Database Users

Think Outside Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts on Samsung Vibrant

Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts on Samsung Vibrant
(And Possibly for Samsung Galaxy Tab)
Smartphones now come in bigger screens of up to 4 inches or more. It is no longer uncommon for a phone to have a 1 Ghz processor with storage of up to 32 GB on an external sd card. With these improved features, it is now convenient to use the smartphone as a replacement for the desktop PC or a laptop.
There is, however, one drawback. The built-in buttons and keyboards, whether slide-out hardware keyboard or screen keyboard on the phone, are too small to allow for easy typing. This is where a Bluetooth keyboard becomes a very useful tool. With the upswell of tablets and tablet wanabees on the market recently, this could also be possibly applied on tablets.
In my case, I have a Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard which I am using with a Samsung Vibrant, aka Galaxy S or Samsung T959. I originally used the keyboard with a Nokia N82. When I bought the keyboard, it required drivers specific for the Nokia phone. Luckily, I was able to download a driver from the iGo website (iGo bought Think Outside). With that, I was able to use all the features of the keyboard. Although I haven’t had the chance to try it, these shortcuts might also be usable on a Galaxy Tab.
It is important to note that, even without an installer, the keyboard will work with other devices but this will be limited to simple typing of text. When my Vibrant phone was updated to Android 2.2, I was able to use my Bluetooth keyboard. While tinkering with it, I was able to devise some shortcuts to replace what operations would have been possible only with an installer. Please see the following:
First of all, observe that the keys in the Think Outside or iGo keyboard are color coded. If you press any of the keys, what appears on the screen re the default applications. For example, if you press “Q”, what appears is the letter “Q”. But if you press the blue “Fn” key and press “Q”, what appears is the number “1” which is color blue under the letter “Q” key. And when you press the green “Fn” key and “Q”, what you get is “!” which is color green on the “Q” key. And so on. But not everything works right. That’s what this piece is about. We will discuss some workarounds.
A word of caution. I cannot guarantee that this will work with other devices. Let us be clear about what hardware I am using: Samsung Vibrant and Think Outside Stowaway ultraslim Bluetooth keyboard. The keyboard is also known as the iGo Bluetooth keyboard. My phone is on Android 2.2. As for software, I am using Documents to Go v3 for document creation and editing. Being done with that, let’s get underway.
Most important shortcut: Green Fn key+Home.
These two keys are beside each other. This replaces the “home” button on the phone. Wherever you are on the phone, pressing these two keys brings you to the default home screen. You will find why this is the most important shortcut in the following.
Add applications shortcuts to the home screen. You will see that on the keyboard, highlighted in blue, are the following applications: Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, Notes, Word, Excel, IE. Simply pressing on these keys won’t work. What you do is press green Fn+home. If you have already placed shortcuts of the said applications on the home screen, press the direction arrows on the keyboard to get to the application you want to launch and press enter.
Illustration: Let’s say you’re browsing a webpage and you want to open the calendar. Press green Fn+home and you’re at the home screen. Scroll to calendar and it will launch. This presumes that you had earlier placed a calendar shortcut on the home screen. Of course, you can cut it anyway you like to suit your taste.
Home Screen Menu. On the phone, you press the menu button to get to settings, set wallpaper, add item etc. On the Bluetooth keyboard you press blue Fn+A, press the arrows where you want to go and press “enter”
Google Search. Press Alt+A or press green Fn+A
Call log. Press blue Fn+D
Put phone on sleep mode immediately or to wake from sleep mode. Press blue Fn+F or press green Fn+end
To reboot phone. Press together Ctrl+Alt+Delete
To bring up the symbols table. Press Alt THEN press space bar. Do not press both keys at the same time.
Documents to Go shortcuts. With Documents to Go open, you can perform the following operations:
Blue Fn+A = open menu
Blue Fn+Esc = save, discard or cancel document
Press shift twice = all caps
To highlight text to cut, copy or edit etc, press shift while Pressing the arrow button in the desired portion to be highlighted.
Miscellaneous.
Camera – You can use the keyboard as a remote camera shutter for self portrait. Set the phone on a tripod etc. Go in front of the phone bringing your Bluetooth keyboard. Press enter to click the shutter.
On a webpage, pressing the spacebar scrolls down.
In Android Market home page, simply type what you're looking for; it automatically goes to the search bar.
Searching for other shortcuts is still a work in progress. Your contributions will be most welcome. I hope this contribution is helpful to you and others.

