Now that we seem to have a reliable and affordable serial-over-Ethernet solution (big tnx to guessed), it would be nice to find… reliable and affordable serial IR blaster (yes, I know GC100 can do that too, but it’s no fun, and sort of expensive if you need more then one).
So I found this, I no nothing about its availability and reliability, so if anybody can chime it…
This kit might be quite practical
http://www.irblaster.info/distribution.html
Any other ideas/sources/solutions?
I use one with my MythTV/LIRC setup - works fine (I also bought several IR receivers from the same place). I was thinking of eventually using this IR blaster with Vera instead of USB-UIRT, but haven’t had time to finish my experimenting, which I started with Asus WL-520gU. I kind of referred to it as “other IR dongle” here:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=1968.msg7470#msg7470
Of course, it requires USB-Serial cable, but with the new ethernet-serial solution from guessed, it sounds even more promising…
Our devices work with lirc. They do not use a standard RS232 protoocol. The PC simply uses the RS232 port as GPIO.We do have some info on installing lirc on a router with one of our $6
tivo style ir blasters which could then be controlled over a lan:
IRBlaster.info: LIRC on a Router
What do we know about LIRC support in Vera?
Just remember that my “remoting” Serial solution is a more “Application level” solution for Vera-Lua-Ethernet-Serial. It’s not an OS-Level “remoting” driver that the Linux Kernal LIRC drivers will understand (or see for that matter)
It’s really designed to handle “Vera’s” Application concept of a Serial Port, and the remoting of it, not the Linux layer…
You’d need the latter to support the low level LIRC drivers (unless someone wanted to port them to Lua somehow… which would be funny 8^)
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised in the Linux drivers could be pulled together to make it work (over either option, with low level Linux config) but someone would have to put in the time (including all the futzing with RPM’s given how broken that is under Vera’s OpenWRT)
The PC simply uses the RS232 port as GPIO.
That’s not going to “remote” easily. It’s similar to what the USB-UIRT driver is doing (last I read it).
Everything said is true, except the RPM piece… It’s deb/ipk in OpenWRT, which is not a big difference, actually.
Vera (Lime :) , 2.78)
Hey, mister beta-tester of the new firmware! 
When are we getting it? Or even better - can we become beta-testers before then? 
[quote=“denix, post:5, topic:165441”]
Vera (Lime
Hey, mister beta-tester of the new firmware! When are we getting it? Or even better - can we become beta-testers before then? ;)[/quote]
Yes, where can we sign up for the elite beta squad?
[quote=“guessed, post:4, topic:165441”]Just remember that my “remoting” Serial solution is a more “Application level” solution for Vera-Lua-Ethernet-Serial. It’s not an OS-Level “remoting” driver that the Linux Kernal LIRC drivers will understand (or see for that matter)
It’s really designed to handle “Vera’s” Application concept of a Serial Port, and the remoting of it, not the Linux layer…
You’d need the latter to support the low level LIRC drivers (unless someone wanted to port them to Lua somehow… which would be funny 8^)
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised in the Linux drivers could be pulled together to make it work (over either option, with low level Linux config) but someone would have to put in the time (including all the futzing with RPM’s given how broken that is under Vera’s OpenWRT)
The PC simply uses the RS232 port as GPIO.
That’s not going to “remote” easily. It’s similar to what the USB-UIRT driver is doing (last I read it).[/quote]
Wait a second.
If I’m not mistaken WIZ110SR acts as merely a repeater, just as if you connected serial device straight to Vera. There’s no application layer involved, so GPIO or not should be totally transparent - it’s just a port. If this is the case, then all we need is to have MCV add lirc drivers to Vera’s build - and it should be all native from there.
@325xi, perhaps it will help if we first look at what the IRC circuit looks like, and how it electrically connects to the RS-232 connector.
Here’s a relatively simple circuit representation:
http://www.lirc.org/transmitters.html
You can see they wire it up to the DTR port on the RS-232 connector. Depending upon the state of the DTR, the LED will either be on or off (the rest of the components are really just to current protect the DTR itself, since the LED might need more current than can be supplied.
Anyhow, what these folks do in Software is to modulate the DTR pin of the Serial port at various frequencies, and using various modulation styles, to simulate what a real IR Transmission would look like.
