Swap "Previous track" button with "-10 sec"

[Benas]

Hi,

i am using Poweramp for most of my audio listening. When I am driving or cycling I am using one of these remote bluetooth media controllers, which is recognized as a keyboard by my smartphone:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=car+remote+bluetooth+media+controlller&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=car+remote+bluetooth+controller&_osacat=0

I use this media keyboard when I am driving / cycling and listening to podcasts. Often when I want to listen to a certain section in an audio track again, I want to be able to scroll back 10 seconds back using this remote keyboard. However the keyboard only has "Next" and "Previous" tracks buttons, meaning this remote keyboard will switch Poweramp to previous track instead of keeping the same track and scrolling back in time. There are dozens of these devices on the market and they all have "Next" and "Previous" buttons, and not FF/Rev buttons.

For this reason I am using MX player for podcasts / audio books when driving since it has a software swap of these keys:
MX player > Settings > Player > "Next / Prev -> FF / Rev"
With this setting enabled, when "Previous track" button is clicked on the remote bluetooth keyboard, the MX Player will scroll back 10 seconds.

Could the same exact feature be implemented in Poweramp? Listening to pocasts / audiobooks makes me use other player because of lack of this particular feature, otherwise Poweramp being an excellent piece of software.

Many thanks!

[andrewilley]

PA does have a +10 sec / -10sec feature which you can enable in Settings > Library > '-10/+10s Rewind Pro Buttons', but that replaces the on-screen Category change buttons ( <<< and >>> ) not the Track change ones ( << and >> ). Does your remote unit generate anything different if you long-press on its '>' and '<' buttons? (You can see the commands that were generated  in Settings > Headset/Bluetooth > Last Processed Commands.

Andre

[Benas]

Hi Andre, thanks for your prompt response. As you have mentioned, the replacement of buttons in the PA settings only changes the on-screen buttons. The bluetooth unit still sends the "Next track" command and the PA switches to next track even if on-screen it shows +10sec. I checked the Processed Commands and long press doesn't produce any command, only the short-click does. As i mentioned there are many of these different devices on the market, but functionality is almost identical - they all only have the track change buttons.

Let me know if I can provide further information.

Ben

[Benas]

SORTED! [ish]

I remembered that I used to use software remap program to tweak some cad functionality on my windows pc years ago. Having said that I started to look whether its possible for android - ant it is! I looked into this article:

https://gizmodo.com/how-to-remap-the-buttons-on-your-android-device-to-do-n-1834942538

I tried  Button Mapper, Buttons Remapper which I couldn't make to do what this topic is about, but then I installed Keyboard/Button Mapper:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.sds100.keymapper&rdid=io.github.sds100.keymapper

which did the trick. I used the following config:

Trigger button: clicked on the the external keyboard "Previous track button"

Actions: "Input KEYCODE_MEDIA_REWIND"

Now when I click "Previous track" on this external keyboard PA goes 5 seconds back. I did the same with "Next track" button by changing it to perform the command "Input KEYCODE_MEDIA_FAST_FORWARD" to jump 5 second forward.

 

[andrewilley]

Does it work with the screen off too? That's when I would find that most useful (I really miss my rooted Note 3 and the most wonderful Physical Button Master Control app, which ran under Xposed).

Andre

[Benas]

Just checked - it only works when PA is on the screen. Otherwise it does nothing or acts randomly - e.g. scrolls through homescreens. If screen is off these keys don't do anything.

So its usable but you have to have your screen on and PA on screen, therefore feature request remains to do a proper swap of these buttons 

PS there are root options in the button swap app which i can't test since my phone isn't rooted

[Benas]

Ive been using this method for a couple of weeks now but it isn't great. PA doesn't register each click very well so scrolling back is a bit random.

Instead, I found that app "Buttons remaper" can emulate screen click - and since the PA has to be on screen anyway, first impression is that this should work better. Essentially, when I click "Previous track" on external keyboard, the app will cancel this command in PA and replace it with virtual screen click, just at the "-10 sec" on screen button. Will try out and see.