larrisa12002 said:
In my case, I have a Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard which I am using with a Samsung Vibrant, aka Galaxy S or Samsung T959. I originally used the keyboard with a Nokia N82. When I bought the keyboard, it required drivers specific for the Nokia phone. Luckily, I was able to download a driver from the iGo website (iGo bought Think Outside). With that, I was able to use all the features of the keyboard. Although I haven’t had the chance to try it, these shortcuts might also be usable on a Galaxy Tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgive me, I'm very curious but a little unclear how you created these shortcuts in Android. I am using a Dsi Mini Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse (WKB-1500) so it may not apply. However, if you are referring to an Android App/driver, then perhaps I'll find something similar for my keyboard. Regardless, thanks for the post. I'm looking forward to seeing the Galaxy S replace my laptop.

I didn't actually do any technical stuff, just trial-and-error punching keys and combinations of keys and observing results. I also tried copying keyboard presses of a phone with a hardware keyboard. Thats how I discovered that double pressing shift brings up all caps.

Understood. Trial and error often provides the first documentation. Thanks for the effort.
Any chance you could tell us what, if anything, the keyboard suggests the Fn+ buttons normally represent (shown in blue above the normal character). For instance, on my keyboard Fn-Left sends the Home key and Fn-A sends the ~ character. These should be the keystrokes being received by Android and then mapped to the results you found.

I tried find that driver on the iGo site but all I saw was drivers for Pocket PC and Blackberry. Do you have a url for the driver?
Thanks

Working driver for Stowaway
hlwilliams (and anyone else trying to use Stowaway keyboard with Android devices):
I had given up all hope and found BlueKeyboard JP. It's available in the Market.
Follow the instructions on the developer's blog site. (sotolog.net SLASH bluekeyboard SLASH 2010 SLASH 06 2010 07 2010 log3 DOT html) and you can probably go to work within minutes. (Sorry but I am not yet allowed to post URL's. The developers's blog is also specified in the Market page for BlueKeyboard JP.)
I have gotten it working on the Galaxy Tab running 2.2 and Nexus One running 2.3.3. And they worked exactly as documented immediately.
Caution: My partner tried with the HTC Desire and it seems to have had bad interactions with his Motorola Bluetooth stereo headset. (Headset now only plays music in phone headset mono mode.) We have not (yet) narrowed down whether this is an interaction with HTC Sense, the Android ROM version, this particular Motorola model, etc.

[Q] History Item Editing

I just got my Droid Pro and I'm loving it. My old Galaxy phone had arrow keys and I'm getting used to not having them on the DP. I can't figure out how to do something that used to be easy on the Galaxy.
In certain apps that have history lists, like the Market app, I could easily modify an existing search term by using the down arrow key to auto-fill it, and then edit the text and search for it. On the DP this doesn't seem possible since I can't arrow down, and if I touch the history item it immediately searches on it, and then I can't edit the search term.
For example, say I search the market for "volume" but don't find anything useful so I need to search again. On my Galaxy I could just type "v" and the history list would show "volume", I click the down arrow once to fill the search box with that and then type " scroll" after that, to search for "volume scroll".
Is there any way to do this on the DP? I've googled a while but its not an easy thing to search for, haven't found anything on how to do this.

Well, after hours of googling and testing, I found some solutions. There are a number of virtual d-pad and trackball apps out there, but I wanted something a little more seamless. I found ButtonRemapper (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=850464) and I used it to remap the Voice key on my DP, and now that key is equivalent to the down-arrow key.
Sigh of happiness. Now I can keep my fingers on the keyboard when filling out forms on a web page, so no more type then touch then type then touch then type. And I can edit history list items like form-fill and such, so I don't have to keep re-typing my searches to modify them.
I still haven't found what I'm really looking for... I'd like a way to dynamically remap hard keys. For example, if I'm in the Market app or a web browser, the volume rocker would get converted into up and down arrow keys. If I'm not in those apps then the volume keys would act normally and adjust the volume.

