Frequently Asked Questions

If you don't find an answer to your question here, please email support.

General

What's my tracking number?

Generally we ship as cheaply as possible via USPS (unless higher priority was ordered), and so do not have a tracking number. Express mail does include one, but standard and priority do not. If you would like a tracking number then order express mail shipping and send an e-mail to sales requesting a tracking number.

Will it work with my TV/VCR/DirectTV/cable/DVD player/alien mothership?

Probably. For receiving signals from remotes, if the remote uses 38KHz (which is the standard, but not universal) and it works with LIRC, it will work with our transceiver. For transmission, we support a wide range of frequencies and all codes the LIRC supports. The trick is learning what to send, see LIRC remote list for help. If our transceiver doesn't work with your device and you think it should, please email support as well.

Does it work under Windows?

Mostly. Coming soon. Real soon. If you are a windows developer, you can grab our source code from svn.

Can I change the firmware?

Our iguanaIR-reflasher program can upgrade your firmware to our latest version. We're confident in our reflasher, but as with all firmware writers, please update only when necessary. If you want to load your own firmware on the device, yes, it is possible, but to do it safely we recommend using a programmer. The easiest/cheapest solution that we know of is the Cypress Miniprog, which you can get for about $35. You can then download PSOC Designer and PSOC programmer (free) from psocdeveloper.com and use them to compile and download the firmware.

You will need to make a cable to connect the Miniprog's SDATA to USB.D- and SCLK to USB.D+ (and Vcc and Vss). Miniprog and IR SMT (USB) connector cable

If you are a skilled embedded programmer, you can use the program and exec commands to change the firmware. We have a bootloader installed, so you shouldn't be able to brick the device as long as you don't reprogram the bootloader.

Can I use multiple transceivers at the same time?

Yes.

Software Setup

What software do I need?

You need our main program iguanaIR. This provides the daemon (igdaemon), the client (igclient) and the libraries for interfacing with our device (libiguanaIR.so). See our downloads page.

If you want to use LIRC (and you probably do), you will need to install LIRC with support for our device compiled in. Support for our device is included in lirc-0.8.3, however the binaries that are usually distributed usually do not contain our driver. If your distro has lirc 0.8.3, we recommend getting your distros source package and compiling it (after installing igdaemon) -- this is compile with support for our device. On debian-based systems, add your distro source repository to /etc/apt/source.list and run "apt-get update; apt-get buid-dep lirc ; apt-get -b source lirc" and that will build a lirc .deb package for you. On rpm-based systems, grab the lirc-.src.rpm file and run rpmbuild --repbuild lirc-.src.rpm

Hardware Variations

Can I increase the transmit range?

Not trivially. The current it limited by a resistor value we use to keep the transceiver's maximum current draw just below the limit for a low-power USB device. The limit is 100mA. Decreasing the resistor (and thus increasing range and power usage) would violate the USB specification.

High-power USB devices may draw up to 500mA, but only after getting permission from the host. It would be possible to change the firmware to declare the transceiver a high-power device and only transmit if the host can supply the power. However, since the current transmit range is good enough for almost any application, we decided to stick with the universally compatible low-power status. If you must have more power, are using a 500mA high-power USB port and like soldering irons, contact us and we'll give you instructions. (Doing tis will void warranty)

Can I change R1 to decrease the transmit range?

Sure, but why? If you want to control where your signal goes so it doesn't interfere with other devices, we recommend using the socket or hybrid version of our device and selecting which channels to send on. If you must, we can tell you what resistor to replace.

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