116 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Solaar Usage
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layout: page
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---
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# Solaar usage
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Under normal usage Solaar creates an icon in your system tray. This icon is
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usually a battery icon showing the approximate battery level for your device
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with the lowest known battery level. If there is no battery information to
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show the icon is one of the Solaar icons.
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Solaar also has a main window. To show the main window if it is not visible
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click on the icon in the system tray to bring up the Solaar menu and then
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click on a receiver or device in the menu.
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Here is an image of the Solaar menu and the Solaar icon (here the battery
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symbol in the system tray at the left of the image ). The Solaar icon can
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also be other battery icons or versions of the Logitech Unifying icon.
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Clicking on "Quit" in the Solaar menu terminates Solaar.
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Clicking on "About Solaar" pops up a window with information on Solaar.
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## Solaar options
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There are several options that affect how Solaar behaves:
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* `--help` shows a help message and then quits
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* `---window=show` starts Solaar with the main window showing
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* `---window=hide` starts Solaar with the main window not showing
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* `---window=only` starts Solaar with no system tray icon and the main window showing
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* `--battery-icons=symbolic` uses symbolic icons for battery levels
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## Solaar main window
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The Solaar main window shows your Logitech receivers and devices that Solaar
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knows about and can be used to pair new devices, unpair paired devices, and
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view and change some settings of the selected receiver or device.
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To select a receiver or device click on it in the left side of the window.
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Closing the main window does not terminate Solaar (unless Solaar is not using the system tray).
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Clicking on "Quit Solaar" terminates Solaar.
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Clicking on "About Solaar" pops up a window with information on Solaar.
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Clicking on the lightbulb (or similar icon) displays detailed information
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about the selected receiver or device (mostly only useful for debugging).
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### Pairing and unpairing devices
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When a receiver is selected in the main window you can pair a new device by
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clicking on the "Pair new device" button.
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Then turn on the device and it should pair with the receiver if that is possible.
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Some receivers can only pair with certain kinds of devices. Some receivers
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pair a new device by replacing an existing paired device of the same kind.
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Some receivers can only pair a limited number of times.
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A receiver with the Unifying logo should be able to pair with any device
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with the Unifying logo. If there are no open pairing slots, however, you may
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not be able to pair a new device. In this case to pair a new device you
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first need to unpair a device.
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When a device is selected you can unpair the device if your receiver supports
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unpairing. To unpair the device, just click on the "Unpair" button and
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confirm in the window that pops up.
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### Viewing and changing device settings
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When a device is selected you can see the approximate battery level of the
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device, if that is reported by the device, and the status of the link
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between the device and its receiver.
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You can also see some settings of the device and change
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some of these. Changing settings is performed by clicking on buttons or
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moving sliders.
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If the selected device is off or otherwise disconnected its settings cannot be changed
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but it still can be unpaired if its receiver allows unpairing.
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#### Remapping key and button actions
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For many devices Solaar can remap some of their keys or buttons to
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perform a different action. (This actually changes the information that the
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device sends when the key or button is activated.) Only some keys on some
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devices can be remapped and they can only be remapped to a limited
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number of actions. The remapping is done in Solaar by selecting a key
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or button in the left-hand box on the ``Action'' setting line and then
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selecting the action to be performed in the right-hand box. The default
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action is always the shown first in the list. As with all settings,
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Solaar will remembers past action settings and restore them on the device
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from then on.
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The names of the keys, buttons, and actions are mostly taken from Logitech
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documentation and may not be completely obvious.
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It is possible to end up with an unusable system, for example by having no
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way to do a mouse left click, so exercise caution when remapping keys or
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buttons that are needed to operate your system.
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## Solaar command line interface
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Solaar also has a command line interface that can do most of what can be
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done using the Solaar main window. For more information on the Solaar
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command line interface, run `solaar --help` to see the Solaar commands and
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then `solaar <command> --help` to see the arguments to any of the commands.
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