From: Baxter K. <bax...@gm...> - 2007-04-06 19:33:44
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> Is there any support (existing or planned) for irTrans > > receivers in LIRC? The irTrans software works as a server and > > is compatible with most LIRC clients but it does have several > > major limitations that prevent it from being truly useful. > > I have the same question, except I am more interested in > transmitting than in receiving. > > I've been happily using and working with LIRC for eons with my > home-brew serial-port hardware. But serial ports are becoming > increasingly scarce in these-days computers and, recently, > looking for a USB alternative, I made a decision for irTrans. > > The device itself is excellent and the Linux software provided by > irTrans is very adequate to support all typical IR send/receive > applications. However I lack LIRC compatibility for two reasons: > a) to be able to use the config-files of the many remotes I've > been compiling over years (some of the real remotes no longer > available) and b) to allow using irTrans with my own old > LIRC-based software as well as with new multimedia applications > that came with integrated LIRC support. > > The irTrans docs claim "full compatibility with LIRC", but I've > not been able to understand or realize what does that mean, at > least for transmitting. Any help to better understand the > LIRC/irTrans relations wowld be very welcome. > > Thanks, > Enrique. > The claim of 'full compatibility' simply cannot be realized as the irserver software does not create lirc device nodes. My particular woe is related to this. An mce keyboard uses the mod_mce / lircd_mce patches to achieve console input but those patches specifically rely on lirc device nodes. Can anyone else shed more light as to plans for inclusion / exclusion of irTrans devices in lirc? ~Bax |
From: <li...@ba...> - 2007-04-13 14:22:51
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Hi Baxter, on 12 Apr 07 at 18:42, you wrote: [...] >> Can you explain what is really missing? >> As far as I can tell all important features are supported by the IRTrans >> irserver. > IRTrans irserver does not have a device node that leaks input. This > prevents keyboards mice and assorted devices from functioning as core input > devices. Many of the devices supported by lirc don't have a dedicated /dev/lirc device node. Even if support for IRTrans were included directly in lircd, it wouldn't have a device node because it is accessed through /dev/ttyUSBx or ethernet. Being an input core device is not a feature supplied by LIRC. Christoph |
From: Enrique V. <ev...@it...> - 2007-04-09 18:39:19
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2007-04-05: Baxter Kylie dixit: > Is there any support (existing or planned) for irTrans > receivers in LIRC? [...] 2007-04-05: Enrique Vidal dixit: > I have the same question, except I am more interested in > transmitting than in receiving. [..] The device itself is > excellent and the Linux software provided by irTrans is very > adequate to support all typical IR send/receive applications. > However I lack LIRC compatibility [...] The irTrans docs claim > "full compatibility with LIRC", but I've not been able to > understand or realize what does that mean [...] 2007-04-06: Baxter Kylie dixit: > The claim of 'full compatibility' simply cannot be realized as > the irserver software does not create lirc device nodes. My > particular woe is related to this. An mce keyboard uses the > mod_mce / lircd_mce patches to achieve console input but those > patches specifically rely on lirc device nodes. > > Can anyone else shed more light as to plans for inclusion / > exclusion of irTrans devices in lirc? Unless anyone else can add more info to this issue, I suggest to remove irTrans from the list of "Supported Hardware - Commercially available:" at http://www.lirc.org/ (I did belive this post and then also belived the info in the irTrans docs...). Best, Enrique. |
From: <li...@ba...> - 2007-04-11 20:00:07
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Hi! Enrique Vidal "ev...@it..." wrote: [...] > Unless anyone else can add more info to this issue, I suggest to > remove irTrans from the list of "Supported Hardware - > Commercially available:" at http://www.lirc.org/ (I did belive > this post and then also belived the info in the irTrans docs...). Can you explain what is really missing? As far as I can tell all important features are supported by the IRTrans irserver. Christoph |
From: Enrique V. <ev...@it...> - 2007-04-14 12:35:01
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2007-04-11: Christoph Bartelmus dixit: > Enrique Vidal "ev...@it..." wrote: > > Unless anyone else can add more info to this issue, I suggest > > to remove irTrans from the list of "Supported Hardware - > > Commercially available:" at http://www.lirc.org/ (I did > > belive this post and then also belived the info in the > > irTrans docs...). > > Can you explain what is really missing? As far as I can tell > all important features are supported by the IRTrans irserver. As I said, 2007-04-05: Enrique Vidal dixit: > [...] I am more interested in transmitting than in receiving. > [...] The device itself is excellent and the Linux software > provided by irTrans is very adequate to support all typical IR > send/receive applications. However I miss LIRC compatibility > for two reasons: a) to be able to use the config-files of the > many remotes I've been compiling over years [...] and b) to > allow using irTrans with my own old LIRC-based software, as > well as with new multimedia applications that came with > integrated LIRC support. In other words: As far as I have understood by reading the irTrans docs and testing the irTrans device, I need to teach irTrans all the remote codes because it uses a format completely different from that in lircd. And, after that, I don't find the way an existing lirc-aware program can tell the irserver to send a specic IR command, or to get the code of a IR command received by irTrans. Thanks in advance for your comments, Enrique. |
From: <li...@ba...> - 2007-04-15 14:47:50
