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Which IR Blaster guide to follow?
http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18373		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  bradm81 [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Which IR Blaster guide to follow?
The only piece I have left to get my MythTV box up and running is my IR Blaster. I have found two guides which seem to be very thorough but which apply to two different setups. For my setup, I do not need LIRC to operate an IR Receiver (I'm just using a wireless keyboard).

The rest of my setup:

- Hauppauge 150 MCE (no IR Blaster included)
- IR Blaster from irblaster.info on Serial COM1
- I'm trying to control a DirecTV HD box (though I will only be recording SD). The number on the Box says "H21-100"
- The remote that is operating it now is a DirecTV RC64 (Though again, I will be using my keyboard for input).
- Knoppmyth R5F27 fresh install

Here are the guides I'm trying to choose between:

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=PVR150withSetTopBox
- Seems to be the most pertinent since it's tailored to Knoppmyth, but my Hauppauge 150 does not have the built in IR Blaster. If I go with this one, what steps would be different for me?

http://losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/mythtv-info/IR-BLASTER-HOWTO.html
- Seems to be the most thorough and generic, though I'm guessing some of the steps would be a bit redundant since KP comes with LIRC and IR Blaster already configured.

Thanks.
Author:  larrybpsu [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
if using the irblaster.info unit.... just su to root, and issue:

/usr/local/bin/irblaster.sh

I used that for my blaster, and it worked fine.

Just remember to work with the irblaster.conf files, etc.

The KM wiki page is a good reference, but you could then start with Step Three.
Author:  bradm81 [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Larry,

I tried to follow his instructions but encountered a few problems.

When I run the test that he suggests in Step 5 I get the response
Code:
channel changing 207
/usr/bin/irsend: could not connect to socket
/usr/bin/irsend: No such file or directory


Which to me sounds like knoppmyth doesn't know that my IR Blaster is connected to my serial port. But I ran irblaster.sh a few times and tried it on both COM1 and COM2 and got the same result.

I also checked to see what was in irsend and it was total gibberish, so I'm guessing that is generated dynamically? Yes?

Also the file /etc/lirc/lircd.conf was empty, said "Unconfigured" and pointed me to the README. So I downloaded the lircd.conf file referred to in Step 2 of the wiki. Was that a good idea or a bad idea?

Any response will be greatly appreciated.
Author:  tjc [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
bradm81 wrote:
When I run the test that he suggests in Step 5 I get the response
Code:
channel changing 207
/usr/bin/irsend: could not connect to socket
/usr/bin/irsend: No such file or directory


Which to me sounds like knoppmyth doesn't know that my IR Blaster is connected to my serial port. But I ran irblaster.sh a few times and tried it on both COM1 and COM2 and got the same result.

Looks more like the driver/daemon isn't running and providing the socket that irsend connects to

bradm81 wrote:
I also checked to see what was in irsend and it was total gibberish, so I'm guessing that is generated dynamically? Yes?

In a way, but probably not quite the way you're thinking. It's not a script, it's a binary executable, i.e. machine code. ;-)
Code:
root@black2:~/scripts/backup# type -p irsend
/usr/bin/irsend
root@black2:~/scripts/backup# file /usr/bin/irsend
/usr/bin/irsend: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.8, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped
Author:  bradm81 [ Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
So.... any suggestions for how to fix it?
Author:  bradm81 [ Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:25 pm ]
Post subject: 
Question: Would this error [read above] be the error I would get if I had put in the wrong remote codes in irblasterd.conf?
Author:  mjl [ Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:32 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi,

One thing that needs to be done is make your comm port of choice get dumb. There is a setserial command that basically disables the uart so the port can be accessed, i suspect, directly.

It goes something like this: setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart=none but check for the exact syntax. I put mine command entry at bottom of the /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh

I don't have access to that box right now that I have it on so this is only an awareness post.

Mike
Author:  bradm81 [ Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well I ran

Code:
setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none


And it appeared to go through, then I checked it and got:

Code:
$dmesg | grep tty
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq=4) is a 16550A
00:08: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq=4) is a 16550A


I tried it multiple times always with the same result.

Also, I reread http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=PVR150withSetTopBox and decided to double-check some of the first steps I was told to skip, and I find that my /etc/lirc/hardware.conf and /etc/lirc/lirc-modules-source.conf are entirely unconfigured. Should I be concerned about this? Or are these only configured in order to use an IR Receiver?
Author:  mjl [ Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:03 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi,

Do some searching for post by Greg Frost as he has some good stuff.

if you do setserial /dev/ttyS0 I believe if the comm port is set correctly if it reports the uart as none. I am pretty sure that was for the red eye out . I just remember it was a factor with the serial ir .

Mike
Author:  bradm81 [ Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'm still very very stuck and starting to get very frustrated with this whole IR blaster thing.

So those files I mentioned control an IR Receiver. If I don't have one, will an IR Blaster work if they're still blank?

And if that command I mentioned doesn't "dumb" the comm socket, I would have no idea what would.

I'm desperate for help.
Author:  neutron68 [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:21 pm ]
Post subject:  similar situation
I've got a VERY similar setup. Greg Frost has advised me a little on this. I think my serial IRBLASTER is sending data when the change_channel.sh script runs (I see the IR LED blinking when I watch it from a digital video camera), but my satellite receiver isn't changing channels, so I'm not sure what is wrong.
see:
http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... highlight=
Author:  cliffsjunk [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:16 pm ]
Post subject: 
You might try removing the '--device=/dev/irblasterd' from your channel_change.sh
script and modifying /var/lib/setserial/autoserial.conf as in this post
http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18391&highlight=

Cliff
Author:  target [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:07 am ]
Post subject: 
http://www.pdp8.net/directv/directv.shtml
You might give that a try and see if you can get it to work for you.
There is a MythTV wiki that is really good.
Good LUck

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Co ... 11_via_USB
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