Just thought I'd share an app for using X10 devices, like the Remote Wonder Plus, with MCE2005 or other applications. It's called X10Commander and is attached to this post. It's a .NET app that can be used in place of ATIRW.EXE or other similar programs. It uses the X10 ActiveHome Scripting library to process X10 commands from the remote and send them, via keyboard shortcuts, to your computer. It allows you to create different command sets, so you can configure your remote for different applications. I wrote this app because I wanted to use ALL the buttons on my RW+, and I wasn't able to get other solutions to work fully (e.g. ATIRW plug-ins, RF Master\Factory, custom IME module, X10 and .Net automation, etc).

Features:

1. Supported Applications - by default X10Commander supports the applications below, however you can easily add support for another application from the Application Editor.
   • Firefox
   • GBPVR
   • InterVideo WinDVD 5
   • Windows Media Center 2005
   • Windows Media Player 10
2. Triple-tap Keys - Cellphone style text entry, also known as triple-tap keys
3. Mouse emulation - Simulate the mouse for movement\clicking using the thumbpad.
4. Application Editor - Maintain application commands directly in X10Commander.
5. Macros - Write sophisticated macros to emulate any combination of keyboard shortcuts.
6. Favorite Channels - Create a list of favorite channels to quickly skip channels from your remote.
7. Global Commands - Make a command "global" so that it is processed for all applications.

Attachments:

1. X10Commander-bin-v1.3.1.msi - application setup.
2. X10Commander-src-v1.3.1.msi - source code, provided under GPL. Modify as you like, I just ask that you please let me know of anything interesting you do!

System Requirements:

1. .Net Framework v2.0.50215 or higher. See http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7abd8c8f-287e-4c7e-9a4a-a4ecff40fc8e&DisplayLang=en
2. X10 Device Network Service (X10Nets.exe). This comes with the ATI RW software included with the ATI remotes. See the ReadMe.htm (Help>ReadMe) for more information on this.

Installation Instructions:

1. Run X10Commander-bin-v1.3.1.msi and follow the onscreen instructions.

Whats New with v1.3.1:

1. Triple-tap Keys - Cellphone style text entry, also known as triple-tap keys, is now available. This function is turned on\off using the "TTTKEYSONOFF" macro, which by default is mapped to the "MTAB" button (the checkmark next to the 0 button). This of course can be remapped to any key you like by re-assigning the "TTTKEYSONOFF" macro in the Global application.
2. Window Layouts - The size and position of all windows is now preserved.
3. Add\Remove Functions - Adding\removing applications and commands has been reworked to be more intuitive. The "Reload Apps" button has been moved to Tools>Refresh.
4. Documentation - A better explanation of how to write macros has been added. Also, more documentation on the X10 Network Device pre-requisites has been added. s

Release History:

• 17-February-2007 - v1.3.1
• 26-April-2006 - v1.3.0
• 4-July-2005 - v1.2.2
• 30-May-2005 - v1.2.1
• 24-May-2005 - v1.2
• 20-May-2005 - v1.1
• 9-May-2005 - v1.0

Previous Version v1.3.0:

1. X10Commander-bin-v1.3.0.msi - application setup.
2. X10Commander-src-v1.3.0.msi - source code.

Thanks!
OCP

I received an error regarding a .NET framwork dependancy v2.0.50215 does this software require the .NET 2.0 Beta?
--
Never-mind installed them and it opens fine now

Couple of problems that I have encountered,
When I reboot the remote no longer works,If I open the app in the presence of MCE is works again. But not if MCE is closed,Is this normal behavior?
I have the same problem when MCE is closed and reopened ( using the default power button map on the RW+ for instance)

I registered the service via your instructions ,though do I have to do anything else for it to withstand a reboot?

I tried just throwing the app in startup but it opens after MCE and so doesn't seem to load until it is switched to or if it receives a mouse click.
Thanks for any help ,this app is performing better then anything else so far.
I would however like to change the power button map to the little window thats popped up in the home screen when the "power" button is chosen. May be harder then it sounds.
Cheers

Hi. Sorry, yes I forgot to mention it requires .Net 2.0, since it was developed with VC# Express Beta 2. I updated the Readme.txt and the original post above to indicate this. Glad you figured it out. For others, .Net 2.0 can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7abd8c8f-287e-4c7e-9a4a-a4ecff40fc8e&DisplayLang=en.

