Frequently asked questions
Q: I sort of get it but a few more clues about what the software does would be very helpful
A: Basically you have remote control commands, usually from TV remotes. When you press a remote button and with the help of an infrared receiver, the stream is converted into meaningful data for the computer. PCRC stores that sequence during the learning process and since then, every incoming sequence is compared with the list of learned commands. When a previously learned sequence is detected, the action settled for that command is executed.
In previous versions of PCRC, every command had its own associated action, meaning that your remote button always did the same thing on the computer. Starting with version 4, the same command can trigger different actions depending on the active application. When you define a layout, you are creating a list of actions that will be executed ONLY when the foreground application is the same you specified in the layout. For example, it means that the 'Play' button of your remote can do different things if the active application you want to control is Winamp or the Media Player.
The other big improvement of version 4 is the fact that for triggering an action you can combine several commands. This way, you can multiply the available actions with the same number of remote buttons. For example, you could define an action to happen after receiving buttons 1 and 2, and another different one after receiving 2 and 1. You could also trigger the same action with button 1 or 2 selecting OR triggering. The Layouts_demo.pcr file, demonstrates how the same three commands do different things depending on the active application, and it will let you get the idea of how to configure the commands and actions.
Every layout is just a group of actions that only happen when the foreground window has the same title or classname as the one especified in the layout settings. In your case, you could have a Winamp layout, a DVD player layout, etc. For example, you want the 'Play' button of your remote to make Winamp start playing and the same for the DVD player. To do this, you just need to define for every layout the action that makes the program start playing, and link that action with the command 'Play' of your remote. When this happens, and you press 'Play', PCRC will check if the active application is in the layouts list. In such case, the action executed will be the one you especified for that application.
Q: How do I associate a set of commands to one application only?
A: Create a layout (Actions | Layouts setup... or press the button next to the actual layout combobox). If the application is running, you can easily find it on the tree list 'Running applications'. If not, add a new one and be sure you write a 'Window title' that fits partial or completely with the application you want to control. It searchs what you write in the window title, meaning that you can write only the fixed part of the title and PCRC will find it anyways. For example, '- Notepad'. All the actions that you add to that layout will be simulated when Notepad is the active window.
Q: Can you describe the different fields in the recognition panel?
A: An example from two different buttons, sending two sequences:
Button1
14 20 30 80 00 00 AA
88 20 31 80 00 00 00 00 00 AA
Button2
33 30 20 80 00 AA
17 29 20 81 00 AA
Skip first: The first value from some receivers is random. In our
example, skip first would skip the first value in the comparison.
Tolerance: If values 30 and 31 are supposed to be the same, a
tolerance of 1 would tell the program to consider them the same.
Length limited: We suppose this remote sends a 'head', some
repetitive values while you leave the button pressed and a tail when
you release it. The comparison ends at the length of the shorter one,
so in this case, instead of setting a tolerance value too big that
could result in wrong recognitions, we limit the comparison to 5 if we
know that the ending value never arrives sooner than that.
Number of bytes: For serial port devices that send several bytes for
a single value.
Equal sequences have the same length: Useful for buttons that send
two codes, one for pressing and another one for releasing (down-up).
When this option is enabled, you can distinguish between both
situations.
Consider binary values: Some receivers send sequences whose values
are very close to each other, making the tolerance setting unuseful.
With this option, all values fall into two groups, over or below
certain level.
Q: Is there an easy method of debugging the settings commands for recognition of the remote keys? I get a lot of duplicate hits from the remote.
A: While the PCRC window is visible, and you have your origin opened, you can send the commands and if they are recognized correctly, the one you send becomes highlighted with a red ball. Or you can enable the OSD function, checking on the 'Name of the command'. If you refer to debugging at a lower level, use the 'Test origin' window to see what kind of data you are receiving.