Xbox 360 - Start Commands

I’ve got an odd problem - I have the WF2IR Global Cache box and have positioned an emitter directly over the sync port on my Xbox 360 Slim. If I set up the device in Roomie and use ‘test remote’, the power on/off works fine.

If, however, I add the power on/off to an ‘activity’, it rarely works. I’ve set up 2 activities - 1 to power on the entire system (Yamaha receiver and Xbox) and the other to power them off. I used the ‘power on’ or ‘power off’ command for the Xbox for the relevant activity, but they don’t seem to work.

Why does it work with the ‘test remote’, but not in an activity?

I should add that I’ve tried different variables - command delay, command repeat, etc. but no real improvement is seen when using power on/off in an activity.

When multiple infrared commands are sent as part of a sequence, some devices get confused (some more than others). This is the reason for the Delay Next Command setting. Increasing that to provide a larger window between commands lets the slower devices distinguish separate commands.

Remember also that set has POWER ON, POWER OFF, and POWER TOGGLE. When you’re in the Virtual Remote, it may send one command whereas the command used an in Activity may be the discrete command. So you can also try changing the actual command in either case.

Ok, I’ll try the Delay Next Command.

I already tested all the Power On, Power Off and Power Toggle items in the ‘Test Remote’ option - they all work there, just not when using them in an Activity. Hopefully the Delay Next Command works…

I’m seeing similar behavior on a pair of Xbox 360s. Unlike Grokism, I’m finding Power Toggle to be fairly reliable–but it comes with its own problems.

In my Activities, I am not sending any additional commands to the Xbox360 beyond basic power. I’m using the Roomie Xbox controller to control Netflix, and that is quite responsive.

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to add except I have the same issues. All the power commands work–except the one chosen when the Xbox is set as the power device for the activity.

If you ever find that using a command in a Start Commands list does not work whereas using the command from the Virtual Remote works fine, it means one and only one thing: the delay and ordering of the commands must be changed. Some devices respond poorly to other infrared commands confusing them. To resolve that, increase delays between commands. Changing the ordering of the commands can also help so that particularly bad devices get their commands first.

I was finally able to straighten this out. Yes, delays had something to do with it, but I’m not certain why. Here’s my devices:

TV on iTach IR emmitter 1
XBox on iTach IR emitter 2
IR Blaster on iTach IR port 3
Receiver controlled via ethernet

Everything but the TV is downstairs in an equipment rack. In the XBox activity, nothing that uses the blaster port is used. So, theoretically, there’s no extra IR signals that the XBox could be receiving. However, ultimately, I had to use some dummy XBox commands.

XBox Channel Up
(delay 1 sec)
XBox Power On
(delay 1 sec)

This was enough to absolutely ensure that nothing else was transmitting IR before and after the XBox commands. My only guess is that the iTach was still transmitting IR commands on all ports, even though you bind an IR device to a specific port? It really makes no sense. But it’s been working reliably for a week now.

Perhaps it would useful to add the option for pre-command delay in addition to the post-command delay we already have. But I freely admit few people would probably need it.

FWIW - I simply omitted the Xbox power on, etc, from my config as I like to use the Xbox controller to navigate it’s interface and, to do so, I have to power on the controller, which powers up the Xbox itself. No need to power it on via Roomie.

I had strange issues with the 360 as well. The only IR it should be receive are 360 commands since it’s the only device bound to that port on the IP2IR.

I did something similar to danferno for power on.
Xbox Power On (delay 1 sec)
Xbox Power On (delay 1 sec)

And the opposite when turning off
Xbox Power Off (delay 1 sec)
Xbox Power Off (delay 1 sec)

This works 100% reliably now.