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

[Ron Garrison]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 5:29 PM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> 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 )-:
>
> --Greg
>

I just got mine working a couple days ago.  You can visibly see it
flash in broad daylight.  In my case I was compiling everything
correctly, but the default install path was not correct so I kept
loading the old module.  There were no errors or anything.  It just
didn't work.

Do a search for all lirc_mceusb.ko files and check the dates to see if
you have an old file.  If you do, change the path in your lrc compile
configuration to point to that path.  Make sure you create new modules
for all modules automatically loaded.  If you don't, you could make
your system unbootable (I speak from experience).  I had to boot under
an old kernel to remove the offending files to fix.

Although reading above it looks like you checked this.

Maybe try the following to test.

service lirc stop
lircd --driver-default --device=/dev/lircd0
--output=/var/run/lirc/lircd0 --pidfile=/var/run/lirc/lircd0.pid
irsend --device=/var/run/lirc/lircd0 set_transmitters 1 2
irsend --device=/var/run/lirc/lircd0 send_once  ComcastDTA KEY_2

Those are the commands I'm running

Ron