Silverstone LC16 questions

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Scandermore

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#31629 24-Mar-2009 21:37

Hello!

I have recently mounted my HTPC, with a LC16M case, and my experience until now has been very good, but still have a few questions about how to configure certain things, and wanted to know if anyone who has mounted this case knows how to oslve them:

- The front buttons... with which programs are they usable? By the moment, I only see that when I press some of the right buttons, Outlook is called. I've seen a way, with AutoHotKey, to remap their use, but then they would be useful only with ONE program, and not for many, like you can do with the iMon manager.

- The Colored Buttons on the iMon remote control (Videos, TV, DVD, etc)... can they be assigned with the iMon Manager? I can not find any way to configura them, except with iMedian. In iMon, I can not see any correspondence win the list of iMon buttons...

Respect to the case itself... I'm doubting about how to connect the two fans. At the beginning, I connected one to CHA_FAN, and the other to PWR_FAN, in the Mainboard. This resulted in one of them moving air into the case, and the other outside the cage. Is it normal/correct? Or would be better to join both fans to the connector that makes them to put air into the case?

Thank you all for this great forum! I ha ve found very good advice and reviews here!

aLeX

Camz

13 posts

Geek

#203134 24-Mar-2009 21:49

Hey mate,

If you are using MediaPortal you may want to read thread this this excellent thread, it has a guide on how to set up the remote and front display keys.

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kiwijunglist

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#203139 24-Mar-2009 21:59

Sorry the guide above is getting a bit out of date, because the thread is locked and i can't edit it anymore....

To answer your questions...

- The front buttons... with which programs are they usable? By the moment, I only see that when I press some of the right buttons, Outlook is called. I've seen a way, with AutoHotKey, to remap their use, but then they would be useful only with ONE program, and not for many, like you can do with the iMon manager.

You will find with time the front buttons are not much use, as you will always be using the remote control, and if your in front of the computer then you have access to keyboard anyway. With AutoHotKey you can remap the buttons to any keystroke or keystroke combination you want to. It is possible to change the accepted keystrokes in a lot of applications, so you could probably get it going with more than one app.

- The Colored Buttons on the iMon remote control (Videos, TV, DVD, etc)... can they be assigned with the iMon Manager? I can not find any way to configura them, except with iMedian. In iMon, I can not see any correspondence win the list of iMon buttons..

You can use the coloured buttons, the red button aka My Movie, can be assigned to any keystroke combination using imon manager just as the rest of the keys can be changed. The button on the remote is called "My Movie". The guide is slightly out of date when it comes to setting up the VFD as the VFD plugin for mediaportal now uses minidisplay instead of cyberdisplay and the plugin can access the imon VFD directly, so you can set VFD to off in imon manager instead of plugin mode.

I would recommend not installing iMedian. It might be that iMedian is preventing the programing of the coloured buttons.

Respect to the case itself... I'm doubting about how to connect the two fans. At the beginning, I connected one to CHA_FAN, and the other to PWR_FAN, in the Mainboard. This resulted in one of them moving air into the case, and the other outside the cage. Is it normal/correct? Or would be better to join both fans to the connector that makes them to put air into the case?

Most fans are reversable just unscrew and flip it around. the idea is to have cool air moving accross the motherboard and there is no right or wrong way to do it. I have my fans setup so that the PSU blows air out the back of the case. 2x system fans also blow air out the rear of the case (you can connect to 7V instead of 12V if you want them a little quieter). The side ports have been covered with sellotape. This means that the only place for air to come in, is the little vent along the front of the case. This ensures that the case always gets cold air rather than any warm air trapped in the back of your entertainment unit. The air also passes front front of the case to back of the case ensuring that airflow is over the whole motherboard

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

Scandermore

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#203148 24-Mar-2009 22:27

Yes, I've seen this thread, but at the moment I'm not using MediaPortal YET. I'm planning to do it later, when I have time to configure it properly. The case is, also, that I have tried a few times, when I import .imo files, my iMon stops responding to the remote commander until I make a "Reset to the button configuration". I have to investigate it.

Anyway... if someone has created an .imo file with this buttons, this means they can be configured, but when I try to do it in the iMon manager, I can't see them in the button listing. I have configured other buttons, but I can't find this ones.

aLeX

Scandermore

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#203152 24-Mar-2009 22:41

You will find with time the front buttons are not much use, as you will always be using the remote control, and if your in front of the computer then you have access to keyboard anyway. With AutoHotKey you can remap the buttons to any keystroke or keystroke combination you want to. It is possible to change the accepted keystrokes in a lot of applications, so you could probably get it going with more than one app.

OK. So then the solution is to adjust the settings of the programs. You are right that the front buttons are not much of use, but my wife always complains that she prefer them (for music) than having to use the RC.

