Re: New installation troubleshooting, no irw response

[Daniel R. <di...@gm...>]

Just to provide some conclusion to this thread. I contacted Streamzap
about the problem, and they sent me a new streamzap remote and
receiver. I just received the new remote and it appears to be
functioning normally. I get the correct responses in irw when using
the default streamzap configuration in lirc. So it appears this was a
hardware problem.

One note for Ubuntu 10.10, though, is that I only have to have lirc
installed from the repositories. If I have lirc-modules-source
installed, the streamzap remote does not work and no /dev/lirc0 is
created when I plug in the usb IR receiver.

Avast!
Daniel Roesler
di...@gm...


On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 2:42 PM, Jarod Wilson <ja...@wi...> wrote:
> On Dec 14, 2010, at 4:43 PM, Daniel Roesler wrote:
>
>> After some more troubleshooting, I think it might be the receiver. I
>> have a universal remote control (URC-R7) that has the codes for
>> Windows MCE (AUX code 261). I set the universal remote to that and
>> reconfigured lirc to use "Windows Media Center Transceivers/Remotes
>> (all)". I'm assuming I can still use the streamzap receiver with the
>> MCE remote, right?
>>
>> I am unable to get and output from irw when I press buttons. I have
>> also tried using irrecord to see if the protocol is RC-6. Sometimes it
>> returns RC-6, sometimes RC-5, sometimes it just has a length of 66 or
>> some other number. It varies. I think the receiver is sending
>> inconsistent readings to the computer. Am I correct in assuming that
>> the receiver is broken?
>
> My own streamzap receiver does not work at all well with lirc decode
> and mce (RC6) remote signals. Oddly though, it works fine with the
> in-kernel RC6 decoder. Same receiver works fine with the stock remote
> though. So its a known issue, I suppose, but not one I have time to
> look into right now.
>
>
>> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Daniel Roesler <di...@gm...> wrote:
>>> Ok, I changed the lirc0 permissions (sudo chmod 666 /dev/lirc0) and
>>> tried irrecord again.
>>>
>>> When the irrecord started, it asked to press random buttons to find
>>> the protocol. Here's the result output from that step:
>>> RC-5 remote control found.
>>> No header found.
>>> No lead pulse found.
>>> No repeat code found.
>>> Signals are biphase encoded.
>>> Signal length is 14
>>>
>>> Then, it asked to start naming buttons. After I input the name of the
>>> button (e.g. KEY_POWER), I pressed and held the button. However, this
>>> resulted in an error every time. I tried several buttons, but all gave
>>> the same response:
>>> irrecord: no data for 10 secs, aborting
>>> The last button did not seem to generate any signal.
>>>
>>> Here's what's in the config file that was generated:
>>> --------------
>>>  name  streamzap2
>>>  bits           14
>>>  flags RC5
>>>  eps            30
>>>  aeps          100
>>>  one           864   864
>>>  zero          864   864
>>>  gap          25472
>>>  toggle_bit_mask 0x0
>>> --------------
>>>
>>> This differs from the default streamzap remote file (lircd.conf.streamzap):
>>> --------------
>>>  name  Streamzap_PC_Remote
>>>  bits            6
>>>  flags RC5|CONST_LENGTH
>>>  eps            30
>>>  aeps          100
>>>  one           889  889
>>>  zero          889  889
>>>  plead         889
>>>  pre_data_bits   8
>>>  pre_data       0xA3
>>>  gap          108344
>>>  toggle_bit      2
>>> --------------
>>>
>>> Has anyone experienced the irrecord failing during the button
>>> definition step? Is this a sign that there is a problem in the remote,
>>> or is it a sign that there is a problem in the receiver?
>>>
>>> Avast!
>>> Daniel Roesler
>>> di...@gm...
>>>
>>> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Nick Morrott
>>> <kno...@gm...> wrote:
>>>> On 14 December 2010 16:40, Daniel Roesler <di...@gm...> wrote:
>>>>> Ok, since the default configuration for the streamzap is not working.
>>>>> I am currently trying irrecord to create a new custom streamzap
>>>>> config, but I'm running into an error when I try to start irrecord.
>>>>> Here's the error:
>>>>> ~$irrecord streamzap2
>>>>> irrecord -  application for recording IR-codes for usage with lirc
>>>>> Copyright (C) 1998,1999 Christoph Bartelmus(li...@ba...)
>>>>> irrecord: could not get file information for /dev/lirc
>>>>> irrecord: default_init(): No such file or directory
>>>>> irrecord: could not init hardware (lircd running ? --> close it, check
>>>>> permissions)
>>>>>
>>>>> I looked in /dev for some lirc devices and I have two listings:
>>>>> ~$ ls /dev/lirc* -l
>>>>> crw------- 1 root root 249, 0 2010-12-14 10:07 /dev/lirc0
>>>>
>>>> Look at the permissions of the /dev/lirc0 device above ...
>>>>
>>>>> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     19 2010-12-14 10:07 /dev/lircd -> /var/run/lirc/lircd
>>>>>
>>>>> So I tried each in irrecord. /dev/lirc0 an error:
>>>>> ~$ irrecord -d /dev/lirc0 streamzap2
>>>>> irrecord -  application for recording IR-codes for usage with lirc
>>>>> Copyright (C) 1998,1999 Christoph Bartelmus(li...@ba...)
>>>>> irrecord: could not open /dev/lirc0
>>>>> irrecord: default_init(): Permission denied
>>>>
>>>> ... you are running irrecord as a non-root user, but /dev/lirc0 can
>>>> only be accessed by root with its current settings.
>>>>
>>>>> irrecord: could not init hardware (lircd running ? --> close it, check
>>>>> permissions)
>>>>>
>>>>> /dev/lircd actually started but will not respond for any buttons
>>>>> except the four bottom colored ones. When I press those, irrecord
>>>>> exits with an error:
>>>>> irrecord: error reading from /dev/lircd
>>>>> irrecord: No such file or directory
>>>>> irrecord: no data for 10 secs, aborting
>>>>> irrecord: gap not found, can't continue
>>>>
>>>> Never run irrecord with /dev/lircd (or /var/run/lirc/lircd). These are
>>>> not LIRC devices but sockets that the LIRC device nodes communicate
>>>> through.
>>>>
>>>>> So, I'm stuck on how to get irrecord to capture the button presses for
>>>>> this streamzap remote.
>>>>
>>>> Try again after adjusting the permissions on the /dev/lirc0 device.
>>>>
>>>> You may need to try running irrecord in raw mode if it doesn't detect
>>>> the protocol being used, or if you don't provide a protocol header for
>>>> irrecord to use in /etc/lircd.conf (this is discussed in the LIRC
>>>> docs).
>>>>
>>>>> My question: If I'm seeing output with
>>>>> /sys/modules/ir_cor/parameters/debug and the receiver light is
>>>>> flashing when I press buttons on the remote, why am I not seeing
>>>>> output with irw or irrecord? The only exception is the four color
>>>>> buttons at the bottom, which appear to be functioning.
>>>>
>>>> I'll defer to Jarod on this as I've no experience with this hardware.
>>>>
>>>> It's entirely possible that the physical IR receiving device is
>>>> flashing simply because it's detecting IR signals in its hardware. I
>>>> don't think you can rely in the LED flashes to determine whether the
>>>> whole IR chain from hardware to lircd is working correctly.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Nick
>>>>
>>>
>>
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>
> --
> Jarod Wilson
> ja...@wi...
>
>
>
>