Repeated keypress from remote

ogreg · December 13, 2020 at 11:17 AM

Finished installing my first LibreELEC (LibreELEC-RPi.arm-9.2.6), simple 3-pin IR receiver connected to GPIO.

Followed Infra-Red Remotes wiki and got an old Pioneer DVD-remote to work - the HARD way (not using LIRC Support section).

My Logitech Harmony 200 is configured as that remote in the DVD-setting, but it apparently transmits several (usually 3) quick keypress events per keypress, and they're passed on to KODI.

I tried to stop (kodi and) eventlircd and start it by hand using --repeat-filter, but the result seems to be the same:

/usr/sbin/eventlircd --repeat-filter -f --evmap=/etc/eventlircd.d --socket=/run/lirc/lircd &

irw confirms the repeated keys.

I guess it should be possible to filter aout the extra events - any help is appreciated.

**Da Flex** · December 13, 2020 at 11:52 AM Official Post

You could use key mapping. Each remote button press will start it's own script, which ignores repeating events for some time.

**HiassofT** · December 13, 2020 at 1:39 PM

It's your Harmony remote sending those repeats, simply disable the command repeat feature in the Harmony config software and you'll be fine

Fixing Repeats

so long,

Hias

ogreg · December 13, 2020 at 3:39 PM

Thank you both.

HiassofT

I have thought of that, but the remote is old and the software does not offer this option, even though the Logitech link suggests it.

Da Flex

Then I'll have to configure each of my mapped keys (25 so far) to be directed to the same script.

I haven't got a clue about how to do this, so I'll try that as a last resort (lazyness + lack of knowledge).

I was hoping for a pointer to a suitable configuration setting somewhere in the chain from IR to Kodi.

Or maybe bringing lircd back in play - would it be doable configuring it to suppress repeating events?

**Da Flex** · December 13, 2020 at 3:56 PM Official Post

HiassofT is pretty much the man when it's about RC's. Maybe our Wiki or lirc_options.conf can help you (timing etc.).

**HiassofT** · December 13, 2020 at 4:36 PM

You could try increasing the delay before repeat kicks in - use eg ir-keytable -D 750 to increase it from 500 to 750ms.

This will work while kodi/eventlircd are running so you can experiment with the values.

so long,

Hias

ogreg · December 13, 2020 at 5:19 PM

I did like this:

Code

piLibreELEC:~ # ir-keytable -D 3000 -c -w keys-exp.txt
Read pioneer-remote table
Old keytable cleared
Wrote 15 keycode(s) to driver
Protocols changed to nec
Repeat delay = 5000 ms, repeat period = 125 ms
Changed Repeat delay to 3000 ms and repeat period to 125 ms

plus your suggestion and several other values for -D - and there was NO difference whatsoever.

I'm not sure I understand the -D value: is it applied to interval between down+up event pairs or the interval from a long press ie. from down to up?

**HiassofT** · December 13, 2020 at 7:25 PM

Can you post the output of "ir-keytable -t" when you do a short button press on the remote?

Usually remotes send the scancodes every (approx) 100ms while the button is pressed, this is interpreted as a "held down" button by the input subsystem - you'll see an initial "key down" event and then get further key down events after the specified repeat delay.

If the scancodes are too far apart linux will detect them as separate button presses (i.e. key down followed by key up some 150ms afterwards).

If the scancodes are only a bit too far apart then tweaking the receive timeout (ir-ctl -t VALUE_IN_MICROSECONDS, eg ir-ctl -t 125000) can help to detect these as a held down button - ideally the Harmony remote should behave like standard remotes though and follow the protocol specs though.

so long,

Hias

ogreg · December 14, 2020 at 6:57 AM

Here's the test output:

Code

piLibreELEC:~ # ir-keytable -c -w keys-exp.txt
Read pioneer-remote table
Old keytable cleared
Wrote 15 keycode(s) to driver
Protocols changed to nec
piLibreELEC:~ # systemctl stop kodi
piLibreELEC:~ # # KEY_PLAY and KEY_LEFT:
piLibreELEC:~ # ir-keytable -t
Testing events. Please, press CTRL-C to abort.
860.500021: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
860.590020: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
860.680015: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
863.120034: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
863.210024: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
863.296706: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
863.386687: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
863.476688: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
863.566688: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
^C
piLibreELEC:~ # systemctl stop eventlircd
piLibreELEC:~ # # KEY_PLAY and KEY_LEFT:
piLibreELEC:~ # ir-keytable -t
Testing events. Please, press CTRL-C to abort.
930.646686: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
930.646752: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab22
930.646752: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_down: KEY_PLAY(0x00cf)
930.646752: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
930.736740: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
930.736786: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab22
930.736786: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
930.826696: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
930.826737: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab22
930.826737: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
930.953346: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_up: KEY_PLAY(0x00cf)
930.953346: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.110007: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
936.110055: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
936.110055: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.200006: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
936.200069: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf63
936.200069: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_down: KEY_LEFT(0x0069)
936.200069: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.290007: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
936.290062: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_up: KEY_LEFT(0x0069)
936.290062: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
936.290062: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.380006: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
936.380070: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf63
936.380070: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_down: KEY_LEFT(0x0069)
936.380070: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.466667: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
936.466723: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_up: KEY_LEFT(0x0069)
936.466723: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
936.466723: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.556686: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
936.556750: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf63
936.556750: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_down: KEY_LEFT(0x0069)
936.556750: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
936.683347: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_up: KEY_LEFT(0x0069)
936.683347: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
^C
piLibreELEC:~ #

