LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: Echo5 on September 01, 2007, 06:27:35 am

Title: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: Echo5 on September 01, 2007, 06:27:35 am
    I just purchased the Gyration MCE remote and although it controlls the menus nicely, it does not function like the Fiire Chief when media is playing. I have seen similiar post regarding this and am wondering if anyone has found a solution for this remote or if I am better off purchasing the Fiire Chief. They are both the same price. I only purchased the Gyration remote because I could get it locally. Did Fiire incorporate specific changes to the remote that allow it to work with LMCE?

Thanks
Echo5
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: totallymaxed on September 01, 2007, 09:00:37 am
    I just purchased the Gyration MCE remote and although it controlls the menus nicely, it does not function like the Fiire Chief when media is playing. I have seen similiar post regarding this and am wondering if anyone has found a solution for this remote or if I am better off purchasing the Fiire Chief. They are both the same price. I only purchased the Gyration remote because I could get it locally. Did Fiire incorporate specific changes to the remote that allow it to work with LMCE?

Thanks
Echo5

Yes they did. The Fiirechief and its dongle have special firmware to support the 'follow me' functionality in particular.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: Echo5 on September 01, 2007, 07:11:43 pm
I understand that the follow me feature is specific to the Fiire Chief, but I think my main question is did they do anything special to get the other buttons to work properly ( play, pause, jog, etc)?
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: teedge77 on September 01, 2007, 07:21:41 pm
Could you elaborate on what it is that doesnt work?
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: Echo5 on September 01, 2007, 08:28:26 pm
I also can't seem to play/pause the video from the gyro mouse. Nor can I do any of the options listed in the wiki:

"When media is playing, you can use the normal keys on the i/r remote to control the media playback and volume. Or press F6 or the 'media' button on the gyro remote, and then move left and right to adjust playback speed, or move up and down to skip through chapters/tracks/channels/songs depending on the type of media. With the left and right movement you have both absolute and relative. Absolute means keep the button held down while you move left and right. This is quite useful with the gyro remote. Press the left button, and if you move your hand all the way to the left you are at the beginning of your media, all the way to the right and you are at the end. Or, tap and release the button, then when you move left and right you are in relative, or jog shuttle mode. Move slowly to the right for slow motion forward, further to the right for 400x forward, back to the left to rewind, and so on."

Thanks
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: totallymaxed on September 01, 2007, 09:29:29 pm
I also can't seem to play/pause the video from the gyro mouse. Nor can I do any of the options listed in the wiki:

"When media is playing, you can use the normal keys on the i/r remote to control the media playback and volume. Or press F6 or the 'media' button on the gyro remote, and then move left and right to adjust playback speed, or move up and down to skip through chapters/tracks/channels/songs depending on the type of media. With the left and right movement you have both absolute and relative. Absolute means keep the button held down while you move left and right. This is quite useful with the gyro remote. Press the left button, and if you move your hand all the way to the left you are at the beginning of your media, all the way to the right and you are at the end. Or, tap and release the button, then when you move left and right you are in relative, or jog shuttle mode. Move slowly to the right for slow motion forward, further to the right for 400x forward, back to the left to rewind, and so on."

Thanks


The standard Gyration remote is not one of the standard remotes that has a template in lmce. The Gyro mouse functionality will probably work but not the additional remote buttons. You'd have to add a template yourself.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: colinjones on September 01, 2007, 11:31:32 pm
Can someone please do a review to compare/contrast Gryo, Wiimote and Fiire? I am really keen to get someone's opinion of each on how well they work etc. I would like just to pick one and buy it rather than go through the process that so many others seem to have, of buy 2 or 3 different remotes before finding the one they prefer - is there any consensus on which provides the best control, functions, and most especially which does the "best" motion sensing. The last in particular, how responsive are they to motion detection? Do they "sample" slowly or do they respond nice and quickly to motion?

Also, you say that the Fiire has specific firmware to support the Follow Me function, won't anything that uses Bluetooth do this anyway through the LMCE software because they connect to the closest BT dongle and LMCE does the rest? Is there something I am missing here?
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: 1audio on September 02, 2007, 08:42:33 am
I have no experience with the Wiimote on LMCE or the stock Gyration. When I tried the stock Gyration it didn't work so "forget it". I have used the Fiire remote and it works quite well. It takes a few days to get used to. And its fully implemented, even during boot, which is a good reason to use it.

If you are retro inclined the Microsoft remote plus USBUIRT works quite well, but lacks some of the features of the Fiire.

And a Samsung Q1 with a Windoze orbiter works great (but shuts down too fast on battery).

