chris.cytexone Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Hey all, just wanted to share this with you. Seems to be one of those things that works great for some, and barely works for others. I'm definitely in the "barely works" category. Since a bunch of my customers keep requesting them, I can't just turn a blind eye to it. Nor am I a big fan of the USB-IR adapter. So after weeks of working on this, I think I figured out a way to resolve this and wanted to share my results with everyone. This has been tested on both Fire TV Stick and Fire TV box. The main issue seems to be (or at least from what I've noticed) is if the Fire TV falls asleep, the Control4 IP driver can no longer communicate with it. So I then went on the journey of trying to figure out a way to keep this awake since Amazon for some reason does not provide any options to keep it awake. Could have went the Control4 route and setup a timer to hit the "up" button on the driver ever hour, but that could cause some unwanted distractions during viewing (and it's not a very elegant solution) Also looked into sideloading an Android app (like KeepAwake or RedEye) on to the Fire TV to keep it awake, however this seemed to produce mixed results and even appeared to add a performance hit to the Fire TV Stick. I was about to give up until I stumbled upon this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireTV/comments/4jc22o/nonroot_prevent_sleep_on_fireos5/ I can proudly say after settings the sleep_timeout value to 0, both the test Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Box have stayed awake and responds to Control4's command every time we pickup the remote. Now after that whole intro, some instructions on how to get this done. 1. Disconnect the Control4 Fire TV driver during this process. If it's occupying the ADB session, you can't perform the following tasks so this is key. 2. Install ADB - https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html#download (You really only need the platform tools that provides the ADB executable) 3. Find the IP address of your Fire TV, run adb from a command prompt/terminal as followed (without quotes) "adb connect fire_tv_ip_address" 4. If you received an error, check your network connections and check to make sure you have the proper IP of your Fire TV (and it's awake). You can also try turning ADB Debugging OFF then back ON to clear the sessions (this is done from the Fire TV). If no error was received, enter in "adb devices". It should show the IP of your Fire TV and after that "device". If it says "offline" after the IP, make sure Control4 is disconnected from the Fire TV and also try turning ADB Debugging OFF then back ON from the Fire TV. 5. Now type in "adb shell" and it will then provide you shell access to the Fire TV and change the prompt on the screen. 6. Type in "settings put secure sleep_timeout 0" and hit enter. Then type in "settings get secure sleep_timeout" and confirm the value returned in 0. If it doesn't return that value or gives you an error, make sure you are typing the command in properly. 7. Type "exit" or "quit" (can't remember offhand) to end the shell session, the prompt should change back to your normal command prompt/terminal prompt. Then type in "adb disconnect" to kill the ADB session. 8. Add the IP address back in to the Control4 Amazon Fire TV IP driver. Just remember, don't add quotes to any command when typing them in to a command prompt/terminal. I hope this helps those out that have continued to have control issues with Fire TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Nice find - now I just need these things to be readily (officially) available here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Thanks, I had requested control4 to add this as a driver configurable option, but they haven't yet. So that you can have an option in the driver to set sleep and let it send the command. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.cytexone Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 6 minutes ago, msgreenf said: Thanks, I had requested control4 to add this as a driver configurable option, but they haven't yet. So that you can have an option in the driver to set sleep and let it send the command. Love this idea! Just needs to be an action button added to the driver and done during the initial setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Just now, cdegaeta said: Love this idea! Just needs to be an action button added to the driver and done during the initial setup. yup - super easy to add. Just a matter of priorities Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.cytexone Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 Just now, msgreenf said: yup - super easy to add. Just a matter of priorities Unfortunately I have a lot of "super easy to add" things on a list that still haven't been taken care of by the driver dev team. I'm sure they have their priorities but some of this stuff would really make life easier for us. Especially when we go through all of the troubleshooting/diagnosis and give an exact way of how to fix things. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 and just to add for anyone reading . If you are setting up a new firetv, set this setting _before_ adding the IP to control4 driver. This will save you the time of disconnecting and reconnecting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.cytexone Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 4 minutes ago, msgreenf said: and just to add for anyone reading . If you are setting up a new firetv, set this setting _before_ adding the IP to control4 driver. This will save you the time of disconnecting and reconnecting. Yes, just make sure to turn on ADB Debugging on the Fire TV (as that is part of the instructions for the Control4 driver). