The Kymera Wand is compatible with almost all makes of home audio-visual equipment around the world, such as TVs, DVD players, hi-fis and set-top boxes.

Please note that the Wand only works with infra-red (IR) remote controls, not radio-frequency (RF) remotes, and that the wand is not compatible with Bang & Olufsen equipment. Also, it is not able to perform the equivalent of a long button press (push-and-hold) on a normal remote control.

No. The Kymera Wand can learn the infra-red (IR) codes from 13 of the buttons on your existing remote controls. This is enough for you to have some fun performing "magic" at home, but we didn't design the Wand to be a full-functioning replacement remote control.

You can over-write any of the 13 functions with new IR codes at any time, if you change your mind about the functions that you want the wand to perform.

Like any magical instrument, it takes a bit of practice to master the Kymera Wand. Some people seem to be natural wizards and perform magic with it straight away, but for most muggles about ten minutes' practice is required to get the hang of the different movement gestures.

Please note that the Wand does require quite precise hand movements to perform the gestures, so we do not recommend it as a remote control for the elderly or infirm.

No. The wand is a learning remote and you have to teach it the infra-red (IR) codes from your original remote control(s).

For the rotation gestures (1 and 2), you need to rotate the wand very slowly and smoothly one quarter-turn, keeping the tip steady. Once you've gone just over a quarter-turn, the wand will register the rotation and go into fine-resolution rotation mode, where it will register an event every 15 degrees - this allows you to control the volume with only small movements of your wrist.

If you're having difficulty with the flick gestures, stop and hold the wand steady and horizontal for a couple of seconds before trying again.

Waving the wand more vigorously doesn't tend to work well - a short, positive flick of the wrist is all that is needed, where the tip of the wand only moves a few centimetres.

In case you haven't seen them already, please take a look at this page of our website and click on the typewriter-style buttons to see a short video clip showing how to perform each gesture.

The wand must be held quite steady during the tap gestures. To get started with these gestures, you might find it easiest to hold the wand firmly with one hand whilst tapping it on the criss-cross area with one or two fingers of the other hand.

There are a few videos on YouTube that show you how to use the Kymera Wand:

- Practising with the wand
- Programming the wand
- Using the wand

- A video made by one of our German resellers
- An example of controlling a TV and set-top box

Make sure that you've entered "Learning Mode" properly before trying to learn the infra-red (IR) codes from your normal remote control: point the wand vertically upwards, hold it steady and tap it twice on the criss-cross area - the wand should respond with four double pulses to confirm that it is in learning mode.

Carefully return the wand to the horizontal position and then do the gesture onto which you want to learn a remote control code. The wand pulses a number of times corresponding to that gesture (e.g. 3 pulses for an upwards flick) and then starts rapid pulsing - this tells you that it is ready to receive the remote control code.

During the rapid pulsing, point your existing remote control at the tip of the wand and briefly press the button of the function that you want the wand to learn (e.g. channel up). Then wait a second: if the wand has successfully learned the code, it confirms that it has done so with a big pulse.

If the wand doesn't give a big pulse, first try varying the distance between the tip of the wand and the front of your remote during learning - normally about 3 cm works best, but you could try a little closer or further away.

If varying the distance doesn't help then try varying the duration of the button press on your original remote control - normally it's best to use a very short press, but increasing the duration slightly (up to about half a second) might help.

Yes, absolutely. You can over-write any of the 13 functions with new IR codes at any time, if you change your mind about the functions that you want the wand to perform.

Yes, you can perform a factory reset to erase all learned infra-red (IR) codes and put the wand back into full practice mode:

- Put the wand into learning mode (point vertically upwards and double tap)

- Do any gesture to make it start the rapid pulsing

- Instead of sending it some IR from a regular remote, do the "big swish" gesture while the rapid pulsing is going on

- The wand will do a few fast strong pulses to acknowledge the erase request, then the same again shortly afterwards to confirm that erase is complete.

- Take the wand out of learning mode (point vertically downwards and tap)

- The wand will now be back to its factory-default state, in full "practice mode" for every gesture.

The Kymera Wand uses two AAA-size alkaline batteries (LR03). These are included with the wand.

If you have any questions or problems, you're welcome to contact us at any time by email at info@thewandcompany.com or via the contact form on our website.

There are a few TVs (and other devices) which use infra-red (IR) "toggle codes" - these alternate between two different codes each time you press the button on your normal remote control. This is intended to avoid multiple commands being executed accidentally if the IR beam is broken during transmission (for example by the cat or another person walking between the remote control and the TV).

So, the first time you press the "channel up" button (for example, though this may also applies to other buttons), it will send one IR code (let's call it "code A", which will repeat for as long as you hold the button down), but the next time you press the same button, it will send a second IR code (B). On the third press, you'll be back to the first code A again, and so on. The TV will action a channel change when it sees code A, but it won't change the channel again if another code A is received consecutively, but is instead waiting to receive code B before it'll change channel in the same direction.

The wand can only learn the IR code it sees when the button is pressed once during learning mode, which will be either code A or code B. So, repeated gestures will send the same IR code each time, and that causes the problem you're experiencing.

Fortunately, there is a work-around:

- Whilst the TV is expecting to see A,B,A,B for repeated channel up (and, say, C,D,C,D for channel down), putting any other IR code in between the repeated A's will also work OK (e.g. A,X,A,X for two channel up changes, or C,X,C,X for two channel down changes).

- An undocumented feature of the wand is that you can actually learn more than one remote control button onto each gesture (as a kind of macro) if you press two buttons in quick succession whilst the wand is doing the fast pulsing during learning mode.

- Therefore if you first press the button that you want to use (e.g. channel up) and then quickly press another button which has no effect (e.g. the yellow button on most TV remotes does nothing most of the time), then the wand will learn two IR codes (e.g A,X) onto that gesture.

Now when you perform repeated gestures for channel up (e.g. flick upwards), the TV will receive code A (to change the channel up), then code X (which will do nothing but make it forget that it had just received code A), then the next code A (on the next flick upwards) should cause the channel to change again as expected. It might take you a couple of attempts to get the timing right for learning the "macro" of two buttons onto each gesture, but it's not too difficult once you get the hang of it.

If you find that Windows Media Center will only respond once to a given command from the wand and that repeated commands don't work, please take a look at the explanation and solution given here:

http://www.cepro.com/article/no_more_quirky_ir_for_media_center/

Unfortunately their link to Autonomic Home is out-of-date - the IR Debounce Utility file they refer to can be downloaded here:

IR_Debounce.zip