Infrared receiver/transmitter support
This wiki page is not just a description of how to do things. Although my efforts in the area of IR control have resulted in a working configuration, there's still quite some room for improvement. If you think you can help, please do so.
A few years ago I bought a B-series Samsung TV (UE40B7020). Apart from a very good display, it also has a very poor sound quality. What do you expect from a <30mm thick housing, with the speakers facing backwards. To counter this not-so-good feature, I hooked the TV up to a home theatre system, incorporating a BluRay player (HT-BD8200, also from Samsung. It has a sleek design that nicely matches my TV). Both devices need to be switched on through an IR-remote control. Once running, when the TV is switched off again, the BluRay player shuts down automatically, together with the TV, at least when the TV's software is properly configured.
Hmmm .. I want them to switch on with a single button-push as well. Since both devices only respond to IR signals when switched off, there are two possible options to tackle this problem.
- Buy a multi-platform, multi-protocol remote. Logitech has some, with list prices ranging from $70,- to $350,-.
Pro: One shiny remote for a multitude of devices.
Con: Yet another remote floating around in your living room. Price may be an issue. It's just dull and boring. - Buy a small USB infrared receiver/transmitter, teach the TV how to control it, and let your TV do the switching on of the home theatre.
Pro: Cheap (I bought one for $40,- from iguanaworks). One remote for a multitude of devices. You can still use your original remote. Yet another way to be tinkering with your TV.
Con: Nothing!
For the SamyGO community, the second is of course the only real option.
Here's how it's done:
Contents
What you need
Before we go any futher, this wiki describes the use of the iguanaworks USB IR receiver/transmitter. For any other type and/or brand, parts of this wiki may be helpful, but it is by no means a complete guide, then.
Required hardware:
- USB-IR transmitter/receiver. You can order it from IguanaWorks.
- USB A-male A-female cable, at least 0.5m in length. Without it your transmitter will be tucked away behind your TV, probably without being able to send/receive IR signals.
- B-series Samsung TV, with telnet access and a free USB-port. Automated startup follows through an edit of the SamyGO.sh script. The actions described in this wiki may work for other models as well, but haven't been tested.
Required software:
- Iguanaworks driver code
- libpopt source
- libusb-0.1 [1] or, alternatively, use the libusb source provided by Samsung. It is deeply hidden in 10_UE46B8000.zip, available from Samsung. I did the last.
- libusb-1.0 [2]
- LIRC [3]
- Cross-compilation toolchain for your TV, including at least the kernel headers. See SamyGO wiki for details.
What you do
Preparation of the software
In this example, the source code packages were installed side by side, in the same top-level directory:
libusb popt-1.16 iguanaIR-1.0.1 libusb-1.0.8 lirc-0.9.0
Build of libpopt.so
- Unpack the source code for libpopt.
- cd to the popt source dir, run the configure script, define the host type for cross-compilation (mine is arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi):
./configure --host=arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi
- run make
- after successful completion, libpopt.so.0.0.0 resides in .libs/ in the source tree.
Build of libusb-0.1
- Unpack the source code for libusb-0.1
- For Samsung's libusb, edit the Makefile, to enable cross-compilation. Set the -I option to point to the right header subdir.The relevant lines should look like this:
CC = arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi-gcc INC = -I./Inc
- run make
- After successful completion, libusb.so resides in the top-level build directory.
Build of libusb-1.0
- Unpack the source code for libusb-1.0
- run configure, set host and installation prefix. In my machine this is /usr/local/arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi, YMMV:
./configure --host=arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi --prefix=/usr/local/arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi
- run make
- run make install. This step is needed because otherwise the build of igdaemon fails miserably.
- after completion, the library and links reside in $prefix/lib, headers in $prefix/include/libusb-1.0
Build of igdaemon
- Unpack the iguanaIR source package
- Locate the file iguanaIR.h
- Change the line reading
#define IGSOCK_NAME "/dev/iguanaIR/"
to
#define IGSOCK_NAME "/dtv/dev/iguanaIR/"
- Configure the igdaemon build. Because some dependencies for libusb-1.0 for ARM are normally not installed on an x86-64 or x86 linux system, I set up a script for the configuration of igdaemon and libiguanaIR. Normally, I try and avoid the installation of ARM executables and libraries as much as I can, so I don't have libpopt and libusb installed. The only exception is libusb-1.0. It had to be installed to prevent interference with the native libusb (x86-64).This is the script:
BUILD_ROOT=`pwd` # exports for headers and libraries. export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi/include -I$BUILD_ROOT/../libusb/Inc -I../popt-1.16" export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi/lib -L$BUILD_ROOT/../libusb -L../popt-1.16/.libs" # exports for rpl_malloc() and rpl_realloc() macros export ac_cv_func_malloc_0_nonnull=yes export ac_cv_func_realloc_0_nonnull=yes ./configure --host arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi --disable-python
- run make
- After completion, the required binaries reside in the top-level build directory.
