Does Touch Cruise E100/W100 Wired Remote Control work with Pocket Music?

[ingenious]

Hi guys,

I really want to have this baby:

http://i.expansys.com/i/b/b154771.jpg

...but from other posts in the forums I understood it works only with HTC's audio player and/or WMP (depending on the device, apparently). Pocket Music is my favorite player so I was wondering whether the E100 will work with it on Polaris. Does anyone know? 10x.

P.S. Also, is any additional driver required for Polaris?

[mastelos]

no.it,s only working with the default WMP.
maybe if someone knows how we can change some registry values to give pocketmusic path.

[ingenious]

no.it,s only working with the default WMP.
maybe if someone knows how we can change some registry values to give pocketmusic path.

So when it is plugged its buttons are not recognized as hardware buttons which you can assign actions to? That would be nice...

[JulianL]

ingenious (or any one else). I had a look at these and I think they look really good but have you looked at the W100? Are you 100% sure it's the E100 you want?

As far as I can see from comparing the specs on the Expansys web site, the E100 is just a W100 bundled with some cheap headphones for £5 more (I did say cheap!).

Don't most people buy these sort of adaptors partly to be able to use higher-quality headphones of their choice? Sorry if I'm off base here regarding your personal requirements, but the W100 (http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=160194) might be the one to look at and then spend just a bit more on headphones if you don't have some already.

If my understanding above of how these two products relate to each other is wrong then I'd really appreciate the correct explanation.

- Julian

[ingenious]

ingenious (or any one else). I had a look at these and I think they look really good but have you looked at the W100? Are you 100% sure it's the E100 you want?

As far as I can see from comparing the specs on the Expansys web site, the E100 is just a W100 bundled with some cheap headphones for £5 more (I did say cheap!).

Don't most people buy these sort of adaptors partly to be able to use higher-quality headphones of their choice? Sorry if I'm off base here regarding your personal requirements, but the W100 (http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=160194) might be the one to look at and then spend just a bit more on headphones if you don't have some already.

If my understanding above of how these two products relate to each other is wrong then I'd really appreciate the correct explanation.

- Julian

Oh, you're totally right. I want the W100 - I have very nice earplugs (Creative EP-635 (http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=437&subcategory=441&product=14744) - amazing sound and very comfortable, so I definitely don't need other).

But the problem with the drivers remains... too bad :(

[JulianL]

Oh, you're totally right. I want the W100 - I have very nice earplugs (Creative EP-635 (http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=437&subcategory=441&product=14744) - amazing sound and very comfortable, so I definitely don't need other).

But the problem with the drivers remains... too bad :(

I just got my device (Touch Cruise) from a shop in London just now and I bought a W100 at the same time. It is much smaller than I thought from the pictures.

I'm trying to be very careful about conditioning the battery on my new toy so I won't power it on until tomorrow but then I can start installing software and playing with it and I'll post some comments on the W100.

I know you said Pocket Music is your preferred player but have you tried PocketPlayer from Conduits recently? This is what I used on my Artemis and will install on my Polaris. It has full button mapping and you can assign multiple buttons to the same action, for instance the default mapping for <Volume-Up> is to assign it to the D-Pad <Up> key (not very interesting) but also to map it to a key that is displayed in the PocketPlayer mapping setup as something like "Media Volume+". This is interesting because it implies to me that PocketPlayer may be aware of media keys and these might be what are on the W100.

Anyway, if you don't like PocketPlayer then this doesn't help but if you do then I'll report back in a day or two as to whether I did manage to map the media keys.

- Julian

[Eroc162]

Can I use the remote only for the antenna so I can use my bluetooth headset to listen to the radio. They should have built the dam antenna inside the phone unit.

[victoradjei]

Can I use the remote only for the antenna so I can use my bluetooth headset to listen to the radio. They should have built the dam antenna inside the phone unit.

You can do it with any headset adapter. I have used the regular 3.5mm converter with many formats of headset and all give god fm radio performance, even the short earbud sections. Then you can listen with your stereo bt headset wirelessly :cool:

[ingenious]

I know you said Pocket Music is your preferred player but have you tried PocketPlayer from Conduits recently? This is what I used on my Artemis and will install on my Polaris. It has full button mapping and you can assign multiple buttons to the same action, for instance the default mapping for <Volume-Up> is to assign it to the D-Pad <Up> key (not very interesting) but also to map it to a key that is displayed in the PocketPlayer mapping setup as something like "Media Volume+". This is interesting because it implies to me that PocketPlayer may be aware of media keys and these might be what are on the W100.