This is [tt]NOT[/tt] a RS-232 data transmission. This is a very creative use of a TTL output (DTR) on a Serial connector, along with some smart software.
All of this modulation software is going on inside the LIRC driver, at a very low level in the Kernel.
The USB-UIRT isn’t much different, except that it’s got a FTDI chipset (or whatever) inside that’s providing/exposing a DTR line (or any other TTL Line) to modulate per the above. Technically speaking, they just changed the style of electrical connection (from RS-232 to USB) and got access to a TTL line in a different manner.
Now, the WIZnet…
The WIZnet is a bi-directional Ethernet-packet to RS-232 Byte string converter. You configure it with Serial Baud Rates, #Stop Bits etc (standard RS-232 Serial stuff) and then you connect to it over TCP/IP and start sending it Arrays of Bytes (in packet form)
The WIZnet takes these bytes and converts them into a series of Bits, and adds Start/Stop bits and transmits them at the Baud rate that’s been configured.
Internally, it controls all it’s TTL lines (CTS, DTR, etc, etc) and makes them work according to the RS-232 specification, based upon the data it’s receiving and the configuration set.
Make sense?
Putting it another way, I could use my Light switch to send Morse-code, by modulating it correctly, but it really wasn’t designed to do that.
Someone mentioned in one of the other threads a “Ethernet native” IR Blaster that more natively implemented “commands” and other high level structures.
That would likely be a better fit overall, albeit more costly, since it’s a circuit that contains more than a transistor, a few resistors and high current LED.
Yep, I realized that once I googled about LIRC a bit
I recommend you get the windows version of the serial ir blaster for this which uses the serial port tx pin as the gpio instead of the dtr pin.
So it doesn’t have to be DTR, if it makes it any easier…
Whether it’s the DTR Pin, or the TX Pin, it doesn’t matter. They’re using this as a TTL (not quite, but near enough for this discussion) that they put into “Raw” mode and modulate it.
You simply aren’t going to get that level of control unless you’re directly connected to the chipset driving that pin.
Ultimately though, I’m wondering if it’s really worth all this effort. The Ethernet iTach-IR is about US$110, the PoE version is about 140 and the WiFi about the same.
It’ll likely be easier to use this as an off-the-shelf component than trying to “build” one from bits.
I use the Ethernet-RS232 WIZnet because it was 70+ cheaper than other solutions, it’s off the shelf (etc). I’m not convinced I’d build-my-own when the time comes to be forced to use IR, I’d likely just pick the lowest cost “off-the-shelf” option available to me at that time… and if it’s only a few hours of Lua away, then that’s fine too
Just found another alternative for serial server…
A router with built-in serial port, model RB750 costs about $32 (and it can do a lot more with its 400MHz CPU)
Hi guys,
I registered just to suggest this product:
[url=http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene-electronics/keene-ir-anywhere-ir-over-ip-module-(single)/KIRAM.html]http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene-electronics/keene-ir-anywhere-ir-over-ip-module-(single)/KIRAM.html[/url]
It ain’t serial, but to me this one’s better Ethernet IR receiver/blaster, which isn’t a gc100 or i-Tach. The protocol is text-based and not complicated at all according to the API docs.
Cheers
[quote=“Uplink, post:12, topic:165441”]Hi guys,
I registered just to suggest this product:
[url=http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene-electronics/keene-ir-anywhere-ir-over-ip-module-(single)/KIRAM.html]http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene-electronics/keene-ir-anywhere-ir-over-ip-module-(single)/KIRAM.html[/url]
It ain’t serial, but to me this one’s better Ethernet IR receiver/blaster, which isn’t a gc100 or i-Tach. The protocol is text-based and not complicated at all according to the API docs.
Cheers[/quote]Looks like a nice product.
For the collection - here is another product link IRTrans Infrared Control System
A bit pricey, but seems to be a very nice device.
I never owned the stand-alone unit, but the basic receiver module bundled with my PC case works just fine. The s/w part is the moded LIRCD (comes with source) and as such is fully compatible with LIRC clients. The latest controller has USB, ethernet, PoE and Wi-Fi. As it uses simple text-based LIRC telnet protocol it should be piece of cake to integrate with Vera.
At this price it’s unlikely to be popular enough (IMHO)
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