[NTLUG:Discuss] XMMS Remote Control?

[Steve Baker]

Jack Snodgrass wrote:
> Say that I have XMMS ( or some other 'player' ) that is
> playing a bunch of mp3s.
> 
> I have this minimized on my desktop or on a different
> work space ( the window does not have focus... this
> is important )
> 
> I want to be able to use a remote control device to
> send input to the player ( repeat, next, stop, etc )

Not without changing the XMMS player in some way.  However,
if you are prepared to dive in and hack some code, you could
do one of several things:

1) Have it read keyboard commands for those things...you can
    buy cordless keyboards...even some quite small ones. I suppose
    you could connect one via USB and not tell Xfree86 about it,
    then you could read it 'raw' inside the MP3 player.

2) Have it read some external device...a serial port infrared
    'dongle' for example.  Then you could use something like a
    PDA that can send IrDA commands to the program.

Many, many years ago - when I was running Minix on my Atari ST,
I used a model airplane radio control unit with the receiver hooked
up to the parallel port.  That gave me two analog joysticks and a
bunch of buttons and sliders that could be read by the PC from a
distance of a couple of miles!

There is one way to do it without programming:

My 'Agenda' PDA (sadly no longer made) runs Linux and can send
TCP/IP over IrDA.  With that machine, you could just telnet
into the PC from the PDA and run the XMMS program directly from
the PDA!

> I want to
> 1) pick up a external remote
> 2) press a button on the remote

Regular TV remotes send IR signals that are not compatible with
the kinds of IrDA 'dongle' you can get for your PC.  I managed to
get my machine to read the Lego Mindstorms infra-red remote using
the serial port InfraRed interface that comes with the Lego Mindstorms
set (that one doesn't use IrDA - it uses 'commercial InfraRed'
signals - CIR).

Then I taught my Sony 'learning' remote the controls from the
Mindstorms set - so I can send commands from our regular TV remote
to the PC...I havn't used it to actually *do* anything yet - but
it wouldn't be difficult.  My ultimate goal is to be able to dim
my room lighting using the TV remote as part of our 'home theater'
setup.  I can use 'X10' to dim the lights - but the X10 remote
controllers use Radio instead of CIR - and I'm trying to drive
EVERYTHING from just one remote.

> Is this possible? Am I 'dreaming'?

It's not impossible - but it might be quite complicated/expensive.

> One possible solution ( that I wish to avoid )
> is hava a external device ( like a web pad )
> that I can run xmms commands on. i.e. I'd
> use my web pad to connect to my linux box ( via
> the network ) and bring up some sort of XMMS
> menu and control it that way. That seems like
> more programming/work/setup than an remote
> control device.

It's hard to know.
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>    WorkEmail: <sjbaker at link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
            http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net