Wireless Keyboard for Harmony One?

[mranim8or 3]

Has anyone used a simple IR wireless keyboard\remote like this one...

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-PC-Notebook-Laptop-Wireless-Mouse-Keyboard-Remote-Control-Controller-/321210134100?pt=US_Remote_Controls_Pointers&hash=item4ac99dae54

 

....with the Harmony One?  I currently use an ORC-1100 MCE Remote Control with the Harmony One. It works fine, but I'd like to get something that would allow for more buttons for the Harmony to hijack (like a full keyboard). I'm using all the buttons I have for keyboard shortcuts in MPC-HC to do things like 'switch audio track', 'toggle close captioning', 'advance 1 frame forward', etc.  There's some other features I'd like to add via keyboard shortcuts but I'm out of buttons to use.

 

Would the cheapo keyboard above work? Or do I need a Windows Media Center 1044 IR keyboard?

[AdrianW 1053]

Try the "Windows Media Center SE" harmony profile - that has a stack of keyboard commands already defined. No need to purchase an actual keyboard.

 

Here's a list of the commands available.

Edited August 11, 2014 by AdrianW

[psykix 97]

The best receiver I have found is the Flirc. http://www.flirc.tv

 

I used it with my Harmony One, and I now use it with a Harmony Ultimate.

 

It lets you program any keyboard key or combination of keys to any button on your Harmony remote.

 

You could assign keyboard shortcuts to the virtual buttons on the display of the Harmony (which is what I do for things like switching subtitles, aspect ratio etc)

 

Superb bit of kit - never looked back.

[mranim8or 3]

"Try the "Windows Media Center SE" harmony profile - that has a stack of keyboard commands already defined. No need to purchase an actual keyboard."

 

Unfrotunately the Windows Media Center SE profile is incompatible with the Oretk's IR receiver. I had tried it awhile ago, but I tried it again just in case.

 

 

"The best receiver I have found is the Flirc. http://www.flirc.tv"

 

Is it necessary to buy a wireless keyboard in addition to this? Or is the flirc alone enough? I looked at their website but it didn't really answer the question.

[psykix 97]

 

"The best receiver I have found is the Flirc. http://www.flirc.tv"

 

Is it necessary to buy a wireless keyboard in addition to this? Or is the flirc alone enough? I looked at their website but it didn't really answer the question.

 

It depends what you want to do I guess. I do have a Logitech Dinovo Mini which I use from time to time for mouse control or text input, but for daily use I use only a Flirc receiver along with my Harmony Remote. The more obscure commands that I needed to use I programmed to keyboard key presses and added them as buttons on the Harmony display.

 

The Flirc basically allows you to assign ANY keypress or combination of keypresses to either a hard button on the Harmony, or a soft button on the display.

 

It just gives you really good control over how you configure it - you don't have to hope that the button combo or function is supported in a Harmony device profile.

 

You can also program Windows+1, Windows+2 etc to fire up apps from the task bar.

Edited August 12, 2014 by psykix

[mranim8or 3]

Sorry, I worded that really badly. My question is, does the  Flirc come pre-programmed with the ability to send keyboard presses or do I need to buy a wireless keyboard to 'teach' it....thats the part I was unclear on after reading the website.

[Della Dog 19]

Sorry, I worded that really badly. My question is, does the Flirc come pre-programmed with the ability to send keyboard presses or do I need to buy a wireless keyboard to 'teach' it....thats the part I was unclear on after reading the website.

Not exactly. You record the key press from the remote, then assign a keyboard command to it.

 

IOW, set your harmony profile to some profile that uses every button (like say a Samsung TV), then press a remote button (like the colored red button) and the flirc will learn the IR code. Now you tell flirc that you want the learned IR code to = F1 (or whatever key combination u like.) The combination is saved into the flirc receiver itself, so anytime u press Red, it sends F1 to windows.

 

That's all in theory though - the flirc is undergoing some firmware revisions right now and it's not exactly rock solid yet.

Edited August 13, 2014 by Della Dog

[psykix 97]

I've not had any stability issues, but then I haven't had need to update my Flirc firmware for some time.

 

@@Della Dog pretty much summed it up. It's quite easy really. You can select what type of keyboard you want to use in a drop down - full, media etc.

 

I've never looked back since getting one as it's so granular.

 

Any keyboard shortcut you can type can be assigned to a key on your remote.

[psykix 97]

Sorry, I worded that really badly. My question is, does the  Flirc come pre-programmed with the ability to send keyboard presses or do I need to buy a wireless keyboard to 'teach' it....thats the part I was unclear on after reading the website.

 

To answer more directly, no you don't need a keyboard. You use the virtual keyboards in the Flirc software to select the keys or key combinations.