How do i configure Lirc for USB-UIRT

[stuckless]

Here's my hardware.conf

# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE="User-space I2C driver"
REMOTE_MODULES=""
REMOTE_DRIVER="uirt2"
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc"
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Chosen IR Transmitter
TRANSMITTER="USB-UIRT2 : Dish Receiver"
TRANSMITTER_MODULES=""
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER="uirt2"
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF="dish/general.conf"
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Enable lircd
START_LIRCD="true"

#Don't start lircmd even if there seems to be a good config file
#START_LIRCMD="false"

#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES="true"

# Default configuration files for your hardware if any
LIRCMD_CONF=""

#Forcing noninteractive reconfiguration
#If lirc is to be reconfigured by an external application
#that doesn't have a debconf frontend available, the noninteractive
#frontend can be invoked and set to parse REMOTE and TRANSMITTER
#It will then populate all other variables without any user input
#If you would like to configure lirc via standard methods, be sure
#to leave this set to "false"
FORCE_NONINTERACTIVE_RECONFIGURATION="false"
START_LIRCMD=""

When I try to to use irsend, i get a message that my device is not configured for sending (or doesn't support it). Can someone that has a usb-uirt working under linux please provide some guidance.

To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing, so at this point, I'm just randomly editing files and testing

Thanks,

[moleman]

Hi Stuckless, I have a partial fix. It looks like your Remote_Driver is wrong, should be uirt2_raw. Also in my config I have /dev/ttyUSB0 as the device. I don't have /dev/lirc on my system.

With these changes to the transmitter I'm able to use the irsend command to control my SA3200 but I'm unable to get Sage to send commands.

I just moved to Sage OEM and I'm having trouble with the channel changing. No matter which com port I select I get an error message "Failed setting the infrared Blaster Port! Please ensure that the Infrafred Blaster is connected or try another port." I'm not sure what Sage is looking for as a port.

Hopefully someone will see this and answer I will also post a question to the forum.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by moleman

Hi Stuckless, I have a partial fix. It looks like your Remote_Driver is wrong, should be uirt2_raw. Also in my config I have /dev/ttyUSB0 as the device. I don't have /dev/lirc on my system.

With these changes to the transmitter I'm able to use the irsend command to control my SA3200 but I'm unable to get Sage to send commands.

I just moved to Sage OEM and I'm having trouble with the channel changing. No matter which com port I select I get an error message "Failed setting the infrared Blaster Port! Please ensure that the Infrafred Blaster is connected or try another port." I'm not sure what Sage is looking for as a port.

Hopefully someone will see this and answer I will also post a question to the forum.

Thanks for the tips. I did eventually get those parameters, but I'm destined to never get ir blasting working Apparently my first issue was that "modem-manager" was installed and it was taking over the ttyUSB0 as a modem After I removed "modem-manager" i was able to connect to lirc, but now i'm getting another error, that appears to be kernel related

[stuckless]

btw... you might want to look at gentuner for tuning using lirc. Sage does not support lirc natively.

[ltburch2000]

I had trouble with the lircd that comes with Ubuntu installed with synaptic. I wound up having to get the sources (0.8.6) right from LIRCD and building it myself (it isn't too hard).

To make things even worse my cable box for some reason won't acknowledge control codes unless followed by an "ok/select" so I had to modify the Sage external tuning LIRCTuner to buffer the sending of the command until all 3 digits are sent then to send it all in a single command with the ok/select on the end. I can share if you need it.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by ltburch2000

I had trouble with the lircd that comes with Ubuntu installed with synaptic. I wound up having to get the sources (0.8.6) right from LIRCD and building it myself (it isn't too hard).

To make things even worse my cable box for some reason won't acknowledge control codes unless followed by an "ok/select" so I had to modify the Sage external tuning LIRCTuner to buffer the sending of the command until all 3 digits are sent then to send it all in a single command with the ok/select on the end. I can share if you need it.

I'd appreciate any help... I still don't have this working

[ltburch2000]

install the "dialog" package with the package manager

Download the lirc sources to someplace like your home folder and extract

./configure --prefix=/usr --with-driver=usb_uirt_raw --with-tty=/dev/ttyUSB0

run make

run sudo make install

put your remote configuration in /etc/lircd.conf, mine is:

# this config file was originally generated
# using lirc-0.6.6(serial) on Fri Mar 28 22:46:44 2003
# modified by hand on Sunday Jul 17 00:12:00 2005
#
# contributed by rob scullion
# based on the DCT2000 file contrib'd by shane bradley
#
# brand: Motorola
# model no. of remote control: ? - Comcast badged
# devices being controlled by this remote: DCT2524/1612
#
# Note: The "ON DEMAND" button on the Comcast
# badged remote just sends a "1" followed by
# an "ok/select" and is thus not included in
# this config file.

