Author Topic: Users in Europe  (Read 15480 times)

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eddyc

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #15 on: January 22, 2014, 05:22:03 PM »
Quote
Yes, I live in Norway. Nothing have happens so far. I'd like for this to get solved asap.

Okay, from chatting with our fulfilment house, there was a problem with your shipment which caused the package to arrive back undelivered. I'm afraid I don't have any more specific info on the cause - I suspect it was at our end, rather than any problem with your address, since yours was the very first international shipment made with our new shipper (possibly an issue with customs paperwork?) I am going to email you separately to discuss. Hopefully we can get this resolved asap.

Regarding tracking, I noticed that the tracking for one of our New Zealand deliveries did indeed show progress of the package into New Zealand, through customs clearance, and on through the delivery process. I don't know if this will be typical for all international shipments or if it's specific to New Zealand, but I hadn't noticed it with our previous shipping carrier; it's quite useful! That order spent 3-4 days passing through the sort facility in LA, so if hpooni's order is similar, it should be entering Canada either today or tomorrow, for delivery the following day.

Eddy

hpooni

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #16 on: January 28, 2014, 08:14:46 AM »
Just wanted to let everyone know I received my remote last night. Didn't play around a lot but notice few things.
1. The hard-buttons only generate IR events (let me know if I'm wrong). I was really hoping I would see hard button events via the provided RF receiver so I can eliminate the line of sight issue and control everything with combination of VC and Eventghost.

2. The keys make a tick sound when pressed. The tick sound may get annoying when the remote  is used during quiet scenes in the movie. Also, in my opinion the tick sound makes the remote feel cheap.

I haven't tried voice control yet but I'm not expecting any issues as I've heard lots of good things about that.

nime5ter

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #17 on: January 28, 2014, 09:12:44 AM »
Just wanted to let everyone know I received my remote last night. Didn't play around a lot but notice few things.
1. The hard-buttons only generate IR events (let me know if I'm wrong). I was really hoping I would see hard button events via the provided RF receiver so I can eliminate the line of sight issue and control everything with combination of VC and Eventghost.

Yup, you're 100% correct. That misapprehension certainly explains the confusion during this thread: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1320.msg11367#msg11367  :biglaugh

The reviews of the Amulet here and elsewhere do discuss the company's choice to use IR for the buttons, and RF only for the audio transmission. It's too bad, and others before you have lamented this too. Since we rely probably 80% of the time on voice control for our home setup, that's the main feature we care about. We use the remote buttons primarily to power on devices, for pause/play, and the arrow keys occasionally. But everyone's needs are different. Hopefully your post will help other users to keep that in mind.
TIPS: POST VC VERSION #. Explain what you want VC to do. Say what you've tried & what happened, or post a video demo. Attach VC log. Link to instructions followed.  Post your command (xml)

hpooni

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #18 on: January 28, 2014, 10:19:35 AM »
Yup, you're 100% correct. That misapprehension certainly explains the confusion during this thread: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1320.msg11367#msg11367  :biglaugh
Yes, I automatically assumed all buttons were RF capable.  I guess we know what happens when you ASSume things.  :bonk

The reviews of the Amulet here and elsewhere do discuss the company's choice to use IR for the buttons, and RF only for the audio transmission. It's too bad, and others before you have lamented this too. Since we rely probably 80% of the time on voice control for our home setup, that's the main feature we care about. We use the remote buttons primarily to power on devices, for pause/play, and the arrow keys occasionally. But everyone's needs are different. Hopefully your post will help other users to keep that in mind.
Its too bad as I think this would give the remote much more power and flexibility.  Hopefully, I can set it up well enough and convince the family to switch over to voice control so the button presses become a non-issue. ;D

eddyc

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #19 on: January 28, 2014, 01:44:12 PM »
Thanks for the feedback, Harri. I'm not a big fan of the loud "click", personally -- it was a late change necessitated by a manufacturing issue, rather than a design choice.

There were a couple of reasons why we ended up with IR rather than RF keys for default Media Center buttons. The main one was latency -- we figured the same delay you see when the RF link is initially activating for voice would also apply when sending keystrokes via RF, which would be just enough to be irritating when you have to live with it on a regular basis (it's around 500-700ms, from memory).

The other, less significant, issue was battery life - running the wireless link takes more battery than pure IR. That said, we end up running the RF link whenever motion is detected anyway, so unless you are pressing buttons with the Amulet sitting flat on a table, it's not a big consideration.

A third reason is that Media Center supports IR codes out of the box with no special software, once you have an eHome receiver; with our RF chipset, we can only cover about 90% of the buttons using the generic HID driver, and would need to install custom software to deal with the other 10% of buttons (e.g. Start Button, and a few of the other useful ones).

All of these are good reasons for not making wireless transmission the default, but it could definitely be made customisable via a firmware upgrade. No promises, but it's on the list of "would-be-nice-to-haves".

