# General Settings ## Input Mode The **Input Mode** dropdown at the top left of the General Settings panel controls which physical input device iReporter listens to for button presses. Three options are available: - **iReporter Button Box** - the original hardware button box mode. The COM port selector and connection status bar are visible. Only the physical button box sends reports. - **Stream Deck** - Stream Deck plugin only. The COM port selector and connection status bar are hidden (no hardware button box is used). Button presses come exclusively from the Stream Deck. - **iReporter Button Box & Stream Deck** - both inputs are active simultaneously. The COM port selector and connection status bar remain visible. Pressing a key on either device triggers the same button action. When **Stream Deck** or **iReporter Button Box & Stream Deck** is selected, an **Install Stream Deck Plugin** button appears below the dropdown. Clicking it downloads and installs the Stream Deck plugin automatically into the correct plugins folder. If Stream Deck is already running, iReporter will ask whether to restart it now - the plugin files are copied without deleting the existing plugin folder, so Stream Deck does not lose its registration. --- ## Version / Build Number [![image.png](https://books.speedtech.co.nz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-04/scaled-1680-/image.png)](https://books.speedtech.co.nz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-04/image.png) The current version of iReporter is displayed in small grey text next to the iReporter title at the very top of the settings panel (for example, **v0.91**). This is useful when reporting a problem or checking whether you have the latest release. If a newer version is available, a highlighted banner will appear below the title bar notifying you of the update and showing both your current version and the version available. You can also check for updates at any time using the **Check for Update** button in the top row of the settings panel - this will immediately query the update server and prompt you to download and install if a newer version exists. --- ## Connection Status [![image.png](https://books.speedtech.co.nz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-04/scaled-1680-/304image.png)](https://books.speedtech.co.nz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-04/304image.png) Directly below the title, iReporter displays a live status bar that shows whether your iReporter Button Box is connected and recognised. The status updates automatically every 2 seconds and uses colour coding to make the state immediately obvious at a glance.
ColourStatusWhat it means
**Green**Verified and ConnectedThe iReporter Button Box has been found and confirmed as an iReporter device. Everything is working correctly.
**Amber**Connected - Not ConfirmedA serial device has been detected but has not yet responded as an iReporter Button Box. This can appear briefly during startup while the device is initialising.
**Red**Not ConnectedNo iReporter device was found. Check that the Button Box is plugged in via USB, then click **Auto Detect** to scan all available ports.
## COM Port - Auto Detect iReporter automatically scans all available COM ports on startup to find your Button Box. It sends a `PING` command to each port and connects to whichever responds with `IREPORTER_READY`. The detected port is shown in green in the settings panel and saved for future sessions - the last known port is always tried first for faster reconnection. If the device is not found automatically (e.g. after changing USB ports), click **Auto Detect** to trigger a fresh scan at any time. If you need to connect to a specific COM port manually - for example when using an Arduino-based button box on a known port - type the port number (e.g. `7` or `COM7`) in the manual field and click **Connect**. ## Number of Buttons Sets how many buttons are displayed in the settings panel (2-24). Only configured buttons are shown. Increase this to match the number of physical buttons on your button box. ## Message Prepend An optional prefix added to the start of every message before it is sent. This is particularly useful to bring up the text chat box within iRacing. By default "t" is assigned to activating the text chat box and allowing for text entry. It also can be used for tagging messages with a race series name or session identifier, for example: `/rc` or `[SpeedTech Racing]` ## Enable Logging When enabled, every button press and the resulting message are written to a dated log file in `Documents\iReporter\logs\`. One file is created per day, named `iReporter_YYYY-MM-DD.txt`. Button press events are labelled `[Button Press Event]` in the log to distinguish them from detection events. ## Logging Settings [![image.png](https://books.speedtech.co.nz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-04/scaled-1680-/tgQimage.png)](https://books.speedtech.co.nz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-04/tgQimage.png) Visible only when Enable Logging is turned on. - **Days to keep logs** - iReporter automatically deletes log files older than this many days on startup. Default is 30 days. Valid range is 1-365. - **View Today's Log** - opens the current day's log file in Notepad. - **View log** - select any past log date from the dropdown and click **Open Selected** to review it. Use the ? button to refresh the list if new files have appeared.