Configuring Kodi with Imon remote

 

Hi all! For those using Kodi Media Center and the Soundgraph Imon Pad remote, I have prepared some files for you.

 

Notes

  • These files are works in progress.
  • Feel free to contact me for questions and suggestions.
  • I’ll update this page when there are new versions of these files.
  • I don’t use Kodi to Watch TV so this isn’t supported here.

 

Updates

  • 150209 : one single keyboard shortcut and remote button for both video and music “now playing” playlists.
  • 150214 : keyboard shortcuts and remote buttons attributed for the Movies window and the DVD menu.
  • 150310 : T9 keyboard on the numeric buttons have been added to the latest versions of the files inside the RAR file.
  • 150425 : added support for the colored buttons to start Kodi then automatically display the video, movie, music and picture screens.
  • 160229 : The music button now leads to the Music Library (not anymore to the music files).
  • 180205 : Fixed the video and music button which were not working in Kodi 17. Updated the picture describing Imon’s Kodi options. Added my PowerDVD imo file inside the RAR file.
  • 180528 : Updated the scripts for the color buttons.

 

What to do first

Download : All these files are in the DreamCraft_Kodi_Imon.rar file.

– Install Kodi’s latest version.

– Install Kodi’s addon “Keymap Editor”.

– In the rar file, you will find the gen.xml file. It is for the Keymap Editor addon for Kodi.
If you are using the “non UWP” version of Kodi, put it in “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\keymaps\” .
If you are using the UWP version of Kodi, put it in “C:\Users\ %username% \AppData\Local\Packages\ XBMCFoundation.Kodi_4n2hpmxwrvr6p\LocalCache\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\keymaps\” .

– In the rar file, you will find the gen.xml.backup file. Also put it in “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\keymaps\”.
. Read below, in the “Why using a backup file” section, on how and why using this file.
. Caution: in this folder, keep only one file with the XML extension, otherwise, it will confuse Kodi. So the gen.xml backup files should not have an xml file extension. They should have an extension such as *.backup, as I did in my rar file.

– In Keymap editor, you can set up additional keyboard shortcuts, but keep in mind these things :
. Before proceeding, read below the “Why using a backup file” section.
. The number of keyboard shortcuts you should use is limited by the number of buttons on the Imon remote.
. Try not to override the default Kodi keyboard shortcuts. It seems that the addon will not allow you to do so anyway.
. If you want to use my files, try to put the same keyboard shortcuts as in the Imon’s Kodi options. Check the picture in this page for that, in the “Imon program commands for Kodi described” section.
. Some keymap editor commands do not work anymore, for example : activatewindow(videofiles) does not work as of february 2018.

– In the rar file, you will find the Kodi.imo file. It is the Imon setting file for Kodi. Put it in “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\SOUNDGRAPH\iMON\Setup\iMON PAD\” .
. Important note : the *.imo file might not work right away. You may need to import this file instead of just copying it. How to import : first, copy the *.imo file in another folder. Start Kodi, then Imon Manager > settings > program commands > add program button > select Kodi > click the import button > browse to the folder where you put the *.imo file > choose the option to import ALL functions > apply and close. Then test it!

– In the rar file, you will find the kodistart folder. It can be placed in “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\SOUNDGRAPH\iMON”. Recently I chose to put it in C:\Users\%username%\OneDrive\Documents\Job\MyPrograms. Read below on how and why using this file folder.

– In the rar file, you will find a bonus file : my PowerDVD.imo file, for PowerDVD v17, from February 2018.

Imon program commands for Kodi described

Here is the list of commands with their keyboard shortcuts (set up in Kodi via Keymap Editor and its gen.xml file) and their remote buttons.

Imon Kodi Settings Described

 

Why using a backup file

The gen.xml.backup file is the same as the gen.xml file, but it’s a backup in case you use the Keymap Editor addon. Indeed, saving your Keymap Editor options always alters the gen.xml file. But often puts in bad code, especially when you’re using modifyers, like ALT, SHIFT or CTRL. So:

  • Each time you manually modifiy gen.xml, save it as gen.xml.backup.
  • Each time you want to use the Keymap Editor addon, first save gen.xml as gen.xml.backup.