Never heard of it, frankly. But I checked it out and it seems to be a good player. It even has support for scroll wheels! I strongly hope you can assign the W100's buttons - it looks really cool and functional. Can you actually please post some pictures of the W100? 10x very much!

EDIT: Unfortunately, I found this thread... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=313155

[JulianL]

Never heard of it, frankly. But I checked it out and it seems to be a good player. It even has support for scroll wheels! I strongly hope you can assign the W100's buttons - it looks really cool and functional. Can you actually please post some pictures of the W100? 10x very much!

EDIT: Unfortunately, I found this thread... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=313155

Thanks for that link. PocketPlayer is a great player, the media library is just fantastic, but as in the thread you discovered, I have tried the W100 with it and whenever I press a key on the W100 then the built in HTC Audio Player seems to catch the keypress and start up.

The good news is that the above demonstrates that it doesn't just work with WMP, it is possible for another media player (in this case the HTC one) to intercept and act on the keys. The bad news is that the HTC Audio Player is now our enemy and we need to find a way to wrestle control of the media keys away from it.

SInce I am a PocketPlayer user I am focussing on a solution to work with this. I have initially posted a request on the Conduits PocketPlayer forum and if I don't get a solution in the next few days then I will file a support request with Conduits and let you know how I get on.

Re pictures, I'm just trying to sort some other stuff out at the moment so I'll try and do that in the next few days.

- Julian

[ingenious]

The good news is that the above demonstrates that it doesn't just work with WMP, it is possible for another media player (in this case the HTC one) to intercept and act on the keys. The bad news is that the HTC Audio Player is now our enemy and we need to find a way to wrestle control of the media keys away from it.

Yes!

SInce I am a PocketPlayer user I am focussing on a solution to work with this. I have initially posted a request on the Conduits PocketPlayer forum and if I don't get a solution in the next few days then I will file a support request with Conduits and let you know how I get on.

Thank you very much for this! Please report when you have news!

Re pictures, I'm just trying to sort some other stuff out at the moment so I'll try and do that in the next few days.

Don't worry - no need for that. I found some pictures. Actually I'm ready to hit the "Buy now" button. Just want to be sure it works with some decent player.

[pmeekin]

Thanks for that link. PocketPlayer is a great player, the media library is just fantastic, but as in the thread you discovered, I have tried the W100 with it and whenever I press a key on the W100 then the built in HTC Audio Player seems to catch the keypress and start up.

<snip>

- Julian

Thanks for the info Julian. I think a lot of people are very interested in this device. Could you confirm other reports that pressing a button on the controller causes the screen to come on. This seems particularly pointless with a remote controller!

How about the FM radio functions?

Cheers,
Paul

[JulianL]

Thanks for the info Julian. I think a lot of people are very interested in this device. Could you confirm other reports that pressing a button on the controller causes the screen to come on. This seems particularly pointless with a remote controller!

How about the FM radio functions?

Cheers,
Paul

You're welcome!

Re buttons, I just tried this and yes, the screen comes on (this was a bit of a suprise to me too). Press the red hang-up button and the TC wakes up and goes to the Today screen. Press the green answer button and the TC wakes and goes to the Phone app. Press any of the media buttons, including vol up/down, and the TC wakes and starts the HTC Audio Player.

Re FM radio functions, it all works pretty much as expected. Vol up/down works the volume (the FM Radio volume not the system-wide volume settings). The Play/Pause button does volume mute/unmute when in the FM radio app. The fwd/back buttons do the seek functions. The red end-call button switches to the Today screen and leaves the radio playing in the background; if you want to get back to the FM app then hit the play/pause button and it mutes the FM but also takes you back into the app so you can just press it again to be back listening but now with the FM app displaying on the screen. Finally the green answer button will take you to the phone app with the FM still playing in the background and again you can use the play/pause mute/unmute trick to get back to the FM display screen.

Edit (for completeness): There is also a mute button on the side of the W100. This has been mentioned in some other places but in case you haven't seen this .... the mute button has confused some people because they assume it mutes the playback and are confused when it doesn't work. I haven't tested this myself yet but apparently the mute button on the side is to mute the microphone not the speakers, i.e. to stop your caller from hearing you, so it is only for use during a phone call (I guess to mute the other party you can just hang up :) ).