[Q]

Hello,
I have just made an account here so sorry if I'm putting this in the wrong subject or something.
Let me just get something straight...I'm 13...so please explain if asking me to do something like 'install a customized kernel' :laugh:
So, with the help of NookManager, which is awesome, I have managed to root my stock UK nook simple touch (n2e), running software version 1.2.1
It is great. I have managed to install many apps, such as Kindle, Dropbox, Gmail, Opera Classic, Titanium Backup, WikiMobile etc.
I attempted to remap the bottom page turn keys in order for the right hand key to be a back button and the left hand key to take me to my android home.
After using ES File Explorer (granting it Superuser permissions) and copying /system/usr/keylayout/TWL4030_Keypad.kl to my SD Card.
Next I edited it, roughly following an online tutorial, using Jota text editor (a free text editor I found on the android market).
Next I saved it, and used Root Explorer to mount /system/usr/keylayout as r/w and copy the file to it.
I rebooted my device, using ReLaunch, the default launcher supplied with NookManager. I discovered that the 'back' button worked, but the 'home' button instead worked as a menu button.
This was slightly annoying, but I managed to using the Nook Touch Mod Manager (or whatever its called), which I discovered later, to send me to my android home launcher (LauncherPro).
I then went to the stock Library app and discovered, much to my annoyance, that the top two page turn buttons would not work to turn the pages.
Obviously, I can still use the touch screen to turn pages.
So I thought, fine, I'll re-remap the keys back to their original positions and use the top soft-keys in the menu bar for back and menu buttons.
I tried this many times, using a variety of different tools (inc. ES file explorer, Root Explorer, DB text editor, Jota text editor, NookTouchModManager etc)
Every time, after I rebooted, the keys were mapped back to my original position (?!) and I could not use the page turn buttons.
I tried renaming the TW4030_Keypad.kl file to TW4030_Keypad.kl.backup to see if the system would reload this and make a new file with the default buttons (allowing me to use the page turn buttons) but this did not work. For some reason, no file was created, however, the keys were still working (to do back and menu).
Next I tried factory resetting the device (by Powering it off and, as it turned on, holding the two bottom page turn buttons, I had found out how to do this online), but, even with the Stock ROM, the page turn buttons would not work.
I tried doing the 'swap page turn buttons' thingy in settings, but that did not work either.
I re-rooted the device, and it still did not work.
As I said earlier, it is OK because I can use the touch screen to change the page, but I like the page turn buttons (one of the things that made me choose nook over kindle paperwhite) so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You in Advance
Sorry for the long post
ps. I deleted the following stock apps using TitaniumBackup, DeviceManagerService, Music and Phone. I restored music and phone later.

Hardware button configuration
The four hard buttons are configured by /system/usr/keylayout/TWL4030_Keypad.kl
The "n" button and the power button are configured by /system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl
I don't use the stuff that you are using.
Some of that rewrites the keylayouts behind your back (I think).
Here's my TWL4030_Keypad.kl:
Code:
# Layout file for Nook Touch hardware buttons
key 412 LEFT_NEXTPAGE # Upper left
key 407 LEFT_PREVPAGE # Upper right
key 139 BACK # Lower left
key 158 MENU # Lower right
The LEFT_NEXTPAGE LEFT_PREVPAGE is done to make the usage compatible with the real PageUp/PageDown on Android 2.2
Set your reader page buttons as shown in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=24632564#post24632564

