ir remote a pc with harmony?

[Stigzler]

Jees, hello all. Would say I'm new at this home automation business, but seem to have been at it for 6 months now!!!

Anyways, I have a Shuttle PC connected to my AV amp (and through to TV). I'm running a few third party apps on it such as jukebox software and some MAME apps. I have just bought a harmony remote. I would like to be able to remote control my PC. I have a wireless keyboard/mouse, but would like to be able to do so from my harmony.

I see there's a socket on my motherboard for IR devices. What I ideally need is some reccs on how to do this. The way I would see it working would be have an IR detector on my PC receiving key presses on the harmony. A piece of software (??? - any suggestions - 'girder'???) would interpret these and translate them into keyboard presses which then the different apps would translate into their commands (e.g. "Q" mapped to close application).

Is this possible???? Sorry about the ramble, but like that when you don't really understand it much!

Ta for any help.

[toscal]

Re: ir remote a pc with harmony?

A few questions first.
What operating system are you running XP Home, XP pro or MCE. Which Harmony remote do you have as some come with an RF extender.
And lastly which Shuttle PC do you have. As shuttle do an actual IR/ wireless remote for the shuttle the part number is PN13 its compatible with most shuttles except the SB86i. It might be worth taking a look at this, since it is designed for Shuttles.

[Stigzler]

Re: ir remote a pc with harmony?

Thanks for the quick reply, toscal. My OS is XP Pro. My remote is Harmony 659 and my shuttle is the SK43G.

I've seen the shuttle remote, but there's a couple of things with it. Firstly, it's usb connected so will use up rapidly disappearing ports. Secondly, from descriptions, it looks like the button functions are set automatically (e.g. one will call up iexplore, another explorer etc.). Therefore, not sure if I could map remote presses to keyboard keys???

thanks for any help.

[toscal]

Re: ir remote a pc with harmony?

You may want to have a look at this site http://winlirc.sourceforge.net/.
Are there just three pins for the IR interface. I think the interface is basically a serial port that you can configure as an IR port. Some BIOS settings allow you to enable or disable this serial/IR port. There may also be a jumper on the motherboard as well that needs setting.
If you have a spare serial port you could always use that instead.
If you don't want to build one then try here http://lnx.manoweb.com/lirc/?partTyp...rtName=winlirc
another site of interest is http://www.irassistant.com/dotcom/v_...p?url=main.inc