The mobile phone orbiter is a neat idea however the bluetooth implementation and the constraints of the platform make it slow. The follow-me works best with the Fiire remote. With the Bluetooth it must wait for the bluetooth to register with the new box and that can be slow.

I tried an iPaq and it works well except the device was somewhat flakey with my WiFi and Win CE made sorting it out a real pain.

And there is always a laptop with the Windoze orbiter on it.

The Q1 I prefer but its $800+
The Fiire is $150
I don't use the rest.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: dopey on September 02, 2007, 09:07:30 am
I have used the Gryo mouse and it works great, but of course it only has the three buttons plus left and right click. That was all plug and play; I didn't have to do anything to get it to work and it works pretty well.

I don't know about the rest, yet. I've ordered a couple Fiire remotes, but they haven't arrived yet. I also plan on getting my Harmony 890 to work with it (without the gyration of course), but the USBUIRT is also in the mail... actually most of my testing has halted until I get my Fiire equipment... I'll post back once they come in and I get a chance to test them (the Harmony will take some time).
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: totallymaxed on September 02, 2007, 09:08:33 am
Can someone please do a review to compare/contrast Gryo, Wiimote and Fiire? I am really keen to get someone's opinion of each on how well they work etc. I would like just to pick one and buy it rather than go through the process that so many others seem to have, of buy 2 or 3 different remotes before finding the one they prefer - is there any consensus on which provides the best control, functions, and most especially which does the "best" motion sensing. The last in particular, how responsive are they to motion detection? Do they "sample" slowly or do they respond nice and quickly to motion?

Also, you say that the Fiire has specific firmware to support the Follow Me function, won't anything that uses Bluetooth do this anyway through the LMCE software because they connect to the closest BT dongle and LMCE does the rest? Is there something I am missing here?

Well we have Gyration Mice and we have the Fiire remote... don't have a Wii controller. The Gyration mouse works fine but has too few buttons to make totally usable standalone... ie you still need to use a keyboard to access much of UI2 (UI1 though would be ok). The Fiire remote has been designed specifically to work with UI2 so all of its buttons and features are tightly coupled and work very smoothly. Also it really is 'plug n play' straight out of the box I can confirm... no problems at all and very slick. Then there is follow-me. Now follow me has been part of Pluto (lmce ancestor) since the earliest days and yes it should work with BlueTooth dongles and the PDA or Symbian Orbiter. However in reality due to all BlueTooth dongles we have ever tested over performing in terms of the range there radio enerygy output delivers it is practically useless in any kind of normal sized house. The Orbiter in the PDA/Mobile Phone just cannot figure out which room its in and therefore follow-me can't work!

Hopwever with the Fiire remote follow-me for the first time just works as it should - press the follow-me button on the remote while watching a movie in the 'lounge' and walk to the 'Kitchen' and press follow-me again... and magically that same movie appears at the same time-code on the Orbiter in front of you. That blows people away when you show it too them I can tell you :-)

So from all perspectives I would say your best bet is the Fiire remote (the only negative is its brown plastic case!)
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: Echo5 on September 02, 2007, 06:23:18 pm
The standard Gyration remote is not one of the standard remotes that has a template in lmce. The Gyro mouse functionality will probably work but not the additional remote buttons. You'd have to add a template yourself.

Do you know what I would need to do to map the keys on the remote and create a template?
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: totallymaxed on September 02, 2007, 08:12:44 pm
The standard Gyration remote is not one of the standard remotes that has a template in lmce. The Gyro mouse functionality will probably work but not the additional remote buttons. You'd have to add a template yourself.

Do you know what I would need to do to map the keys on the remote and create a template?

You might be in luck... what follows is based on the assumption that 'MCR Remote' is compatible with the remote you have;

Go to Web Admin and Wizard -> Devices -> Media Directors

No find the green 'Add Remote' button for your Core/Hybrid and click it. In the window that appears select 'Gyration' from the Manufacturer pop-up then click 'Apply Filter'. Now select 'MCR Remote' from the Device Template pop-up and the click the green 'Pick Device Template' button and then close the Window. That should have added an 'MCR Remote' to you Hybrid. Your Gyration usb IR receiver should get auto-detected I think.

Now do a reload router and test your remote in the Orbiter... it should be working. If not try rebooting the Core/Hybrid and trying the remote again.

Hope this helps... and saves you the effort  of adding a remote from scratch.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: Echo5 on September 03, 2007, 02:50:48 am
You might be in luck... what follows is based on the assumption that 'MCR Remote' is compatible with the remote you have;

Go to Web Admin and Wizard -> Devices -> Media Directors

No find the green 'Add Remote' button for your Core/Hybrid and click it. In the window that appears select 'Gyration' from the Manufacturer pop-up then click 'Apply Filter'. Now select 'MCR Remote' from the Device Template pop-up and the click the green 'Pick Device Template' button and then close the Window. That should have added an 'MCR Remote' to you Hybrid. Your Gyration usb IR receiver should get auto-detected I think.