If anyone with Visual Studio could recompile the source with .Net 1.1, then others that don't have 2.0 could use the program. Thanks!

Hi! Great feedback thanks! Yes, it was requiring that MCE be in the foreground in order to work. This was intentional so that you could use the remote with multiple applications without accidentally sending the same button to all of them. However, to make this more flexible, I added an optional "mustBeInForeground" parameter in the Application tag. It defaults to False so that the application (MCE in this case) need not be in the foreground. This should address your issues, see the original post for updated ZIP files. (I updated the Readme.txt to mention about adding a shortcut to the startup, thanks )

With this change, the "A" button will now work correctly and launch MCE if it's not already running (this didn't work before because of the foreground issue). Of course you can change this to map to another button in the RWPlusMCE05.xml if you like.

The Power button currently is mapped to Alt-F4 which will close MCE but not relaunch it ("A" can launch). For any programmers out there, it'd be a neat hack to allow a button to fire different commands based on the state of MCE, rather than a static set of keystrokes (e.g. if MCE is open "Power" does Alt-F4, if not it does Lwin-Alt-Enter to launch it).

In order to map the Power button to the "Shut Down" in MCE, we just need to figure out if it has a keyboard shortcut. So far I haven't found it .
Another note to any programmers out there, another nice hack would be to include non-keyboard based commands (e.g. like the WM_INPUT described in http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/remote_control.asp#remote_control_topic4

Hope that helps!

You Rock.
Too bad there's not a way to flip flop the power button's function to kill MCE and then restart it.

Thanks. There probably is a way to switch the power function, based on the state of MCE. The trick is to make it configurable (i.e. not hardcoded) in the commands file. I'm sure it can be done, I'll work on it.

In the meantime does anyone know if\what the keyboard shortcut is for the Shutdown menu? If there isn't one, is there a way to send this as a wm_appcommand or something?

Attached is an update to the X10Commander application. Sorry it's taken me so long, but I was stuck in Interop\USB\Win32 hell and couldn't get out!

X10Commander v1.1 includes:
1. A new Startup and Shutdown command type. E.g. the Power button can be mapped to both to start\stop MCE. See the included RWPlusMCE05.xml.
2. X10Application tag has an "address" property to specify the address of the X10 device (Remote Wonder Plus = "p2") to process commands for. I added this to shut out interference from other RF signals I was encountering from my phones, wireless router, etc. See the Readme.txt for more information.
3. Slightly (I hope!) improved performance. I kept the original v.1.0 attachments in the event anyone needs to revert back if this proves not to be the case.
4. Improved logging now indicates if a command is processed or not. Logging is table based now to allow for sorting, etc., of the commands.

Techie notes:
1. I recreated the Interop DLL, using "TLBIMP /unsafe" to remove the security checking overhead. I found this in this
Interop Performance Checklist.
2. I've started adding unit tests to the source, but it's far from complete. In any case there's now a X10Tester project for this, and you'll need NUnit 2.2 to compile\use it. I also use the Testdriven addin for Visual Studio.

Open questions\issues:
1. I still haven't figured out the shortcut for the "Shutdown" menu in MCE. Anyone figure this out??

Please let me know what you think about this application. Any\all comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!
OCP

Update 30-May-2005 - Attachments removed, latest version can be found on original post

A minor update is attached that includes:
1. Fixed bug that prevented X10Commander from re-launching the app if it was closed manually (i.e using a mouse, etc) and not using the remote.
2. Fixed the positioning of the "enable logging" check box if the window is resized.
3. Removed overhead of security checks during Win32 function calls (using SuppressUnmangedCodeSecurity class attribute).


A PLEA FOR FEEDBACK:
Is anyone besides Acidprime (assuming you still are ) and myself using this application? I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who is. Or from anyone who tried it, but decided not to use it. Any success stories with other applications than MCE? Problems, suggestions, etc? Thanks!!


Update 30-May-2005 - Attachments removed, latest version can be found on original post

Ask an thou shall receive.
Feedback:

Do I need to register the DLL after each update?

I kinda notice the speed difference,though I may have/had a bit of a reception problem too

This "i" button right clicks but then you have to hit okay to actually make this function work(possibly a macro to simplify?)


