[mythtv-users] Serial IR Blaster Stopped Working

[Jason Sharpe]

Hello All,

I am using a serial IR blaster with MythDora 5.0. I am using the blaster to
control a Dish Network 301 STB which is recorded by a PVR-250.

Everything has been going great for a couple of years but after a reboot of
my dedicated backend a couple of weeks ago the blaster seems to have stopped
working with no apparent reason. (the STB still responds to the Dishnetwork
remote just fine). I purchased the blaster from IRBlaster.info a couple of
years ago and it includes a red led that goes off when it blasts for a
visual indication of it working. The red LED no longer goes off either when
it should be blasting.

The backend logs report no errors when changing channels for a recording and
if I manually run the change_chan.sh script, no errors are reported.

I also try running "irsend --device=/dev/lircd 3100 1" and it doesn't report
any errors, however nothing appears to be blasted either. (the STB doesn't
respond and I see no Red LED)

So thinking that the blaster may have gone out for some reason, I ordered a
new serial ir blaster from IRBlaster.info however the new one has the same
exact problem.

I am not sure what else to try.

I see there is a newer version of lirc out (0.8.4) but I wasn't sure if
upgrading would fix it or not.

Anyone have any ideas on what else to check to try to resolve the issue?

I guess my serial port on the motherboard could have just gone bad. Does
anyone know if a USB to Serial adapter will work with lirc and a blaster?



Some info:

*****************************************************
[mythtv at mythtv ~]$ lsmod | grep lirc
lirc_serial                       16020       0
lirc_dev                          15044       1 lirc_serial

******************************************************

******************************************************
[mythtv at mythtv ~]$ yum info lirc
Installed Packages:
Name  : lirc
Arch    : i386
Version: 0.8.3
Release: 74_cvs200080314.fc8
Size: 1.5M
Repo:  installed

*******************************************************

*******************************************************
[mythtv at mythtv ~]$ vi /etc/rc.d/rc.local

#!/bin/bash

# This file allows you to execute things at the end of boot

touch /var/lock/subsys/local
#IRBlaster
setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none
/sbin/modprobe lirc_serial type=0 irq=4 io=0x3f8 softcarrier=1
/usr/sbin/lircd --device=/dev/lirc0 --output=/dev/lircd
/usr/sbin/lircd --driver=default --device=/dev/lirc1 --output=/dev/lircd1
--pidfile=/var/run/lircd1.pid

***********************************************************

I have tried both COM1 and COM2 in the rc.local and I again get the same
results, nothing appears to be blasted, but no errors.

In all my testing I have never once gotten an error from my Mythtv box,
either in logs or with me manually running commands.

I am also open to just getting a new USB Blaster if that is an easy way to
solve this, can anyone recommend one?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Jason Sharpe
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