libCEC plugin for Pulse Eight HDMI-CEC usb adapter

[Teh_Fonz]

Does the KODI plugin need to be uninstalled?
Does it matter that it's just disabled from the System > Input Peripherals menu?

Does the USB device need to have power constantly going through to it, via the Windows Power Menu?
I've emailed Pulse Eight for some support, perhaps the firmware needs a tweak or the libCEC needs a tweak/roll back. Hopefully we get a response.

After a Windows resume, if I reconfigure the plugin in EG and change th HDMI from 1 to 2 it starts working. Is there way to script that?

[Teh_Fonz]

So I emailed Pulse Eight support and they replied saying that there is an issue with the libCEC EG plugin. They are working on a resolution but have no ETA. I hope that they are able to resolve the issue soon.

[Teh_Fonz]

So I have a working work around for when the PulseEight CEC EG Plugin doesn't register.

In the AutoStart I have a trigger for a macro which turns on my TV and AMP.

I have an Event Macro for when the system resumes, which restarts EG.
So far this has worked a handful of times. I can take a screenshot of the EG tree if you'd like.
My only issue and I think it's AMP related is that the speakers on the AMP aren't working for some reason.
Cheers

[mparadiso]

Hi,
I am using in my HTPC Pulse-Eight and I wonder if there is any way to simulate the CEC command.
In EventGhost there a call action "Send a raw CEC command". I wonder if anyone has used this action to simulate the CEC commands.
I would love to know if anyone knows any way to simulate these command. I thought about using a MCE device with IR Blaster but do not know if it's possible.
Could anyone help me with this problem?

Thanks

[mparadiso]

Hi,
I am using in my HTPC Pulse-Eight and I wonder if there is any way to simulate the CEC command.
In EventGhost there a call action "Send a raw CEC command". I wonder if anyone has used this action to simulate the CEC commands.
I would love to know if anyone knows any way to simulate these command. I thought about using a MCE device with IR Blaster but do not know if it's possible.
Could anyone help me with this problem?

Thanks

I am looking for a solution to my problem I did find the following device:
IR Remote Extender Over HDMI Kit
http://www.ambery.com/irreovhdexki.html

The idea of this device is to receive the IR signal and transmit this signal to another device.
I thought about calling this device to the HDMI output from my computer and send the HDMI-CEC commands to the TV.
In this case I would use EventGhost with Pulse-Eight plugin to send the command.
Is that possible?

[PanamaGuy]

Hi guys I am very interested in this discussion, so every new experience or trick you find out may be very helpful for me.
Let me describe the problem that I am facing and trying to resolve.

I am trying to help an elderly person with severe vision limitations which is living far from her relatives in an assisted living home.
She wants to communicate with her relatives via Skype, but due to her limitations and her age she is not able to do the necessary tasks (mouse clicks at the right point of her laptop screen or complicated sequences of buttons on her remote) to receive or initiate actively a Skype call and neither can she recognize details on a 14" laptop screen.

So I have provided her a laptop (Windows 7) with internet access which I can control remotely. The laptop is connected via a Pulse-Eight CEC Adapter to the HDMI 1 connector of her 55" Samsung TV UE50J5550. That's the hardware.

Thanks to one post here I have eventually found the cec-client.exe download. I had wasted much more than 2 hours without luck (rather a couple of days), but this post saved me.
Her Skype account has been set to accept an incoming call instantly, so Skype pops up and is immediately connected when I call.
So far so good.

The problem begins where the laptop screen should be replicated on the TV screen. If the TV is on standby or showing a tv program, the tv should be switched on and the source "HDMI 1" should be selected in order to connect it to the laptop.
After the call, the tv should be set to the previous status, i.e. to the previous tv channel or to standby.

The person is not able to execute this (for her) rather complicated sequence of pressing buttons on her remote. It may be simple for a younger person with good vision, but impossible for her.
At best, she could remember to press ONE previously defined button to initiate a more complex action.
Furthermore when a tv program is running, she does not even notice that there is a Skype call on the laptop screen.
But I could do this via remote control of her laptop, if I find the way how to do it.

So what I am looking for is software for Windows (or at least indications how to do it with command lines) to send CEC commands to the tv set, which ideally allows me to do the following:

1) analyse via CEC requests the status of the tv set (standby/on, which tv channel is being used?)
2) wake up the tv set if in standby
3) select HDMI 1 as the new source
4) after the call, reverse the previous actions

and, possibly, recognize the actuation of a certain button on her standard remote, in order to start a batch of commands in the laptop which start a Skype call to a fixed address.
This would also enable me to send her videos or pictures to her laptop which could than be shown on the tv-set via remote control of the pc.

