I am pretty sure that at some point in time you feel like throwing off your old Keyboards, Mouse and other legacy Peripherals. But if you have just bought a Raspberry Pi like me, think again!
Your legacy input devices may turn out to be some useful remotes for Raspberry Pi Media Centre.
There are multiple tools through which you can have a Media Centre running on a Raspberry Pi - you have OSMC, OpenElec and LibreElec. While they all sound different, they eventually turn out to be Operating Systems to run the main Media Centre Application named KODI (earlier known as "XBMC").
OSMC and LibreElec are offered as part of the NOOBS menu(multi-boot OS loader for Raspberry Pi). I tried out both OSMC and LibreElec but finally settled with LibreElec as I found it to more lightweight and fast as compared to OSMC.
While you can use a USB Keyboard and Mouse (or a Wireless USB Keyboard and Mouse) to do the main LibreElec setup, but once all's done, you will no more require a Keyboard to operate it. In this post I share with you my experience about re-purposing legacy peripherals as remotes to operate the Media Centre.
1. Wired USB Mouse -
This would far be the cheapest and easiest way to operate the Media Centre. The Media Centre also has on-screen buttons for "Back" and "Home" and since LibreElec provides OSK (On-Screeen Keyboard) at every place where you need to key in alphabets and numbers, so will not find much of a challenge to operate the Media Centre by just using the Mouse.
On a scale of 1 - 5 (5 being the best) I would rate the Wired Mouse as 3.
2. Nintendo Wii Remote (Wiimote) -
The Wiimote can be connected to LibreElec by turning on Bluetooth (System -> LibreElec -> Services), pressing both the "1" + "2" buttons on the Wiimote and while the Wiimote lites blink, discovering and connecting it from the LibreElec Bluetooth menu. While using the Mouse you can move the pointer on screen, the default Wiimote keymap in LibreElec will enable you to use the Arrow keys for up and down, "+" & "-" for Volume Control, "Home" button to go home, "A" button for Enter and "B" button for Back. The main disadvantage using the Wiimote is that you cannot directly sync-up the Wiimote with LibreElec without going to the Bluetooth menu. Also the Battery consumption of the remote is quite high and turning on Bluetooth on LibreElec means higher power consumption of Raspberry Pi.
On a scale of 1 - 5 I would rate the Wiimote as 2.
3. Windows Media Centre Remote -
While I was living in the UK few years back I picked up a Windows Media Centre Remote from Car Boot sale for just around GBP 2. I never ever imagined tat it would turn out to be the best remote to be used with LibreElec. Most of the buttons on the remote (excluding the Numeric keypad) seamlessly work with LibreElec. The best part is that the Green, Amber and Blue Buttons at the bottom of the remote are dedicated buttons to open the Video "V", Music "M" and Pictures "P" sections of the Media Centre. There are also dedicated keys for Back, Home and Mute (look into the pic above). This remote is an IR
Remote. It comes with an IR receiver with almost 3 meters of cable and connects to the USB port of the Raspberry Pi. The cable is so long that you can virtually place the IR receiver anywhere. The IR receiver is very sensitive and you can virtually operate the remote by pointing towards any wall, if you are setting in a small room. Another key feature to note is that you can turn off the Media Centre using the Power button on top. Overall I am just very happy to use this remote to operate the Media Centre and virtually use the Raspberry Pi like a Set Top Box.
On a scale of 1 - 5 I would rate the Windows Media Centre Remote as 4.5.
So do try out these smart ways to re-purpose your legacy peripherals to enhance your "RaspiTV" expereince!
1 comment:
Awesome work.Just wanted to drop a comment and say I am new to your blog and really like what I am reading.Thanks for the share
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