Renate NST said:
The four hard buttons are configured by /system/usr/keylayout/TWL4030_Keypad.kl
The "n" button and the power button are configured by /system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl
I don't use the stuff that you are using.
Some of that rewrites the keylayouts behind your back (I think).
Here's my TWL4030_Keypad.kl:
Code:
# Layout file for Nook Touch hardware buttons
key 412 LEFT_NEXTPAGE # Upper left
key 407 LEFT_PREVPAGE # Upper right
key 139 BACK # Lower left
key 158 MENU # Lower right
The LEFT_NEXTPAGE LEFT_PREVPAGE is done to make the usage compatible with the real PageUp/PageDown on Android 2.2
Set your reader page buttons as shown in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=24632564#post24632564
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for replying. Being a n00b, I am slightly confused about some things.
'I don't use the stuff you are using'
I assuming you are referring to the factory reset by booting down and holding the bottom two page turn keys. If so, this was the only way I could factory reset because the factory reset in settings got stuck on Deregistering your Nook (I assume because NookManagerService 2.1.apk had been deleted) and the 8 continuous reboots just made my device crash after I tried the first one (I had to do a hard reset with the trick of holding down the power and nook home buttons together for 40 seconds)
But I might be wrong. Are you talking about deleting DeviceManagerService 2.1.apk, or about my current key layout.
'Some of that rewrites the keylayouts behind your back (I think)'
Do you have any idea where that might be because I have been scouring my nook in root explorer and a search for 'key' or '.kl' only brings up the files in /system/usr/keylayout and some backed up .kl files on my sd card.
I am really confused because I know it must be communicating with another file (when I rename TWL4030_keypad.kl and omap_twl4030_keypad.kl and reboot it still sticks to the same keys and does not appear to generate a new file)
Also, however I modify the twl4030_Keypad.kl file (Root Explorer, ES File Explorer, Settings/Reader/Page Buttons, Nook Touch Mod Manager) the page buttons do not change, however the home button shortcuts (I set my home button to open my android home launcher (LauncherPro) on long press) work fine.
I tried editing the last pard of TWL4030_Keypad.kl to exactly what yours said, but same result probably due to what I have described in the above paragraph.
I just want to know, is there a way to completely reset all keypad files, or at least do something like that.
I cannot find anything about this on the internet other than cracked buttons, screen freezes etc.
Thank you very much for the help though.
Again, sorry for the long post.
Thanks again
ps Other than this (minor) issue, the nook is still working perfectly, apart from the occasional Barnes and Noble Nook Error Message (don't know why - I assume it has something to do with the deletion of the NookManagerService APK. The only reason I deleted it was that it was the only simple way to stop OTA updates, and I really don't want to see Barnes and Noble release an automatic update that bricks my rooted Nook, nor do I want to disable wifi whenever the update comes out, as some have suggested. When I factory reset, I get DeviceManagerService (and nook shop) back. Please let me know if the disabling of DeviceManagerService is necessary). It is just an annoyance.

I meant NookManager. I don't know if that goes around patching things or rewriting files.
Copy what I put in the box above and write it to the file.
Do things work?
Does that file get overwritten?

Renate NST said:
I meant NookManager. I don't know if that goes around patching things or rewriting files.
Copy what I put in the box above and write it to the file.
Do things work?
Does that file get overwritten?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done that (I did it just over your last thread) and the file does get overwritten. However, when I reboot, although the correct file is still there, the page buttons work as -------- --------
Menu Back
The file is still rewritten with the what you told me to put (minus the hashtags and the things that followed them, which I assumed were comments). This is why I am confused.
Thanks for helping. I'm sure there is a solution.
Also, I had no idea how to root a nook through any other method (USB Debugging is disabled, so how would you do it directly through ADB? I don't know)
One other thing - The page turn buttons worked just fine before I started editing - so im not sure nookmanager is necessarily to blame

Install UsbMode.apk (in the signature).
Among other things it will tell you what scan code and key code get generated for the hard keys.
(It does use the Android 2.2 names for PAGE_DOWN & PAGE_UP.)

Renate NST said:
Install UsbMode.apk (in the signature).
Among other things it will tell you what scan code and key code get generated for the hard keys.
(It does use the Android 2.2 names for PAGE_DOWN & PAGE_UP.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, if you are using NookManager, make sure you have the hardware page keys mapped to "default" in Nook Touch Mod Manager when you are messing with the key layout file or you will get confused really fast. Conversely, if you are messing with NTMM mapping make sure you are using the stock key layout file to avoid confusion. NTMM has a hook in the Android key press code that captures the hardware keys to remap them to other keys or other functions. The key code NTMM sees is whatever the key layout file sends it. So if you key layout file remaps something NTMM will remap the remapped key rather than the actual key it says its remapping.

Thanks for all the help. I found out (using UsbMode.apk) that my top page turn buttons had scan codes but no key code, my bottom ones had both. I set all the page turn button shortcuts to default in Nook Touch Mod Manager.
I navigated through querty.kl, TWL4030_keypad.kl and omap_twl4030_keypad.kl and found out that the bottom keys had been called up earlier in the .kl file as menu and back. Using Root Explorer, I mounted the file system writable, deleted these earlier lines, then rebooted. It didn't work. After much more trying and rebooting, nothing worked, however, I had managed to unmap the bottom keys from menu and back, and now they are just shown in USBMODE as UNKNOWN.
I think I have a plausible solution. If one of you could send me your qwerty.kl, TWL4030_keypad.kl and omap_twl4030_keypad.kl files, then I could backup my originals and try copying them into /system/usr/keylayout. If logic talks, that should mean that, if your keys were working just fine for you, my keys should work in exactly.
Please let me know about this and send those files if you can.
Thanks in advance.

