- #Flirc usb dongle raspberry pi how to#
- #Flirc usb dongle raspberry pi Bluetooth#
- #Flirc usb dongle raspberry pi tv#
Kodi wiki about pairing USB keyboards with the Fire TV Digging up those more advanced shortcuts required turning to a section in the For reasons unknown Amazon lists the simple shortcuts (like arrow key navigation) but fails to list the more advanced (and useful) shortcuts like pressing F12 to return to the Fire TV home screen. The last entry, the official keyboard shortcut list for the Amazon Fire TV, is a good example of an official list that’s a bit inadequate. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts for common media center software/hardware arrangements: Idealy this process should be as simple as turning to Google and looking up something like “ keymap” or “ keyboard shortcuts”. To that end, the first step in getting Flirc up and running is to determine what keyboard commands do what actions on your media center.
#Flirc usb dongle raspberry pi how to#
Let’s look at how to figure out what your device’s keymap is and then how to use Flirc to link the existing keymap with your remote.Īlthough the Flirc configuration software does thoughtfully include button keymaps for Kodi/XBMC, Boxee, Windows Media Center, Amazon Fire TV, and even mapping for standard keyboard media keys (and we appreciate that thoughtfulness) it’s good to know how to look up and study a keymap without the assistance of the software so that you can effectively map anything to the Flirc (and not just the pre-mapped entries they provide). In order to configure Flirc properly you’ll need three things: the Flirc dongle/software, the remote you want to use with your media center, and a list of the keyboard inputs and shortcuts the media center software in question uses. Clearly the folks behind the Flirc project are into helping build a high quality media center experience all around. (~$16) that features an integrated aluminum-body heat sink if you’re looking for a good media center case for your Pi it’s not just good looking it’s also quite efficient at keeping your board cool. Media center system that has a USB port that will accept a keyboard input.Īs an aside before we continue on with the tutorial, FLIRC also makesĪ really awesome Raspberry Pi 2 / B+ case You don’t need special drivers, you don’t need to edit the keymaps of your device (if you’re even able to), and you don’t need a special remote. The cleverness of this solution lies in the fact that it’s universal. Then when you have the FLIRC dongle plugged into your media center and you press the remote button the media center is tricked into thinking the FLIRC USB dongle is actually a keyboard and that you’ve just pressed the “Home” key. You can take a button on your media center remote and map it, via the FLIRC system, to represent the “Home” key on a traditional keyboard. So let’s say the media center software you’re using is keymapped for the “Home” key on the keyboard to return you to the home screen of the media center software. Rather than acting as a “dumb” IR-to-USB bridge that simply passes the IR commands along to the host operating system the FLIRC unit is actually a programmable device that uses USB HID (Human Interface Device) standards to emulate a keyboard. Further, it requires you’ve already purchased an IR dongle of some sort (which can run you anywhere from $10-20).įLIRC, on the other hand, circumvents the entire problem in a rather novel way. It’s not a light task, however, and certainly not a task for beginners.
#Flirc usb dongle raspberry pi Bluetooth#
You see there is a fundamental problem when it comes to linking your typical universal or TV remote to a media center system like a Raspberry Pi running Kodi/XBMC, an Amazon Fire TV, a computer running Plex or Windows Media Center, or the like: these devices are either optimized for their own special remote (such as the bluetooth remote that comes with the Amazon Fire TV) or they are optimized for keymaps that map onto a keyboard (like Kodi/XBMC and Windows Media Center).ĭon’t get us wrong, it’s more than possible to dig into the guts of many media center software packages (like Kodi/XBMC) and remap the keys. The Flirc unit is far more clever than a simple storage unit though and works as an absolutely ingenious solution to the problem of linking IR-based remotes to media center software.
At first glance it would be remarkably easy to confuse the Flirc unit with an actual thumb drive as the clear case, visible circuit board, and the IR receiver points (that look much like LED indicator lights) all strongly echo the design of thumb drive storage. ($20) is a tiny USB dongle about half the size of a traditional thumb drive. Today we’re looking at the Flirc IR dongle, an incredibly clever and effective way to link any remote to nearly any media center.
Media center software and hardware has advanced exponentially in the last ten years but it can still be quite a pain to get a remote up and running with your unit.