Eddy

Hellow

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #20 on: January 28, 2014, 04:51:11 PM »
My remote arrived today! Thanks for fixing this eddyc. Everything works fine, except the damn clicking noise.

jitterjames

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2014, 05:05:16 PM »
You get used to it. :D

maxwel

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #22 on: March 13, 2014, 05:53:33 PM »
Hi everyone,

I ordered Amulet Device one month ago, i received an email after ordering online, stating my order is confirmed, but i still havent received my remote yet! Can someone tell me pls how long it takes normally .. i'm very confused about it!

Thanks in advance.

Max

jitterjames

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #23 on: March 14, 2014, 04:39:54 PM »
That sucks.  I guess that Amulet has still not sorted out their shipping or communication issues.

What country are you in?

Was your order confirmed on or before February 13th, 2014?  It is always best to be precise about these things.

Have you tried to contact Amulet directly, or on their forum?  If you are having trouble getting a response then I suggest you also try to send a private message to eddyc on this forum.

There is nothing I can do really other than offer advice or my sympathies, but it would be nice to know if Amulet has solved their distribution problems or not, so I hope that Eddy will do us the honour of providing us with an update on this subject.


maxwel

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #24 on: March 14, 2014, 06:04:59 PM »
Thank you  james for your sympathies.

i'm from Netherlands and I ordered mine January 25th, 2014. I've requested status via their forum and pm'd eddy on this forum feb 14th 2014. writing this:

We had about four international orders which were due for dispatch early last week; I believe yours was one of them. I will see if I can find some tracking information.

Thanks,

Eddy

Then I've heard nothing more from him.. No emails.. No tracking number... but I already send a private message to eddyc on this forum and i hope to hear from eddy soon.
« Last Edit: March 14, 2014, 09:54:26 PM by jitterjames »

eddyc

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2014, 03:08:24 PM »
Hi folks,

As you may have gathered, we have still not fully resolved our shipping issues, unfortunately.

Our main stock of Amulet remotes was collected from Idaho on 20th February, and should have been in Ireland by 27th February. Unfortunately, they got stalled in Los Angeles due to the large number of Lithium Polymer batteries contained in the shipment.

We had done our research, and had taken pains to make sure the battery manufacturer's guidelines for air transit had been followed to the letter. However, the airline was still unhappy. The shipment was stalled until last Thursday (13th March), while our shipping company organised a safety inspector to come and certify the shipment as safe for international transit. Having provided the extra paperwork needed, we've been told it takes several additional days to process the shipment, since it's in a long queue of other shipments that are being similarly delayed.

Yesterday was a holiday here in Ireland, but I am hoping to hear today or tomorrow that our shipment is on the move, hopefully due for arrival in Dublin before the end of the week.

How can it take more than a month to ship something by air? It sounds crazy and messed up. At this point, shipping by sea looks like it would have been both faster and cheaper. Needless to say, we're as frustrated as you.

All I can do (again!) is apologise for the delay, and re-iterate that anyone who is fed up waiting is of course entitled to a full refund on demand.

I'll post more news as I have it.

Thanks,

Eddy

Casmo

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #26 on: March 26, 2014, 10:20:10 AM »
Hi,

 I've only just discovered this thread. I've also only realised that that your based in Ireland! (as am I) I ordered mine on March 14th, has there been any update on getting your stock across the pond?


eddyc

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #27 on: March 26, 2014, 07:29:51 PM »
Hi Cosmo,

I think I emailed you directly yesterday (assuming you're the customer with a work address in Musgrave's, Dublin 7!) but no harm to post a general update for the benefit of everyone else:

Yesterday evening, our shipping company informed me that American Airlines had rejected our shipment of remotes for a record 5th time. The last three rejections have been for such trivial reasons that it seems clear they just don't want the business and will keep coming up with excuses not to carry it.

We have now engaged an alternative airline and all going well, our shipment will be on the move again today or tomorrow, hopefully arriving in Dublin over the weekend.

I don't like to keep making posts with words like "hopefully" since they don't really convey much information other than that I'm an optimist at heart; however, I do recognize that some information is better than none!

I will of course let people know as soon as we finally have our stock safely in Dublin and available for immediate dispatch once again.

Thanks,

Eddy

jitterjames

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #28 on: March 26, 2014, 09:30:09 PM »
It sucks of course for people who are waiting for their Amulets to arrive, but I really feel your pain Eddy.  It must be incredibly frustrating.   ::console

As you can see, I gave you a "noogie" and now you are happy.

Not sure if you have those in Ireland, so here is an explanation of the word, although it doesn't really explain why it made you happy again...
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noogie
« Last Edit: March 26, 2014, 09:32:39 PM by jitterjames »

eddyc

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Re: Users in Europe
« Reply #29 on: March 27, 2014, 08:39:51 AM »
Thanks James - we do have the concept of the Noogie, but not so much as a happiness-inducing gesture!  :biglaugh

Perhaps it's making me happy because it's temporarily distracting me from our shipping woes...

The latest update I had from our local shipping agent here in Ireland, in response to a query, is that I probably won't be allowed to collect the shipment from the airport when it arrives, since I don't hold a hazardous goods transportation license (!). I'm definitely taking a picture of all our shipping boxes when they finally arrive, since they are apparently now covered in hazmat stickers!

One day at a time...

Eddy