Microsoft MCE Remote - Vista and newer

[kgschlosser]

you have got to check the LED to see if it's blasting it could be alot of things causing the problem.

it could be the IR LED inside the actual "blaster" the wire that plugs into the receiver. they typically use a standard headphone jack for that and if someone accidentally plugged it into say a mp3 player or a phone (i mention the phone because a phone can be used as an ir blaster through the headphone jack)

but the thing is that there is a voltage limit to what the LED can handle, and there is usually a resisitor that is used to lower the voltage and that resistor could be inside of the receiver or it could be in the plastic head surrounding the IR LED

i don't know i have never checked and it would all depend on the Mfg

so what I would do is. if you have a digital camera or a cell phone that you have the ability to lower the megapixels I would take it and use the preview from the camera to look into the IR as you send a code to it.

see if it blinks

if it doesn't it could be the IR LED

you would have to get another one to rule out a problem there

if it does blink. I have found that one some occasions there could be a variation of the code generated when you learn an IR with eventghost.

if you tell me the device mfg and model number i can get the exact codes from the mfg and you can paste them into the transmit and see if it will then work.

if there is no error and i am not sure if you have used the test receiver function action with the plugin use it and make sure that everything is being seen correctly.

wait wait wait. EG should tell you if the LED is good or not. use that action above with the led plugged in. if it states that you have the ability but there is nothing plugged in then there is probably something wrong with the IR LED

if it tell you that it can send and there is the LED plugged in then test it with the camera.


if it is blinking then all is good, EG is sending.

it's probably a code problem. problem is with learning codes you CANNOT have a single fluorescent light around or any other lights that could give off a red kinda color. or violet for that matter.

and you need to have the remote within the 3 inches like it states. and then even then there will be variations of the code.

my Samsung TV has a pronto code that is almost 500 digits long. took me forever to finally get it right and to send right. only because those TV's if there is even a slight change to it forget about it.

i have also heard that if you have a computer that is bogged down with a lot of crap to do (this was typically on older computers) it could cause a problem with the timing of the code

i can get almost any code in pronto format that is made for a device (most not all) and if not i can usually tell ya how to get a much better sample, but dark is the friend of IR

put the receiver in a box along with the remote and cover it with a towel and just poke the front of the remote in as you press the button.

there are also a lot of IR code changes that have been made recently and i don't know if the plugin has been updated to handle those

[fuxxi]

Config:

Logitech Harmony Remote
HP 5187-4593 RC6 USB eHome Reciver
Windows 10 64 Bit
Eventghost r1722

Unfortunately I cant get this combo to work flawless. When I use the MCE Remote Plugin Vista/Win7 I get random events in EG. Pressing ONE button at ONE time results (often but not always) in the following Events in EG:

MceRemote.Mce.Down
MceRemote.Unknown.17E1F0FD72FFFFCB70

Sometimes this (which is the only and right solution):

MceRemote.Mce.Up

And sometimes this (which is the worst case, because the main event is missing and so the button click does not work):

MceRemote.Unknown.15EBF0FD7AFFFFCB70


With non media buttons, but simple converted keyboard strokes (in this case I want to send the key 'O' to windows I receive this (by pressing only ONE button):

MceRemote.Unknown.1263C01957E85A400
MceRemote.Unknown.57D940357D7758400
MceRemote.Unknown.1641700D57D7D61700

Everytime I press the same button (to send the key 'O') on my harmony those number codes above changes and I do always receive 3 of those random events.

When I use the old "MCE Remote Plugin" in EG everything is working very well and every event results like this in EG:

MceRemote.Mce.Down

MceRemote.Mce.Up

MceRemote.Mce.Start

However the old plugin doesnt recognize converted keystrokes, only media keys like "play" "pause" "stop" etc.

So this is definately a problem with the plugin.


Anybody has any idea how to get this to work? Ive been looking for a solution since weeks now..

[kgschlosser]

ok i do know that depending of the ir code type you can get a rolling code on button press

depends on what code is being used

so that is why you may get more than one code for the same button press.


there are a million things that can booger up the remote code including but not limited to
distance from the remote to receiver
batteries in the remote
excessive UV light in the room

[fuxxi]

@kgschlosser: Thanks, but I dont think there is any problem with the ir code signal, because of 2 simple things:

- its working perfect with the old "Microsoft MCE Remote" plugin
- its working "ok" with media keys with the "Microsoft MCE Remote - Vista/Win7" plugin when it NEVER works with emulated keyboard strokes, as described before (no matter how often I push the button, EG always receives 3 random, unknown events)

Might try it with Windows 7/XP just to find out if this is OS related, but I guess I will be lost on this topic, because there is not much of support, because there is literally nobody using this kind of stuff.

Have been playing around with WinLIRC and got it working to the point, where the icon is flashing green and I could bound keys with the WinLIRC XBMC client (http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=180145). However the emulated buttons/keys are not passed to Kodi 17 (probably again OS or more probably Kodi related) and its by far not so powerful like EG. It was just a test anyway.

