Re: Switch your PC On/Off with your IR Remote
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2019 10:45 am
Anyone who has years of messing with DIY computers will understand the kind of night I just had. The kind of night where you feel that you are only moments away from a working solution, and as the hours slip by unnoticed, your mental exhaustion only seems to fuel the insanity to keep on trying.
I give thanks to OrigenAE for last night's insanity, though I do arrive on the other side with a newfound realization. Origen's IRTrans IR110 is a dead product, unless you want to time travel back to Windows XP/Vista.
I was able to get the USB drivers installed easily. The IR software, both Origen's legacy version and IRTrans' current version, also installed without a hitch. The problem, then, is that the software is refusing to talk to, or even acknowledge, the hardware. I spent hours troubleshooting this issue, at one point I even had my voltmeter out to test the connections. IRTrans goes on record saying that OEM products, like Origen's IR110, must be supported by the OEM and that IRTrans can't help. Origen's website hasn't seen updates in years, so they seem to be on life support if they aren't already dead. And I finally noticed on the IR110 product page that it clearly states XP/Vista only. Doh!
But my futile attempts also brought a few things into clear focus for me last night. First, the IRTrans solution is not for me. It is not a natively MCE compatible solution, rather you must run a software 'server' process that reads the IR signals from the board, and converts them to WMC compatible messages. Granted, it's a very powerful solution, but with great power comes great pain-in-the-arse, and the extra benefits it provides have no value for me as I just need basic MCE RC6 ir remote handling. I just want a hardware based native RC6 receiver.
Second, I really really really want a solution that fits inside the X15e case and uses the original IR sensor light-hole (sounds kinda dirty... hehe, he said light-hole). Origen's 'current' IR products don't appear as if they would even fit the X15e case, nor would any of IRTrans' products which are all external solutions. Not that any of that matters, since I don't like the software server command translation process.
Third, I also really want a solution that can power up a fully off PC, similar to the SIMEREC PCS-1/PCS-2 solution. The problem with those devices is that they are single function only, powering the PC on/off, and they don't receive/process remote commands. The really nice thing about the Origen IR110 was that it did everything, both PC power on/off, and reading IR signals into the PC. The X15e's light-hole (hehe) seems large enough for a single sensor, but I don't think I could hide two behind it.
With a clear understanding of what I want (native RC6 receiver with ability to trigger the power button on a powered off PC in a form factor that would fit inside my X15e HTPC case) I asked Google for help.
And Google replied with this failed Kickstarter campaign from 2015:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/26 ... %20control
The PC-IRS-01 looked perfect! It's hardware native RC6. It's super small, and would probably mount easily behind the X15e's light-hole (if I rotated it vertically), and it can use IR receiver sensor extenders, guaranteeing it will fit any case. All of this doubled my frustration that the funding was unsuccessful.
But then for some reason I clicked on the 'Updates' button for that campaign, and to my surprise I discovered that Inteset Technologies, the company behind the PC-IRS-01 Kickstarter campaign, said they were going to make it anyway!!! And here's a link to their page where you can read up on it and even order it: https://intesettech.com/index.php/produ ... ender-kit/
What could be better than that? How about this: it is available on Amazon for $32, has 4.6/5 star rating, and with my Prime free shipping it will be here tomorrow!
Woo-hoo!
I give thanks to OrigenAE for last night's insanity, though I do arrive on the other side with a newfound realization. Origen's IRTrans IR110 is a dead product, unless you want to time travel back to Windows XP/Vista.
I was able to get the USB drivers installed easily. The IR software, both Origen's legacy version and IRTrans' current version, also installed without a hitch. The problem, then, is that the software is refusing to talk to, or even acknowledge, the hardware. I spent hours troubleshooting this issue, at one point I even had my voltmeter out to test the connections. IRTrans goes on record saying that OEM products, like Origen's IR110, must be supported by the OEM and that IRTrans can't help. Origen's website hasn't seen updates in years, so they seem to be on life support if they aren't already dead. And I finally noticed on the IR110 product page that it clearly states XP/Vista only. Doh!
But my futile attempts also brought a few things into clear focus for me last night. First, the IRTrans solution is not for me. It is not a natively MCE compatible solution, rather you must run a software 'server' process that reads the IR signals from the board, and converts them to WMC compatible messages. Granted, it's a very powerful solution, but with great power comes great pain-in-the-arse, and the extra benefits it provides have no value for me as I just need basic MCE RC6 ir remote handling. I just want a hardware based native RC6 receiver.
Second, I really really really want a solution that fits inside the X15e case and uses the original IR sensor light-hole (sounds kinda dirty... hehe, he said light-hole). Origen's 'current' IR products don't appear as if they would even fit the X15e case, nor would any of IRTrans' products which are all external solutions. Not that any of that matters, since I don't like the software server command translation process.
Third, I also really want a solution that can power up a fully off PC, similar to the SIMEREC PCS-1/PCS-2 solution. The problem with those devices is that they are single function only, powering the PC on/off, and they don't receive/process remote commands. The really nice thing about the Origen IR110 was that it did everything, both PC power on/off, and reading IR signals into the PC. The X15e's light-hole (hehe) seems large enough for a single sensor, but I don't think I could hide two behind it.
With a clear understanding of what I want (native RC6 receiver with ability to trigger the power button on a powered off PC in a form factor that would fit inside my X15e HTPC case) I asked Google for help.
And Google replied with this failed Kickstarter campaign from 2015:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/26 ... %20control
The PC-IRS-01 looked perfect! It's hardware native RC6. It's super small, and would probably mount easily behind the X15e's light-hole (if I rotated it vertically), and it can use IR receiver sensor extenders, guaranteeing it will fit any case. All of this doubled my frustration that the funding was unsuccessful.
But then for some reason I clicked on the 'Updates' button for that campaign, and to my surprise I discovered that Inteset Technologies, the company behind the PC-IRS-01 Kickstarter campaign, said they were going to make it anyway!!! And here's a link to their page where you can read up on it and even order it: https://intesettech.com/index.php/produ ... ender-kit/
What could be better than that? How about this: it is available on Amazon for $32, has 4.6/5 star rating, and with my Prime free shipping it will be here tomorrow!
Woo-hoo!