Extension of mplay-driver for MonCaso 312/320: improved knob support [patch available]

[wmh <bc...@we...>]

Hi!

Here comes a LIRC patch with improved handling of the wheel/knob (turn 
and press actions). The patch removes knob bouncing effects, and has 
removed some subtle bugs when using wheel/knob and IR control in parallel.

It is available at 
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=12120799&postcount=99 
(lirc-0.9.0.patch.gz).

The change has been in use for quite a while now, and works fine.

Please consider this e-mail as submission to include this patch into 
LIRC. I'd be glad if it were useful to some LIRC users.

Regards,
Wolfgang

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: 	Extension of mplay-driver for MonCaso 312/320
Datum: 	Tue, 10 Jul 2012 02:05:24 +0200
Von: 	wmh <bc...@we...>
An: 	lir...@li...



Hi!

This is a re-send of my e-mail from 2011-10-24, as there has been no 
reaction so far...

Here comes a modification for the mplay-driver. It extends the LIRC 
driver in order to support the case "MonCaso 312/320" with a built-in 
IR. Now, the wheel is supported, and the record button is recognised 
reliably. I have added a /patch/ containing the following /changes/:

  * The IR receiver reports the wheel position by a two bit value, which
    is given in Gray code. The code is transported via two status lines
    of the serial port.
  * The driver establishes a thread polling the status lines, thus
    recognising wheel turn actions.
  * The thread reads from the serial port the remote control button
    presses, as it used to be the case before.
  * Wheel turn actions produce button presses for counterwise (0x81) and
    counter clockwise (0x80) turns.
  * Detected button presses are piped into the LIRC framework. The
    driver serves the write end, the LIRC framework has the read end.
  * Once a wheel action has been found, the driver temporarily reduces
    the polling period in order to get all wheel actions.
  * The driver uses an option "nowheel" appended to the driver parameter
    as in --driver="/dev/ttyUSB0,nowheel" or
    DRIVER="/dev/ttyUSB0,nowheel". This option switches off the creation
    of a polling thread. Instead, remote button presses are directly
    read from the serial  port, as it used to be the case before.
  * In order to avoid copy and paste, there is an init function for both
    mplay and mplay2.

The algorithms are explained in more detail in the source code comments.

I would be happy if the patch helps. Perhaps it is even a candidate to 
be included into the LIRC package. In addition, I added the forum post 
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11385428&postcount=60, where you 
could reply to if you like to.

Unfortunately, only Ubuntu 11.04 is available for me, which is also the 
base for the patch.

Regards,
Wolfgang