- to be able to build LIRC, create the following link in the top-level build directory:
ln -s libiguanaIR.so.0 libiguanaIR.so
Build of LIRC with Iguanaworks support
- Unpack the LIRC source package
- LIRC redefines some datatypes, which during the build leads to errors.
- Locate the file include/linux/types.h in the kernel source tree and comment out the lines described below (I know, not a very elegant way of getting things to work, but after two days of searching I got fed up and decided to do it the blunt way. This edit holds at least for kernel 2.6.18):
[marcelr@laptop46 linux]$ diff types.h.orig types.h 21,22c21,22 < typedef __kernel_fd_set fd_set; < typedef __kernel_dev_t dev_t; --- > /*typedef __kernel_fd_set fd_set;*/ > /*typedef __kernel_dev_t dev_t;*/ 24,25c24,25 < typedef __kernel_mode_t mode_t; < typedef __kernel_nlink_t nlink_t; --- > /*typedef __kernel_mode_t mode_t;*/ > /*typedef __kernel_nlink_t nlink_t;*/ 51,52c51,52 < typedef __kernel_uid_t uid_t; < typedef __kernel_gid_t gid_t; --- > /*typedef __kernel_uid_t uid_t;*/ > /*typedef __kernel_gid_t gid_t;*/ 140c140 < typedef unsigned long blkcnt_t; --- > /*typedef unsigned long blkcnt_t;*/
- Configure LIRC. Like for igdaemon, quite some options need to be set, so again a script is easier:
#! /bin/sh
export CPPFLAGS="-I/home/marcelr/build/iguanaworks/iguanaIR-1.0.1"
export LDFLAGS="-L/home/marcelr/build/iguanaworks/iguanaIR-1.0.1 -liguanaIR"
./configure --with-kerneldir=/home/marcelr/build/ue40b7020/toolchain/build/src/linux --host=arm-SamyGO-linux-gnueabi \
--with-driver=iguanaIR --with-transmitter
- You may encounter this error:
checking for Linux kernel sources... make: arm_v6_vfp_le-gcc: Command not found /tmp/LIRCMF.tFf5zE:1404: *** mixed implicit and normal rules. Stop. make: arm_v6_vfp_le-gcc: Command not found /tmp/LIRCMF.tFf5zE:1404: *** mixed implicit and normal rules. Stop. ./configure: line 15357: test: -eq: unary operator expected
This you can ignore, because there will be no kernel module for this particular device.
- run make.
- after successful completion, the required binaries reside in the daemons/ directory.
Installation of the software on the TV
To make things work the following binaries need to be transferred to the TV (I put them in /mtd_rwarea/iguanaworks/) Any place will do, as long as the filesystem you install it on supports links. RFS does. VFAT doesn't. When you decide to install stuff in other places, be aware of the fact that some source code and scripts will require editing.
# pwd /mtd_rwarea/iguanaworks # ls -R .: bin etc lib ./bin: SamyGO-IR-ctrl.sh igdaemon irsend lircd igclient irrecord irw lircmd ./etc: lirc ./etc/lirc: Samsung_AH59-02195C.conf ./lib: libiguanaIR.so libpopt.so libusb-1.0.so.0 libiguanaIR.so.0 libpopt.so.0 libusb-1.0.so.0.0.0 liblirc_client.so libpopt.so.0.0.0 libusb.so liblirc_client.so.0.2.1 libusb-1.0.so libusbpre1.so
You don't really need everything in bin/, some binaries are there just for testing purposes. As soon as that's done, they will be removed. The switching on of my TV is handled by bin/SamyGO-IR-ctrl.sh:
