support for IguanaIR

[itspac]

I've already had PM conversation with darrenmason, but wanted to put a request out there.

Could LMCE come with lirc and DCE compiled with support for iguanaIR devices. It sounds like a simple fix. I just didnt want to have to make the changes everytime I upgrade.

The main issues with why it doesn't work out of the box with lmce are;
* The lirc version doesn't have the driver compiled in
* The LIRC_DCE executable (lmce device) does a check on the /dev/ directory for lirc which is not used/created by the iguanaworks device

This is fixed by recompiling lirc with the 'iguanaIR' driver and recompiling LIRC_DCE with a small change to allow /dev/iguanaIR (or whatever it does use) to be acceptable by the device check. From memory this is in the constructor or getConfig or something (I am not in front of it at the moment).

Thanks
Dre

[darrenmason]

I am happy to do the change to LIRC_DCE code if someone knows how to add the driver for the lirc package that ships with lmce.

It basically needs to be configured/compiled with driver support for iguanaIR added. I am not even sure if we rebuild this every build or we just include packaged binaries?

[itspac]

Is there something different about LIRC that's included in LMCE over what i download and compile from the LIRC website?  I have a running version of LIRC on my LMCE box, but i compiled a version from the lirc site.

[darrenmason]

If you run lircd --driver=? (or something close to that) then it will tell you what drivers are compiled into lirc. This does not actually include iguanaIR in the lmce build. To include it is just a flag passed to the configure script. The code is not any different.

The other issue is that lircd is started and controlled by a LMCE wrapper device. This is LIRC_DCE. At the moment this does not support the iguana device due to the way it works out its parameters to lircd. It is a trivial change and I am just trying some further tests at the moment.
(I am actually trying to give it support for IRsend and learnIR comamnds as that is what I want to use it for)

[itspac]

so.. I donwloaded lirc from their website. I have compiled it with iguanaIR i have installed the iguanaworks binary. I have iguanaIR working with lirc on my machine I just need to figure out how to make LMCE use that device ..  What flags do LMCE pass to start lircd?

[Enigmus]

I just wanted to add my voice of support for getting IguanaIR support in LinuxMCE.  It is an inexpensive, but quality hardware item that can reduce the cost of ownership on a LinuxMCE setup.

[Wayno]

Has there been any movement on this?  Support for the iguanaIR is the only thing that is stopping me from taking the leap from Mythbuntu to LinuxMCE.
Alternatively, I am more than comfortable to make the changes to LIRC_DCE myself if anyone can tell me what I am looking for...

[darrenmason]

I have not done anything as all my stuff that is not used is packed up whilst we renovate.

If you just want to get the iguanaIR working as a receiver then it is pretty straightforward.

On the MD or hybrid that you are using it install the modified version of lirc from the iguana website.
The iguanaIR is not a driver that is compiled in by default.
Basically, you need to get lircd running by itself independant on linuxMCE. Once that is done then you need to do a slight modification to LIRC_DCE.

The modification is in the initial startup part of the code. There is a sequence of checks for /dev/lirc then /dev/lirc0 etc. Basically none of these checks will be satisfied when using the iguanaIR driver as it doesn't create any of these devices.
From memory it does create something like /dev/iguanaIR and I just added that as one of the checks, recompiled and it then will run fine.

I think I also added an entry to the database so that iguanaIR shows up on the webadmin so that you can actually direct your setup to use it. I can't remember the table off hand but I think I worked backwards from the webadmin php code to find it.

Hope that helps.

Let me know if you need further info.

Note; this will only make it work as a receiver - not a transmitter. I was looking into this and created some posts on it but have not progressed it at all. There are still some design issues that need to be sorted out before this can happen.

regards
Darren

[gtsupport]

Did this go any further??

I bought one of the Iguanaworks USBUIRT devices but lmce didn't recognise it.  I'd rather not have to send it back to the states if there's a chance that it can be used.

Darren you seem to know your stuff regarding this hardware, can you comment on where it stands, or how a relative newbie can integrate it to some degree?

Thanks.

Matt.

[darrenmason]

To tell you the truth not reallyt sure what state this is in in the linuxmce codebase. I have a couple of the usb transeivers in my workshop but they havn't done much in the last couple of years.

I did see someones user page with a mention of iguanaIR when looking for something else.
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/User:Chrysemys

This looks like it will setup the drivers and modified lirc.... but like I said I am not using them at the moment.

Just had a quick look at the LIRC_DCE code and sambuca has done a change a few months back to support sending via lirc - he might be able to shed some more light on the status of that work...

There might still be a code change to support the fact that /dev/lirc is not created but from the look of the code this might not be an issue if youe set the serial port config appropriately.

Would have to try and see...

Regards
Darren

[sambuca]

It's correct that I did add sending capability to lirc. LMCE uses the pronto IR format internally, and lirc needs to convert this to its own internal format. Additionally, LIRC_DCE needed to translate commands received to the correct IR code. That is the part I added.

Wrt. IguanaIR, I don't know. I did not change anything with the drivers built in LMCE.

best regards,
sambuca