Has anyone tried using one of the new Handspring Visor organizers as a remote in place of the Palm?

If so, could you please summarize your experience, particularly as to how the Visor's IR compares to the Palm's.

Great site and wonderful info on the forums.

I am actually trying to use a Palm Vx with 8MB RAM, etc as a remote. Will it work as well as the 5000 did?

Thanks.

Mind if I throw some more wood on the fire? :-)

I've been in the market for a URC for a very long time now (more than 18mo). And I am still looking! Back when I only had 6 remotes I new I had to do something. That's when I found this website doing a search for universal remotes. DT - this is an AWESOME site! Hats off to you for your efforts. I almost bought a Pronto, almost. But I needed a PDA and went on a PDA hunt instead. That's when I heard about SkyCommander. But the Compaq CE device I owned was not compatible. Then my search yeilded OmniRemote. After that I was sold on buying a Palm + OR. So I bought a PalmIIIx with a 4MB upgrade and was ready to buy OR when I found WedgeTV by PalmVision Software [Link: home.att.net] (not previously mentiond in this thread, and the real reason behind my ranting ;-)), and just before making my final decision I saw that a some new remotes would be out in the near future and once again I am on the standby -- damn RemoteCentral website and its "What's New" news!!! ;-)

I waited until I read all the threads before introducing the WedgeTV to the forum (timing is everything). But this just goes to reinforce the "argument" of a multi-purpose palm computer versus a single-purpose remote control. Can't beat that with a stick even if you tried! But what it really seems to boil down to is COOL GADGETS! Everybody wants them no denying that. But how do you argue who's got the best one?! To the pure enthusiast, I can't imagine him/her wanting to use a Pilot as their remote of choice. To the pratical-minded, and more finacialy frugle such as myself, it just seems the more logical choice - two, three, four birds with one stone!

Anyway, just had to inteject. Check out the WedgeTV site. Only downside, TO ME, is the wedge IR device-ewwww! But the software kicks a$$!

"Where there's a will, there is a way!"

do you know i have some time at work and I am reading all of these threads and quite frankly I am bored. The idea was info only , I cannot believe I wasted so much time reading these.

PPD

First, I would like to thank you for starting this wonderful and incredibly infomative thread. It does provide a wealth of information on a very viable alternative to some much more expensive solutions, which is a consideration when one has one daughter attending USC and another starting there this Fall.

I had a chance to download and play with the OR software a bit and had one question which may just be related to demo versus registered product.

In my scheme of things, I would like to program a sequence of macros from say, the TV category, so that my wife could push one button to switch the TV source to the VCR, turn on the VCR and amp, switch the amp to VCR audio input, and change to the VCR category screen for the transport controls. With the demo version of OR, I couldn't get it to change categories as part of a macro and was wondering whether this is merely a limitation of the demo version and not an obstacle in the full version.

Thanks for your response.

grfxguy

In the current version of OmniRemote you cannot use a macro to switch categories.

Peter Sharpe

grfxguy,

in the registered OR version, you can create a "category" button by checking the category option in the edit button screen. when you press the button, it will go that category screen.

for macros, you can insert any button from any category into the macro, but it appears you can't have one of the "category" buttons in the macro. as far as i can tell, there is no way to press a macro button and end up on a different category from the one with the macro button.

hope this helps

Palm Pro w/IR upgrade has 4 foot range!?

I just purchased a Palm Pro with the 2MB IR upgrade through eBay. I installed the trial version of OmniRemote to test it out before laying out the $20 for the full version.

A couple of things seem to be very flakey and I'm hoping the wonderful folks in this forum can help me solve them.

1) In IR training mode, OR misidentifies the frequency of my Panasonic TV as 37500 versus 39200 (the one that works).

2) After setting correct IR frequency and training buttons, my range (with fresh batteries) is only about four feet!

I followed all the directions in OmniRemote, but from the discussions here, I would have expected better range out of the IR upgrade.

Any constructive suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

I don't have any suggestions. But I can report that the IR range on my old Pilot with 2 MB upgrade is at least 12 feet for all of my components. I haven't tested to see what the maximum distance is.

I don't know what to suggest except that the IR is fairly directional so you need to point the Pilot in the direction of the component. But I'm guessing you already knew that.

Interesting that the discrete codes for Panasonic TV's for the Pronto use frequencies of 36,700 and 57,600 if I've done my math correctly.

If you send me the model number of your TV I'll make a sample OmniRemote pdb file for some of the functions from the Pronto code database and see if that works any better for you. It would be an interesting experiment at least.

Peter Sharpe

Peter

Further testing has shown that the range issue is only with the TV. The Yamaha receiver, Toshiba DVD, and Panasonic VCR have no range issues and seem perfectly happy at 8-10 feet.

The TV frequency appears to be 39200 (at least that's the only one I've found so far that actually does anything, even at four feet).

TV model is CT731G30 (31", 2-tuner PIP).

I tried the two frequencies you suggested, but neither would give me any response. I also tried detecting and training TV buttons off the VCR remote, but the Palm keeps detecting the wrong frequency (37,500).

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the TV remote has an exposed CLEAR IR bulb instead of the usual covered IR window.

Thanks for your help. It's frustrating to be so close, and yet missing one of the critical elements.

Nick

For those who are Handspring Visor users (I own a Blue Visor Deluxe myself) The OmniRemote springboard has been released for sale at palmgear.com (click here) Also, InnoGear (http://www.innogear.com) will hopefully be releasing a springboard module that offers increased beaming capability (stronger emiter and it's in front instead of on the side). You could run the regular OmniRemote software with that and have much better range. The Sprinbboard for those who are unfamiliar with the technology would have the software on it. Whenever the module is inserted into the Visor it is instantly recognized and the software is loaded. IE hot plug and play compatible. So the range problem seems to have been partially solved.

-MikeD

Anything further on this OmniRemote Desktop software?

What do you mean desktop software? It runs on your Palm OS compatible. You set everything up on your palm. Could you clarify? If you mean what is OmniRemote, read the thread--it's hbeen discussed there.

-MikeD

No. I mean OmniRemote Desktop. If you look at a previous thread - Response by GregoriusM on 03/12/00 01:40.32 - you will see what I am referring to.

It allows you to modify the screens in Windows and then upload them to your Palm.

I don't know who the author is or if it is available yet.

Nick

The ORDesktop is being developed by Peter Sharpe who actively posts in this thread. His email address is [email protected]

I have been beta testing this software and it is a great complement to OmniRemote. It allows you to create your button layouts quickly and with more control on your PC, then upload them to your Palm. It also allows you to copy and use IR codes from Pronto CCF files. Pretty cool stuff.

My only problem has been that I can't seem to get my Panasonic TV to work with the Palm. I think it's a frequency issue which I'm still trying to sort out, as I've tried an RF extender and that does absolutely nothing for my problem.