[mythtv-users] Need IR advice

Sun Aug 28 21:39:54 UTC 2005

My concern with this approach is that I will still see the code 
"fluxuations" with that device.

I did a little more testing and all my remotes have this problem...even the 
RC-5 ones. It just turns out the RC-5 is much more robust.

Another interesting (strange?!?) thing I noticed is that the "errors" don't 
seem to be related to which keys were pressed previously...they crop up when 
I change the position or orientation of the remote control! If I move the 
remote around while holding a single button down, the variations correlate 
with the movement. WTF?!?

As such, investing in additional hardware is the last thing I really want to 
do just now (although once the IR issue settles down I just might do it). Of 
course, buying more hardware reduces my WAF which I'm actively trying to 
raise at the moment. :-)

Thanks.

--
Mike

On 8/28/05, Joe Votour <joevph at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> This probably isn't what you want to hear, but going
> RC-5 and getting a programmable remote (like the
> OneForAll series) is one of the easiest ways to go.
> They have advanced key mapping capabilities which will
> allow you to use almost every button on the remote
> control, and the RC-5 receiver in the Hauppauge will
> work with it. (BTW, for RC-5 in my remote, I use VCR
> code 0081, which works with the Hauppauge card - I
> think that the VCR part is the key).
> 
> I don't use the Hauppauge receiver anymore myself (the
> jack where it plugs into the card became loose), so
> I'm using an irman again. Using RC-5 with the irman
> is also good, because it eliminated the conflicts with
> my IR wireless keyboard.
> 
> You're probably using your universal remote control
> setup as a device which uses the changes in code to
> mean something specific to that device.
> 
> To summarize: If you're not attached to your
> particular remote, get an OneForAll remote (or a
> similar Radio Shack remote), and use the button
> programming functions to assign extended RC-5 codes to
> the extra buttons you wish to use. It doesn't take
> long (it only took me a couple of hours to setup), and
> on my URC-6131 remote control, I can use every button
> with MythTV, except for SET and the buttons that
> select devices.
> 
> -- Joe
> 
> --- Michael Tiller <michael.tiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > After getting my Myth box set up, I have been on a
> > quest to improve the WAF
> > for my system. There have been many tweaks, but my
> > "holy grail" has been to
> > get all the functions (both media center + TV + ...)
> > on to a single
> > universal remote. I thought my objective was within
> > my grasp, but I've been
> > thwarted once again and I'm hoping somebody can
> > provide me with a solution
> > to my latest problem.
> >
> > First, a bit of background. I have a PVR-150 card. I
> > got the LIRC stuff
> > going with the IR pickup that came with the card.
> > But, it only works with
> > the Hauppauge supplied remote. I know in theory I
> > could probably get it to
> > work with other RC-5 remotes, but none of the codes
> > I tried on my universal
> > remote seemed to work.
> >
> > I tried making my own, but the voltages weren't
> > right and I just didn't have
> > the time to iterate on that thing.
> >
> > So I bought an IRA-3 from www.home-electro.com<http://www.home-electro.com>
> > <http://www.home-electro.com>thinking my days of
> > screwing around were
> > over. Sadly, I was wrong. The IRA-3
> > uses the IRMAN protocol, BTW.
> >
> > I hooked the thing up and tried to get it to work
> > with the version of LIRC
> > already installed on my machine (0.7.1). No dice. I
> > couldn't seem to get
> > anything. It kept giving me an error in
> > irman_init(). Crap. So I got the
> > source to LIRC and tried building it. No dice, same
> > error. Because I could
> > initialize the device on my Windows machine, I
> > didn't understand what the
> > problem was. I got the latest versions of LIRC and
> > libirman and tried to
> > sort things out.
> >
> > After a considerable amount of digging and learning
> > far more about IRMAN,
> > IR, LIRC and serial ports than I ever wanted to
> > learn, I eventually managed
> > to narrow down the problem. While the IRMAN protocol
> > specifies 9600 baud, 8
> > data bits, no partity, no flow control and 1 stop
> > bit, the port
> > initialization fails to actually specify one stop
> > bit (although it doesn
> > explicitly handle all the other parameters). I added
> > one line to the
> > initialization routine in libirman (to set the stop
> > bit to 1, something it
> > should have already been doing even according to the
> > comments in the code)
> > and low and behold...it worked!!! My IRA-3
> > initialized and I started getting
> > data from it in the expected 6 byte chunks.
> > Hooray!!!
> >
> > At this point, I thought I had finally conquered
> > this stupid issue. I
> > rebuilt libirman and LIRC using the new
> > initialization code and I was well
> > on my after running irrecord and building up a .conf
> > file for my remote.
> >
> > Then...disaster struck. After trying to use Myth
> > with the new remote it
> > seemed like it was ignoring some of the key presses.
> > I went back into raw
> > mode (using test_io in libirman to output the codes)
> > and it turns out that
> > the stupid thing is spitting out multiple codes for
> > the same key. I don't
> > mean it repeats itself (which it does, but that is a
> > different issue). I
> > mean it gives a different code sequence! God Damn
> > IT!!!!
> >
> > The problem seems to be related to the history of
> > key presses. As I said, a
> > single keypress send a duplicated code but that
> > doesn't seem to cause any
> > problem. The real problem is when the codes change.
> > For example, running
> > 'test_io', these sequences are for the same key:
> >
> > [29][14][7d][f7][5f][ff]
> > [29][14][7d][f7][5f][ff]
> > [2a][e8][4e][f7][5f][3f]
> > [2a][e8][4e][f7][5f][3f]
> > [29][14][7d][f7][5f][ff]
> > [29][14][7d][f7][5f][ff]
> >
> > WTF? I find that if I hit the same key repeatedly I
> > pretty much get
> > consistent codes. But, if I jump around (e.g. LEFT,
> > RIGHT, Channel-UP, LEFT)
> > that the same key (e.g. LEFT) will have different
> > codes.
> >
> > My hope is that somebody has some simple remedy
> > (e.g. something simple like
> > turning on flow or changing the parity or
> > something). By the way, the
> > Hauppauge remote works fine. But it only send 2
> > bytes?!?
> >
> > Any suggestions?!? I was so close. After having
> > hacked may way through all
> > this to have it fail to read remote key signals
> > reliably is so
> > aggravating!!!!!
> >
> > Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
> >
> > --
> > Mike
> > > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> >
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
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