[mythtv-users] Desperate: Help with ir-keytable and IguanaIR

[Tom Dexter]

On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 10:10 PM, Greg Oliver <oliver.greg at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 7:00 PM, Tom Dexter <digitalaudiorock at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 7:55 PM, Tom Dexter <digitalaudiorock at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 5:52 PM, Tom Dexter <digitalaudiorock at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I give with these things. The ebay seller I got this from sent me
>> >> another one of these and it's just as void of any life as the first
>> >> one...again, even testing with the Windows stuff as described above.
>> >> If knows the device is there but simply isn't getting anything from
>> >> any remotes.
>> >>
>> >
>> > OMG...I emailed Iguanaworks support with the details and got a reply
>> > which may have answered all of this...though I'm waiting for another
>> > reply confirming this.
>> >
>> > It's looking like I may have received the wrong unit. That is rather
>> > than this, with a built-in receiver:
>> >
>> > https://www.iguanaworks.net/products/usb-ir-transceiver/
>> >
>> > ...it appears I may have received this, which has NO receiver at all
>> > and works with a wired receiver:
>> >
>> > https://www.iguanaworks.net/products/usb-ir-transceiver/socket-receive/
>> >
>> > Unless you look into the end of the thing with a light, they look
>> > basically identical. Again...waiting for another reply to confirm but
>> > I'm almost sure that's what happened. For the love of all that is holy
>> > anyway...
>> >
>> > Tom
>>
>> Wow I don't know what it is with me an IR receivers but this one just
>> keeps getting worse.
>>
>> I verified for sure that I have the Iguanaworks "socket receiver"
>> which is intended to have a wired receiver plugged into the 1/8 jack
>> farthest from the USB plug. I bought a wired receiver on ebay that
>> took a month and  a half to arrive from China and it didn't work...not
>> even testing with the Windows igclient. It behaved just like it did
>> when I was trying to use it without a receiver. At that point I
>> assumed that the wired receiver may have been wired differently (the
>> support folks at Iguanaworks mentioned that that was a 50/50 shot), so
>> I ordered a wired receiver from Iganaworks. I got that today and STILL
>> no luck at all. I even have two of the USB units still (as I was
>> shipped a second from the ebay seller) and no luck with either one.
>>
>> Under both Linux and Windows it's the same. The unit itself is seen
>> but gets no input. Just plain crazy.
>>
>> What concerns me is that, which nVidia dropping support for 32 bit
>> operating systems, a time will come where I'll need to replace my old
>> frontend (which has a very reliable serial port receiver), and I
>> simply can NOT find a USB IR that works. Beyond insane.
>>
>> As I've mentioned before I have an MCE receiver that works, but has so
>> much lag and is so unreliable as to be unusable, and now I'm at a
>> total brick wall with this. Just insane.
>>
>> Tom
>
>
> I know you do not like the lag on MCE usb stuff, but I have several of these
> receivers:
>
> GP-IR02BK(TSES-IR18)
>
> That's the model number on it.  I never knew IR could be faster - it is no
> more laggy than a remote that comes with my TVs controlling the TVs
> themselves.  And of course MythTV running on a quad core i7 will obviously
> feel faster than any "rented" provider's piece of equipment no matter how
> laggy the IR feels to you :)
>
> I have never had anything else to compare with though....
>
> I have used these units since 2009 or 2010 since I started using MythTV - I
> cannot recall ever missing a keypress.  The remotes that come with them are
> crap, but I use harmonies with Windows Media Center as the type in the
> Harmony software.  I just switched most frontends to nVidia Shields, so they
> are decommissioned, but if you can still find that model number somewhere -
> they work well for me (my TV still uses one).  I velcro(ed) them to the
> bottoms of the TVs and they have 2 IR blaster ports that I assume just
> repeat whatever they receive - I have never used them.
>
> Of course if your Iguana fiasco doesn't pan out - that is weird - must be
> something with USB.  Does your motherboard have the serial header that you
> could get the DB9 cable and use actual serial?  I know the latest board I
> bought still had it, but have also seen new ones without the header at all..
>
> If you have a /dev/ttyS0, etc - then you may have the header too.  I cannot
> imagine them putting a 232 (or more advanced) chip on the board without
> adding the header.  RS232 has no loopback signals, so with or without being
> cabled up, you should still see it if it is active in BIOS or EFI.
>
>

Thanks for the reply! Actually my current situation is that I'm still
using my old x86 frontend which has an RS232 serial port. I was
without my serial IR for a while but was able to fix a broken solder
joint on it, so I'm fine with that for now. I've been mostly trying to
determine the best option once I need to go USB, and it's been grim.
With that Iguana, I'm hoping I can possibly return the wired receiver,
plus the USB units I have and have them tell me if any of it works, as
I'm at a complete impasse...insane. With both USB units (which are
recognized by the OS) I get no data testing on this Linux machine or
two different Windows 10 machines.

I'd love to find one of the MCE receivers you're talking about. The
one I bought has no visible model and looks like this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Inteset-USB-External-Infrared-IR-Media-Center-Receiver-with-Cable-NEW/172971805481

This is what the kernel sees:

[962933.888618] rc rc1: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote
Transceiver (1934:5168) as
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.0/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/rc/rc1
[962933.888703] input: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote
Transceiver (1934:5168) as
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.0/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/rc/rc1/input29
[962934.038551] mceusb 5-1:1.0: Registered FINTEK eHome Infrared
Transceiver with mce emulator interface version 2
[962934.038556] mceusb 5-1:1.0: 0 tx ports (0x0 cabled) and 2 rx
sensors (0x1 active)

If I search for that GP-IR02BK(TSES-IR18) it appears that the
GP-IR02BK part is a model for an actual MCE remote control(?). Can't
find much on that.

Thanks again
Tom