 

Getting the T9 keyboard to work

It was very tricky to get the T9 keyboard to work on the Imon Pad remote with Kodi. With Windows Media Center (win7), it works out of the box, but with Kodi: what a headache! So here’s what I did:

  1. Follow the instructions on this Kodi WIKI page. At first this page was unappropriate for Imon and Keymap Editor users, but since March 2015 I have become a authorized Kodi Wiki editor (yeah!) so I edited this article to make the information available to all!
  2. in this article, as you can see, I used the Keymap Editor addon to note which key code Kodi gets when typing the keys from the second row of my keyboard. But before doing so, don’t forget to protect your original gen.xml file by saving a backup, as explained above in this blog post.
  3. In the edited Kodi Wiki page, I’m saying I have not tried to press the remote buttons to get them recorded by Keymap Editor. If anyone has tried it, please comment below on your experience: does it work well?
  4.  After editing the gen.xml file, I got a fully working numeric pad on my remote. So I included it inside the RAR file. But perhaps your system is different than mine and you’ll get different key-codes. But at least you’ve got the method explained here 🙂

Some forum threads about this affair:

http://www.soundgraph.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27737

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=218401

 

DCDC_Media_BlogPost_ImonAndKodi_RemoteSoundgraphImonPad_expUsing the remotes’ 6 colored buttons

The central green button

On every MCE remote, including the Imon one, there is a main central button used to launch the media center app such as Windows Media Center or Kodi. This button is usually green but can change on different Imon remote versions. It is easy to associate the “regular” Kodi exe with the central button on the remote. However, it is not so easy to associate it with the “universal windows platform” version of Kodi. So I created a windows shortcut for that. In the “Kodistart” folder, you will find a shortcut file called “ImonRemote_GreenButton_KodiLaunch Shortcut”. This helps to start Kodi UWP with the remote’s green button, even after Kodi is updated.
To use this, go to Imon settings > Utilities > app launcher > add > search by filename > browse to the path of Kodistart and select the shorcut.

The lower 5 colored buttons

On the Imon Ipad, there are 5 colored buttons that are used to launch media center programs and get them to automatically display specific screens : videos, music, pictures, TV and DVD. If you use my files, you can enjoy these quick access buttons: start Kodi, and then, once it is running, press one of the buttons.

But unfortunately, by default, the buttons are not not working at all while Kodi is not yet running. Let me explain: the goal here is to press a colored button in order to start Kodi and then to automatically display a screen such as “video files” or “music library”, etc. As I said before, everything was more simple when I was using Windows Media Center. Kodi is a better choice for a media center app, but making Kodi to work with the Imon Pad remote is much more complicated. Imon manager kind of “recognizes” Windows Media Center and sends the right commands to start it then display button-chosen screens. But it’s not the case with Kodi.

Using a Powershell script

The only way to do it is to create a script that starts Kodi, and makes it display the right screen. For Scripting, I was advised to use Autohotkey, but I prefer to use the native Windows solution Powershell. So I created a Powershell script to launch the videos, music, pictures and movies screens.

My script is called “ImonRemote_ColoredButtonsToKodiScreens.ps1”. The user presses the red button (for example) that triggers a windows shortcut : CTRL + ALT + V. This shortcut starts a bat file which in turn, starts the Powershell script. The key shortcut is passed to the Powershell script. Here is what the powershell script does:

  • Get a windows shortcut such as CTRL+ALT+V
  • Launch Kodi
  • Wait 10 seconds. On my system, Kodi starts a bit slowly. If your Kodi starts faster, change this value.
  • Activate Kodi’s window, in case it does not have the focus.
  • Send keyboard strokes to Kodi: ALT+V. These are the same shorcuts that were set up in the Keymap Editor addon for Kodi.

