[mythtv-users] Help Setting up serial IR blaster for Comcast/Pace DC50X

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu May 14 02:45:15 UTC 2009


On Wednesday 13 May 2009 20:36:17 Brad Fuller wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 7:03 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > To the O/P: Can you try a port on an add-on card, or a different one if
> > your mobo has more than one? Can you determine what chip is driving the
> > port? (SuperIO or the like)?
>
> Linux reports:
> serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq=4) is a 16550A

I think this just means it is electrically identical to a 16550A, as opposed 
to the older design, which had problems at high speed. I doubt there is an 
actual 16550 on the motherboard.

>
> Unfortunately, I have no additional card and the only other COM port
> are pins on the motherboard. I confirmed from the motherboard manual
> that COM1 is on the back of the motherboard and COM2 is an optional
> pinout on the board. I disabled COM2 and enabled COM1 in the bios.
>
> > IOW, I'm wondering if your problem might be related to the port and/or
> > your LED. It's a stretch, but you seem to have tried everything else so
> > far.
>
> Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Is the port really working? Or/and
> oes the blaster really work? I can't see that it wouldn't I checked to
> make sure it was indeed soldered (!). Maybe it's a bad LED?

Does the LED test good with an ohmeter? ie: does it behave like a diode? You 
could look for emission with a camera if you feed it DC, with any current 
limiting it might want.

Hardware failure is grasping at straws. Heathkit used to say that 90% of the 
kits returned to them for repair were for bad soldering.

Try using the port for something else, but the fact that it communicates 
doesn't rule out a bad port being your problem.

-- 
beww
beww at beww.org


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