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**HiassofT** · December 14, 2020 at 9:21 AM

The output of "play" looks fine (as expected when the Harmony repeats the command 3 times): It sends the scancode 0xab22 three times, which then results in a single key_down event.

The "left" test is odd though, the Harmony transmits two different scancodes, first 0xab2c and then 0xaf63, and repeats that three times. This doesn't end well, when a different scancode is received it's interpreted as a release ("up") of the previous scancode.

That's something you need to fix in the Harmony configuration - make sure a button sends a single scancode.

so long,

Hias

ogreg · December 14, 2020 at 12:51 PM

Quote

... make sure a button sends a single scancode.

I've scratched my head quite a bit - how do I do that?

If I instruct ir-keytable to show all codes for all protocols for PLAY, PAUSE, RIGHT, LEFT:

Code

piLibreELEC:~ # systemctl stop kodi
piLibreELEC:~ # systemctl stop eventlircd
piLibreELEC:~ # # PLAY, PAUSE, RIGHT, LEFT:
piLibreELEC:~ # ir-keytable -p all -t
Protocols changed to lirc rc-5 rc-5-sz jvc sony nec sanyo mce_kbd rc-6 sharp xmp imon rc-mm
Testing events. Please, press CTRL-C to abort.

448.396795: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
448.396842: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab22
448.396842: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

448.486726: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
448.486777: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab22
448.486777: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

448.593469: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab22
448.593519: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab22
448.593519: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

450.466748: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab23
450.466803: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab23
450.466803: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

450.553385: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab23
450.553432: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab23
450.553432: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

450.663485: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab23
450.663536: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab23
450.663536: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

453.166781: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
453.166823: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
453.166823: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
453.256716: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf64
453.256760: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf64
453.256760: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

453.343392: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
453.343444: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
453.343444: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
453.433507: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf64
453.433554: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf64
453.433554: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

453.523395: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
453.523446: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
453.523446: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
453.630119: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf64
453.630168: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf64
453.630168: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

455.030070: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
455.030120: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
455.030120: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
455.120049: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
455.120098: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf63
455.120098: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

455.206763: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
455.206807: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
455.206807: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
455.296718: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
455.296762: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf63
455.296762: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

455.386744: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xab2c
455.386796: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xab2c
455.386796: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
455.493490: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0xaf63
455.493540: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0xaf63
455.493540: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
^C

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(made a bit more readable), it shows one event for PLAY and PAUSE, but two for RIGHT and LEFT.

I could read the last two as: first event is a generic 'special code follows', the second a specific button - can I configure my way out of that?

Thanks for your patience!

**HiassofT** · December 14, 2020 at 4:57 PM

I don't have a Harmony remote but AFAIK the selected remote profile is what defines the scancodes to be sent - so dig into that.

My guess is the remote profile sends two different scancodes on left/right to support two (slightly) different DVD players - which might work with the original players but is highly non-standard with anything else.

Check if there are other similar remote profiles if you want to stick to the Pioneer DVD profile or just configure the Harmony to use the Microsoft Media Center remote (not the MCE keyboard!), this will work out-of-the box in LE.

If you plan to use both your original pioneer remote and the Harmony to control LibreELEC you can still do this when the Harmony is configured as MCE: Enable both nec and rc-6 protocols in the keymap and add the key/scancode definitions from rc6_mce to your keymap (we do a similar thing in the default libreelec_multi keymap to support Xbox remotes in addition to MCE).

so long,

Hias

ogreg · December 14, 2020 at 6:24 PM

Ok - got that.

I must admit that I didn't know what I was venturing into when I selected that remote - next I'll try to find another remote in my collection (with some nicer codes + Harmony support), so I still can have my 3-device Harmony control 4 devices, and have your suggestions as a safe fallback.

Thanks for your answers, this is a very responsive forum.