iMon remote control

[bluchez]

I have an iMon USB remote control receiver and would like to know if any effort has been made for a plugin to receive commands.

I have iMon software that can turn any command into a keyboard shortcut, but am not sure how to get a shortcut to fire an event in EventGhost.

Thanks.

[Bitmonster]

Sorry, there is currently no effort to make a plugin from my side. I don't have access to such a receiver myself and it seems SoundGraph also has no open API for third-party programs. They have a Girder plugin however. Maybe you could ask SoundGraph if they are willing to support EventGhost also.

Receiving of keyboard shortcuts was disabled in EventGhost at some stage, because it had bad influence on system performance. It will come back later as soon as I have written the hooks in C/C++, but actually I can't give a time schedule for that.

Is it possible to map keys to program-launches with their software? Then you could try to map them to calls to EventGhost with the -e parameter. Something like:
EventGhost.exe -e MyWantedKey

But this is as clumsy as trying to use keyboard messages, because this way EventGhost can't determine the length of a remote button press and therefor many advanced features of EventGhost (like AutoRepeat) will not work.

[bluchez]

Well, if I have to add a USB-UIRT to this box I will, but was hoping to get eventghost to work with my built in one.

What are some ways for an external program to get events sent to EventGhost? Command line parameters is a great first one, but are there others? I ask, because I am a developer, and can write an intercepting software that converts the keystrokes to just about anything that I can code for, so I was wondering if there was any other possibilities.

[Bitmonster]

You can use currently:
1. Commandline parameters
2. ActiveX/COM (function TriggerEvent is exposed)
3. TCP/IP in the way Girder does
4. Build a really simple EG-Plugin, that is nothing more than a wrapper to some DLL you can write. You can simply register a callback function. This is the most elegant way in my opinion.
5. SendMessage interface would also be easy, but currently is not build in, as we always have found better ways. But could be made in a day.

[bluchez]

Thanks alot.

For the simple first step, I have made a program that responds to the key commands by calling spawnl and sending in an appropriate command line parameter, which works fine ( obviously a "clunky" setup, but can be made elegant in the future ).


A little background for this project:

I have a Snapstream BTV setup with a server and client box. My server is hooked up to a digital cable box. My cable box has certain onscreen menus (Entertainment on Demand ) that I want to navigate remotely from my client box. So, I needed to accept an IR command on the client, transmit it over the network to the server, and retransmit an IR command to the cable box.

I don't own a compatible IR transmitter yet, unless the ACTiSYS IR200L is supported, so I can't test the final transmission, but the entire rest of the setup is done with EventGhost and a small program I wrote that will create the EventGhost events based on keypresses.

[bluchez]

3. TCP/IP in the way Girder does

Could you elaborate on this? If my software can send a TCP/IP command directly to the eventghost's network receiver plugin on the server machine, it would be the most elegant, as it would cut out the middle man. I am familiar with sending TCP/IP socket commands, but am unsure of the data that I need to send to EventGhost to make it trigger the event.

[Bitmonster]

The ACTiSYS IR200L is an IrDA device and these are not capable of sending consumer IR signals.

I guess you are living in the USA, so the USB-UIRT would really be the way to go. It has the best handling so far and is not only well supported from EventGhost.

As an input device, I would recommend an RF remote, because they don't intercept with IR transmissions, which makes it easier to have setups where you can press and hold a button on the remote and the IR transmission continues likewise (like controlling volume on an external amplifier)

[Bitmonster]

3. TCP/IP in the way Girder does

Could you elaborate on this? If my software can send a TCP/IP command directly to the eventghost's network receiver plugin on the server machine, it would be the most elegant, as it would cut out the middle man. I am familiar with sending TCP/IP socket commands, but am unsure of the data that I need to send to EventGhost to make it trigger the event.

EventGhost's Network Receiver uses the same protocol as Girder. It is a bit more complicated then simple TCP/IP, because you have to exchange an MD5 sum to fulfill the password request for example. You will find some examples of the protocol on the Girder side as PHP source. Or take a look at the EG Network Sender Python source.

[bluchez]

The ACTiSYS IR200L is an IrDA device and these are not capable of sending consumer IR signals.

Through BeyondTV, my ACTiSYS IR200L is already controlling the exact cable box that I need to control with eventghost, although even SnapStream claims it isn't fully supported. So, I know that it is capable of sending the commands I need, so I am unsure of your meaning.

The USB-UIRT is a device I have been planning on replacing the IR200L with for sometime, so I have absolutely no problem doing that in order to have EventGhost be able to work with it.

I will try to look into the network communication when I get some more time, but for now, the command line -> Macro -> Network Sender will work just fine. When I have a little more time, I'll look into writing a plugin, using activex, or similar as well.

[bluchez]

Forgot to mention, that for this particular project, no key repeats or keypress duration is needed, so that isn't a concern "at this time".

[Bitmonster]

Nearly all IrDA devices are not capable of receiving/transmitting consumer IR signals. They only react to IrDA signals and these use other frequencies and modulations as consumer remotes. The ACTiSYS IR200L seems to be an exception from this rule. But you can't expect to control every IR consumer equipment with it.

Anyhow, I found some traces that the ACTiSYS IR200L was used in similiar projects and some of them are open source. Even SnapStream seems to use the open source driver.

What I have found so far is:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/irtuner/
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/wlopensource/#irTuner

So if you like, you can invest some time in it and see if these can be used for an EventGhost plugin.

[fintan341]

Is there any development on support for the iMon series of remotes? Zalman are using the iMon Pad as their OEM remote, and I am keen to get this working with Media Portal. Many people have suggested Eventghost, but I take it that it won't work with this remote?

Has anyone tried asking Soundgraph to release the information to Eventghost development team? If not, I will give it a go, or at least add my voice to those already requesting it!

Eventghost looks great - i just hoping this is the solution I am searching for.

[Bitmonster]

There is no effort, since there is no API or any other documentation from Soundgraph for third-party applications.

[joshdorhyke]

FYI,

I got fed up with the Soundgraph and bought an OEM Tira2 from www.home-electro.com. I mounted it in the window on my case just below the Soundgraph. I've got a Silverstone LC14 case with the big lexan piece on the front so there was lots of room to put the receiver inside the case.

I kept the soundgraph for the display controlling it via LCD Smartie and dumped the soundgraph software completely. LCD Smartie is way better for the display anyways and I've been using it for a while now.

At any rate, this is a simple USB internally mounted receiver/transmitter. They have external versions too. They are good guys to deal with and shipped it right away. I'm just controlling my computer with it and doing nothing too fancy but Eventghost and the Tira2 are working great.

I can finally use my Harmony remote which never worked worth a $%$# with the Soundgraph receiver which uses shorter non standard remote codes compared to about 99.99% of the world's remotes and would never program to the Harmony right.

Peter

[glaurent]

Hi

I'm working on using EventGhost scripts to control a mediacenter/personal-server computer equiped with a Zalman case and the mentionned iMon remote system.

Thanks to Bitmonster who gave some good starting points.