To get these scripts running, you don’t need to master Scripting. But in any case, you’ll need to change the PowerShell security level : start the Powershell console and type in :

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Using a Batch script

Ps1 files aren’t executable: when one click on them, they do not run, they get opened in a text or script editor. To get these scripts running without starting Windows Powershell beforehand (which is what we need for Imon Manager), we need to create a small batch file that will run the ps1 file. So I added a *.bat file that just starts the ps1 file. To understand what the bat does exactly, you can check the content of ImonRemote_ColoredButtonsToKodiScreens.bat. But basically it just receives the shortcut CTRL+ALT+V, launches the Powershell script with this shortcut as parameter.
Important: you may need to edit these files in order to make them work. The new 2018 versions of this scripts are not user dependant and should work on any system but perhaps you will need to adapt it and change some options.

Using Windows Shortcuts

And there are 2 last steps for Imon manager:

I have already created for you some Windows shortcuts. You can find all 4 of them in the Kodistart folder. Perhaps you will need to re-create them.
These Windows shorcuts are for the *.bat files. It would be very handy to assign a bat file to a colored button, but unfortunately, Imon Manager can’t start an app, unless one uses the big central green/blue button or the App Launcher button. The colored buttons need to be assigned to some general Windows keyboard shortcut that will launch some programs, and these programs are chosen in Windows shortcut files.

So in the “Kodistart” folder, you have several Windows shortcut files. They will all call the same bat file, but with different parameters. Let’s take as example the shortcut that launches the Kodi video screen : “ImonRemote_VideosButton_ToKodiScreen Shortcut”.
Using the mouse’s left button, drag and drop it from :
“C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\SOUNDGRAPH\iMON\kodistart\” (or some other location on your hard drive where you unzipped the folder)
to :
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\[subfolders if any]\Kodi .
Then edit the shortcut and check if everything’s fine for your system. You need to change ‘david” by your Windows user name. The keyboard shortcut I chose for this shortcut is CTRL+ALT+V. If you want to choose another key, in Windows 8 or 10, just type this key, for example : “V”, and Windows will add “CTRL+ALT” before, as it is the default keyboard combination for shortcut files. You can also choose CTRL+SHIFT+key or SHIFT+ALT+key or CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+key. You may need to restart Windows for these shortcuts to work.

Imon settings

Then, in Imon, go to settings > custom commands > function > add, and set this function up to match the keyboard shortcut in the Windows shortcut file, also assigning it to the “my video” button.

Repeat the steps for each Windows shortcuts. My shortcuts :
CTRL+ALT+F: Movies
CTRL+ALT+M: Music
CTRL+ALT+P: Pictures
CTRL+ALT+V: Videos

That’s it, at last. Now you can test it : when you press one of the colored button, a CMD window should appear, then Kodi starts and goes to the requested screen.

Windows Shortcut woes

If your colored button doe not work, try the keyboard shortcut on your keyboard: press CTRL+ALT+V. If this does not work neither, then there is a problem with Windows capturing keyboard shortcuts. Restart your PC in safe mode and try the shortcut. If the shortcut works, then it means there is an app staying in memory during your use of Windows, that captures keyboard shortcuts instead of Windows. In my case, this app was : GeForce Experience. In it, I disabled “in game overlay” which works with keyboiard shortcuts. Then all went well.

About the DVD purple button

As of today, I still don’t know how to start disc playback from a keyboard shortcut in Kodi, so in the meantime, the “My DVD” button leads to the movie Library in Kodi.

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32 Comments

  1. Thx men this is great but the coloured purple button for me it isnt realy nesacary but iam trying to find out how to get tv shows beneath a coloured button

  2. Absolutely Brilliant Work. It all works, just had to add volume controls myself which was easy. Though can’t get the mute button assigned. Not the end of the world.
    Thanks again

  3. Hello,

    Thanks for all.
    I use Kodi Launcher and when my pc start, it begins at kodi.
    I have deleted all programs in Imon manager, because it was impossible to select Kodi.

