Getting Started (Linux)
Unlike our serial version of this product, there is a significant software component outside of LIRC that must be explained. Instead of using a kernel module, we use a user-land daemon to communicate with our device.
This guide will hopefully be more detailed than is necessary, but answer all your questions. If it does not, add a ticket, or contact support. There are 5 steps to getting everything set up, but don't be too intimidated, these are actually pretty simple:
- Installing the iguanaIR software (daemon and client).
- Testing iguanaIR using igclient.
- Installing LIRC and testing it with iguanaIR.
- Getting a valid lircd.conf.
- Using it all.
Step 1: Installing iguanaIR
Hopefully you're using an rpm or deb-based distro and can just install the rpms or debs we provide on the downloads page.
For the rpms, just install them using a command like:
rpm -ivh iguanaIR-0.24-1.i386.rpm
For the debs, just install them using a command like:
dpkg -i iguanaIR-0.24-1.i386.deb
For the source tarball, instead do:
tar -xjf iguanaIR-0.24.tar.bz2 cd iguanaIR-0.24 make make install
Our packages have only been tested on Fedora and Debian systems, but choose be compatible with most rpm or deb-based distributions. If you have to make changes for your specific distribution, please let us know and we'll include the details in our packages. Once the software is installed, connect the device (or reconnect it if you plugged it in before) and start the igdaemon. This should be as simple as:
/etc/init.d/iguanaIR start
However, if you have problems at this point or later and suspect the igdaemon, you can also run it in a terminal:
[root@porkrind jdunn]# igdaemon -n -v -v -v DEBUG: Device list 0xbff41958: DEBUG: 0x804f018: usb:2.5 id=0 INFO: Worker 0 starting DEBUG2: o0x0000cd01 DEBUG2: i0x DEBUG: 0 length recv on 0. DEBUG2: i0x0000dc010300 DEBUG: Received ctl header: 0x1 INFO: Transaction: 0x1 (12808 microseconds) INFO: Found device version 3 DEBUG2: o0x0000cd0d ERROR: No response from device. ERROR: Failed to get id.
N.B. the error shown at the bottom of this output is perfectly normal, and merely means that the device has not yet been programmed with a label or id. This is the configuration of our devices when shipped. The id can be set to the string "fred" with the igclient command:
igclient --set-id fred
The reason the daemon looks for this id at startup is to create a symlink such that the device can be referred to as "fred" in commands. This provides users with multiple devices to distinguish between the physical devices regardless of their order in the USB bus, or some transient reordering.
Step 2: Testing iguanaIR
Well, I'm going to jump to the final test first, then work backwards. Try running:
igclient --receiver-on --sleep 100
This will cause the usb device to enable its receiver and start streaming data in the form of space and pulse timings to the client. The sleep tells the igclient to wait for 100 seconds before exiting, during which time it prints all received signals. The signals will not be translated in any way, and so should be an accurate description of what the igclient is seeing.
N.B. this is our equivalent to the mode2 program. The output is not as pretty, but is primarily used to ensure that the device is working and the basic configuration is correct.
When this igclient command is executed data will stream past in the terminal. It looks something like:
received 1 signal(s): space: 152917 received 1 signal(s): space: 152917 received 1 signal(s): space: 114688 received 4 signal(s): space: 6400 pulse: 3498 space: 1664 pulse: 426 received 7 signal(s): space: 384 pulse: 448 space: 1237 pulse: 426 space: 405 pulse: 426 space: 362 received 7 signal(s):
and so on. What we can see from this output is that the device was idle for around 0.4 seconds before a 6.4 millisecond header pulse was detected. All the numbers printed above are times in microseconds. This is not actually the raw data received from the USB device, but the daemon translates that rather odd format to microsecond pulses and spaces. If this command fails, please check for the error on the TroubleShooting page.
Step 3: Installing and Testing LIRC
I will not go into the details of installing LIRC. Please refer to http://lirc.org for such details. The one thing I will say about LIRC installation is that you must make sure that your version of LIRC supports the iguanaIR driver. To check, run:
[jdunn@porkrind ~]$ lircd -H ?
Driver `?' not supported.
Supported drivers:
atilibusb
bte
bw6130
creative
creative_infracd
default
dev/input
dsp
dvico
ea65
iguanaIR
livedrive_midi
livedrive_seq
logitech
mp3anywhere
mouseremote
mouseremote_ps2
null
pcmak
pinsys
pixelview
silitek
tira
udp
uirt2
uirt2_raw
Your output may be shorter or longer, but ensure it contains the iguanaIR line. When the lircd daemon is started, make sure it is passed the "-H iguanaIR" option. In Fedora Core 6 I did this by modifying a line in /etc/sysconfig/lirc to read:
LIRCD_OPTIONS="-H iguanaIR"
Under Debian LIRC, change the options in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf so that the following options are present.
DRIVER="iguanaIR" DEVICE="/dev/iguanaIR/0"
If your version of LIRC does not contain the iguanaIR driver which was introduced between versions 0.8.0 and 0.8.1 you may need to download and compile a newer version of LIRC. When configuring a supported version of LIRC you should find a "Iguanaworks USB IR transceiver" under Driver Configuration -> USB Devices. Make sure that driver is selected, either by selecting only it, or compiling with all drivers enabled, as is done by Linux distributions. From here on I'll assume you have a version of LIRC with many drivers enabled, and so require a -H iguanaIR option to some commands. At this point you'll need a /etc/lircd.conf. I'd suggest downloading one from http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes, but if you cannot find one for your device you may have to learn the signals using irrecord.
N.B. for now you just need a /etc/lircd.conf. It doesn't matter if it's the correct one for your hardware.
Now that the lircd daemon is passed the correct option we need to test it with irsend. I use:
[jdunn@porkrind ~]$ irsend set_transmitters 1 2 3 4 [jdunn@porkrind ~]$ irsend send_once panasonic power [jdunn@porkrind ~]$ irsend send_once panasonic power
This assumes that there's a remote defined in the /etc/lircd.conf named "panasonic" and it has a button defined in the same file called "power". Pick a remote and button from your own configuration file and use that. Also, that's not a typo, send the command twice. Success will be if there is no output from either command, however, if you have irsend compiled with debugging support it may print additional informational messages. If either command fails, please see the TroubleShooting page.
Note: We recommend that you only send on the channels that you are using. Particularly with mono IR blasters connected directly to our sockets (no stereo->mono adapter) using channels 2 and 4 can cause problems.
Once lircd is tested with irsend command we can be certain that the igdaemon and lircd daemon are both working, and properly communicating. Congratulations, the iguanaIR specific stuff is done.
Step 4: Getting a LIRC configuration
As stated above, I'd suggest downloading your lirc configuration from http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes. Even if you can start with a configuration where only a few buttons work that is far preferable to starting from scratch. But, assuming that you can't find such a configuration file check our page about lirc, and why I'm not real fond of it. But it's not like we have another option.
Step 5: Using it all
So most likely you want your remote to work with mplayer, or mythtv. This is not my department, but a little is said on the lirc page.
Something isn't working?
If you've read through these pages and haven't been able to get your hardware working please contact us.
