[mythtv-users] ATI Remote - ATI Remote Plus Source Code Updates

[Fraser Eric]

Anyone interested in my ATI Remote Driver updates to support MythTv?

I have made updates to the latest ATI Remote Kernel Drivers to support ATI-Remote Plus and the original ATI Remote on Myth TV.  The updates are minor but have been customized to work exclusively with MythTv. My current configuration is Mythbuntu 12.04 with the latest updates and MythTv 27.  I have been using the ATI remote for my main to interface with myth TV IE. no keyboard...

For those not familiar with the ATI remote it is a RF remote which uses a USB receiver with a maximum range of about 60 Feet.  It has a kernel version and is supported via LIRC.  I have updated the kernel version as it has mouse support.  The mouse is useful in rare cases  were you need to get rid of an annoying popup box.  These remotes are available pretty cheap on ebay about $5-$10.  The ATI Remote Plus is a little nicer of a remote than the original ATI remote but the original remote is easier to find.  Both remotes are supported by my software patch.  The ATI Remote II is a different remote which uses a different driver.  The code is similar but supports mode operations for mapping different applications.  I have considered updating the driver to consolidate all remotes, looking at the code I don't think this would be that difficult. 

The remote can configure up to 16 channels, I use the same remote to turn on and control three front ends including the back end.  Because my front ends do not support any wake on USB, I have modified the remote remap the power button such that the back end can be used to turn on any of my front ends using "Wake On Lan" command.  I have changed the driver to map the power button to escape on the local PC's channel but various other unused keys for any other power button / channel received.  So if my backend which is powered all the time on receives a power button signal from channel 2 say my living room TV instead of ignoring the button press it sends a obscure unused key say KEY_PROG2.  Then on my backend window manager (XFCE) I add a new keyboard short cut to map the KEY_PROG2 button to wakeOnLan livingroom_mac_address .

My flat screen TVs go into power save mode when it detects no PC connection so it essentially shuts off when I shut off my PC.    I then power on the TV via wake on lan of the TV and I am off and running the remote works great and even talks to my backend down in the basement which I use a standard def front end to all my old Tube TVs or TVs which I don't want to attach a front end...  Essentially the backend has TV S-Video out which I convert to coax to all my standard Def TVs and my small kitchen flat screen.

I have created a Makefile which will do everything from build the driver and replace the existing kernel driver to configure the PC to run a particular channel.  When I receive kernel updates I simply rebuild and re-install my driver using one simple make command on each of my PCs.  It would be nice to get these changes into the standard distribution but I am not sure how many people still use this remote.  Not only that as I said I have remapped all the keys to standard MythTv keys so I don't have to play with updating keys in MythTv.  I have only built and used this driver on Ubuntu which as I said is part of their standard kernel distribution, I do not know if this driver is presently supported by Fedora or other Linux variants.

The wiki pages on these remotes are very out of date, and the default ATI driver still does not support the ATI Remote Plus.  I was considering updating the Wiki pages on these remotes but before I figure out how to do that I wanted to get a feel if anyone was still interested in using these remotes.  

Let me know if you are interested,

Eric
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