Ok, Pierogi 1.1.29 is now heading up to extras-devel; the main new feature this time is an Intervalometer, for use in capturing time-lapse video with any supported camera. It's fairly limited at the moment, providing a counter for the number of exposures (max 999 at the moment), and a value for the delay between shutter commands (maximum 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds, although I'm not sure you'd want to leave the N900 sitting around for days doing this...). A shot of what the new panel looks like is appended to this message. (Yeah, I haven't really polished the UI very much.)

I should note that, as I do not have a camera with an infrared control myself, I have not tested this feature! Please tell me if you find bugs.

(I should also note that there is a firmware project called Magic Lantern that provides a number of additional features, such as an Intervalometer, to various Canon cameras, including the 600D. Using this has the additional value of being able to control other aspects of the camera, such as exposure time, that are inaccessible from the infrared port. Might be interesting to check out...)

In other news, I've added several more Samsung set-top box keysets. Unfortunately, the more keysets I add, the more certain I become that none of them are going to be a match for the Astro B.yond box; all the Samsung remote controls seem to differ wildly from each other.

Also, I managed to dig up a little more info on the VIP1853 remote protocol, but all I got was confirmation that I had originally set the check bit wrong (which was why only even-numbered commands were working at first). I have no clue why you have to be so close to the machine to get it to work. Is it possible that there are some environmental issues at work here? If there's any bright source of light around, it might be swamping the N900's signal...