[Sem;colon]

It's not a "Problem" with the plugin, there is just a feature you expect that isn't there.
The emulated keystrokes don't work because they are not part of a mce remote.

However, there is an eventghost Plugin for LIRC, I never used it, but maybe it'll help you: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=219&hilit=Lirc&start=75

[kgschlosser]

that's right, the emulated keystroke thing was how windows xp handled the remote and with vista and newer it's different. that's why drivers are pretty much required for each remote with xp and no driver (well it's built in) with vista and newer, it's handled completely different.

so the keystroke emulation is not apart of the (built in) vista driver set

tell me if i am wrong i am trying to get edumicated here

[fuxxi]

However, there is an eventghost Plugin for LIRC, I never used it, but maybe it'll help you: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=219&hilit=Lirc&start=75

Many thanks, but unfortunately it has the same problem as the MCE remote plugin from EG - as expected.

So for me it looks like the MCEVista64.dll is unable to receive the IR events from the "MCE Keyboard" device in the harmony.

The emulated keystrokes don't work because they are not part of a mce remote.

This was exactly my thinking the whole time I was playing around with it.

But it is part of the mce keyboard, like this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AOAAN8/

According to this:

http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=780

the mce keyboard should work? Which remote plugin in EG do I have to choose receive mce keyboard events in EG? The keyboard plugin is not working.

so the keystroke emulation is not apart of the (built in) vista driver set

Wait, so do You think this is a problem with the ir device windows driver (ehome) itself and not with the plugin.dll?

[kgschlosser]

try using the other mce remote plugin and see if that works, i believe that one uses the keyboard emulation it's worth a shot

[fuxxi]

As I mentioned above I already tried both.

[johnblinares]

Sadly guys your plugin does not work on Windows 10. Very erratic behaviour. Using the HP transceiver and receiver. Red light shows. Nothing happens on event ghost even if MCE service installed, and eventghost showing MCE remote connected. It will only detect volume up and down presses on this remote but no number presses. Using the latest install of eventhghost. HP remote works fine with Windows, for example, lets me scroll up and down in mediaportal. One thing I find is that when I install the service on the plugin, the remote stops working with windows on restart, and I have to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft ehome drivers through the device manager HID section, then it works again. What could be wrong now? I assume that on my 64 bit laptop installing the service through the plugin will choose the correct installer automatically; the 64 bit one?
Thanks for any help in advance.

[kgschlosser]

when you install the service it removes the registry keys for the ehome driver to control the machine. when you do this when you press a button on the remote does it produce any events in eventghost?

also did you run eventghost as administrator when you installed the service??

[johnblinares]

when you install the service it removes the registry keys for the ehome driver to control the machine. when you do this when you press a button on the remote does it produce any events in eventghost?

also did you run eventghost as administrator when you installed the service??

OK, so basically, after installing the service, EG does not produce any events with the HP remote keys pressed. It produces system.volume events if i press the volume buttons, but no other events if im pressing the number keys. When I press the number keys, an error bleep is heard on Windows.

Now, if In install the service and then restart my machine, the remote basically does nothing when the machine restarts. Not even the system volume changes I got above. I then have to go into device manager, uninstall the ehome transceiver from the HID section, and then plug the receiver back in and it reinstalls the drivers and the remove works on windows again, properly, but NOT producing any events on EG...

So obviously, installing the service will make the remote fail on restart... and nothing happens as a result of the service installation.

[blaher]

I assume that on my 64 bit laptop installing the service through the plugin will choose the correct installer automatically; the 64 bit one?
Thanks for any help in advance.

When I installed it through the plugin I got double keypresses, but by navigating to the plugins folder and clicking the alternate x64 installer, it's working fine now on Win 10 64bit, with the HP receiver.

[kgschlosser]

there are other people running EG with this plugin on windows 10. and the ehome driver is the ehome driver all the remotes use the same thing. and they all function in the same manner when using that driver. this has to be a specific issue with your setup. i am trying to think would could cause this problem. and the onyl thing i can come up with is that possible not everything that was supposed to get installed when the ehome drivers did.

you can try this method as it has worked to cure odd behavior.

go into device manager.

uninstall anydriver that is for the IR receiver.


they will be the ehome drivers and anything that has USBCIR in the name of it.


do not unplug your receiver or scan for new hardware.


reboot the computer and while windows 10 is loading point the remote at the receiver and keep on pressing any button on the rmeote.

keep doing this until the computer is fully booted. you should hear 3 device install tones. if you hear any tones for a device unplugged then something didn't go right.

[johnblinares]

Thanks. I will try this this evening and update you?
When exactly is the "loading point" - when the logo appears?

Also, I have an idea of something that may have caused the problem:
Some time ago I changed the position of the USB jumpers on the motherboard, to allow for the remote to be able to wake the computer up from sleep via IR, which it is impossible to do in their default position. I could try reverting to the old position and see if it helps, but I would really like that functionality.