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Hi! Enrique Vidal "ev...@it..." wrote: [...] > In other words: As far as I have understood by reading the > irTrans docs and testing the irTrans device, I need to teach > irTrans all the remote codes because it uses a format completely > different from that in lircd. Yes, it looks like you have create new config files for irTrans. > And, after that, I don't find the > way an existing lirc-aware program can tell the irserver to send > a specic IR command, or to get the code of a IR command received > by irTrans. My understanding is that irsend and irw will work with irserver just the same way as if lircd were running. Christoph |
From: Enrique V. <ev...@it...> - 2007-04-15 15:57:16
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2007-04-15: Christoph Bartelmus dixit: > > [...] > Yes, it looks like you have create new config files for irTrans. :-( > > And, after that, I don't find the way an existing lirc-aware > > program can tell the irserver to send a specic IR command, or > > to get the code of a IR command received by irTrans. > > My understanding is that irsend and irw will work with irserver > just the same way as if lircd were running. O.K. According to `fuser /dev/lircd', irserver does open the lircd socket (I had not realized that before...). But both irsend and irw fail with "Connection refused" (as root). Any quick idea? Thanks, Enrique. |
From: Enrique V. <ev...@it...> - 2007-05-06 16:16:18
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2007-04-15: Enrique Vidal dixit: > 2007-04-15: Christoph Bartelmus dixit: > > > [...] > > Yes, it looks like you have create new config files for irTrans. > :-( > > > And, after that, I don't find the way an existing > > > lirc-aware program can tell the irserver to send a specic > > > IR command, or to get the code of a IR command received by > > > irTrans. > > My understanding is that irsend and irw will work with > > irserver just the same way as if lircd were running. > > O.K. According to `fuser /dev/lircd', irserver does open the > lircd socket (I had not realized that before...). But both > irsend and irw fail with "Connection refused" (as root). O.K. Now, after a close look at the sources and after more careful testing, I can confirm that both 'irw /dev/lircd' and 'irsend -d /dev/lircd ...' work (almost) perfectly with the irTrans server (irserver). In my previous tests I probably made some mistake in the invocation of the irserver and/or irsend/irw. The `almost' is because the directives SEND_START and SEND_STOP are not supported by the irserver -- not really a big deal, in fact (it can be easyly simulated with a wrapper script for irsend, e.g.). To summarize: - irTrans hardware, along with the irTrans-supplied linux server, provides adequate support for lirc, - irserver does not understand the lircd format for remotes (/etc/lircd.conf). It needs a directory with a file per remote and it seaches for this directory in number of places: ./remotes, /etc/irserver/remotes, /usr/share/irtrans/remotes, /usr/local/share/irtrans/remotes, - While the format is different, in many cases it is not too difficult to figure out how to automatically convert lircd format into the one understood by irserver. - the device is robust and stable and its sender is very powerful Therefore, contrary to what I had planed, > [...] I'll try to make a server version which is really > compatible with lirc. now I think the server supplied by irTrans is quite adequate and no more work is needed -- happy end (at least for me ;). Regards, Enrique. |
From: Bengt M. <bu...@be...> - 2007-04-10 07:56:08
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Enrique Vidal wrote: > 2007-04-05: Baxter Kylie dixit: > >>Is there any support (existing or planned) for irTrans >>receivers in LIRC? [...] Hi, The irtrans device is designed to work with its own server software. It is not desiged to be used directly, as I understand it (except ethernet models, see below). It is "LIRC-compatible" in that the server (irserver) understands the LIRC commands on /dev/lirc and on the TCP-port (8765). The configuration files are not compatible. However, the server in available in source form (http://www.irtrans.de/en/download/linux.php); I think I saw the words "public domain" somewhere on www.irtrans.de (but I am not sure). So, with some effort it should be do-able. The ethernet models (in particular with flash memory for commands) are slightly different, offering offering four (!) API-s (three of those documented...). They are designed to be used without the server software (although not all functionallity is available then). But still, they are very different from the LIRC universe, and I doubt that Lirc, also in modified form, is really a sensible way of controlling these. > Unless anyone else can add more info to this issue, I suggest to > remove irTrans from the list of "Supported Hardware - > Commercially available:" at http://www.lirc.org/ (I did belive > this post and then also belived the info in the irTrans docs...). It appears to be a mistake to list irtrans in this context. |
From: Enrique V. <ev...@it...> - 2007-04-10 12:56:25
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2007-04-10: Bengt Martensson dixit: > The irtrans device is designed to work with its own server > software. It is not desiged to be used directly, as I > understand it (except ethernet models, see below). It is > "LIRC-compatible" in that the server (irserver) understands the > LIRC commands on /dev/lirc and on the TCP-port (8765). The > configuration files are not compatible. However, the server in > available in source form > (http://www.irtrans.de/en/download/linux.php); I think I saw > the words "public domain" somewhere on www.irtrans.de (but I am > not sure). So, with some effort it should be do-able. Thanks a lot for this info. As time permits, I'll have a look at the sources and I'll try to make a server version which is really compatible with lirc. I don't see any kind of license (GNU or other), though... Other approaches or ideas to achieve full lirc compatibility are welcome. > The ethernet models [...] are very different from the LIRC > universe, and I doubt that Lirc, also in modified form, is > really a sensible way of controlling these. O.K. I'm not interested in these for the moment. Best, Enrique. |