MCE device always on” which is NOT the default.

I tried to replace KEY_POWER by system input event KEY_S … but this is ignored.

22

@JimKnopf

I’ll be creating a new PR to get things squared away, so would like to get things right for both our remotes in that PR.

I’ll make this change in the new PR I’m working on.

I currently remap this (and a couple of other buttons) using a combination of the kodi Lircmap.xml and remote.xml files. KEY_WWW doesn’t do anything by default in kodi, so happy to make this change. I can easily adjust my Lircmap.xml accordingly to accommodate.

I think this the the best we can do. The button name (e.g. KEY_POWER) comes out of Lirc and gets mapped by kodi using the linux-input-layer section in Lircmap.xml:

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master/system/Lircmap.xml

Unfortunately, there is no Lirc button name we can map to in that section for sleep.

However, it’s possible for the user to remap it to sleep using a keymap, and I think there’s even an addon which allows you to do this through a nice GUI rather than editing files via SSH. I can send more details on this if you’re struggling.

23

@JimKnopf

Here is the updated 03_05a4_9981.evmap file I’ve been working on, and planning to send through as a PR once we’re both happy with it.

Could you please test this out and let me know if/when you’re happy.

I’ll await your confirmation before sending along the PR.

24

Intensively tested all keys including mouse pad+keys, except one button all is fine.

With 1.3.0 the CLEAR key seems to be mapped to the Escape-function, so it must be

KEY_ESC = KEY_ESC # escape

since there is no KEY_CLEAR action at all.

So, in summary I have requested two modifications based on your original change

KEY_HOMEPAGE = KEY_HOME   # home/main menu
…
KEY_ESC      = KEY_ESC    # escape

(I still wunder why there was another mapping layer with 1.3.0 making KEY_WWW and KEY_CLEAR a real defined action)

25

IIRC, we noop KEY_POWER on Vero to prevent an accidental shutdown. Will need to check this further

26

I’ve adjust this as you suggested. I don’t personally use the clear button so hadn’t picked up on this.

Try again: https://github.com/jahutchi/eventlircd/blob/ortek-ir/etc/03_05a4_9881.evmap

I built my changes ontop of a very old version of 03_05a4_9881.evmap which was already in the osmc repository but wasn’t being used as there was no entry in the rules.d file to get the remote recognised by Lirc. I think the file originally came from the Lirc google project. You need to bear in mind that Lirc is used for other applications, not just Kodi.

27

Aaah yes I see that on my Vero4k+

In /usr/share/kodi/system/keymaps/remote.xml - in the global section
<power>noop</power>

I had personally created a ~/.kodi/userdata/keymaps/remote.xml where I override this to the “stop” action which is just my personal preference.

28

Looks good so far, don’t need to test again. I think it will go through staging anyway before being released for all. It’s enough to intensively test it again when it is on staging.

@sam_nazarko A power button on a remote control is power button, is power button … by noop’ing it out I feel infantilized.

29

It might warrant being changed to invoke the suspend mode, now that we have it, but it doesn’t make much sense as a power button on a device that cannot utilise this effectively.

30

Thanks for the testing. Looks good from my testing to.

@sam_nazarko I’ve submitted a PR for this to be merged into the osmc/eventlircd project:

Once this is merged, it will also require a bump in the osmc project - not sure if you want me to send a PR for that or if you’ll handle it?

1 Like
31

I’ll handle the bump and cleanup in main repo.

Sam

32

The changes are now built and in the staging repository. I’ve also moved all of the evmaps upstream; as it doesn’t make sense, and is confusing, to have some in the OSMC repository and some in the eventlircd repository.

Cheers

Sam

33

Summary of my tests:

The Hama MCE Remote Control does not behave the same on Pi3 v18 and Vero 4k v17:

  • pi3 v18 - all OK

Vero 4k v17:
– a lot of buttons do not get a mouse click sound
– alt+meta+KEY_ENTER (the green START button on the control) has no function at all (Pi3 v18 it is the KEY_MENU or context button)
– the asterix button behave like the info key
– the info button behaves like the menu/context key
– the power button brings the shtudown menu instead of a real power down, this behaviour was on pi3 v18 with the 1.3.0 version
– the hash key has no function (Pi3 v18 it’s the teletext while watching TV channels)

sam_nazarko just updated my Vero 4k to v18: All issues mentioned above with the Hama MCE Remote Control on Vero4k compared to Pi3 v18 remain.

All problems seem to be introduced if the RF USB dongle for the original OSMC remote and Hama MCE Remote Control IR USB receiver are connected the same.

  • Vero 4k v18 - all OK
34

I’ve just been looking at armv7-eventlircd-osmc_1.3.2_armhf.deb

I can see my change is in there so I’m a happy bunny.

Others may not be so lucky though…

looks like the package is missing many of the .evmap files that were there previously.

osmc@vero4k:/etc/eventlircd.d$ ls
03_0419_0001.evmap  03_0766_0204.evmap  03_147a_e02d.evmap  default.evmap  lircd.evmap
03_05a4_9881.evmap  03_1241_e000.evmap  bdremoteng.evmap    ircore.evmap   mcekbd.evmap

Indeed, if I try using my OSMC RF remote on the vero4k instead of my Oterk dongle, then some buttons on that remote (such as Stop) no longer work.

If I look inside the .deb file, I can see that only these 10 evmap files (per above) were included.

The “stable” deb file (v1.3.0) contained 45 evmap files:

03_0419_0001.evmap  03_0709_9137.evmap  03_15c2_0035.evmap  03_1934_5168.evmap  anysee.evmap           mce.evmap         tevii.evmap
03_045e_006d.evmap  03_0755_2626.evmap  03_15c2_0036.evmap  03_1d57_ac01.evmap  bdremoteng.evmap       mcekbd.evmap      tt6400ir.evmap
03_046d_c101.evmap  03_0766_0204.evmap  03_15c2_0038.evmap  03_22b8_003b.evmap  default.evmap          nova_hd_s2.evmap  xiaomibtremote.evmap
03_0471_060c.evmap  03_0bc7_0006.evmap  03_15c2_0044.evmap  03_4243_ee08.evmap  emprex.evmap           osmc_rf.evmap
03_0471_0815.evmap  03_1241_e000.evmap  03_15c2_0045.evmap  03_9022_d660.evmap  imon_knob_panel.evmap  osmc_rf2.evmap
03_04b4_0101.evmap  03_13ec_0006.evmap  03_15c2_ffdc.evmap  04_0c16_0002.evmap  ircore.evmap           ps3remote.evmap
03_05a4_9881.evmap  03_147a_e02d.evmap  03_18b1_0037.evmap  aftvsremote.evmap   lircd.evmap            spinelplus.evmap

eek

35

Thanks. I’ll check this out.

36

Should be fixed:

New test build will be in staging in an hour.

37

Just been testing and all looked good to me.

38

Great – thanks for confirming.