[mythtv-users] USB IR Blaster: close but no cigar

[Kirk Bocek]

On 4/14/2010 5:29 PM, Greg Woods wrote:
> I picked up one of these as recommended by a number of people on this
> list:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880121002
>
> I got the remote to work, but I cannot get the blaster part of it to
> work. I want to control a Comcast DTA box with it so that I can feed the
> output of the Comcast DTA box to the PVR-500 card and record those
> newly-encrypted channels (bastards!). But it all hinges on getting the
> IR blaster to work.
>
> I believe I have lircd configured properly. I recently compiled 0.8.6
> from the tar file downloaded from lirc.org, and I am certain that I am
> using the mceusb module that came with this (I made sure there were no
> others in /lib/modules/`uname -r`).  I can send codes from the remote
> that came with the DTA, and they are detected and reported correctly by
> irw. So I tried this set of commands:
>
> # irsend -d /dev/lircd SET_TRANSMITTERS 1
> # irsend -d /dev/lircd SEND_ONCE ComcastDTA KEY_2
>
> But nothing happens. I am sure I have the emitter close enough to the
> receiver, but the receiver light does not flash. There is no visible
> flash either when I look at the emitter (but should there be? the human
> eye cannot see infrared).
>
> Can someone provide some tips on how I can debug this? I am so close,
> and yet so far )-:

Yes, you should see a visible flash when the emitters are transmitting.

Pretty sure that's the IR receiver I've got. I'm using it now.

Are you sure that's the right device name? In my setup the device is 
/dev/lirc0 with an additional symbol link from /dev/lirc. Checking the 
irsend docs, I see it uses /var/run/lirc/lircd by default, which I also 
have. Have you tried that?