#! /bin/sh
#
# SamyGO-IR-ctrl.sh
#
# quick and dirty script to crank up lirc support for the iguanaworks
# usb IR transmitter for Samsung B-series TV's
#
# Call this script from the SamyGO.sh script.
#
# see www.iguanaworks.net for details on the transmitter
#
# marcelr, 15-9-2011.
#
# wait a little first
sleep 60
VAR_LOG=/dtv/var/log
VAR_RUN=/dtv/var/run
# kill existing lircd and igdaemon
if [ -f $VAR_RUN/lircd.pid ]; then
echo "stopping lircd"
rm $VAR_RUN/lircd.pid
rm $VAR_LOG/lircd.log
killall lircd
fi
if [ -f $VAR_RUN/igdaemon.pid ]; then
echo "stopping igdaemon"
rm $VAR_RUN/igdaemon.pid
rm $VAR_LOG/iguanaIR.log
killall igdaemon
fi
# set paths for binaries and libs
DATA_ROOT=/mtd_rwarea/iguanaworks
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$DATA_ROOT/lib
# create var directories in /dtv
mkdir -p $VAR_LOG
mkdir -p $VAR_RUN/lirc
SOCKET=$VAR_RUN/lirc/lircd
# create socket directory (requires patching of iguanaIR.h, line 57)
mkdir -p /dtv/dev/iguanaIR
# crank up iguanaIR daemon and wait
$DATA_ROOT/bin/igdaemon \
--no-ids -v -v -v -v \
-p $VAR_RUN/igdaemon.pid \
-l $VAR_LOG/iguanaIR.log
sleep 5
# check if something failed ... not very elegant, but it works.
# igdaemon fails every second time ...
grep "ailed" $VAR_LOG/iguanaIR.log
if [ $?==0 ]; then
echo "trying again"
rm $VAR_RUN/igdaemon.pid
# rm $VAR_LOG/iguanaIR.log
killall igdaemon
sleep 1
$DATA_ROOT/bin/igdaemon \
--no-ids -v -v -v -v \
-p $VAR_RUN/igdaemon.pid \
-l $VAR_LOG/iguanaIR.log
fi
# crank up lirc daemon:
$DATA_ROOT/bin/lircd \
-d /dtv/dev/iguanaIR/0 \
-o $SOCKET \
-H iguanaIR \
-P $VAR_RUN/lircd.pid \
-L $VAR_LOG/lircd.log \
$DATA_ROOT/etc/lirc/Samsung_AH59-02195C.conf
sleep 3
# start transmission:
$DATA_ROOT/bin/irsend -d $SOCKET set_transmitters 1 2 3 4
# switch on BD player:
$DATA_ROOT/bin/irsend -d $SOCKET send_once Samsung_AH59-02195C BD_Power
The IR commands for the remote are kept in etc/lirc/Samsung_AH59-02195C.conf:
