[mythtv-users] irblaster(.info): spoke too soon

[Greg Woods]

On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 14:57 -0600, Greg Woods wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 16:31 -0400, William wrote:
> > Mike Perkins wrote:
> 
> > > You might have it too close. It could be overloading the receiver 
> > > chip. Try *not* taping it over the receiver.
> > >
> > That is what I was going to suggest next.

I tried moving the blaster around to various distances and several
different angles. Nothing worked.  For now I am giving up on the IR
blaster, I cannot make it work. The lirc_serial module is loaded with
the correct parameters, the lircd.conf is correct, both instances of
lircd are running, the blaster does emit some kind of signal when irsend
is invoked (the Streamzap receiver detects it), but it doesn't work. I
also tried using the Streamzap configuration with irsend to manipulate
mythfrontend, that did not work either. The remote for the cable box and
the Streamzap remote both work fine, so the problem is clearly with the
IR blaster or its configuration. But the configuration hasn't changed
since it did work, unless rebooting the box somehow changed something. I
have also tried manually restarting lirc/unloading/reloading the module.
No joy, so I am out of ideas. Whatever remains, however improbable, must
be the truth: the IR blaster is broken in a way that causes it to emit
detectable, but incorrect, signals.

I've ordered a firewire card for my system, I will see if I can get
channel changing on the cable box to work that way. I had that working
at one point in the past when I was experimenting with firewire
recording (never did get that part to work reliably and the channels I
need are not available anyway). If those IR blasters fail this quickly
and easily, it's not a reliable technology for me so I will have to try
something else.

--Greg