DIY USB blaster (UIRT) ?

[valent]

Are there any DIY designs for USB blasters / UIRTs that work with LinuxMCE?

I looked around for premade ones and can't find anybody selling them in Europe. Are there any cheap Chinese chops that sell them? Usually postage from China is dirt cheap (1-2€) but from US is usually much more (20-30€)

Are there any DIY designs so that I could build my own USB UIRT / Blaster?

[tschak909]

No.

You can try to get an IRTrans USB, or a Tira. The GC-100 is a more expensive option, but far more flexible for controlling AV devices.

-Thom

[valent]

IRTrans is 100€ from what I can see Tira is 50$ but I see only US shops that sell it.

Could this serial blaster work with LinuxMCE:
http://www.irblaster.info/

Or maybe this one for 30$ - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3390588&SRCCODE=SHOPPINGDF&cm_mmc_o=2mHCjCmtB55bETCjCVqHCjCdwwp&trid=1228934140z322700z0a3c082f14091z

[valent]

I'll try this one [1] from China via ebay, it is 18$ and has free shipping. From what I see at LinuxMCE wiki [2] this should work so that I can control IR devices in the same room that LinuxMCE is located, right?

[1] http://cgi.ebay.com/New-HP-MCE-USB-IR-Receiver-IR-Blaster-IR-Emitter-Wire-/250649758972?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5be3ccfc#ht_2352wt_1139

[2] http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Adding_a_New_MCE_Compatible_Transceiver

[pw44]

TIRA ships worldwide. I did buy one (OEM board, for internal mount), but was not yet able to make it work under lmce 0180. It is recognized, but is not working...

[Techstyle]

Valent,

I bought an MCE remote that came with a Blaster/receiver.  The receiver works fine but the blaster never worked with LMCE.  I think you might find the same thing, the suggestions that have been put forward are the ones that are known to work.  I think you should be able to get the blaster working but it will take some work on your part.  That was beyond me so I bought a UIRT from Ebay in the US for $40

[tschak909]

The blaster requires a specially patched lircd for pronto codes, which we haven't been able to fold back in yet...

In short, unless you're willing to dig into some code, dealing with an mce reciever for blasting is going to be more trouble than it's worth... (and believe me, you want the blasting for AV control)

-Thom

[valent]

That post was long before I ever started digging into the codebase.

The issue is that people who use LIRC are able to recieve, but not transmit. We currently store IR codes in PRONTO format in the database, and we need the pluto patches to lirc re-applied to the upstream LIRC so that we can re-enable transmit. Somebody needs to take charge of this and do it, the relevant code and patches are in our svn in the external/ and ubuntu/ directories as lirc-pluto.

-Thom

I copied your post from other thread here so that discussion doesn't go in two threads.

Ok, so if I contact lirc devels and send them your patches, that is it? I can do that, or am I missing something?

[tschak909]

as far as I was told by Pluto, the patches were rejected.

-Thom

[valent]

Well from this discussion here [1] it looks like some more talk was needed, devels always need a good reason to include code that does something different that previously intended. They way of doing things is to keep codes in lirc.conf file (there was some talk about pronto to lirc converter tool) and not use pronto code directly.

What version of lirc source code you use so I can test your patches with lirc?

Here is the code that converts pronto to lirc config files - http://www.lirc.org/html/pronto2lirc.html

[1] http://old.nabble.com/Send-IR-commands-using-pronto-codes-directly-with-lirc-td14683947.html

[rperre]

Hey,

Been trying to dig into this. i just can't really find any changes made in the lirc-pluto-0.1 under external or ubuntu.

Is it possible to get a few pointers on where the patches are located, or more direct, which files were patched?

I feel that the possibility to have the mceusb2 (and other) dongles blast ir would benefit many, since these are so much cheaper then a USBUIRT and you have multiple places that need ir control. e.g. in my case i have 2 md's and the core and would need 3 blasters to control everything, in my final setup i would need probably 4 or 5 more ir blasters. USBUIRT's are still $60, these vista mce blasters can be had for just a few bucks a piece.

Thank you,

Richard

[niz23]

rperre,

It´s probably located in lirc package itself.
http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/browser/branches/LinuxMCE-0810/ubuntu/lirc-0.8.3~pre1%2Blmce

See changelog and there´s a note from radu. A former pluto guy re Pronto changes.
I do not now which files is touched as there seem to be no patch in debian/patches that add the pronto stuff during build.

Join linuxmce-devel and try to get hold of Uplink he know what have been done to lirc.

/niz23

[joerod]

Any update on this? Seems like valent was really motivated with getting cheap ir blasters working... That would be cool.

[sambuca]

For your information,
our lirc does support sending pronto codes, and has all along to my knowledge.

But some parts were missing from the LIRC_DCE device which allowed it to send AV codes. That was fixed some time ago http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/822.

best regards,
sambuca