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 i thought they fixed this with a new driver release or software on the firetv. I have the latest driver and have not had to wake up my firetv in a couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 6 minutes ago, Matt Lowe said: i thought they fixed this with a new driver release or software on the firetv. I have the latest driver and have not had to wake up my firetv in a couple of months. i have not experienced that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 i am using the latest firetv/firestick driver ver 110 its been rock solid for me since the last update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poseidonsystems Posted July 10, 2018 Share Posted July 10, 2018 I really hope this adb thing works. Just did it now, hopefully this thing doesn't disconnect. I have customers everywhere that love their Amazon Fire TV and they call me constantly to re-connect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videostorm Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 IRUSB is a great way to control your new Fire TV devices in control4. It doesn't use ADB and provides full IP control with app launching and everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poseidonsystems Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Yea, so after about a week with the adb fix, the control4 lost its connection. Once I rebooted the fire tv it reconnected automatically though.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poseidonsystems Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 Hi all, I had a customer that has the Amazon Fire Stick 4k version. The native control4 driver didn't work at all so had to go with the IRUSB with Control4 coupled with an OTG dual USB dongle. From now on I just tag on an extra $150 to install a fire stick with Control4 set ups, I just can't rely on the native driver and then customers get pissed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 On 8/12/2018 at 3:15 PM, poseidonsystems said: From now on I just tag on an extra $150 to install a fire stick with Control4 set ups, I just can't rely on the native driver and then customers get pissed. Control4 released over half a year ago that the native driver stopped working due to Amazon's changes, recommending the videostorm piece instead.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 17 minutes ago, Cyknight said: Control4 released over half a year ago that the native driver stopped working due to Amazon's changes, recommending the videostorm piece instead.... but that's the point. The videostorm hardware is total BS. This is something c4 should have working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 3 hours ago, msgreenf said: but that's the point. ...... This is something c4 should have working. Perhaps, but I'm merely commenting on the fact that the step now taking by the one I quoted was long announced by Control4 themselves. While it's sad there is no control, AFAIK, Crestron, Elan and all others currently have no such option because Amazon stopped the ADB back-door - and there is yet to be any progress reported on getting an API. I hope this changes, but I do not know what Control4 or anyone else has or has not done to try and get this done - do you? You can harp that Control4 should 'get this fixed' - but I see at least equal blame here. I suppose Control4 could create another specialty device to do the same thing VideoStorm does, but what would that gain anyone? Is that the better route? The videostorm hardware is total BS In what sense? It seems to work exceedingly well unless you have other experiences than what I've seen or heard so far? It came out before the original 'break' of ADB - and is also the one real way to control Android TVs (as in non Amazon Android TVs...) as well after the RemoteLAN deluxe app got shut down. Understand that I'd MUCH rather not have to order and install extra hardware of any type to make something work, but if a $40 retail piece does the trick....then so be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 5 hours ago, Cyknight said: Understand that I'd MUCH rather not have to order and install extra hardware of any type to make something work, but if a $40 retail piece does the trick....then so be it. It's BS to me that they raised the price after ADB broke. I don't like people that run businesses like that. And btw - as of an update to FireOS yesterday, once it finishes rolling out, all devices will be broken! So anything that was working will now be broken. Meaning ALL fire TVs will no longe have ADB control. Yup - all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 1 hour ago, msgreenf said: It's BS to me that they raised the price after ADB broke. I don't like people that run businesses like that. And btw - as of an update to FireOS yesterday, once it finishes rolling out, all devices will be broken! So anything that was working will now be broken. Meaning ALL fire TVs will no longe have ADB control. Yup - all. Just a question - I don’t recall the previous price but people complained shipping was insane for 1 piece. Now I see price is 39 but flat rate shipping. All In is 1 unit that much more? Again I don’t know just thinking they increased unit price and are eating more of the shipping cost on their end? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 The cable weighs next to nothing. There is no way shipping was costing them the prices they were charging Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbooo Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 I hope that new chap who's just come from Amazon can fix this crap. Otherwise we'll all buy Apple TVs or Rokus, is that what Amazon want? Is your rumour about ALL fireTVs breaking true? My old FireTV 4K is still working with the IP driver as of 1 second ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstafford388 Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 It's definitely true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbooo Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 Well hopefully this guy brought the fireTV API in his briefcase. https://www.cnet.com/news/former-amazon-alexa-exec-charlie-kindel-joins-control4/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbooo Posted August 16, 2018 Share Posted August 16, 2018 Well the email just came out... "Effective Immediately, Amazon Fire TV devices can no longer be controlled over an IP network using the Control4 Fire TV IP driver (mediaplay_ip_amazon_fire.c4z)." There's more, but none of it is good. And the official solution is that Videostorm doodad. Looks like the Roku is coming out of retirement for the time being. I think I'll go with a FLIRC for the Fire TV, cheaper if a little less functional, and then grab the next decent deal I see on an ATV. Why is Amazon refusing to help, and why hasn't some wonderful clever person reversed engineered the phone control app? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.