Feature Requests:

My roommates and girl friend always try and use the mouse wheel at top to navigate the menus,would it be possible to turn the up/down left/right buttons to actually work for this "button" instead of it not working at all?

Just a thought perhaps the distributed file should default to
CommandFiles" value="C:\Program Files\X10Commander\RWPlusMCE05.xml"
for novices,upgraders (I normally select all and c/p)and to save me from typing.

Clock button macros to scheduled records?

I wish apon a star:

Currently I have a haugp 150 card which came with an IR Blaster I would love to get this to turn my TV off along with MCE and ditto the other way around.
thanks

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it!

1. No, you shouldn't have to register the DLL each time, since it's not changing. If there's any doubt though, you can unregister it using "regsvr32 /u ahscript.dll" then re-register it with "regsvr32 ahscript.dll". I'll look into getting some kind of an installer (ala MSI) to remove any question on this.

Anyone know a good open source installer since VC# Express doesn't do deployment packages?

2. Ya, the "i" button doesn't click the final "Ok" correctly. I tried changing the macro for that button from "VK_CONTROL,D" to "VK_CONTROL,D,VK_RETURN" to trigger the "Ok", but it processes it too quickly for the screen. I'll work on a good solution for "pausing" between keystrokes. In the meantime, feel free to try it on your system, it may work:

<X10Command type="Normal" name="InfoStep" keyword="MTTV" macro="VK_CONTROL,D,VK_RETURN"/>


3. DOH! I thought about the mousepad right after my last post, realizing those were the last few buttons not mapped. I'll update the attachments, but in the meantime, just change the mappings for those buttons to:

<X10Command type="Normal" name="Mouse Right" keyword="MouseRight" macro="VK_RIGHT"/>
<X10Command type="Normal" name="Mouse Up" keyword="MouseUp" macro="VK_UP"/>
<X10Command type="Normal" name="Mouse Left" keyword="MouseLeft" macro="VK_LEFT"/>
<X10Command type="Normal" name="Mouse Down" keyword="MouseDown" macro="VK_DOWN"/>

If you want them to repeat, change their type="Repeatable". However, I found this can be be annoying because the mousepad seems to repeat much faster than the nav buttons. But it does make scrolling through a list faster
Maybe there needs to be a "throttle" control on X10Commands....

4. Ya, I'll change the .Config for a typical location of the commands file. A standard installer would smooth this out too.

5. It you add the line below, the clock will kind of work. It just doesn't process the final "Ok". Once again a pause of some kind is needed. It's doing a Ctrl-O (recordings) then down, down, enter. So this only works if you normally have your recordings sorted by date (1st menu item). If you sort by title (2nd menu item), remove one of the VK_DOWNs. Allow this is kind of a hack since it's not aware of the menu options here. Something to work on...

<X10Command type="Normal" name="Clock" keyword="Input" macro="VK_CONTROL,O,VK_DOWN,VK_DOWN,VK_RETURN"/>


6. IRBlaster support? That's a good one. Is there an SDK or API for the blaster do you know? If so it should be feasible.

OCP

Wow!

Thanx for your time This is a realy great app. I will try to implement it to my system this weekend.

Best regards,

4Lph4Num3r1c 8)

>grin< thanks!

Let me know how it goes.

Hey Guys -

Looks like a great app!

I tried to install the app and I thought all was well yet it still doesn't work. I uninstalled the ati remote drivers and software, rebooted the reinstalled the X10 drivers from the ATI install disk when Windows prompted. Once completed I installed .Net 2 beta, then the program as descriped.

Could I have left something out?

Any help would be great!!! Thanks again guys

What happens when you run the X10Commander application? Do you get an error? Or does it run fine, but just not process any RF commands? If it runs, enable logging (see the "Log Messages" checkbox) and check the address of the incoming RF commands. Your remote may not be coming in on address "p2". This can be changed in the RWPlusMCE05.xml file. There's an Address parm in the MCE X10Application tag, just change it to your address (or blank to process all RF commands it receives).

Otherwise, it sounds like you installed everything fine. Basically you just need the X10 device driver, the ahscript.dll registered, NET 2 and X10Commander.exe. You can keep the ATIRW.EXE installed, just don't run it at the same time as X10Commander.