The pulse-eight support directed me to eventghost which I had never heard of, but it looks like this could be a useful tool inb connection with the cec adapter.
Unfortunately I am far a away now from the place with the laptop and tv, so I will have to install and test the software remotely,which does not make it easiy. As I said I am a complete newby to eventghost, so I am grateful for any hint how to proceed.

As I have unfortunately not the time to study every aspect of of eventghost (want to use it just for this purpose) and have little programming knowledge, I would appreciate if some generous soul could take the time to dexcribe step by step what I should do.
First steps taken: Eventghost and cec-client installed, cec adapter connected to laptop and HDMI 1 of the tv.

What next?

[Luca Brasi]

Hey guys,

I have a problem with my pulse eight adapter every few days. Eventghost says the device could not be pinged and the connection attempt had timed out (12:26:51 CEC.ERROR: [ 2537] the adapter did not respond correctly to a ping (try 2)).
After a while I get this from Windows:

Code: Select all

Problemsignatur:
  Problemereignisname:	APPCRASH
  Anwendungsname:	cec-client.exe
  Anwendungsversion:	2.2.0.0
  Anwendungszeitstempel:	544f948e
  Fehlermodulname:	libcec.dll
  Fehlermodulversion:	2.2.0.0
  Fehlermodulzeitstempel:	544f948c
  Ausnahmecode:	c0000005
  Ausnahmeoffset:	0000bf38
  Betriebsystemversion:	6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.48
  Gebietsschema-ID:	1031
  Zusatzinformation 1:	5861
  Zusatzinformation 2:	5861822e1919d7c014bbb064c64908b2
  Zusatzinformation 3:	1318
  Zusatzinformation 4:	13181ae637ac2592fac0ca2dd662cdcc

And the event log gives this:

Code: Select all

- System 

  - Provider 

   [ Name]  Application Error 
 
  - EventID 1000 

   [ Qualifiers]  0 
 
   Level 2 
 
   Task 100 
 
   Keywords 0x80000000000000 
 
  - TimeCreated 

   [ SystemTime]  2015-12-10T11:27:14.000000000Z 
 
   EventRecordID 463938 
 
   Channel Application 
 
   Computer mmhtpc 
 
   Security 
 

- EventData 

   cec-client.exe 
   2.2.0.0 
   544f948e 
   libcec.dll 
   2.2.0.0 
   544f948c 
   c0000005 
   0000bf38 
   4588 
   01d1333da4a003d4 
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Pulse-Eight\USB-CEC Adapter\cec-client.exe 
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Pulse-Eight\USB-CEC Adapter\libcec.dll 
   f5f20a7d-9f30-11e5-80d3-001a7dda710b 
    
    

Restarting eg or the service will not help. Only rebooting will bring it back to life. It normally happens after a resume from standby.
Has anyone of you experienced the same thing and might be able to fix?

Thanks
Luca

[yasuo]

hi there,

any solution for the cec usb device disappears after standby (unless you replug it)?

[golaat]

I recently contacted Pulse Eight support re: the version of the software available on their site. Their downloads page has a very, very old version of the libCEC software (v2.2) which does not have support for EventGhost. After some poking, I was able to find this blog post on their site with link to v3.0 0f the libCEC software.

They have a GitHub repo which seemingly has source for v3.1 of libCEC, although I could not find binaries anywhere. I was about to compile my own version 3.1 from the GitHib source when I got a response from Pulse Eight support with a dropbox link to v3.1 of the libCEC software.

libCEC v3.1 solved some of my issues with the adapter "disappearing" after I had sent some commands via EventGhost.

[EdgarAuto]

Hey golaat,

How is ver 3.1.0 working for you? I can install it but it does not detect the USB/Serial device (Windows 7). Frustrating. I can roll back to 2.2 (currently on the site) and that works fine. Did you do any special when you installed 3.1?

Thanks in Advance

[golaat]

I have been using it for quite some time. I was having trouble with v3.0 in EventGhost before, but now, there are fewer issues. I am surprised to hear that it does not find your device, as it finds mine right off the bat on COM5.

[JonDeutsch]

Hello.

I just bought the Pulse Eight CEC adapter and am trying to get it to work with my Windows Media Center HTPC.

The very basics work: up, down, left, right, select, volume etc.
However, transport controls (play, pause, RW, FF, skip back, skip forward) do not work at all.

So I figured I'd see if EG could help fill in the gaps, since the TV remote is sending something to the HTPC, figured I'd capture that data and assign it to the appropriate hot-keys or whatever needed to be done.