You can use the coloured buttons, the red button aka My Movie, can be assigned to any keystroke combination using imon manager just as the rest of the keys can be changed. The button on the remote is called "My Movie". The guide is slightly out of date when it comes to setting up the VFD as the VFD plugin for mediaportal now uses minidisplay instead of cyberdisplay and the plugin can access the imon VFD directly, so you can set VFD to off in imon manager instead of plugin mode.

I've seen and followed this guide, but as I said, I can not see this buttons in iMon configuration. Maybe iMedian is preventing it, don't know. I'll try to unisntall.

Most fans are reversable just unscrew and flip it around. the idea is to have cool air moving accross the motherboard and there is no right or wrong way to do it. I have my fans setup so that the PSU blows air out the back of the case. 2x system fans also blow air out the rear of the case (you can connect to 7V instead of 12V if you want them a little quieter). The side ports have been covered with sellotape. This means that the only place for air to come in, is the little vent along the front of the case. This ensures that the case always gets cold air rather than any warm air trapped in the back of your entertainment unit. The air also passes front front of the case to back of the case ensuring that airflow is over the whole motherboard

Mmmm... how do you have your psu configured that way? In the LC16, my PSU gets air from the back, and pulls it to the side (without affecting the internal air of the case) , and I don't see a way to change it :-|

Maybe I'll try to get air from the outside to inside, with the fans, because then they'll throw "fresh" air directly to the CPU.

Also... these 7V you say you can connect the fans... where are they?

Thank you for your answers...

aLeX

Nety

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#203173 25-Mar-2009 06:46

Scandermore:

Mmmm... how do you have your psu configured that way? In the LC16, my PSU gets air from the back, and pulls it to the side (without affecting the internal air of the case) , and I don't see a way to change it :-|

You just turn the PSU 180 degrees. It should mount either way up.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

Nety

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#203182 25-Mar-2009 08:12

Do not setup the fans to suck air into the case. The whole case is designed around cool air being pulled from the front of the case and exhausting out the back.
I think you may need to double check which direction the air is going though your power supply. You say it "gets air from the back". That is the reverse of every power supply I have ever seen. it should be exhausting out the back.
As I said in the hurried last post just turn the power supply the other way up and it will pull from the inside of the case helping with the design of the cool air coming from the front and exhausting out the back.
I have found that it can help to hold a sheet of paper next to a inlet/outlet to confirm what direction the air is going sometimes it can be a bit deceiving.

Scandermore

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#203205 25-Mar-2009 10:45

Hey! You are both right, sorry! My PSU quicks off air from the side to the back. I read "somewhere" that the design of the LC16 had the ability to avoid that the PSU moved hot air to the case, taking it off to the side, so I supposed that was the way the PSU worked (without testing it). Now I've seen that it works the other way. I'll configure the two fans to suk air from the case and extract it.

Other things... in th iMon setup, I DO have the "My Video", "My DVD", etc... I was looking only for "Videos", "DVD", etc, as marked in the RC. My fault, sorry.

Thank you all for your advice.

aLeX

P.D: By the way... the BEST way to check the air direction (or any air current) is with a flame (lighter, match, ...)

tonyhughes

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#203241 25-Mar-2009 14:00

Scandermore: By the way... the BEST way to check the air direction (or any air current) is with a flame (lighter, match, ...)

Now then... "most effective", I could have let slide, but yeah, you are playing round with expensive computer equipment, and you light a match, which could be dropped onto a component, causing a fire and/or toxic smoke (worst case scenario I guess)... that != the best solution in my books!

Why not hold a small bit of paper in front of the fan, and see which way it is pushed / drawn?

Im sure I have checked all fans in the past simply by holding my hand over them anyhoo...

Scandermore

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#203342 25-Mar-2009 21:48

You are right, it can be dangerous! But the fact is that with a piece of paper I couldn't see the air direction (I tried), because the fan speed was very low! OK, it's not the best option, but a good one (if you are careful)

Speaking again about front buttons... my buttons behave in a strange way... with Winamp and with Windows Media Player, if I press previous and next, it works, but if I press the Mute button, suddenly MS Outlook opens, and gmail page, and other programs. If I press volume up, explorer opens... this is a bit strange, isn't it? Anyone knows a way to see what "command" is executing when I press any of this buttons? Is it possible, with Autohotkey, to view what's going on there? I don't think it should work that way by default!

Thank you

aLeX

kiwijunglist

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#203358 25-Mar-2009 22:30

autohotkey just sends keystrokes.
you could load up notepad, then press the front buttons and see what happens.
this will give you some of the keystrokes
however keys like [esc] wont appear, because u can't see it when you type those keys in notepad.
i also wonder if imedian might be making things behave strangely.
also not sure how well this would work if your not in XP.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

Scandermore

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#203382 26-Mar-2009 05:59

I use Windows XP! That's why is strange.

I'll check things this night with autohotkey!

aLeX