Remap external keyboards with ease on android

[stewartie4]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, and further apologies if everyone has already heard of this app. I hadn't and it is a life safer after spending months manually editing .kl files!

I've been having problems with remapping remotes on android until I found this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...edefiner&hl=en "Multilanguage keymap redefiner" Basically what it does is replaces the stock android keyboard (which is good for a remote with a built in keyboard anyway) and allows you to remap ANY button on your remote to anything you want. I have thE MX3 - a notoriously badly mapped remote - and play, pause, skip, rewind, fast-forward as well as the context menu button, home button, zoom buttons and picture buttons all work perfectly now!

So if you are on android and want to map external keyboards this is the app for you!

XBMC default mapping:

play/pause = p
context menu = c
fastforward = f
rewind = r
skip 10 mins = right arrrow
reverse 10 minutes = left arrow

(obviously it would be better to change XBMC's mapping so the remote can be used in other apps, but if you are only using XBMC then there's no point)

This app used in conjunction with keymap editor http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Keymap_Editor plugin for xbmc/kodi has enabled me to map the picture buttons so for example the movie button goes to my movie library, the 4 square button goes to my android apps etc.

Hope this helped!

[ChrisG8]

Choosing that app in settings results in an ominous warning, as if information entered will be collected, credit card numbers, passwords, etc. Not sure if that is something to be concerned about or not.

[budgetgeek]

That's the same warning you get when choosing any IME that is not the stock IME.

[stewartie4]

Choosing that app in settings results in an ominous warning, as if information entered will be collected, credit card numbers, passwords, etc. Not sure if that is something to be concerned about or not.

It's because it's a keyboard - anything you type passes through it, however on a tv box I'm not going to be doing anything important on it anyway.

[kenj66]

stewartie4, thank you for starting this topic. Perhaps, with your help, this aging techie can figure out how to use some of the most under-documented technology yet invented!

As it turns out I had already installed mkr! but was also put off by the warning message. My goodness, have you checked out the author's website? It's totally in Russian - and no toggle to read it in English. How would you get help from someone like that? He has to reassure us on Google Play that our keystrokes aren't being hijacked and sent to Russia!

So, with your encouragement I fiddled around until the mkr! app was the default keyboard. I am always nervous about something like this because I have been trapped before by such decisions - with no way back. I printed out the meager instructions to guide me through set up and, as usual, they are poor. Step #2 says, Tap the "Add remapping" button.' There is no Add remapping button! After trying this and trying that - I found the bottom line, where the 'Add remapping' was printed, was the "button." Marvelous!

During my stumbling around, trying find the "button," I found the 'Setup' button. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the mkr! Settings screen you will find the very handy 'Key Test' function which brings up an overlay window saying, 'Press any key.' This is handy because you don't need a separate key function app, it's built in!

So, I pressed the left-most media key on the upper row of the main keyboard and got all the (correct) details for MEDIA_REWIND, just as it should. Look here, I DON'T NEED TO REMAP THIS KEY. IT IS MAPPED CORRECTLY! I need for standard Android apps such as the Internet browser to respond to the CORRECT key!!!!!!!

Pardon my frustration, stewartie4, but how exactly does this application help me?

I finally got the remapping screen up but was unable to read the nomenclature since I am using large fonts. This is a set top HDTV interface. I don't think Android developers are thinking about us yet.

Ken

[stewartie4]

Pardon my frustration, stewartie4, but how exactly does this application help me?

I finally got the remapping screen up but was unable to read the nomenclature since I am using large fonts. This is a set top HDTV interface. I don't think Android developers are thinking about us yet.

Ken

I can understand why you are frustrated - every single android remote I have tried has a major defect that makes it unusable for example the rii i25 is perfect.... except the dpad buttons are IR only (why would they do that?!?????) , the mk3 is next best but the annoying airmouse never turns off, the mele would be a good remote.... except it has useless buttons instead of play/pause skip and rewind. So it is an extremely frustrating market.

How this app helps you depends on how you want to use your android tv box. If you are only using an app like xbmc and no other media app then it will help you get every button on your remote to work just the way you like it. As for the add remapping button it should be at the very bottom of the screen, but stretched out because as you say the app wasn't designed for TV. Tell me what exactly you want to use your box for and I can help you

[kenj66]

Thanks for the kind offer.

I use my TV box mainly for Netflix, YouTube and Internet browsing. I tried for a while to use Kodi but found it's features and interface difficult to use and it didn't really address my needs anyway. While using it I had the usual problems of the multimedia keys on the MX3 not working. Turns out, it doesn't work on ANY multimedia.

As I stated in my previous post the key bindings reported by the program are correct. I am using the default Internet browser supplied with Android 4.4.2 It is unknown to me what key-codes could be passed through the Android API to be seen by the browser app. Netflix and YouTube have the same problem. Fortunately the MX3 air mouse function works pretty smoothly to control multimedia.

Could this be a ROM problem in my device I don't know what else to assume here.

Ken

[budgetgeek]

My Mele F10 Pro has a HOME button and it does that, goes home. As in Page Up, Page Down, Home and End...

So I remap it to actually go to the home screen. I like this app because it can be used to hide the soft keyboard and it remaps my home key. It's slightly more functional than Null Input Method.

I think you can check your data usage to see if your keyboard is sending data back to russia, but I am not sure how.