Wireless X10 via USB

milky · April 23, 2012, 11:20:19 PM

Hi All. I've used an X10 Wireless Remote to control Ots form many years. It was very handy to pause, play, FF and RW tracks whilst entertaining outside on the patio, without having to go inside to my studio to perform the same tasks. It used a serial interface receiver, and I was able to program the bundled "PC Remote Control" software quite easily to do what I wanted.

Alas, the remote control has died (eaten by my son's German Shepherd), and the replacement comes with a USB receiver - not serial. Unfortunately, the original PC Remote software does not have "USB" as an option in the input selections, and it appears that they have not released an update, according to PCRemoteControl.com. My question is, does anyone know of a replacement software option that will capture USB codes and allow me to map them to commands? I downloaded the demo of Girder, but it appears to only handle IR devices.

JAylmer · April 23, 2012, 11:43:44 PM

What about USB to COM dongle (hardware & driver). It will appear as a COM device to the PC remote software.

Jumpin' Jeff · April 23, 2012, 11:50:02 PM

Milky,
Last I used my MouseRemote, I used a serial to USB adapter with an FTDI chip in it, and PCRemoteControl saw it as a remote control.

Th old reciever won't respond to the new remote then I take it?

milky · April 24, 2012, 04:46:28 AM

JAylmer. Yeah, could go that route if absolutely necessary. Seems silly to convert USB back to serial, just to suit the software. Anyone know of a USB/serial emulator in software?

JJ, no the old receiver does not respond to the new remote. It cam bundled with some terrible software called "Showshifter", but that is very restricted. There was a "port sniffer" program with it which showed which codes were being sent/received in a window. If I could just access these, I could probably write my own code to send the appropriate keys to Ots. The Otsbox (XP Pro) readily saw the receiver and installed the drivers without using the CD. However, it shows under USB devices, not serial.

Jumpin' Jeff · April 24, 2012, 10:43:12 AM

Sorry to hear that. Some things seem to be getting harder vs easier as time progresses.

Darryl · April 24, 2012, 02:32:29 PM

Most of the USB devices of this nature that I've seen use the FTDI serial to USB interface chip. What exactly does the device show as in the Device Manager? Given the nature of the device it seems daft that it doesn't come with an API or the ability to appear as a COM interface for backward compatibility with other PC remote applications. What make and model is the new remote control?

If the device installs as a HID (Human Interface Device) then you should be able to communicate with it via Windows API calls. I've not tried to do this myself since I don't have any devices that work this way.

Jumpin' Jeff · April 24, 2012, 03:08:22 PM

Found an x10 wiki for the MouseRemote UR86A

Looks alot like the ATI remote control, with a 40foot range as well.

The X!0 website looks to still offer the serial port MK19A.

milky · April 24, 2012, 10:26:15 PM

Darryl, it shows under USB devices as "X10 USB Wireless Transceiver (ACPI Compliant). It installed automatically as soon as I plugged it in, so Windoze knows about it.

Jeff, this is actually a model UR86E under the name "Marmitek". It comes with CM21A receiver. The thing that annoys me is I could have ordered the same with serial, but thought it would be useful to upshift as my Otsbox is coming due for a mobo upgrade and assumed I would not get a serial option. There was a link on that page to the MAX10 software, but that has the same problem. In the screenshot you can see the dropdown box to select a com port only.
Some forums have indicated that they have been able to get the ATI Remote software to work with it, but I don't have a copy of that. Still working on it.

Jumpin' Jeff · April 25, 2012, 01:45:13 AM

Milky, looks like the Remote wonder has been discontinued. I have one of them as well, but have no clue where the software is at the moment, or if it will even work on Win7, but I did come up with this site....

http://remotew.free.fr/
Here is the Remote Wonder software link on the AMD site if that helps...
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/remotewonder2-xp.aspx

milky · April 25, 2012, 02:26:20 AM

Thanks JJ. I've made a little bit of progress. The port sniffer had a help file which indicated that the commands associated with each key are stored in the registry. I've fiddled around there and managed to get the PAUSE button to send "Alt + C" to pull up the command menu. I think I need the sub command values to now select PLAY, PAUSE, STOP etc. Didn't you have a table somewhere with them listed?

Dj Buik · April 25, 2012, 04:07:53 AM

Check also this old link:

http://www.otsusers.com/forum/index.php?topic=9424.0

I also used the CM21A before.

milky · April 25, 2012, 05:35:01 AM

Ah DJ Buik, I knew I'd seen something before somewhere.

So, I need to download and install EG, and then move the zipped files where you suggest? I guess I'll also have to change the Window Title to OtsAVTV etc. Anything else I need to do?

Dj Buik · April 25, 2012, 02:21:08 PM

Phewww...

, this is an old link from 2007 i digged up.
This used to be working with Windows XP.

I do not use Mouseremote anymore.
You have to figure it out yourself, i'm sorry.
If you read the whole threat, you need to disable UAC.

Let us know if you figured it out.

milky · April 25, 2012, 11:13:32 PM

It's OK. I've got something working for now by pirating the terrible software that was bundled with it, intercepting the USB traffic, and launching the appropriate keystrokes. There is a bit of a delay (maybe 500ms), but it is working. I will have a look at your example, change the window headings etc and see if I can get at least one option working. If it performs quicker than my solution, I'll persist.

JohnnyTheFox · September 11, 2012, 04:10:18 PM

Quote from: milky on April 25, 2012, 11:13:32 PM
It's OK. I've got something working for now by pirating the terrible software that was bundled with it, intercepting the USB traffic, and launching the appropriate keystrokes. There is a bit of a delay (maybe 500ms), but it is working. I will have a look at your example, change the window headings etc and see if I can get at least one option working. If it performs quicker than my solution, I'll persist.

Milky, my USB remote mouse stopped working on an upgrade to Win 7 ultimate, but I've found this works http://melloware.com/intelliremote/ as the MouseRemote.exe no longer works with win7.

Using Intellireote to run compiled AHK scripts for Play, Pause, Stop, Previous was okay, but it struggled with Next. Using the software to send keystrokes seems to work better.

Not sure how it will run with a serial instead of a USB receiver though.