Need some basic info on the USB-UIRT

[Tracie]

In my continuing A/V/HTPC education I'm to the point of bringing control of it all together. I've got my HTM MX-500 remote (love it) & have it controlling everything on the rack except the HTPC - that I'm still using my trusty little Airboard for. To make the point clear, I don't need Girder or anything else to control external devices, I've programmed the remote to take care of that. Whatever hardware/software I need, all it needs to do is to control (via remote) Xlobby & maybe give me some mouse control for when I'm not in Xlobby. So here's where I'm a little confused - what exactly do I need to control Xlobby with my remote? I've looked at the USB-UIRT, but there doesn't seem to be much info on how it works with Xlobby on the site right now (I'm assuming that most of the info went away when the site went down). Do you need Girder for it or does the plugin bridge the gap between Xlobby -> UIRT -> remote? Can someone tell me how this all works & how you go about setting it up?

I've tried teaching the remote some basic mouse & keyboard movements off of the Airboard's IR transmitter, but it doesn't work all that well & I'd like a better, cleaner solution. There was also speculation on the Girder forums that using the Airboard's receiver would either not work or not work very well, so I'm not sure that I can make it work much better than it does. I've also looked at Irman/Girder, but Girder looks really intimidating & I'd like to keep this a little more simplified than that.

[hjackson]

The USB-UIRT works with Xlobby via an included plugin. You have to use Xlobby to teach the USB-UIRT the IR codes; there is not an independent program to program in IR codes with the USB-UIRT, it has to be used within another program. Once you have stored all your codes in Xlobby, you can assign any button an IR code so that your computer become the remote control. This is a good way of making a touchscreen remote. It even works with a PPC PDA (you can't use Palm OS!) as a client, so that you can use that as a touchscreen remote. To add extra IR emitters to the USB-UIRT (it only has one) I use one of these Xantech connecting blocks (this is where I bought mine http://www.smarthome.com/8130BR.html ) to give me 6 extra IR emitter ports.
BTW, I hate Girder too... even though it can do anything...

hjackson

[Tracie]

The USB-UIRT works with Xlobby via an included plugin. You have to use Xlobby to teach the USB-UIRT the IR codes; there is not an independent program to program in IR codes with the USB-UIRT, it has to be used within another program. Once you have stored all your codes in Xlobby, you can assign any button an IR code so that your computer become the remote control. This is a good way of making a touchscreen remote.

So if I read that correctly, you create your codes & store them in Xlobby, & then you can teach the codes to the remote? Do I have that right? Do you teach the remote in Xlobby or use the newly created codes outside of Xlobby to teach the remote via some other software? I'm sorry for all of the noob questions about this, just trying to get it all straight.

[stevenhanna6]

basicly the usbuirt can transmit and receive, so you go into the ir plugin section and "learn" ir codes....these can be transmitted later on. So just say you learn the power code for your dts receiver...you will now be able to turn it off through xlobby....xlobby will send the proper code to the usbuirt which will then send the remote control code you taught it earlier.

You can also use the usbuirt to trigger events in the event manager based on a certain button being pushed on your remote.

[Tracie]

You can also use the usbuirt to trigger events in the event manager based on a certain button being pushed on your remote.

So basically the UIRT learns from both directions - from Xlobby & the remote? No Girder?

[stevenhanna6]

basicly yeah, xlobby tells the usbuirt how to be a fake remote control if you like. And usbuirt tells xlobby how it likes to be communicated with by learning remote codes.

no girder needed to do the basic stuff, i would try using the builtin stuff in xlobby first before using girder....some people do need girder for more advanced things like scripting.

But you could have a button in xlobby that could turn every piece of IR equipment on and off without girder

[Tracie]

Dude, you rock! This is what I've been looking for, going to order mine first thing in the morning.