You already have my TWL4030_Keypad.kl, see above.
If that's not working, something is screwing around behind your back.

Renate NST said:
You already have my TWL4030_Keypad.kl, see above.
If that's not working, something is screwing around behind your back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried using your twl4030_keypad.kl text earlier (as soon as I had seen your thread) but it was to no avail. I was actually referring to the physical files, not just the text from them. Also, I think that it is not just the twl4030_keypad.kl but also the other two files I mentioned above, because of what I did earlier.
Earlier, I looked at my querty.kl file and found that the keys 139 and 158 had been called up earlier for back and menu. I deleted these lines, and thought that my problem was solved. Unfortunately, what ended up happening was that I just lost my two back and menu-mapped page turn buttons. Now none of them do anything at all. Under your UsbMode.apk they are UNKNOWN.
I think something is screwing around behind my back, but I don't know what, how or where.
I have searched for 'key' and '.kl' before and only files I knew existed (in /system/usr/keylayout and in /sdcard) were found in the search results. Maybe it is a hidden file or something.
It is definitely not in /data because, after yet another factory reset (this time after renaming all my .kl files to .kl.test, the pages still did not work, stock or rooted.
Is there a simple way for a n00b like me to restore my nook completely, resetting /data, /system, etc.
If so, I would love to know.
Otherwise, please let me know if you have any ideas.
Again, sorry for the long post.
Thank you for all the help you've given me. I would have got nowhere near this far on my own.
If you think it would help, I could send you my /system/usr/keylayout zipped or something like that, I don't know about forum rules etc.

qwerty.kl is the default file only for Qwerty keyboards, that is USB keyboards
gpio-keys.kl is only for the power button and the "n" (home) button.
TWL4030_Keypad.kl is only for the four side hardware buttons.
If your four side hardware buttons are acting up the only thing in keylayout that can affect it is TWL4030_Keypad.kl
Do you have the file name capitalized correctly?
You are editing it with a Unix style text editor (LF, not CR/LF)?
I forget if it tolerates CR.
After you write it and reboot does it stay the way you wrote it last?

I'm giving you a thanks because, although the file had the right name and capitalization, and did not change on reboot. When I was carefully checking the name, I saw the permissions underneath. I edited them in root explorer to exactly what the permissions of the qwerty.kl and omap...kl
I rebooted and.....SOLVED!
So thank you very much for helping me and keeping me going on this.
I have 1 other thing I just wanted to ask. It is not major but is just slightly annoying me.
I have my four keys - this is what I want to happen:
Top left - Page Back and Volume Down (for modified Kindle app)
Top right - Page Forward and Volume Up (for modified Kindle app)
Bottom left - Menu
Bottom right - Back
I have tried to make this happen, but failed so reverted to a backup. This is what I have:
Top left - Page Back
Top right - Page Forward
Bottom left - Menu
Bottom right - UNKNOWN.
My main sub-annoyance (in this small annoyance) is the lack of the back button's working. It would be nice to have the top left and top right usable for pretty much any app that supports either nook page turn buttons or volume buttons for page turning.
Thanks again.
ps Don't worry about this one too much, it's not a big deal.
pps I'm going on a school trip, after which I am going on a youth camp trip, so from Sunday to Monday I won't be on here.
I'll be straight back when I can.

PowerNOOK said:
I have my four keys - this is what I want to happen:
Top left - Page Back and Volume Down (for modified Kindle app)
Top right - Page Forward and Volume Up (for modified Kindle app)
Bottom left - Menu
Bottom right - Back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wanted my hardware buttons to page forward/back in the B&N stock reader and other readers I installed. So I contributed a mod to NTMM to support mapping a button to screen taps since most readers support page turns by tapping on the left or right side of the screen. I use the Tap Left/Right with the B&N reader, Aldiko and Overdrive Media Console and it works great. I just installed the stock (unmodified) Kindle app to test and it works with it as well.
So try this. Put your TWL4030_Keypad.kl file back to stock. Use NTMM to map your keys like this:
Top Left - Tap Left
Top Right - Tap right
Bottom Left - Menu
Bottom Right - Back