    I stayed on Explorer.

    But now i have another problem :

    When i am on Kodi, i have the round board control logo of the Imon program on my screen !How to proceed to erase it ?
    When it click on close, the remote doesn’t work.

    Thanks for your reply.

    Imom Version Info : 8.12.1202
    Windows 7
    Kodi Helix.

  4. Hi again,

    Sorry for my poor English.

    i have founded for my previous message.
    In Imon Manager, select and click on Magnetic Windows option.

    My new question is, which funtion on the remote we can send for “right click on the mouse” please ?

    For example, when we are on a film list and we click on right click on the mouse, it appear informations, film mangement, scraping informations…

    I didn’t find the shortcut on the keyboard for Kodi.
    On windows it’s shift+F10, but it doesn”t work in Kodi, and it doesn’t work with remote..

    Good job for these tutorial.

    It’s very excellent !!!

  5. I have founded for right click.
    It”s “C” shortcut on the keyboard.

    Now i will find a solution why mute is not working, on the keyboard, the icons appears on the screen but the sound is still now.

    Thanks for all.

    I’m very happy that it is working !

  6. Hey Bruno, glad that it worked for you.
    For the mouse’s right click, it is mapped on the remote : it’s the button that’s located at the bottom right of the joystick. But in Kodi, right clicking through the remote gives undesired result, so I use the “contextual menu” button, that’s just on the right side of the joystick.
    My remote’s “mute” button works perfectly. Weird it does not work for you. Are you using the files in the rar archive here?
    Happy Kodiying to you!
    David

  7. Hi Dave,

    It’s not very important for Mute finally, because it say “Passthrought activated”.
    I will choose it on my AVR receiver.

    Yes i use your rare file like described, of course.

    I don’t know if you know this following tips, but i find it’s great.
    I have founded on another website a tips for changing langage in one click.

    Go to :

    C:\Users\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\System\Keymaps\

    Find the Keyboard.xml file

    Open it with a software who able to do that (like notepad for example)

    Insert this following line in the Keuyboard.xml file :

    AudioNextLanguage

    Record it and close the file

    (U is a letter for example, choose the letter you want)

    On Imon manager software, Setting, program command, modifiy “Audio Option”, click reset and Put the letter you choose before. In my example put U.

    Now you can change the langage in one click, on your screen you can see when you do it like the same way for the subtitle.

    Regards.

    Happy Kodiying to you too !

  8. “AudioNextLanguage”

    For my previous message my text was modified because it put it like an html scrip and not a text script.

    Before AudioNextLanguage, you need to write
    and after AudioNextLanguage, you need to writer

    No space.

  9. Привет.
    Установлена kodi 15.2 не работают
    Кнопки мультимедиа Перемотка вправо,лево,стоп,воспроизведение.
    Все кнопки верхней группы(9шт)
    Эти кнопки не работают на любой
    Kodi.
    Что делать подскажите чтоб они работали?
    Спасибо за труд.
    С уважением

  10. Hi,i have try to use this mode but imon remote don’t work,i use windows 10 64bit,the steps in this list are the same for win10?anyone can help me to use my remote?hanks

    1. Hi Dave,i have updated my pc from win 7 to win 10,before (with win7) the remote working perfectly,if i am in windows 10 remote working fine but when i open kodi the remote don’t work for it,have copy all the file in the folder,selected the kodi.imo in imon manager but when i push any remote button in kodi the result is negative…thanks for your time Dave

      1. Hey Marco , I have had the same problem with PowerDVD (latest version) and then somehow I managed to make it work but I don’t remember how…
        Is your remote working with other media player apps?
        I think there is an application that detects if the PC is receiving IR signals, you should try it.

        1. Hi Dave,i’ve tryed remote with vlc and work perfectly,fullscreen button,play,pause,next,previous,in vlc works fine…with all the application then i use the problem only with kodi 🙁 any advices or help is welcome,many thanks Dave for your time!

