Replacement for Motorola NYXBoard Hybrid??
#1
Hello,

Don't know if you heard but the Motorola NYXBoard Hybrid has basically be killed with Pulse-Eight not being able to get anymore. I was planning to buy one way back when but never got around to it, and now its to late. I was really hoping to get one, with its ability to control XBMC over RF, control a TV over IR, QWERTY keyboard on the back and easy support for XBMC out of the box.

Now I'm wondering what would be a good alternative for it. I would prefer an RF based remote, but I'm a little lost with the options out there, I would prefer to keep it cheaper if thats possible, and I loved the formfactor of the Hybrid, small and clean. My setup is a Raspberry Pi with RaspBMC on it.

Hope I'm not sounding to demanding, I'm just a little stumped with all the options.

(maybe this is an excuse to get a new TV with CEC built in Wink )

Thanks
Raspberry Pi Model B 2 1024MB @ 1.0Ghz w/OSMC
--Decommissioned-- Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB @ 1.0Ghz w/ 3TB USB Drive Running Open Media Vault
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#2
Ah, interesting. I have one of the NYXBoard remotes but it may be reaching it's end of life so I've just started looking for alternatives that are *not* IR based. Here's one I recently came across that looks promising. It's more keyboard than remote but looks like it would work.

http://www.amazon.com/Esky-Wireless-Ente...uctDetails

I'll be interested to see what other options you find.
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#3
I think we've all struggled with the problem of the remote. Like you, I also have a strong desire for RF instead of infrared. Here is the landscape as I see it.
- CEC. It sucks, the TV manufacturers can't seem to implement it right. I love Pulse Eight for making the HDMI CEC, but it's useless to me since my CEC compatible devices are all brain dead.
- The Tivo Slide remote is awesome. It's a $60 RF/IR hybrid like the NYXBoard. It's also discontinued, and I broke mine - so it's a non-starter these days.
- Spend $300 or more on a Harmony 900 like I did. It's OK. The lag sucks - especially if using the RF transmitter, which is the whole point of getting the 900! Also, it seems like the Harmony line had a referesh recently, so the 300, 900, One, etc. may all be deprecated anyway.
- Get a Global Cache IP2IR for $100, add $50 for iRule, another $200 on a tablet (Nexus 7 is sweet!), spend a few weeks designing your own.

These are the paths that I have followed (so far). I haven't found anything I liked better than the Tivo Slide, and the $ I've put into this problem are ridiculous. Remotes seem to be highly personal: what's perfect for one person is terrible for the next. In the end, it seems most people sell their souls and just buy a Harmony.
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#4
I am a big fan of URC and run their remotes in all our rooms along with a an MSC-400 base station. But you dont need to go to that level, something like this would work very well:

http://www.amazon.com/URC-RFS200-PowerPa...B000FL9E6U

Ya, its probably a bit more then most would want to spend (and this is considered their entry level Smile) but it is a solid setup especially with the macros. Response is instant and nothing beats have a good old-fashion remote control.

Also picked up one of these and the range is decent but not great:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UE5...d_i=507846

Ernie
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#5
(2013-08-05, 20:24)aesalazar Wrote: I am a big fan of URC and run their remotes in all our rooms along with a an MSC-400 base station. But you dont need to go to that level, something like this would work very well:

http://www.amazon.com/URC-RFS200-PowerPa...B000FL9E6U

Ya, its probably a bit more then most would want to spend (and this is considered their entry level Smile) but it is a solid setup especially with the macros. Response is instant and nothing beats have a good old-fashion remote control.

