Bohold. My simple $10 Crapmote I have working perfectly w my Shield

by sappypappy

Glorious isn't it? OK, not really. But it's cheap, simple & does work (and glory be, physical volume buttons!). You've prob seen these around & like most air mouse remotes, it takes some fiddling to make right. Here's how I did it.

First, be rooted. Its a must. Get the remote, plug in the USB dongle to the Shield & pair it as the instructions. Download ES File Explorer, enable root file browsing & give the /System RW access in the popup.

Go into Device (Root), System, usr, keylayout. In there you'll find a bunch of .kl files. These are what Android & Nvidia include to make certain controllers & remotes work correctly w specific keymaps & such. Creating a new one requires certain permissions & formatting I didn't wanna get into, so I elected to just modify an existing one I knew I'd never use. If you click on them & open as text, you can see what remote its for in the notes. So find one you don't care to lose. Do NOT alter the Generic.kl file & instead, choose one of the Vender ones (mine was one about a Wii controller). Edit it to make it look exactly like this. Also note the file name I have given it. That is specific to this remote model & it won't work without remaining it. Make your edits, save it & rename the file. Restart the Shield & you should be good to go.

All buttons will now function as they should & the air mouse still works too if you activate it. Note that the "back" button on this remote (and most air mouse types) isn't a back button at all, but a right mouse click (dumb). You can't remap that, so I made Back the Menu button right next to it. Also I could never get the keycode to the Home button because any app I'd try it with, pressing the key would exit the app before registering the code. If anyone knows a way please let me know. Regardless, you can get around this by side loading a simple app called Buttons Remapper. It sees the remaining Home button as a generic "0" key, but it will map it to the home function so it'll work perfectly after this.

Here is the exact one I bought, but there's a bunch of different versions floating around that may or may not have the same Vendor & Product numbers for the .kl file so be aware. Look up the ADB way of finding out these numbers via Terminal (its easy).

That's it. Enjoy your shitmote!

Max_Roc

Wish this was possible without root. I'm scared to attempt mine lol.

We use a fire stick remote as a spare remote and I'd like to modify my the keymap files so that I don't have to use mkr app for the select button to work in Amazon video.

CuvisTheConqueror

I've been toying with rooting my Shield so I could play with this kind of thing. Is there anything you lose by doing this? (i.e. does it interfere with any video apps playing, etc.)

netflix-uk-1971

That's a nice little write up thanks v much. imo this should be stickied.

Just one thing, it would seem that the vendorId / productId in the .kl filename is important for this to work and align correctly for any old remote..is that right? If so, what's the trick to understand what the right Ids are here for some other random cheap remote control?

LiquidPoint

Tho an airmouse could be nice once a month, I don't want to root... So I'll just stick to my OneForAll Zapper, a BT keyboard and my 2 controllers.

Then I'll borrow my computers mouse in the rare event I need a pointer in an app that supports ATV, like uae4arm and its drop down boxes in settings.

Shield 2015 actually have a very impressive IR receiver, and then I can also turn our non-cec TV, adjust global volume and switch sources on demand. Truly one remote for all we do (most often).

I am considering getting a better keyboard tho, with a touch pad.

starslayer74

Awesome tutorial and this is awesome but for those of us who don't wish to root, just invest in a Flirc and re-purpose an old remote (my old FiOS remote works wonderfully) - You don't have the mouse functionality by going this route, but honestly, I've never needed it.