Now do a reload router and test your remote in the Orbiter... it should be working. If not try rebooting the Core/Hybrid and trying the remote again.

Hope this helps... and saves you the effort  of adding a remote from scratch.

That didn't work... I think I may just take it back and order the Fiire Chief... Thanks
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: FuZoRBlade on September 17, 2007, 11:04:10 pm
has anyone created a template that allows the gyration remote to be used just like the FIIRE remote?

I was able to get my gyration remote for 50 dollars cheaper than the FIIRE remote, so it would be great if someone had found a way to get it to work the same way.. minus the follow me feature.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: danielk on December 16, 2007, 10:34:24 pm
I just wanted to report that I have tried LMCE with the Gyration Remote.

The gyro stuff works out of the box. Only a few keys worked without a custom .Xmodmap. Once the keys were mapped to X11 key events using .Xmodmap, I had to configure individual applications to understand the keys (i.e. using the "Edit keys" MythTV plugin and the KDE setup program.)

Below is my xmodmap, the commented out lines represent keys that I could not get working, the channel up & down keys send events but they are not recognized by the regular HID driver; the driver could be patched for these. Ten keys (power, tv play icon, camera icon, tv icon, music icon, iPod icon, 'setup menu', last, input, and dvd menu) don't send any events, so you probably need the Fiire firmware for these to work. "Follow me" will of course not work with the Gyration remote.

PS you load this using "xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap" where ~/.Xmodmap contains the following:

!XF86PowerDown

keycode 177 = XF86AudioRecord
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 110 = XF86AudioPause
keycode 152 = XF86AudioRewind
keycode 179 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 180 = XF86Forward
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext

!XF86Launch0
!XF86Launch1
keycode 234 = XF86Back
keycode 134 = XF86Launch2

keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode  97 = XF86VendorHome
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
!keycode 240 = XF86RockerUp
!keycode 241 = XF86RockerDown

keycode 237 = XF86Launch3
!XF86Launch4
!XF86Launch5
!XF86Launch6

!XF86Clear ; already mapped to escape

!XF86Launch7
!XF86Launch8
!XF86Launch9
!XF86LaunchA
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: 1audio on December 17, 2007, 01:08:18 am
Sounds like the $50 is worth it for the extra functionality, and saving a lot of time and angst.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: ddamron on December 18, 2007, 03:25:28 am
Yes, I totally agree.. the Fiire chief is worth it's weight in gold.  I have 2 of them... one for my wife, and one for me..

with 7 dongles... follow me works really well...

Dan
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: darrenmason on December 19, 2007, 11:47:11 pm
I just wanted to report that I have tried LMCE with the Gyration Remote.

The gyro stuff works out of the box. Only a few keys worked without a custom .Xmodmap. Once the keys were mapped to X11 key events using .Xmodmap, I had to configure individual applications to understand the keys (i.e. using the "Edit keys" MythTV plugin and the KDE setup program.)

Below is my xmodmap...

Hi, this might be a bit of a thread hijack but I will ask here anyway...

Daniel (or anyone),
I have a remote that I also wanted to do a custom Xmodmap for, but when checking keycodes I discovered that it is not sending single unmapped keycodes above 128 like I expected. Instead it is sending the key equivalents for Windows MCE keyboard shortcuts. For example, the PLAY key sends <CTRL><SHIFT>P

Any ideas on how I could make this usable. I figure it must be part of the hardware in the receiver doing this so I could use another receiver but I would prefer not to have to purchase this (or build this).
Anyway, I am after ideas and at this stage I don't have many more.

regards
Darren
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: ddamron on December 20, 2007, 01:00:25 am
Darren,
When you plug in the receiver for that remote, does it show up as a USB HID device?

Reason for asking:  I have  a few remotes/dongles that came with my DVB-S cards.. but they don't work with UIRT as they show up as a HID Keyboard..
I'm guessing that might be what you are seeing...

When I was playing with those, I was trying to get them to work with MythTV... was a while ago, and I DID find a webpage somewhere that showed how to add a rule to 'tell' the system that device
(specified by it's USB UUID I think) was a 'Remote', not a 'Keyboard'

HTH,

Dan
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: darrenmason on December 20, 2007, 04:06:04 am
Dan,

Yes, that is exactly what is happening. I had a thread going a while back which related to the efforts I went to do, as you suggested, make it appear as a remote. I even modifed some of the lirc source code and tried various things, all with little to no success. I gave up at the time and have just been using the remote as a mouse (it has sort of a thumbstick built in). Daniel's post here re-kindled some interest.