- Julian

[pmeekin]

Thanks again Julian!

It sounds to me like this remote control isn't as well integrated with the phone as I would have expected coming from the actual manufacturer. The main reason I would want something like this would be because I don't want to look at or control it via the screen.

Am I correct in thinking that once a button is pressed and the screen switches on it is then active for touch control? So if it happens to be say, in a pocket all bets are off? What about if you use it with something like S2U2?

I'm sure you haven't been spending all your time with your new Polaris testing out the remote by the way - I'm just a bit annoyed about how this seems to work because it looked like the ideal accessory for how I anticipate using my Orbit 2 (when I get it).

Cheers,
Paul

[briggs81]

I'm not having much luck with this thing on my tytn II on a custom, polaris based rom. None of the buttons work.

If audio manager is running, and you press the power button, does it just turn the screen off, or does it put the device in suspend mode like it would if audio manager was not working?

[ingenious]

Hm... do you think there's a chance that somebody writes generic drivers for the W100 soon? Otherwise I might reconsider buying this simpler (though slick) adapter (HS U110+):

http://i.expansys.com/i/b/b159613.jpg

[JulianL]

Just a quick note. I haven't gone away, it's just that my device is new so I'm trying to be very disciplined on the first 5 or so charge/discharge cycles to try and condition my battery so that means that once I put it on charge I leave it charging uninterrupted for 18 hours and that's what it's doing right now so I can't try anything, and hence answer any questions, until tomorrow. I'll try and answer a few things tomorrow.

- Julian

[JulianL]

Hm... do you think there's a chance that somebody writes generic drivers for the W100 soon? Otherwise I might reconsider buying this simpler (though slick) adapter (HS U110+):

I'm probably going to get myself one of these as well as the W100 because it is smaller and I'm not sure how much I'll use the W100 buttons assuming that I can get them working with PocketPlayer.

- Julian

[briggs81]

Wow. if you have the device plugged in, then you unplug it, you get zero sound. you can still dial out, but no one hears you. of course this could be a problem wtih my rom, as i can't even use the buttons anyways, but arrgggg not looking good.

[JulianL]

I've moved forward very slightly with getting the W100 to work with Conduits' PocketPlayer. My post to their forum elicited a suggestion that I install a PocketPlayer plugin downloadable from the Conduits web site that allows PocketPlayer to load Windows Media Player plugins and has an option that can be set that tells it to intercept WMP which I assume means that PocketPlayer runs the WMP plugins before/instead of WMP.

Anyway, after a bit of playing I now have the volume up/down working perfectly. These buttons now control the PocketPlayer-specific volume setting without causing WMP or HTC Audio Player to grab them and start up, and they even do this without activating the touch screen so it is in-pocket friendly.

Unfortunately the rest of the news isn't so good. The Play/Pause, Fwd and Back buttons no longer cause HTC Audio Manager to start up and grab them, they now just do nothing at all when pressed. I suppose it's progress, I've stopped another program from grabbing them, but I haven't yet managed to get PocketPlayer to see them.

Finally the red & green phone buttons work exactly as before, i.e. they switch on the device, activate the screen, and go to Today/Phone screen respectively.

Paul - re your question "Am I correct in thinking that once a button is pressed and the screen switches on it is then active for touch control? So if it happens to be say, in a pocket all bets are off? What about if you use it with something like S2U2?". Yes, your thinking is correct. I haven't tried it with S2U2 but I would guess that this would keep the screen at least locked although it would still be on and hence using battery power. From the above however, I'm hoping that if I can complete my mission and get these other three buttons working as well with PocketPlayer as the Vol Up/Down buttons do then the screen switching on is no longer an issue

- Julian

[briggs81]

Here's a question for ya, any reason the w100 device would not work on a tytn that is using a cruise/polaris based rom?? It works fine on other roms, but i am using a custom rom made by Duttythroy that is based off the new polaris build.. but no buttons work.

Nice to see you have made some progress getting it to work with pocketplayer though

I'm not super impressed with this thing. I don't want it to turn the screen on, very annoying.

My hope is that S2U2 with the power off/suspend power on option after 10 seconds will shut it off each time i press a button, but who knows.

[ingenious]

Julian, great progress indeed! One step at a time - nice :D

Please, please, keep us posted. We all count on you! ;)

[rickgillyon]

Last time I ran PocketPlayer as my MP3 player, it ran down my batteries far faster tham using WMP or HTCAM...

