Help installing a homebrew serial transmitter

[rafik24]

  Hi all,

I built a serial receiver / transmitter that works with lirc on both send and receive.

 Know using irrecord i'm able to switch the tv on and all.

 While the lirc install works i did add the serial receiver but i could not find a way to add the transmiter
so i can control my AV devices from pluto.

 I looked at the GC100 template but i can't get it to work with this device.

 Lirc uses lircd -H default -d /dev/ttyS0, irrecord uses /dev/lircd.

 Please help me find a way to create the right template, i googled and wikied bad.

  If anyone want the links for a cheap easy to build IR receiver / transmitter please let me know.

 Thank for your help,

Rafik

[darrenmason]

Rafik,

When the lirc_serial driver loads it should create the /dev/lirc device and then running lircd creates the /dev/lircd device - I think.

My understanding of lirc and the linuxMCE device LIRC_DCE is that if the loaded lirc driver supports transmit then LIRC_DCE will pick this up and use it (The driver declares support for transmit when loading).
I think the transmit codes are loaded in the same conf files as the receive codes. So in theory - anything that you can receive it also know how to send.

So setting up your infrared receiver should automatically act as a sender I would have thought.

Not sure if that helps you...

Regards
Darren

ps; you should post your links.

[rafik24]

 Hi Darren,
*
 Thanks for your reply, you are right lirc uses the same lircd.conf to recognize and send ir codes.

 So far the lirc part works fine for me, the problem i have is on pluto side of things.

 I add a transmitter but i can't get pluto to pick it up. Pluto works with my remote so the port (/dev/ttyS0)  is definitely seen. My receiver and transceiver use the same port. So in order to get that to work i would need to know how to configure the template for my transmitter or more precisely basically what pluto strips out the config when loading the transmitter.

 So far i cant add a tv and automaticall the tv is controller via the transmitter in the config created by pluto.
 But it seem like pluto does not know how to use the transmitter.

 I have tried to use the gc100 template and modify it in vain.

 Since i got the receiver and transceiver working on lirc i would be glad to control my AV gear through
pluto.

 Regarding  the links here they are:

IR Receiver  -  http://lirc.org/receivers.html 

( i used this schema without the lm7805 since my port does not deliver enough power )

IR Transmitter  -  http://lirc.org/transmitters.html

( Used the Simple transmitter circuit, and modified and old remote to amplify the transmit range since the initial range was about half a meter)

 In order to amplify the signal i used the internal remote amplifier so i can now get up to 12 metes in transmit.

 You can put those two circuits on the same port since both implementations use different pins on the com port.


 If you need more details please let me know.

 The circuits are really basic, the lirc part is a bit ruff to understant but once you understant how it works it all goes well.

 If you plan to realize those circuits use lirc in the first place then add the config to pluto.

  I got the config done using:

http://vdr.spaghettilinux.org/index.php/Installare_lirc_ed_un_ricevitore_seriale_su_Ubuntu
( Hey, I know it's in Italian but linux commands are still the same )

 In order to get this to work you will need to recompile lirc since the original will not work out of the box, took me days to find that one out.

  Feel free to contact me if you need help,

Regards,

Rafik

[rafik24]

 Please see the post above !

[darrenmason]

You should be able to copy the way USB UIRT works.

It basically has a device template that has the following characteristics;
* Controlled by the USB UIRT device
* Category "Interfaces - Infrared Interface #114"
* Is Embedded is ticked
* Everything else empty

Create one that is controlled by the "default" device.Then in the device tree add an instance of one of these under the "default" device - that should be under your Media Director.
I think TVs etc are then added under this device as it is an interface device.

There should be no code to write as it should be implemented by LIRC_DCE

Hope that works

Regards
Darren

[rafik24]

 Thank you so much Darren,

 It works, i can see ir frames coming out when i press the test code button in the tv AV properties no device defined or whatever as you said earlier and it works. Pluto is great.

 I really thank you Darren, it's the second time that your support is really prompt and unbelievably helpfull.

 I'm know playing around with pronto codes since i only have the raw codes learned by irrecord but i wont bother you with this i think i'll be able to find my way around.

 Thank once again,

Rafik

[rafik24]

 Hi Darren,

 Could you please help me with the pronto codes,

 Since my IR receiver is basic i can't learn pronto codes, with irrecord i can record raw codes.

 Is there a way to convert raw to pronto ?

 I looked on remotecentral and theres nothing for my tv.

 I look for hours an can't find an answer yet.

 thanks in advance,

Rafik

[darrenmason]

Rafik,

The raw codes should definately be enough for lirc to work.

I am going to try an get a similar thing working with one of my media directors - so when I get a chance to do that, will let you know. Have not been home for any amount of time lately.

Darren

[rafik24]

  Hi Darren,

 Thanks for your reply,

 I got lirc sending raw codes to the tv and this works fine.

 When it comes to pluto, when i add a tv i can't find a way to input the raw codes so pluto can use them to control the tv.

 The only thing i can find in the templates is Pronto codes.

 As far as i understood the supported receivers / transmitters can learn pronto codes (those are sophisticated compared to my cheapo homebrew gear). My receiver transmitter can just learn raw codes using irrecord.

 I looked on the lirc side and there are no utils to do any kind of conversion,

 looked on remotecentral and nothing matches my tv / remote.

 Even if i can find a way to convert i'm not sure whether my tv would understand those codes

 So far i could not find a way to get this to work since 5 days know, feel stupid ...

  As you can probably see i'm getting lost !!!


  Hope to hear from you soon,

Regards,

Rafik

 

[darrenmason]

Hi,

My experience is mainly with the linuxMCE devices rather than the Pronto stuff and most of it I have picked up from recompiling lirc and LIRC_DCE to work with the IguanaIR device.
That said...
From my understanding it Pronto (as a format) supports both Raw codes and modulated raw codes so it should not be too difficult to wrap them. I have not done this though.

Have a look at http://home.tiscali.nl/m.majoor/prontoirformats.pdf for detail of the format.

I thought the way the IR send worked in linuxMCE though utilised the conf file (which would contain the raw codes from irrecord) and then there is a mapping from the command events to the IR label from the conf file. This is what I intended to try at some stage.

The wizard should be just a mechanism to get all the info captured easily but it should also be changable from the web admin screens.

It may be worth looking at the capture codes functionaility as well - as there is no reason your serial receiver/transmitter couldn't capture through that interface (as well as irrecord).

Unfortunately it has dropped a bit on my priority list at the moment as I can't find direct codes for my Acer projector which is the main thing that I want to control.

Will try and have another look in the next couple of nights though.

regards
Darren

[rafik24]

 Hi Darren,

 It seem like we got to the same stage, i'll try to use the doc to get few commands working and let you know if i get any further.

 Thanks,

Rafik