# Please make this file available to others
# by sending it to <lirc@bartelmus.de>
#
# this config file was automatically generated
# using lirc-0.9.0(iguanaIR) on Sun Sep 11 20:59:27 2011
#
# contributed by marcelru
#
# brand: Samsung
# model no. of remote control: AH59-02195C
# devices being controlled by this remote: HT-BD8200
#
# The remote is capable of controlling both TV and Bluray home theatre,
# by choice of "TV" or "BD receiver" buttons, who don't generate IR codes by
# themselves. This not just toggles the pre-data bits (0xE0E0 for TV,
# 0xC2CA for Home theatre), but also changes the actual signal values ...
begin remote
name Samsung_AH59-02195C
bits 32
flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH
eps 30
aeps 100
header 4501 4452
one 558 1646
zero 558 503
ptrail 558
gap 107045
min_repeat 3
# suppress_repeat 3
# uncomment to suppress unwanted repeats
toggle_bit_mask 0x0
begin codes
BD_Power 0xC2CA807F
BD_Eject 0xC2CA0CF3
BD_Dimmer 0xC2CA18E7
BD_BD 0xC2CA9867
BD_Tuner 0xC2CA906F
BD_Aux 0xC2CA8877
BD_1 0xC2CA827D
BD_2 0xC2CA42BD
BD_3 0xC2CAC23D
BD_4 0xC2CA22DD
BD_5 0xC2CAA25D
BD_6 0xC2CA629D
BD_7 0xC2CAE21D
BD_8 0xC2CAFC03
BD_9 0xC2CAEC13
BD_0 0xC2CAF40B
BD_Audio 0xC2CA609F
BD_Subtitle 0xC2CA708F
BD_Previous 0xC2CAD827
BD_Step 0xC2CABC43
BD_Pause 0xC2CABE41
BD_Next 0xC2CAC837
BD_Rewind 0xC2CA2ED1
BD_Stop 0xC2CAD02F
BD_Play 0xC2CAC03F
BD_Fastforward 0xC2CAAE51
BD_Vol+ 0xC2CACC33
BD_Vol- 0xC2CADC23
BD_Mute 0xC2CA9C63
BD_V-sound 0xC2CA24DB
BD_Chan_up 0xC2CAC43B
BD_Chan_down 0xC2CAD42B
BD_Menu 0xC2CA6C93
BD_Return 0xC2CA38C7
BD_Arrow_up 0xC2CAB04F
BD_Arrow_down 0xC2CAA857
BD_Arrow_left 0xC2CAA45B
BD_Arrow_right 0xC2CAB847
BD_Enter 0xC2CAA05F
BD_Info 0xC2CA649B
BD_Exit 0xC2CA7E81
BD_Red 0xC2CADA25
BD_Green 0xC2CA2AD5
BD_Yellow 0xC2CAAA55
BD_Blue 0xC2CAEE11
BD_Popup/title_menu 0xC2CACA35
BD_Disc_menu 0xC2CA5AA5
BD_Zoom 0xC2CAF00F
BD_Pip 0xC2CA10EF
BD_Tuner_memory 0xC2CAB44B
BD_MO/ST 0xC2CA6A95
BD_Repeat_A/B 0xC2CA8A75
BD_Repeat 0xC2CA6699
BD_Cancel 0xC2CAE817
BD_Sleep 0xC2CA847B
BD_Slow 0xC2CAAC53
BD_Dsp 0xC2CA5EA1
TV_Power 0xE0E040BF
TV_Source 0xE0E0807F
TV_1 0xE0E020DF
TV_2 0xE0E0A05F
TV_3 0xE0E0609F
TV_4 0xE0E010EF
TV_5 0xE0E0906F
TV_6 0xE0E050AF
TV_7 0xE0E030CF
TV_8 0xE0E0B04F
TV_9 0xE0E0708F
TV_0 0xE0E08877
TV_Pause 0xE0E052AD
TV_Rewind 0xE0E0A25D
TV_Stop 0xE0E0629D
TV_Play 0xE0E0E21D
TV_Fastforward 0xE0E012ED
TV_Vol+ 0xE0E0E01F
TV_Vol- 0xE0E0D02F
TV_Mute 0xE0E0F00F
TV_Chan_up 0xE0E048B7
TV_Chan_down 0xE0E008F7
TV_Menu 0xE0E058A7
TV_Return 0xE0E01AE5
TV_Info 0xE0E0F807
TV_Exit 0xE0E0B44B
TV_Arrow_up 0xE0E006F9
TV_Arrow_down 0xE0E08679
TV_Arrow_left 0xE0E0A659
TV_Arrow_right 0xE0E046B9
TV_Enter 0xE0E016E9
TV_Red 0xE0E036C9
TV_Green 0xE0E028D7
TV_Yellow 0xE0E0A857
TV_Blue 0xE0E06897
TV_Sleep 0xE0E0C03F
end codes
end remote
For another remote, consult the remotes/ directory in the LIRC package, otherwise, you can record your own remote with the irrecord program, which is part of the LIRC package. In this example just a single switch-on of the HT is demonstrated. With some more programming many other options are possible.
Installation of the hardware
That's the easiest part. I just mounted the receiver/transmitter at the back of my TV.(see picture):
Just make sure that the device you want to control has a straight line of sight from its IR receiver to the transmitter.
Issues
- The fact that the kernel code needs patching for LIRC to compile is not very satisfactory. This obviously needs some work.
- The iguanaIR daemon fails every second time it gets started on the TV, complaining about time-outs. Needs to be fixed as well.
- When embedded in the TVs startup scripts, there's quite some waiting time needed before the daemons can be started. At startup, the TV (at least mine) is quite busy with all kinds of SamyGO additions, so time-critical devices like this transmitter can only be started successfully when most of the actions at startup have been completed. That's the main reason for the 60 second delay in the startup script.
- In case anyone's interested in precompiled binaries, PM me, and I'll get them to you. Don't know how to upload to the download area of SamyGO (yet).
marcelr, 26-9-2011.