So, I installed EG and installed the libCEC plug-in, but whenever it starts I get a slew of error messages:

Code: Select all

      found a CEC adapter: COM4
       CEC ERROR:   [3502]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

      failed to open a connection to the CEC adapter
      
      Couldn't initialise libCEC. Please check your configuration.
      CEC ERROR:   [3502]     could not open a connection (try 1)
CEC ERROR:   [6339]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [6339]     could not open a connection (try 2)
CEC ERROR:   [8231]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [8231]     could not open a connection (try 3)
CEC ERROR:   [9492]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [9492]     could not open a connection (try 4)
CEC ERROR:   [13998]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [13998]     could not open a connection (try 1)
CEC ERROR:   [16835]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [16835]     could not open a connection (try 2)
CEC ERROR:   [18726]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [18726]     could not open a connection (try 3)
CEC ERROR:   [19987]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [19987]     could not open a connection (try 4)
CEC ERROR:   [20992]     could not start CEC communications

Any ideas why I would be seeing this when the adapter is clearly working otherwise?
Any insights appreciated!

Cheers,
Jon

[JonDeutsch]

Just following-up on my original post. I ran EG a bit later and then suddenly I got no errors after getting the below errors bout 5 times in a row each time I loaded EG. Very odd.

Presuming that it continues to work as expected, I am quite confused as to how to get around EG to map incoming CEC commands from my TV to the appropriate commands that WMC would "listen" for. If there are any guides around this specific use case, it'd great to know if they're out there.

Thx!
Jon

Hello.

I just bought the Pulse Eight CEC adapter and am trying to get it to work with my Windows Media Center HTPC.

The very basics work: up, down, left, right, select, volume etc.
However, transport controls (play, pause, RW, FF, skip back, skip forward) do not work at all.

So I figured I'd see if EG could help fill in the gaps, since the TV remote is sending something to the HTPC, figured I'd capture that data and assign it to the appropriate hot-keys or whatever needed to be done.

So, I installed EG and installed the libCEC plug-in, but whenever it starts I get a slew of error messages:

Code: Select all

      found a CEC adapter: COM4
       CEC ERROR:   [3502]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

      failed to open a connection to the CEC adapter
      
      Couldn't initialise libCEC. Please check your configuration.
      CEC ERROR:   [3502]     could not open a connection (try 1)
CEC ERROR:   [6339]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [6339]     could not open a connection (try 2)
CEC ERROR:   [8231]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [8231]     could not open a connection (try 3)
CEC ERROR:   [9492]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [9492]     could not open a connection (try 4)
CEC ERROR:   [13998]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [13998]     could not open a connection (try 1)
CEC ERROR:   [16835]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [16835]     could not open a connection (try 2)
CEC ERROR:   [18726]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [18726]     could not open a connection (try 3)
CEC ERROR:   [19987]     error opening serial port 'COM4': Unable to open COM port: Access is denied.

CEC ERROR:   [19987]     could not open a connection (try 4)
CEC ERROR:   [20992]     could not start CEC communications

Any ideas why I would be seeing this when the adapter is clearly working otherwise?
Any insights appreciated!

Cheers,
Jon

[jachin99]

I'm working on this now also. I have the pulse eight cec adapter, and I'm running libcec 3.1. I can get some commands to work using the tray icon application that comes from pulse eight but I can't get the tray icon application to power the tv on or off. I have also tried both the pulse eight event ghost plugin, and this one with the same result. I can't run the EG plugin, and the tray icon at the same time, I'm guessing because two different applications cannot use the same serial bus. The tray icon at least gives me some tv remote functionality while the event ghost plugin doesn't give me anything. How would I troubleshoot my problem, and enable Event ghost to power my tv on and off using the pulse eight hdmi cec adapter?

[blingblangblong]

Hello I hope someone can help me. I have downloaded the op v0.3 plugin after successfully loading i can turn my TV on and off fine using the test function for each event.

I am puzzled as to why event ghost does not list any of the codes received from the TV via pulse-eight adapter. when i run libcec tray 3.0.0 i can see the key presses in the log.
I have tried to add those codes via the __init.py_ file but i have no idea why i am unable to see the remote key presses so i can program events. Ive tried

Code: Select all

  (hotKeys, 'key press blue', 'key press blue', 'key press blue', u'tx 01:44:71'),

but that doesn't work i have also tried

Code: Select all

  (hotKeys, 'key press blue', 'key press blue', 'key press blue', u'wx 01:44:71'),

but that didn't work and nothing in the log thing on the left of EG.

can someone please help me.
thanks for your time
Richard

USB-Devices
Pulse-Eight USB to HDMI CEC Adapter