This is probably where you will want to start. Once you have your RedRat device plugged into the network or connected to your computer via USB, RedRat Device Manager is used to ensure that you can establish a connection to it, check to see if there are firmware updates available and make any setup/configuration changes.

For a RedRat device to be able to control your TV, STB or other equipment, the IR signals from the original remote control handsets needs to be captured and saved in a file. The IR Signal Database Utility is used to take you through this process, storing the data in an XML file. This file can then be used by all RedRat applications and our SDK, or can be exported in various formats.

Using RedRat's Scheduler application, basic control operations can be easily setup, for example, turn on a display at 09:00 and turn it of at 17:00.

Where simple sequences of control signals and not enough, our TestManager application provides script based control of STBs. A script is a long sequence of control signals, which can include loops and are often used to test STB functionality.

Developing an application from scratch using a RedRat device is quite straightforward using our SDK. This comprises a .NET assembly (RedRat.dll) and a number of example applications in a Visual Studio solution. Code developed this way can run on Windows (using .NET), Macs and Linux machines (using Mono) as long as platform compatible features are used.

Many of our customers already have established software systems or frameworks with which RedRat devices should be used. One option is to use our RedRatHub application, which provides a simple, socket based mechanism to send instructions to RedRat hardware. Example client code in a number of languages is available.