Hi Everyone,
I thought I would post a clever idea that I implemented yesterday. I need to be able to control my HB remote wirelessly. In my den I have a thin client running eXP. This connects to the dedicated HB machine in the basement. Of course I can use my cell phone and I am working on a Nokia 770 theme to control things but I need something my wife will actually use to easily manipulate the SW remote. The WAF in our house is very very high, btw. I was having problems detecting IR reliably using my OCELOT and IR key presses, and running a HB task to change the focus window on the SW remote. This is due to a combination of my Xantech IR connecting blocks and the OCELOT I think.
As you can probably understand when you have a high WAF, that translates into a requirement for a 1 inch thick business case when you want to buy something new that costs over $50! Browsing through the microcenter brochure this weekend I saw a simple presentation control device (for controlling your powerpoint presentations with a remote). This is a very simple 5 button remote (4 control buttons and 1 laser pointer button) and a small USB dongle. The price was $12.99 (made by Targus). I picked one up. (You can buy other remotes of course but I have found they cost quite a bit more and require lots of third party software (I have a snapstream firefly...that I cannot put on my thin client as it requires 100mbs).
I brought the thing home and hooked it up (no software required). I expected that this little device would only do the bare minimum and not be very customizable and I was right....the right button on the remote sends a 'PageUp', left button sends a 'PageDown', bottom button sends a 'b' keypress, and the top button sends a ALT/TAB (for switching apps). My plan was to use a autohotkey and a simple script (or EXE)(Autohotkey is a free nifty app that maps keypresses, does macros, and lots more) to map the keys over. It worked great and is fast! My script maps the keys to the arrow keys up, down, right, left.....for changing the focus window on the SWRemote.
You may be guessing the problem now...what about the 'select' button'. That was a problem....I did not realize when I bought this that only four of the five buttons sent commands. At least it was only $13 bucks! But I found a solution! I tweaked my script for autohotkey to detect a 'double click' of the 'down' or 'b' key. When you double click.....that translates to the 'enter' key. Eureka it works like a charm!
Now I have a VERY simple, very low cost, remote control device for the SWremote.....If I could find one with only 5 or 6 buttons that would be ideal but this works. And for only $13 bucks you can't beat it. (Other presentation devices I found cost like $50 and required special software.
Hope someone might find this of use. Now all I have to worry about is my kids pointing the laser pointer in their eyes!
Happy automating!
v/r
Kevin