[JulianL]

Last time I ran PocketPlayer as my MP3 player, it ran down my batteries far faster tham using WMP or HTCAM...

How long ago/what version was that?

If the issue is/was in the decoder then I probably don't have the same problem because I use AAC+ files and the only reason PocketPlayer can play those is because it is able to use the AAC/AAC+ encoder that HTC bundle with their ROM (one of the best decisions HTC made) so most of the CPU load in my case is coming from code that isn't in the player.

- Julian

[rickgillyon]

Probably 6 months ago, using WMA. The difference was large, no idea why. Moved back to HTC AM, it works fine, there wasn't really anything that would make me want to use additional software anyway...

[ingenious]

OK, one question - can you use W100 with the hardware keys locked? I mean, is it well usable with Audio Manager at least?

[JulianL]

Probably 6 months ago, using WMA. The difference was large, no idea why. Moved back to HTC AM, it works fine, there wasn't really anything that would make me want to use additional software anyway...

Interesting. Thanks for filling the detail, and for the heads-up on battery life concerns. Anyone reading any of my posts would probably detect that it's somewhat of an obsession for me (my dream being a device where I can go on a 5 day business trip and not need to take a charger). I think from your dates that would be PocketPlayer v3.2 that you were using and I doubt much has changed so I might drill down into this a bit more with Conduits and their forums.

While I have your attention (maybe), could I just ask where/how you store your music files? I probably need to search or start a new thread, but I have problems using HTC AM because it just won't see my music collection. I have my music on my storage card under (example for artist name beginning with "F") "My Documents\My Music\Artists_F\Foo Fighters\<Album name>\<tracks>" but when I start HTC AM it doesn't see any music in the library.

Like I said, I'm sure I'll need to search or post a seperate thread, but I just wondered if you had any immediate observation, in particular how/where you store your music on the device.

- Julian

[ingenious]

Hey Julian,

Did you get any further with making the buttons work in PocketPlayer? I really want to buy an adapter now and I'm considering this one

http://i.expansys.com/i/b/b159613.jpg

since it is cheaper and smaller. However, I'd really prefer buying W100 if usable with PocketPlayer..

[pmeekin]

I finally got my Orbit 2 about a week ago and firstly have to say, once the various O2 bits have been hacked out and the HTC Today screen etc reinserted it is a superb phone!

Following on from my questions about this remote, I was surprised to discover that I got a W100 bundled with my phone. I was even more surprised to discover that not only did it work out of the box, it actually worked exactly how I thought it would.

For example, once Audio Manager is playing I can pause, skip and change volume etc and the screen stays off. The only time it comes on is when there is an incoming call.

Unfortunately this isn't true for the FM radio where every button press causes the screen to switch on as described earlier.

I wonder if this is something unique to the O2 model?

Cheers,
Paul

[ingenious]

I finally got my Orbit 2 about a week ago and firstly have to say, once the various O2 bits have been hacked out and the HTC Today screen etc reinserted it is a superb phone!

Following on from my questions about this remote, I was surprised to discover that I got a W100 bundled with my phone. I was even more surprised to discover that not only did it work out of the box, it actually worked exactly how I thought it would.
....
I wonder if this is something unique to the O2 model?
You lucky ******* :D
In UK this may be true, but not in Germany :( It comes with a standard bulky handsfree with one button and volume wheel.

You are totally right though - Orbit2 totally rocks!

But man, you are my last hope - can you please dig around and test if the W100 can be used to control 3rd party players like Pocket Player? This would be really great!

Thanks in advance!

[pmeekin]

You lucky ******* :D
In UK this may be true, but not in Germany :( It comes with a standard bulky handsfree with one button and volume wheel.

You are totally right though - Orbit2 totally rocks!

But man, you are my last hope - can you please dig around and test if the W100 can be used to control 3rd party players like Pocket Player? This would be really great!

Thanks in advance!

Sure! I'll have a dig around the forums to see what others have done to try this (I think Julian mentioned something a while back).

Was thinking about trying out Pocket Player anyway so I'd want to control that with the W100 if possible.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Incidentally, I don't know if it's standard in the UK package to get the W100 - I'm on a corporate tariff through my employer and we seem to get extra bits thrown in sometimes - I've got at least half a dozen car cradles in various cupboards :D

Cheers,
Paul

[pmeekin]

Just a quick follow-up. Haven't tried Pocket Player yet but I suddenly realised that I hadn't even tried Windows Media Player yet!

