[mythtv-users] LIRC transmitter

[Nick Morrott]

On 15/02/07, me at blaue0.net <me at blaue0.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I searched the mailing lists and so on, but I don't think I have found
> an answer. What I'm trying to do is the following: I want to controll
> two settop boxes of the exact same type with two serial infrared
> transmitters from irblaster.info.
>
> I currently have the receiver connected to /dev/ttyS0 on the
> motherboard and I have a spare PCI serial port card lying around here.
> I think it should work with the 8250 module of the stock kernel.
>
> What I don't know is if I need a special LIRC driver for the
> transmitters or if I will be able to use the transmitters with -d
> /dev/ttyS1 respectivly /dev/ttyS2?
It used to be the case (and may well still be) that if you wanted to
control 2 LIRC devices using the same kernel module (lirc_serial in
this case) you needed to build 2 instances of LIRC and control each
device separately. The most common script for doing this was the
ledxmit 'procedure' available at
http://losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/mythtv-info/MythTV_DISH_IR_LED_TX_via_Modified_LIRC.html.

I used this in the past to run 2 instances of LIRC serial for a
separate receiver and transmitter, but since soldering the two devices
together onto a single serial connector I can use a single instance.
However, I'm sure that using two IR blasters will still require two
serial ports.

I'm not sure that you can run two instances of lircd (e.g. /dev/lircd
and /dev/lircd1) with the restriction on kernel modules, but the LIRC
list is by far the best place to ask.

>
> And: If I needed a special driver, can this driver use two
> transmitters at the same time without problems (i.e. sending the same
> code on both heads...).

If the 2 ports appear as regular serial ports and use the normal
kernel serial port driver, you should be fine. Just make sure they do
not conflict with the onboard serial port.

Nick
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