  11. Hi,
    is it possible to use some files from you for Kodi under LibreElec (fork of OpenElec)?

  12. How do you map I and M?

    These are surely 2 important keys? What would you put this under?

    I’ve noticed for my harmony remote, it has picked up “Info”, “Menu” and “Guide” keys under MCE – but in the Kodi program there is no such MCE keys…

    What do you recommend?

  13. I’m not familiar with the Harmony remote, this article is for Imon remotes. But remind me, “I” is for “info”, “M” is for what?

    1. They are shortcuts for Kodi…

      http://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls

      Essentially – what I’m trying to do is:

      Run kodi through the LC16 iMON IF receiver via a Harmony remote that is outputting as a MCE remote. The iMON program isn’t picking up the same commands as the Logitech under MCE…

  14. Hi Guys,

    I’ve been using this remote for several years now, and already bought a 2nd one after few of the buttons got tired on the old one, but now once again I feel it’s going to happen and I’m looking for an alternative – maybe another remote.
    I can’t seem to find anywhere a remote that have an exclusive mode such as this one that once I open Kodi, automatically it controls only Kodi and not any other software on my PC, also, this one is really simple to use and to configure short keys and to assign them to the remote keys – I’m looking for recommendations and I’ll appreciate your thoughts.
    I would prefer an universal one that can control my TV, Receiver and cables as well if possible.

    Thanks,
    Itai

  15. hi
    firstly brilliant work i am more of a hardware guy so coding anything is a nightmare

    ok here goes forgive me if its not your field or has no place on this site

    one thing you might be able to help with seeing as sound graph seem to have pulled the plug on imon these days nightmare even to find a driver

    i have an ultrabay the fancy dual 5.25 front panel itched the internal 2 line job that came in the themaltake bach and modded the chassis to take the bigger unit , been trying to get the eq bars to show for ages but no matter what i cant get anything out of it any ideas ? ive tried routing sound through all outputs analogue 3.5 jack and digital over the HDMI out

    any help would be greatly appreciated

    listed the spec overview for my HTPC to give a better picture
    windows 10 64 on ssd
    G3250 CPU @ 3.4ghz
    16 gb ram
    gt620 graphics
    3d bluray drive
    8 tb seagate nas
    sound out piped through HDMI to Philips 7809 3d ambilight 55″ panel

  16. I have problems with “Enter” button in Kodi. Mi remote control is exactly the same as yours.

    I imported Kodi.imo and imported configuration. Also I added (after several trys) a new Function called Enter –> mapped to Enter

    Still not working.

    Thx

  17. Hi,

    Ffirst of all, thanks a lot for your work and support.

    Unfortunately, for me, iMon remote doesn’t work anymore with Kodi, since 14.0. If works perfectly with Xbmc. And, yes, I have added the new mappings for the Kodi.exe application in iMon manager.

    The first error I can see is the navigation pad (arrows) not working. Pause, stop and many other buttons don’t working either. Only a few buttons work (space, backspace, enter, esc, and the numbers)

    Any advice on this? I have tried almost everything without success.

    Thanks so much for your time.

  18. Soundgraph is redesigning their website. They have removed Imon and the Soundgraph forums. I’m not sure they’ll add it back when the site is completed. What a shame for Imon users.
    Yes v8.12 is the latest version, since many years there has not been a new version.
    So this blog post has become kind of an alternative forum for Imon. I’m sorry I cannot answer every questions. I wish I could answer but when I read about a problem I never found and tried to fix, I just don’t know the answer.
    I hope users visitors of this page will exchange ideas.
    For HTPC lovers using remotes there is also the Kodi hardware forum at http://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=112 , why not open a thread for Imon remotes in this forum?
    Hope it helps.

  19. Hello,
    where is the “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\” folder located in a Linux-based OS?
    Thanks for your help!
    Greetings
    Marcus

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