straygecko said:
So try this. Put your TWL4030_Keypad.kl file back to stock. Use NTMM to map your keys like this:
Top Left - Tap Left
Top Right - Tap right
Bottom Left - Menu
Bottom Right - Back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for this. I have tried it but could only get it to work with all the page turn buttons turning pages, not with back and menu. When I set the bottom buttons to back and menu, they do not work and neither do the top page turn buttons work as standard page turn buttons.
I am not too bothered about this, but the thing that is really annoying me is this: One of the bottom page turn buttons will not work. This is a variable, as, upon remapping, I can make the one that is not working at one time work fine another time, however, then, the other one will not work.
eg. The right bottom page turn button is not flicking the page forward. Using root explorer, I remap the right button as 'back'. Then the right button works, but the left one stops working.
Thank you for the help though, as I mainly use the top page turn buttons (they are right by my thumbs) and its really neat to have the same comfortable page turn buttons for both nook stock reader and kindle app

I think you have problems with your keylayout files. Attached are the stock files from the /system/usr/keylayout directory. Backup then delete everything in that folder and unzip this into it and then try mapping the keys with NTMM.

Sorry, but where are the attachments. Sorry if im being stupid.

PowerNOOK said:
Sorry, but where are the attachments. Sorry if im being stupid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I'm the one being stupid. Here's the attachment.

Thanks. ill try this when i get back to camp at the moment im using my friends wifi hotspot

I used root explorer to backup /system/usr/keylayout as /system/user/keylayout backup and then unzipped and copied and pasted your folder in. I found it to not work. I tried a lot of different things like editing lines, permissions, etc.
Eventually I gave up so I renamed my /system/usr/keylayout backup folder back to /system/usr/keylayout, hoping that a message would come up on the screen asking me if I wished to overwrite the files. No such message came up. Instead, I could see two folders in /system/usr, both entitled keylayout. I found the backup one and deleted it, then root explorer decided to delete both. Now, I have no keylayout folder, and none of the keys work. I tried re-decompressing your zip file and putting it in again, then factory resetting, but my nook stops me from registering after the wifi connection stage, with the following error message:
Error
Sorry we're having trouble setting up your NOOK.
Please shut down the device and try again.
For help, visit www.nook.com/support or call Customer Support on 1-800-THE-BOOK
(1-800-843-2665)
I have tried with many different wifi networks, but still the same result. I have tried rebooting several times by holding down the home and power buttons simultaneously for 40 seconds, and have re-factory reset but still no result.
Is there a backup image or something out there so I don't have to either treck to the shop from which I bought my nook or fork out £29
Please, any help would be hugely appreciated

I have just managed to use nook manager to completely restore my nook and then re-root it. everything is working great. i am now using nook touch mods manager to configure the page turn buttons and have the ideal setup I talked about earlier. I am just installing all the bits of pieces but everything is working. thank you to everyone for helping me so much. i am now going to only change button actions with nook touch mod manager and not do it manually.
Thank you so much jeff_kz for making NookManager

[Q] Keyboard keys for Back and Home

I am trying to setup my Flirc with the Nexus Player, for both native NP keys and the full spectrum of XBMC/kodi keys. I have all of the kodi keys working properly and the UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, SELECT and PLAY/PAUSE buttons work just fine on the main Nexus Player interface. However, the mapped BACK and MENU keys are not working. For those that don't know, a Flirc USB devices presents itself as a standard keyboard to the Nexus Player and can be programmed on your PC to learn remote control commands to activate specific generic keyboard combinations.
If anyone has a standard keyboard hooked up to their NP either via Blutooth or USB OTG, can you tell me which keys correspond to the BACK and HOME functions on the Nexus Player or if those functions are working at all on your keyboard?
Thanks.

Elrondolio said:
I am trying to setup my Flirc with the Nexus Player, for both native NP keys and the full spectrum of XBMC/kodi keys. I have all of the kodi keys working properly and the UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, SELECT and PLAY/PAUSE buttons work just fine on the main Nexus Player interface. However, the mapped BACK and MENU keys are not working. For those that don't know, a Flirc USB devices presents itself as a standard keyboard to the Nexus Player and can be programmed on your PC to learn remote control commands to activate specific generic keyboard combinations.
If anyone has a standard keyboard hooked up to their NP either via Blutooth or USB OTG, can you tell me which keys correspond to the BACK and HOME functions on the Nexus Player or if those functions are working at all on your keyboard?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tested this yet, but typically the Windows key + ESC = HOME (or, depending, sometimes the HOME key itself on a keyboard). BACK is typically the ESC key by itself.
My FLIRC arrived yesterday -- just haven't configured it yet. I'll give it a whirl and get back to you!