So, I started it up from the Programs menu, switched the phone off and it continued working perfectly. Pause, volume, skip/fast forward/rewind all worked flawlessly in WMP and the screen never switched back on. If it works like this with other media players I'll be very very happy :D

I'll definitely try Pocket Player, hopefully tonight.

Cheers,
Paul

[JulianL]

I've still not got any further I'm afraid. With PocketPlayer I can get it to see the W100 vol +/- keys but that's all, it won't see the Pause/Play, Fwd or Rwd keys. I've had some bigger issues that got me side-tracked recently so I'll try to have another go. I did talk to PocketPlayer (Conduits) support about it and they couldn't see anything obvious that would stop it working and I'm not sure what else to try right now.

- Julian

[pmeekin]

Just a quick update - I have the same situation as Julian in that when running Pocket Player the W100 volume buttons work fine but nothing else does. However, I think it's actully good news because the other buttons simply do nothing so at least they are not being passed straight through to Audio Manager/WMP.

Hopefullywe can find out how to get PP to act upon these a well.

Will continue trying other software.

Cheers,
Paul

[ingenious]

Hey, guys who have already bought the W100! Conduits have released Pocket Player 3.6 today! Can anybody test if the compatibility with the remote is better now? 10x!

[Homer-S]

Hi guys,

I also bought this fu##ing w100. I wanted to controlle MortPlayer but I have all the mentioned issues.

If someone could find a solution I would be very happy.

Thanks

[frigorifix]

[more or less OFF TOPIC]

Do you know where I could order a w100 (black) ? (Except on eBay in honk-kong ! don't wan't to have to wait for 3 weeks to get the item !)

[frigorifix]

No idea ? Can't find any shop with the black version...

[mrbandwidth]

[more or less OFF TOPIC]

Do you know where I could order a w100 (black) ? (Except on eBay in honk-kong ! don't wan't to have to wait for 3 weeks to get the item !)

Try here: http://www.mundopda.com/cgi-bin/generar.exe?tienda=0005&categoria=0120&prod_id=0005ACHTCW1000

Mr B

[frigorifix]

Thanks for the info. :-)

[rickgillyon]

Can someone with this cable please tell me the length of the main cable (device to remote) please? I'm trying to work out how tangled it's likely to get in my pocket, or whether to go for something like this Seidio (http://http://www.seidioonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=866) instead, to keep things tidier...

Also, did anyone get this working with PocketPlayer?

Thanks!

[benjimen]

No go with PocketPlayer. I'm currently using the 3.7 beta, due out sometime this month -- it doesn't work with it. My advice: don't get it. I just did, and wish I'd read these topics first. It will >never< work fully as you wish it would. You may partially get it to work with PocketPlayer -- but then it won't work if you should want to use some other player, like CorePlayer.

If you do buy it, set aside a place in that drawer for useless cables and accessories.

Can someone with this cable please tell me the length of the main cable (device to remote) please? I'm trying to work out how tangled it's likely to get in my pocket, or whether to go for something like this Seidio (http://http://www.seidioonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=866) instead, to keep things tidier...

Also, did anyone get this working with PocketPlayer?

Thanks!

[benjimen]

For what it's worth, I've been using the HS U110 for a few days now, and it's the best of the bunch (so far). I primarily just want something to use for listening to stereo-audio with my regular headphones, so a microphone is a secondary consideration -- which is good, as the microphone on this is crap, but fine for convenience purposes. As an adapter cable though, it's excellent -- won't short out like the 2 different Seidio ones have; it's constructed better...

http://i.expansys.com/i/b/b159613.jpg

[gazzacbr]

While I have your attention (maybe), could I just ask where/how you store your music files? I probably need to search or start a new thread, but I have problems using HTC AM because it just won't see my music collection. I have my music on my storage card under (example for artist name beginning with "F") "My Documents\My Music\Artists_F\Foo Fighters\<Album name>\<tracks>" but when I start HTC AM it doesn't see any music in the library.

- Julian

Hi, do you know that AM just uses the WMP library, when you add tracks or change anything you have to go into WMP and update library (had me fooled for a while)
maybe no consolation, but i have a standard rom 6.0 tytn ii and remote works perfect, with device locked and screen off i can still pause ff etc without the screen coming on. screen only comes on if i press call or answer.