I would be interested in the web page you mentioned as ultimately that might be the only solution, perhaps with a UIRT. If I can get a solution then it will be a great 'cheap' remote solution for linuxMCE as the remote/receiver was only $28 (Australian dollars) delivered.

I might look further into the scancodes that are sent (rather than the keycodes). But from my current understanding of the way it works the hardware in the receiver is probably sending scancodes for the key combinations as well.

Darren

Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: ddamron on December 20, 2007, 05:20:44 am
Yes.. but:
By defining a rule, you can separate the 'HID' keyboard from the 'real' keyboard..
once it's separated, it shows up as another device.. /dev/input/remote (or something like that)

Sorry, I don't have the link, maybe you can find it.. the relevant details were:

Twinhan VP-1024 (or VP-1022 or VP-102C, can't remember which one, they all come with the same remote)

'MythTV', 'Remote' and possibly 'HID Device' were other terms I recall searching for...

HTH,

Dan
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: danielk on December 20, 2007, 07:38:47 pm
I saw separate HID devices for the keyboard and remote here.

I used this as a rough guide:
   http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_Multimedia_Keys#Setting_up_xmodmap

I did have to download some sources, when I couldn't find a package with the needed apps. xev got me most of the keycodes.

I also hacked "getscancodes" to print out all events, but I couldn't find a way to map the keys with keycodes > 255.

My experience with Xmodmap before this was limited to mapping "Caps Lock" to "Ctrl" on PC style keyboards. But it's function is to override any preset mappings like "Ctrl-P" to more sensible values.
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: ddamron on December 20, 2007, 09:05:52 pm
I do NOT remember having to do anything with xmodmap..
Once the driver is sensed as a remote, then it's a translation table in UIRT
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: darrenmason on December 21, 2007, 12:27:24 am
The search terms gave a few hits that might be useful. They are leading back down the path that I originally focussed on which is using the /dev/input/eventX device under LIRC.

The original problems with this were that it was really hard to not use the usbhid driver and use a lirc driver, but I am sure that this is fixable. However, if I do fix it will I then lose the mouse functionailty of the device? I will investigate thsi a bit further anyway following advice here
http://www.doctort.org/adam/nerd-notes/mythtv-and-the-twinhan-remote.html

Regards
Darren
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: danielk on December 21, 2007, 02:32:35 am
darrenmason, I just used the HID driver that is enabled by default for it, hence the need for a .Xmodmap file. I later remapped some of the keys to F6,F7, to better work with LMCE; the .Xmodmap I attached is just to get others started.

Using LIRC might get you some of the dead keys, but it may loose the gyro functionality. Only one way to find out...
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: ddamron on December 21, 2007, 03:08:00 am
darrenmason,
Yeah, that's how it was implemented .. you have to figure out the UUID of the device, then add a line in /etc/rules.d or something like that...
basically, telling the system NOT to treat is as a keyboard.

HTH

Dan
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: jeangot on July 23, 2008, 07:41:24 am
Hello,

I don't presume that anyone would have the Fiire firmware and a method to flash the Gyration remote and dongle with that firmware? :-)

Also, has anyone been able to make a template for the Gyration remote by now? I found various information on how to remap keys, but the real reason why I had bought these remotes was to use the gyro features to move forward and backward in media...

Thanks!

Jean
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: freymann on July 23, 2008, 02:02:50 pm
Also, has anyone been able to make a template for the Gyration remote by now? I found various information on how to remap keys, but the real reason why I had bought these remotes was to use the gyro features to move forward and backward in media...

 I believe the results of this thread can be found in the wiki, here:

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Using_the_Gyration_Remote_GYR3101US_(Non-Fiire_Chief)
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: jeangot on July 23, 2008, 05:00:26 pm
Thanks, I did look at this and that's how I setup my remote. I was inquiring about the other things that this remote is technically capable of, such as controling media with the gyroscope (movement)...
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: freymann on July 23, 2008, 05:11:27 pm
Thanks, I did look at this and that's how I setup my remote. I was inquiring about the other things that this remote is technically capable of, such as controling media with the gyroscope (movement)...

 Hmmm. The gyro commands work for me? The "absolute" part doesn't, but I can definitely hit the Vol+ and Vol- buttons to bring up the gyro commands for volume, lights, ffwd, rewind, pause, up/down...
Title: Re: Fiire Chief vs Gyration MCE Remote
Post by: jeangot on July 23, 2008, 06:59:49 pm
Thanks, I will try that tonight! I guess I didn't read well enough :-)