Also picked up one of these and the range is decent but not great:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UE5...d_i=507846

Ernie

I investigated the URC remotes as well, specifically the RF20. These are very nice remotes, with one huge problem. They are NOT sold directly to consumers, and consumers will receive exactly Zero support from the manufacturer. These devices are sold exclusively through installers, and only installers will receive support from the company. Worse, the software required to program the remotes is not available to anyone other than authorized installers.
The people selling these remotes on Amazon are doing so against the wishes of the manufacturer (and against the agreement they signed when they became an authorized URC installer) - and remotes purchased that way will come without software, and without support. You can always crawl the nefarious regions on the internet to try to find the (hopefully not virus-ridden) software, but I'm not about to break laws so that I can use my remote!
If you are going to hire a professional installer, the URC is a fantastic choice. Otherwise, it's just a nice product which does you no good unless you are willing to jump through hoops and possibly break the law to use. Products like this make me sad. I want one - but I cannot bring myself to patronize a company whose business model I find so repugnant.
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#6
Actually, the remote I link to does NOT need software to program - it is a stand along that you program through the LCD (I actually own a few of the "pro" versions of it called the mx-350). So from that POV you are ok.

But, yes to get to their higher level stuff you need software. Its not illegal to own if you are not a pro/installer its just they wont give it out because they dont want to deal with all the support if it was freely available. It is NOT the easiest thing in the world to use. I bought all of my remotes from an online authorized dealer who gives the software freely to all of their customers. Actually, I have even seen people on Ebay selling CD-Rs with the software burned onto it for a few bucks - I would assume if URC had a real problem with it they would have Ebay pull the postings.

The big thing you have to watch out for is the warranty as some manufactures like to ignore it if you dont get it from someone they approve of but that is true with alot of higher end consume electronics.

Ernie
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#7
(2013-08-05, 15:16)caschbre Wrote: Ah, interesting. I have one of the NYXBoard remotes but it may be reaching it's end of life so I've just started looking for alternatives that are *not* IR based. Here's one I recently came across that looks promising. It's more keyboard than remote but looks like it would work.

http://www.amazon.com/Esky-Wireless-Ente...uctDetails

I'll be interested to see what other options you find.

Thats interesting but I was hoping for a more traditional style remote instead of keyboard style. Would be cool to have IR on it as well to control the TV (It would have to be able to learn from another remote to work for me). Still it is nice looking with out much cost so I might go for it, will have to see.

The other setups are a bit much for me, an old European/International LCD TV and an RPi in dorm does not call for pro setups sadly Tongue .

I'm looking hard for a decent remote that does RF, might have to drop that requirement Sad
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#8
I also been looking for a nice remote & keyboard combo.
There are nice looking remotes available on the Chinese market if you're buying in quantities (which I'm not).
The best of these got also IR learning feature.
Sadly, quality wise these are usually built to the price.

Here what I've found with a little bit of googling.

* Rii Mini i13 / Rikomagic MK702 II
(also sold as generic "wireless keyboard remote air mouse")
Probably the best one that available to consumers (with IR learning feature).
The main disadvantage is that it need to be charged and doesn't use regular AAA batteries that can be quickly replaced.
I'll probably will get this one when the price will drop a bit.
www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=Rii+Mini+i13
www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=Rikomagic+MK702+II

* Sen5 WUKONG1.
http://www.sen5.com/en/prolist_3.html
http://sen5.manufacturer.globalsources.c...ollers.htm

* Advance-Tech remotes
http://www.advance-tech.com.tw/html/News...index.html

* Dunsun Electron remotes
http://www.hzdusun.com/en/productsd.php?pid=1147
http://www.hzdusun.com/en/productsd.php?pid=1181
http://www.hzdusun.com/en/productsd.php?pid=1145
http://www.hzdusun.com/en/products.php?tid=108

* G.Star JX-1250
http://christina3526.en.ec21.com/JX_1250...00652.html

* C&D RF091
http://www.cn-cdrc.com/en/productsview.a...d=0&id=102
There is a version of it available for consumers on different sites (ebay and such) but without IR learning feature and the codes sent by the buttons are messed up and some buttons aren't recognized at all (yep, I've got this one).
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#9
Wow nice finds! Really like the Rikomagic MK702 II, the Advance-Tech SRC-4408, and the C&D RF091. Just wonder what the quality will be like. $40 is a bit much to blow on a remote that could fall apart in five days. I might grab the Rikomagic MK702 II this week and see how it turns out, going to do a little more searching first.
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#10
Well I ordered the Rikomagic MK702 II off eBay. Will report back on its quality and if it works at all.
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#11
It doesnt look to bad. Is that a speaker I see built into it? Nice that is a learning remote so you can hopefully ditch you others. Ya, let us know.

