Setting up Harmony Remote?

[Ferral]

Hi,
I have a Harmony 628 remote, courtesy of eBay...8)
I've been trying to set it up to operate gbpvr, but not having much success.

I'm using a home-made serial reciever. I know the reciever works using Winirc. I can see the raw recieved data.

Can anybody give me some idea on where to start looking at how to configure it to work gbpvr?

I've downloaded a trial of girder, I've seen posts where people have it working with a Harmony remote, but I can't seem to figure it out.

I can get other remotes to work with Winirc interfaced with Girder. But the signals that the Harmony sends seem different, it doesn't detect a clean signal and Winirc won't learn the buttons properly.

Any suggestions or links to anything helpful appreciated.

cheers....

[HtV]

Did you register and log in on the harmony remote site, or install the software that comes with it.
They also have excellent service via free phone-line.

[Ferral]

Yeah, have done the registration and setup thing on the net. For learning other remotes and controlling other hardware, it's fantastic. I can program it to operate my DVD or TV no sweat.

I haven't tried support on this just yet. They are pretty helpfull, or were with a problem I had in the beginning. I just though it might be easier and better to try a post here first as I'm sure others have some something similar.

Also, controlling Gbpvr isn't exactly what they had in mind when they made it. Not that I don't think support will try and help out, I just think they would be quite limited in getting software to interface with the remote. It was designed for, and works damn well, at operating hardware.

The issue I'm having is trying to get the software to talk to the remote. The remote itself and the serial reciever work fine.

I will email support though. You never know, they may just have had this question asked before and have some suggestions. I'll let this post run for a few days and see what other suggestions I can get from others first though. I think that's my best avenue for help.

Cheers for the reply....

[daphatty]

I'm using the Harmony for the Xbox 360 and I have it setup to function like the Hauppauge 45-button remote (since I own a PVR-USB2). Maybe if you tried to emulate a remote that is known to work? MCE perhaps?

[Ferral]

I guess that's what I've basically tried to do so far.

I've used an old DVD player remote and mapped the keys to the Harmony. Then using Winlirc and girder I've tried to 'learn' the remote to the HTPC.

Funny thing is the original remote (DVD player one) sends a good signal and will learn with no problems. Use the Harmony and it keeps saying 'failed to recieve a consistant signal' when you try and 'learn' it.

There seems to be something different in the way the Harmony sends it's signal. It will emulate any other remote perfectly as far as any other hardware is concerned, the TV and DVD work fine with it. But try and operate Gbpvr with it, through Winlirc, and it fails.

I don't know if it's repeating it's signal, or if it has a different pulse or something? As I say as far as anything else is concerned, the signal the Harmony is transmitting is fine. It's just the Winlirc/girder/Gbpvr that seems to have issues with it.

Thanks for the reply but, always good to get ideas....8)

[humpty]

From the harmony site if you select VCR/PVR from the menu and list your manufacturer as Hauppauge you can enter PVR-150 as your model number. This will setup the remote to be like the 45-button remote.

I have two Harmony remotes and they both work fantastic. I am using them with MVPs but the emulation would be the same.

[Ferral]

Thanx Humpty, will try that.

I've actually got it configured with Girder now. It uses the Igor plugin as the serial interface. I've mapped it to an old DVD remote and used that to work Girder.

It's messy, but it works somewhat. I can now control a lot of the functions with Gbpvr. Some are still screwed, and scripting with Girder is a rather large learning curve it seems....8)

I'll try what you suggest. That may just make the keymapping a little easier to operate. It's certainly worth a try anyhow....

cheers....

[HtV]

I guess that's what I've basically tried to do so far.

There seems to be something different in the way the Harmony sends it's signal. It will emulate any other remote perfectly as far as any other hardware is concerned, the TV and DVD work fine with it. But try and operate Gbpvr with it, through Winlirc, and it fails.

I don't know if it's repeating it's signal, or if it has a different pulse or something? As I say as far as anything else is concerned, the signal the Harmony is transmitting is fine. It's just the Winlirc/girder/Gbpvr that seems to have issues with it.

Thanks for the reply but, always good to get ideas....8)

You can record raw signals with the harmony, you could try that.
It's somewhere in a "learn infrared signals/advanced" tab.

[twiggins]

I have a harmony 688 Do exactly what humpty told you, you will basically have the Hauppauge 45 button remote when you are done. That controls GBPVR very well. I also have a Hauppauge 45 button remote that came with one of my tuners, and prefer that over the harmony(only for GBPVR) because the buttons are easier to find without looking at them. The harmony works fine however

[lingenfr]

I have the 34 button remote and have been trying to get a copy of someones Irremote.ini with the appropriate section for GB-PVR. Am I on the right track?