RF remote controls

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ Remote controls ▶ RF remote controls
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Air-mouse.pngAir-mouse2a.png
RF remotes use a small USB "dongle" and communicated via 2.4GHz radio signals.
Most are standard PNP (driveless) HID devices seen as a keyboard + mouse by the computer/HTPC.
Each button on the remote sends keystroke(s) or mouse-clicks to KODI.

To link the buttons on the remote to your desired KODI actions, you will most likely need to customize your keymap

Configuring KODI for your remote

Discovering which keystroke(s) | mouse-clicks your remote is sending

  1. Install a keyboard testing application such as KeyboardTest(Windows) or showkey (Linux) such programs will report invisible keystrokes (Alt/Esc/PgUp...etc)
    Another option is to enable Debugging in KODI, and monitor the log file created
  2. Connect the USB dongel to the PC running the keyboard testing application (Most RF remotes are PnP)
  3. Press the remote's keys, one by one, take notes about the keystrokes/mouse-clicks reported by the application. Note any modifiers Alt+F2 is not the same as F2

Modifying KODI for your remote

  1. Decide which KODI actions you wish to map to your remote buttons.
  2. For keystrokes: Following the instructions in keymaps, edit the keyboard.xml file to assign your desired KODI actions to the keystrokes sent by your remote's button.
  3. For mouse-clicks: Following the instructions in keymaps, edit the mouse.xml file to assign your desired KODI actions to your remote's button.

Special Considerations for Mouse-Clicks (available starting in version 15)

RF remotes often have an integrated Air Mouse. Most KODI users will only wish to use the left and right button of the Air-mouse
To disable the mouse-cursor place these 2 entries in mouse.xml

<mousemove>noop</mousemove>
<mousedrag>noop</mousedrag>

To properly capture a left-click, you need to place 2 entries in mouse.xml

<leftclick>Select</leftclick>
<mousedragend>Select</mousedragend>

To properly capture a right-click, you also need to place 2 entries in mouse.xml

<rightclick>Back</rightclick>
<mouserdragend>Back</mouserdragend>


Customizing buttons through the GUI

Users can customize Keymap for remotes in GUI by using the community |Keymap Editor add-on.