Ernie
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#12
If you have a bluetooth option go with the ps3blumote. For the keyboard, I just use an external keyboard or an iphone/android.
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#13
logitech dinovo mini. Picked mine up on ebay for £30 Smile
Guide to building an all in one Ubuntu Server - TV(vdr),File,Music,Web

Server Fractal Designs Define XL, Asus P5QL/EPU, Dual Core E5200, 4gb, L4M-Twin S2 v6.2, Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8I, 1*SSD & 13*HDD drives (24TB total) - Ubuntu Server
XBMC 1 ASRock Z77E-ITX, G850, 8GB RAM, SSD, BD - Ubuntu / OpenElec frodo
XBMC 2 Revo 3700 - OpenElec frodo
XBMC 3 Raspb Pi
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#14
Well like I said I would report back about the Rikomagic MK702 II. So here it goes:

The remote does not feel too cheap, a little "plasticy" feeling but seems solid enough however still light. It is rather thin and feels rather good in the hand although the hand tends to favor the bottom when using the remote and so moving is need to reach the power button and AV/TV button. The buttons feel solid and do click which is nice, they are very responsive and work well. Although the IR beam cone seems a little small, at least with my TV you have to be a little more in front of it then with the original remote. The surface is really bad with fingerprints, and I mean really bad very smudgy.

The learning feature is dead simple and works great, I have it controlling the TV and HDMI switcher. The biggest drawback, and this annoys me a bit, is that the remote part does not control XBMC or anything other than the IR, there is no option for controlling things over RF with the remote side.

The Keyboard side works well for its purpose but is not as convenient as a remote would be. To use the keyboard you first must flip a switch on the side to turn it on, there is an off timer, which is nice but to turn it back on from sleep you must flip the switch on and off and if you go to fast it will not turn on again. The air mouse is nice and works well if you rest your hand on something otherwise, for me at least, the mouse moves a little too much when clicking sometime and can cause you to miss where you were clicking. It also auto turns on the air mouse when the remote is turned on, it can be disabled with a button but its annoying when you go to use the keyboard again after it fell asleep.

The Battery has not needed to be charged sense I got it although, admittedly, that was not that long ago. Haven't used the mic or speaker so I can't say to their quality.

Overall not a bad remote, nor a bad mini keyboard, but I wish I could use the remote with XBMC and not just the keyboard, to do this I would need to add an IR to my Raspberry Pi which defeats the purpose of the RF.

Hope that helps.

Thank you
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#15
(2013-08-05, 20:57)teaguecl Wrote: I investigated the URC remotes as well, specifically the RF20. These are very nice remotes, with one huge problem. They are NOT sold directly to consumers, and consumers will receive exactly Zero support from the manufacturer. These devices are sold exclusively through installers, and only installers will receive support from the company. Worse, the software required to program the remotes is not available to anyone other than authorized installers.

I thought the same as you during my search for URC remotes a while back. Luckily i stumbled across these guys: http://www.surfaudiovideo.com/

They're an authorized dealer and do offer support via the phone/email. I've only used their support via email once but they were quite helpful. Other than that I can't really complain. I have the MX-890 with the mrf-350 base station for RF and it works quite well. I will say that i very much prefer the harmony software and way of doing things, and the current generation harmony remotes have FINALLY fixed the slowness. The delay between button presses and actions happening is significantly better over RF and IR than it was with any previous model, I would say it matches the URC. It's just a shame the layout of the new harmonies is so terrible, i don't want a touch screen I want buttons! If the design fo the new harmony remotes isn't a show stopper for you I would recommend them over URC for their software alone.
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Replacement for Motorola NYXBoard Hybrid??0