PearcePowers said:
I haven't tested this yet, but typically the Windows key + ESC = HOME (or, depending, sometimes the HOME key itself on a keyboard). BACK is typically the ESC key by itself.
My FLIRC arrived yesterday -- just haven't configured it yet. I'll give it a whirl and get back to you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I got the back key working correctly (and, in the NP, it is indeed ESC), but you'll have to go in to XBMC/kodi and add in the keymapper in programs then globally change ESC to be BACKSPACE and BACKSPACE to be ESC. Otherwise the NP back key would be "previous menu" in kodi. Make sure to update your Flirc with the full keyboard template to change the ESC key to your remote button you wish. Once done, both the NP and kodi see ESC as the back key.
I still haven't figured out the HOME key yet... I have a "HOME" special button atop my wireless keyboard that works, but I can't scancode it properly so I'm not sure what it is yet (I've read it may be scancode 57, but thats normally "space", so not sure and haven't tested it yet) I'll see if WIN+ESC works from my keyboard when I get home tomorrow. Hope to hear your experiences as well... thanks.

Elrondolio said:
I'll see if WIN+ESC works from my keyboard when I get home tomorrow. Hope to hear your experiences as well... thanks.
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I tested the following three keyboard commands -- WIN + ESC, ALT + ESC, and HOME -- and none work in the Nexus Player to take you home. Grr. I've got everything working but the HOME key as well.

PearcePowers said:
I tested the following three keyboard commands -- WIN + ESC, ALT + ESC, and HOME -- and none work in the Nexus Player to take you home. Grr. I've got everything working but the HOME key as well.
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There is a topic about this over on the Flirc forums that you may want to follow:
http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/1219-flirc-and-android-tv-adt-1/
I have a wireless keyboard that has extra media keys including a Home key (not the regular Home, End, etc). It works just like the Home key on the NP remote. I'm not at home right now, but had hooked it up to one of my laptops and that special Home key sends key code 172.
We just need to figure out how to teach Flirc that key code then map one of our remote buttons to that key.

Elrondolio said:
There is a topic about this over on the Flirc forums that you may want to follow:
http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/1219-flirc-and-android-tv-adt-1/
I have a wireless keyboard that has extra media keys including a Home key (not the regular Home, End, etc). It works just like the Home key on the NP remote. I'm not at home right now, but had hooked it up to one of my laptops and that special Home key sends key code 172.
We just need to figure out how to teach Flirc that key code then map one of our remote buttons to that key.
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Any luck with the home key and Flirc? I noticed no one has responded over in the Flirc forums yet.

PearcePowers said:
Any luck with the home key and Flirc? I noticed no one has responded over in the Flirc forums yet.
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Not as yet. It seems more complicated than I first thought... the record_api function of flirc_util.exe can map HID commands to remote control buttons, but finding the correct HID for "Home" is difficult. There are thousands of HID commands as referenced in this document:
http://www.usb.org/developers/hidpage/Hut1_12v2.pdf
We're looking at the ones in the Consumer Page starting on page 75. There is a special modifier in the second argument of Firc's record_api, 102, that supposedly tells the Flirc to reference that Consumer Page, but finding the "Home" key for the first argument of record_api is difficult. In other words: no. No luck yet, but still trying.
It'd probably be useful if you were to post a thread over there asking for help with the Home key on the Nexus Player as well. I'd imagine the higher the request for it the more eyes it'll receive.

Could be something that could be setup in llama or tasker? Set NP to listen for XYZ key command and then "Go Home". Just a thought.

Elrondolio said:
Not as yet. It seems more complicated than I first thought... the record_api function of flirc_util.exe can map HID commands to remote control buttons, but finding the correct HID for "Home" is difficult. There are thousands of HID commands as referenced in this document:
http://www.usb.org/developers/hidpage/Hut1_12v2.pdf
We're looking at the ones in the Consumer Page starting on page 75. There is a special modifier in the second argument of Firc's record_api, 102, that supposedly tells the Flirc to reference that Consumer Page, but finding the "Home" key for the first argument of record_api is difficult. In other words: no. No luck yet, but still trying.
It'd probably be useful if you were to post a thread over there asking for help with the Home key on the Nexus Player as well. I'd imagine the higher the request for it the more eyes it'll receive.
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Did you manage to map a true home function to your Flirc device, Elrondolio? The ALT + ESC key combination works okay for me in most cases although it doesn't work when I use Kodi. It's still better than no home functionality at all, though, so at least I won't always have to use the original Nexus Player remote when I need that feature. There's another thread at the Flirc forum which discusses this topic at http://forum.flirc.tv/index.php?/topic/1462-flirc-with-android-tv/.

