Linux Infrared Remote Control

On Apr 2, 2011, at 9:31 AM, David H. Johnson, III wrote:

> Hello.
> 
> I recently had to start using an IR transmitter after Comcast rolled out DTAs in my area. I plugged the transmitter cable it into the back of the USB IR receiver I've been using for a few years and it worked fine. My issue is that my remote, which previously worked perfectly, is now somewhat buggy and unresponsive: Many of the buttons on the remote will stop working (as far as the MythTV frontend is concerned -- irw shows that a button is being pressed) after 30 to 90 seconds from the time the last button on the remote was pressed. The up, down, and pause buttons are exceptions to this -- pressing one of those buttons first "revives" the rest of the buttons on the remote. When I       press one of those three buttons, it is recognized immediately, but multiple presses of one of the other buttons before pressing one of the "reviving" buttons doesn't create a response from the application.
> 
> I've had a little bit of luck changing the repeat values in my ~/.lirc/mythtv, but that seems like a really kludgey solution and one that doesn't really address whatever the underlying problem is. I also tried using a different IR receiver/transmitter without success.
> 
> Thanks in advance.

There are quite a few details missing here... What version of lirc userspace?
Which driver and what version of it, and what kernel? What remote?

Though for what its worth, sounds a bit like your problems could be due to
flat batteries in your remote. The signals for some buttons require less
pulses than others, which may let them continue to work more consistently
when your batteries are on their way out.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod@...

On 04/02/2011 09:38 PM, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> On Apr 2, 2011, at 9:31 AM, David H. Johnson, III wrote:
>
>> Hello.
>>
>> I recently had to start using an IR transmitter after Comcast rolled out DTAs in my area. I plugged the transmitter cable it into the back of the USB IR receiver I've been using for a few years and it worked fine. My issue is that my remote, which previously worked perfectly, is now somewhat buggy and unresponsive: Many of the buttons on the remote will stop working (as far as the MythTV frontend is concerned -- irw shows that a button is being pressed) after 30 to 90 seconds from the time the last button on the remote was pressed. The up, down, and pause buttons are exceptions to this -- pressing one of those buttons first "revives" the rest of the buttons on the remote. When I       press one of those three buttons, it is recognized immediately, but multiple presses of one of the other buttons before pressing one of the "reviving" buttons doesn't create a response from the application.
>>
>> I've had a little bit of luck changing the repeat values in my ~/.lirc/mythtv, but that seems like a really kludgey solution and one that doesn't really address whatever the underlying problem is. I also tried using a different IR receiver/transmitter without success.
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
> There are quite a few details missing here... What version of lirc userspace?
> Which driver and what version of it, and what kernel? What remote?
>
> Though for what its worth, sounds a bit like your problems could be due to
> flat batteries in your remote. The signals for some buttons require less
> pulses than others, which may let them continue to work more consistently
> when your batteries are on their way out.
>
Jarod,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm running version 0.8.7 on 2.6.35.  I'm not 
sure how to determine which driver and version I'm using.  I'm using a 
Logitech Harmony One that functions like a "dogbone" mceusb remote.

I've confirmed that I'm not having issues with batteries:  not only have 
I swapped out batteries, tried another universal remote, tried the 
original dogbone remote, and tried another USB receiver (all of which 
produced the same results), but as I said, irw shows that buttons are 
being pressed.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks again.

On Apr 3, 2011, at 10:05 AM, David H. Johnson, III wrote:

> On 04/02/2011 09:38 PM, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>> On Apr 2, 2011, at 9:31 AM, David H. Johnson, III wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello.
>>> 
>>> I recently had to start using an IR transmitter after Comcast rolled out DTAs in my area. I plugged the transmitter cable it into the back of the USB IR receiver I've been using for a few years and it worked fine. My issue is that my remote, which previously worked perfectly, is now somewhat buggy and unresponsive: Many of the buttons on the remote will stop working (as far as the MythTV frontend is concerned -- irw shows that a button is being pressed) after 30 to 90 seconds from the time the last button on the remote was pressed. The up, down, and pause buttons are exceptions to this -- pressing one of those buttons first "revives" the rest of the buttons on the remote. When I       press one of those three buttons, it is recognized immediately, but multiple presses of one of the other buttons before pressing one of the "reviving" buttons doesn't create a response from the application.
>>> 
>>> I've had a little bit of luck changing the repeat values in my ~/.lirc/mythtv, but that seems like a really kludgey solution and one that doesn't really address whatever the underlying problem is. I also tried using a different IR receiver/transmitter without success.
>>> 
>>> Thanks in advance.
>> There are quite a few details missing here... What version of lirc userspace?
>> Which driver and what version of it, and what kernel? What remote?
>> 
>> Though for what its worth, sounds a bit like your problems could be due to
>> flat batteries in your remote. The signals for some buttons require less
>> pulses than others, which may let them continue to work more consistently
>> when your batteries are on their way out.
>> 
> Jarod,
> 
> Thanks for the reply.  I'm running version 0.8.7 on 2.6.35.

Vanilla 2.6.35, or a particular distro's 2.6.35?

> I'm not sure how to determine which driver and version I'm using.

dmesg and/or lsmod/modinfo output.

> I'm using a Logitech Harmony One that functions like a "dogbone" mceusb remote.
> 
> I've confirmed that I'm not having issues with batteries:

Okay, good to rule that out (though I was hoping that was it...).

> not only have I swapped out batteries, tried another universal remote, tried the original dogbone remote, and tried another USB receiver (all of which produced the same results), but as I said, irw shows that buttons are being pressed.
> 
> Any other suggestions?

Only "try newer mceusb driver code, see if it works better".

This other receiver, also mceusb?

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod@...