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Anybody actually using a homemade IR blaster?
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2344		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  orbital [ Mon Sep 06, 2004 5:59 am ]
Post subject:  Anybody actually using a homemade IR blaster?
I've got tons of remotes laying around, so Im sure I could scrounge up an IR led for free, and I bet i can find an old serial mouse or something to tear apart too for the serial plug.

I see a wide range of IR blaster circuits, some as simple as a resistor and diode, others including caps, and others with transistors and caps. Is anybody actually using a homemade one with your setup...and if so, which one did you make?
Author:  atomclock [ Mon Sep 06, 2004 7:05 am ]
Post subject: 
I am using the simple circuit. It works great!!! Also, I am simultaneously using the IR receiver described on the LIRC web site.

Have fun!
Author:  orbital [ Mon Sep 06, 2004 10:22 am ]
Post subject: 
The simple circuit being the single resistor and IR emitting diode? Cool, I guess I'll give that a shot then and see how it goes.

I too have the homemade IR receiver working (using a tivo remote for mythtv = EXCELLENT, i bet there's not a better remote out there).

Once I get the blaster working, all thats left is getting video recording at high quality...so far the PVR-250 hasnt been very impressive!
Author:  wrooster [ Mon Sep 06, 2004 2:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
orbital wrote:
The simple circuit being the single resistor and IR emitting diode? Cool, I guess I'll give that a shot then and see how it goes.

I too have the homemade IR receiver working (using a tivo remote for mythtv = EXCELLENT, i bet there's not a better remote out there).


here is the link to my IR Blaster HOWTO document -->

http://losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/my ... _LIRC.html

while it was originally written for the DISH set top boxes, i have since then documented how you can easily (read: change one file) adopt it to control any set top box.

and to answer your original question -- i used the radio shack IR LED on the end of a short piece of wire. yes, it works very well. 8)

regards,
jim
Author:  orbital [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 1:35 am ]
Post subject: 
Wrooster, excellent documentation. I got it all hooked up, and I'm at a final problem now.

the chchan shell script works on the command line, I can see my LED (for testing purposes) blinking...BUT...once in myth tv it never seems to work. I gave it a shorter name as mentioned in the doc, but that didnt help. Hrm.

As a side note, the IR emitter that comes with a tivo doesnt seem to work with serial port voltages. Guess I'll be going to radio shack in the morn.
Author:  wrooster [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:42 am ]
Post subject: 
orbital wrote:
the chchan shell script works on the command line, I can see my LED (for testing purposes) blinking...BUT...once in myth tv it never seems to work. I gave it a shorter name as mentioned in the doc, but that didnt help.


good to hear you got it all going, bad to hear that you have the same "doesn't work from within myth" problem which has plagued others. a few weeks ago i even spent a few hours looking at the mythtv source, trying to figure out why this problem even occurs. nothing scary turned up.

would you post the _complete_ command line you are putting into myth, and then also the contents of the script you are running? also, the output of "uname -a". i'd really like to get to the bottom of this issue.

thanks and regards,
jim
Author:  orbital [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:27 am ]
Post subject: 
In the myth-setup program I set the external channel change program name to "/usr/local/bin/dcc" and then also just tried "dcc". Neither worked.

/usr/local/bin/dcc
Code:
#!/bin/sh
REMOTE_NAME=DCT2000
for digit in $(echo $1 | sed -e 's/./& /g'); do
  /usr/local/lirc-ledxmit/bin/ledxmit-irsend SEND_ONCE $REMOTE_NAME $digit
  sleep 0.4
done



Linux mythtv 2.4.25-chw #1 Sat Apr 10 15:46:31 PDT 2004 i686 GNU/Linux


BTW, where can I find the source to the mythtv thats on my knoppmyth install? Maybe something in the version that came with my install is different than whats on sourceforge, so the bug wasnt there when you looked?
Author:  orbital [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:36 am ]
Post subject: 
Additionally I tried outputting to a log file in the dcc script. When I ran dcc from the command line, instantly a /dcclog.txt file was created with "hello" printed in it as I wanted.

I then deleted the file and fired up mythtv...changed the channel...no log file created. No hello. That should narrow it down to it not being called.
Author:  wrooster [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 8:19 am ]
Post subject: 
compare permissions/ownership? just shooting in the dark here... :wink:

jds@mythtv:~ $ ls -sl /usr/local/bin/dcc
4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 474 Jun 2 10:48 /usr/local/bin/dcc

jim

ps
Quote:
BTW, where can I find the source to the mythtv thats on my knoppmyth install?

perhaps cesman knows...
Author:  wrooster [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 9:59 am ]
Post subject: 
ok, i found the problem.

myth only reads the changechannel parameter when the backend is started.
subsequent modifications are not taken note of until the backend is restarted.

so, here are the steps...
(1) enter the script name into the dialog.
(2) restart the backend.
(3) now have that beer i mentioned in my writeup.

in knoppmyth-land, step (2) goes something like this:
# /etc/rc2.d/S25mythtv-backend restart

(or just reboot if you are windows veteran)


jim
Author:  Xsecrets [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:36 am ]
Post subject: 
or if you don't feel like remembering all the numbers just /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend restart
Author:  orbital [ Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:46 am ]
Post subject: 
Restarting the backend did it. Cheers guys :D
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