begin remote
name stubdevice
bits 16
flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH
eps 30
aeps 100

header 9036 4424
one 556 2185
zero 556 4424
ptrail 556
gap 100025
toggle_bit 0


begin codes
power 0x000000000000AFF9
rew 0x00000000000087F7
play 0x00000000000027FD
ffwd 0x00000000000047FB
stop 0x000000000000C7F3
pause 0x00000000000007FF
rec 0x00000000000073FC
skipback 0x000000000000C3F7
mydvr 0x00000000000043FF
live 0x00000000000083F0
pageup 0x000000000000A3F3
pagedown 0x00000000000023FB
a_lock 0x00000000000097F6
b_day- 0x00000000000063FD
c_day+ 0x000000000000E3F5
up 0x000000000000D3F6
down 0x00000000000053FE
left 0x00000000000093F1
right 0x00000000000013F9
ok/select 0x00000000000077F8
guide 0x000000000000F3F4
info 0x00000000000033FA
menu 0x00000000000067F9
exit 0x000000000000B7F4
help 0x000000000000B3F2
last 0x00000000000037FC
vol+ 0x0000000000004FF3
vol- 0x0000000000008FFB
mute 0x0000000000000FF7
fav 0x00000000000057FA
ch+ 0x0000000000002FF5
ch- 0x000000000000CFFD
1 0x0000000000007FF0
2 0x000000000000BFF8
3 0x0000000000003FF4
4 0x000000000000DFFC
5 0x0000000000005FF2
6 0x0000000000009FFA
7 0x0000000000001FF6
8 0x000000000000EFFE
9 0x0000000000006FF1
0 0x000000000000FFFF
tv/vcr_input 0x000000000000D7F2
hdzoom_enter 0x000000000000FDFC
pnp-swap 0x0000000000003BF2
end codes

end remote

You may need to use a differnt one depending on your cable box.

cd /usr/sbin

sudo lircd

Then test it

sudo irsend SEND_ONCE DCT2000 1 2 3 ok/select

[stuckless]

@ltburch2000 - thanks for the info... it'll be a couple of weeks before I get to this... but it's good to have starting point. I'll post back my results.

Thanks.

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by ltburch2000

To make things even worse my cable box for some reason won't acknowledge control codes unless followed by an "ok/select" so I had to modify the Sage external tuning LIRCTuner to buffer the sending of the command until all 3 digits are sent then to send it all in a single command with the ok/select on the end. I can share if you need it.

Sage supports sending an "OK" or other key at the end of the digits for any tuner plugin, including LIRCTuner. Under Source Details -> Tuner Control -> Remote Control Options -> Channel Change Confirm Code you can select a key to send after transmitting the digits for a channel change.

That being said, I had poor results with the unsupported LIRCTuner plugin which is one of the reasons I wrote the Generic Tuner Plugin. It allows you to make the changes you describe in a shell or any other executable instead of having to modify the tuner plugin code itself.

--John

[ltburch2000]

Yes, well that was not the only reason I had to hassle with that. I also found that my particular cable box would not interpret the codes properly if irsend was invoked multiple times. I had to invoke it once and only once and send the whole lot in one go. I think this was largely a limitation of the quirky cable box not the IR blaster.

For me this wound up being the best way, but likely one of the newer external tuner plugins could serve me better.

It was ALMOST enough to get me to give up on Sage on linux but not quite.

[stuckless]

It's been a long road... but last night, I finally recorded my first show using SageTV in over a year.

Over a year ago, I upgraded my hardware (that was workin) and didn't realize that I didn't get a serial port (which I was using for tuning)... so I decided to use a ms usb blaster and lirc... which didn't really work. Then meinmaui sent me a usb-uirt that I couldn't get working at all... and finally, at the recommendation of bjenkins, I bought a CommandIR III, that also didn't work

The CommandIR people were great to deal with. I emailed their contact, and almost immediately he replied with some helpful tips. In the end, I ended buying a cheap $9 usb add-in card, just to test if maybe there something up with the onboard usb... sure enough, using the add-on card, solved my issue with CommandIR. I suspect, but I'm not willing to investigate, that my other issues may have been related to the on-board usb as well. Out of all the usb blaster devices I tried, the commandir was the easier to configure and use, so i'll keep it (plus it supports up for 4 devices).

So, as I mentioned, last night I was finally able to record a movie using my Bell HD STB, HDPVR, and the commandir. I used jpwegas gentuner package (very well done), and a script provided by bjenkins (with some modifications), and I was blasting in a matter of minutes. I really like the fact that his script support macro tune, so that I could send all 4 channel #s at once, which really speeds up the channel changes.

A big thanks to everyone that helped me... hopefully this setup will remain stable, and I start enjoying some SageTV recorded content. Even though I find sagetv be a great value, even without the reocrding ability, it is nice to finally have the full puzzle working.

Of course that I'll have more recorded content to watch... I may spend less time working in sage and more time watching in sage