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

Sun Apr 15 01:40:54 UTC 2012

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Ron Garrison <ron.garrison at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2010-04-18 at 20:26 -0700, Yeechang Lee wrote:
> >> On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net>
> wrote:
> >> > I do know one way: rent another "real" STB from Comcast and get
> >> > another HD-PVR (then I get the deal with the fun of trying to keep
> >> > multiple firewire devices straight for channel changing).
> >>
> >> Despite the up-front and monthly cost this is indeed your best
> >> bet:
> >
> > I have thought about this and decided that a second HD-PVR is the way to
> > go, freeing me from the need for an IR blaster and giving me a second
> > tuner for all of my HD channels, not just the former-analog ones that I
> > have recently lost Myth access to. I already have a second STB which is
> > a Comcast DVR box, so I'll hook that up to the new HD-PVR. No additional
> > monthly cost, but I will have to be careful not to schedule more than
> > one recording at a time on the Comcast DVR, and be careful when I use it
> > for playback, so that there is always one tuner free when Myth wants to
> > use it. The potential for this kind of screw up leading to failed
> > recordings is the major down side to going this route (along with the
> > $200 for another HD-PVR, but at least there is some added benefit as
> > well). At some point I may decide this is just too much trouble and turn
> > in the DVR box for a regular STB. But having the Comcast DVR as a backup
> > when my Myth box went south for whatever reason has been a life saver
> > more than once, along with the extra two tuners it provides during
> > football season :-)
> >
> >>
> >> * It is 100% future-proof, no matter what cable or satellite provider
> >>   you switch to in the future
> >
> > Not entirely of course. The MPAA and their cable company stooges are
> > still wanting to close "the analog hole". The conversion of analog to
> > encrypted digital is only the first step, I do not expect them to give
> > up working on the component output. Right now I can't think of a way
> > they can close this off without also rendering some customer TV's
> > incapable of HD, but that doesn't mean they won't still come up with
> > something or that they won't eventually get their puppets the FCC to
> > approve letting them close it off anyway. Nothing is ever 100% future
> > proof.
> >
> >> * You're already familiar with the HD-PVR
> >
> > True, another point in favor of this.
> >
> >> * FireWire channel switching is 100% reliable unlike IR blasters, and
> >>   uses GUID so the two boxes would always be distinct
> >
> > What's a GUID? Is this documented somewhere I can go read about? I'm
> > going to have to deal with it soon.
> >
> >> * Writing a udev rule to give the two HD-PVRs distinct /dev node
> >>   labels is easy (took me about 15 seconds to figure out how to do so
> >>   for the first time)
> >
> > I'm sure I can manage that part, but if you want to let me see the ones
> > you have, it would help :-)
> >
> >> * You get HD-quality access to every channel you pay for already
> >
> > ...and I can free up a PCI slot also by removing the PVR-500 brick, er,
> > card. May be useful in the future.
> >
> > Comcast sucks.
> >
> > --Greg
>
> And with the second HDPVR, you will have two irblasters (one per
> hdpvr) that you can use to to control your DTAs and unbrick your
> PVR-500 :-)
>
> Not sure if the hdpvr blasters are fully working yet though.  I
> thought I read somewhere that they weren't.  I haven't tried myself.
>
> Ron
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

This is a very old thread, but the info was relevant to me getting my
mceusb GP-IR02BK IR blaster working so I thought I would add something to
try and help the next guy.  I had the exact same problem with lirc
accepting input for my blaster and not giving any errors.  I set the ehome
remote drivers in the kernel, added the firmware to /lib/firmware, and I
was seeing the IR device in dmesg, but it would not work.  I finally found
that even though I had usb working in the kernel, I needed to enable the
relevant USB kernel device driver options for my motherboard.  I did that
and boom, it worked.

below are some reference info that would have been helpful for me to know
when something is loading right

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1784:0008 TopSeed Technology Corp. eHome Infrared
Transceiver

one init.d # dmesg | grep IR | grep -v IRQ
USB Serial support registered for IR Dongle
ir_usb: v0.5:USB IR Dongle driver
lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 253
IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized
IR RC6 protocol handler initialized
IR MCE Keyboard/mouse protocol handler initialized
IR LIRC bridge handler initialized
Registered IR keymap rc-rc6-mce
input: MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (mceusb) as /devices/virtual/input/input3
tveeprom 0-0000: has radio, has IR receiver, has no IR transmitter

one init.d # dmesg | grep mce
mce: CPU supports 7 MCE banks
usbcore: registered new interface driver mceusb
Registered IR keymap rc-rc6-mce
input: MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (mceusb) as /devices/virtual/input/input3
rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (mceusb) registered at minor = 0
mceusb 2-1.1:1.0: Registered Topseed Technology Corp. eHome Infrared
Transceiver with mce emulator interface version 1
mceusb 2-1.1:1.0: 2 tx ports (0x0 cabled) and 2 rx sensors (0x1 active)

# relevant lines or /etc/init.d/lircd
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile
/var/run/lirc/lircd_recv.pid --exec /usr/sbin/lircd -- \
               -P /var/run/lirc/lircd_recv.pid
--output=/var/run/lirc/lircd_recv --driver=devinput
--device=/dev/input/event2
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile
/var/run/lirc/lircd_send.pid --exec /usr/sbin/lircd -- \
               -P /var/run/lirc/lircd_send.pid
--output=/var/run/lirc/lircd_send --driver=default --device=/dev/lirc0

# for testing
irsend  --device=/var/run/lirc/lircd_send SEND_ONCE dish 1
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20120414/a6d5b127/attachment.html>