ALT + TAB seems to be the ideal key combination to use for the home button. It works no matter which app you're in and although it causes the Nexus Player to display "your recent screens appear here" when you use that key combination, the on-screen message disappears as soon as you release the button.
Now if I can just figure out how to use the Nexus Player's Leanback keyboard with my universal remote so that I can select on-screen keys for searches instead of having the ENTER button close the keyboard off, that would make things just about perfect.

I was the one that posted in Flirc forum about the alt+tab for home.
For search using on-screen, map flirc to window key using command. then combine this key with navigation right key using your universal remote, such as logitech. so WIN + Right will launch search with on screen keyboard to type.

Thanks for posting your solution in the Flirc forum. I'm not trying to map a command to launch an on-screen keyboard but I'm trying to see if I can find a way to press the keys on the Leanback keyboard using my universal remote. This isn't a problem with some apps like Netflix or Kodi that have their own keyboards but for the Leanback keyboard that's used in apps like Google Play and YouTube, pressing the ENTER button on a universal remote causes the keyboard to close off. This problem does not exist with the original Nexus Player remote's select button because it is context-sensitive.

Elrondolio said:
If anyone has a standard keyboard hooked up to their NP either via Blutooth or USB OTG, can you tell me which keys correspond to the BACK and HOME functions on the Nexus Player or if those functions are working at all on your keyboard?
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Back: Esc
Home: Alt+Esc

Unfortunately, the ALT + TAB key combination is not an ideal option for use with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It actually brings up the recent apps screen and doesn't give the user easy access to the home screen (unless the recent apps screen is empty). I'll have to reprogram my Flirc back to ALT + ESC for the home screen function until someone finds a better solution for Android 6.0.

I don't have a nexus player but these issues sound similar to the shield tv.
To fix the Enter key issue with the onscreen keyboard, us the flirc_util to record the keypad's enter key (a different dev id than the other enter/return key):
HTML:
flirc_util.exe record_api 0 88
To record the Home button (that works from Kodi too), record Windows Key + Enter (the main Enter key works fine for this). Again, I don't have a nexus player but I assume it will work for it as well.

whiskaz77 said:
I don't have a nexus player but these issues sound similar to the shield tv.
To fix the Enter key issue with the onscreen keyboard, us the flirc_util to record the keypad's enter key (a different dev id than the other enter/return key):
HTML:
flirc_util.exe record_api 0 88
To record the Home button (that works from Kodi too), record Windows Key + Enter (the main Enter key works fine for this). Again, I don't have a nexus player but I assume it will work for it as well.
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I tried out these key combinations with my Flirc on the Nexus Player and am happy to report that everything now works perfectly! Thank you kindly for sharing that useful information here with the rest of us.

GabbyWC said:
I tried out these key combinations with my Flirc on the Nexus Player and am happy to report that everything now works perfectly! Thank you kindly for sharing that useful information here with the rest of us.
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Great! Happy to help. I'm glad it worked. Thanks for reporting back!

Windows Key + Enter => Home worked for me too!!! Kodi, Netflix and other apps now behave fine. Thanks a lot @whiskaz77

Alternative remote mapping

Hi guys!
So i love the NP, only problem is i'm having issues with remapping a key on thisremote. The remote is a wireless remote (non-bluetooth).
I previously used this on a minix x7 running a 4.2.2 rom. The specific issue i'm having is that the top keys in blue "menu home and back" should work as the native android keys. They all work except for the back key.
This isn't a HUGE problem but i would like to modify it, what i'm doing right now is hitting "esc" on the back side of the remote as a bandaid fix.
For some reason it registers as a left click instead of back. I know i should be able to change this in a kl file within a system/usr folder however i'm not sure what button i need to map.
Do you guys know of any app for finding this out and/or which file i would need to alter for this wireless remote? Thanks in advance!

I just found this post.
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=173725&page=2
I'm going to try this when i get off work and i'll report my findings later.