[pvrusb2] IR doesn't work

[Mike Isely]

On Fri, 16 May 2008, Miguel Sevillano Torrado wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have a problem with my remote control in my PVR (Wintv-PVR-USB2). I
> have installed the Debian packages (my SO is Debian Linux 4.0) as it is
> described in
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/LIRC_on_Debian_Etch , but it didn't
> work finally. My model is  24029 LF Rev E189 Multi-PAL.
> 
> The problem is that when I try irw, or mode2, or cat /dev/lirc/0,
> nothing is detected. I press several buttons on the remote control, but
> the mode2 command returns nothing. How can I solve this? I send you some
> information I think it is useful:
> 
> maradona:~# tail /var/log/messages
> May 11 19:26:57 localhost -- MARK --
> May 11 19:46:57 localhost -- MARK --
> May 11 20:06:57 localhost -- MARK --
> May 11 20:26:58 localhost -- MARK --
> May 11 20:32:32 localhost kernel: i2c /dev entries driver
> May 11 20:32:32 localhost kernel: lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver
> registered, at major 61
> May 11 20:32:32 localhost kernel: lirc_i2c: chip found @ 0x71 (Hauppauge
> IR (PVR150))
> May 11 20:32:32 localhost kernel: lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin:
> sample_rate: 10
> May 11 20:46:58 localhost -- MARK --
> 
> 
> maradona:~# lsmod |grep i2c
> lirc_i2c                9092  0
> lirc_dev               13716  1 lirc_i2c
> i2c_dev                 8548  0
> i2c_algo_bit            8424  2 cx88xx,bttv
> i2c_i801                7468  0
> i2c_core               19680  11
> lirc_i2c,i2c_dev,cx88xx,bttv,i2c_algo_bit,wm8775,tuner,cx25840,pvrusb2,i2c_i801,tveeprom
> 
> maradona:~# dmesg | tail -4
> i2c /dev entries driver
> lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, at major 61
> lirc_i2c: chip found @ 0x71 (Hauppauge IR (PVR150))
> lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 10
> 
> maradona:~# l /dev/lirc*
> srw-rw-rw- 1 root root  0 2008-05-11 20:34 /dev/lircd
> 
> /dev/lirc:
> total 0
> crw-rw----  1 root video 61, 0 2008-05-11 20:32 0
> drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     60 2008-05-11 20:32 .
> drwxr-xr-x 16 root root   4,4K 2008-05-11 20:34 ..
> 
> 
>     When I execute  lircd -d /dev/lirc/0 and mode2 -d /dev/lirc/0, then
> I press buttons on my remote, and it prints nothing in the console. Can
> you help me?

Unfortunately there are several versions of the 24xxx device floating 
around.  Does yours have an IR blaster built in?  If it does, then I 
think I can explain this.  If it does not then I can't suggest a cause.

I had posted an explanation about this a while back, but I will try to 
recap here:

The first PVR USB2 device was the 29xxx series.  This device contained 
an IR receiver that was functionally identical to those found in 
ivtv-driven devices at the time.  The way the pvrusb2 driver dealt with 
this was not to deal with it at all.  Rather, all you had to do was 
install lirc and let the lirc_i2c driver probe for its IR receiver chip 
(via an I2C adapter driver in the pvrusb2 driver) and all would be well.

Then Hauppauge produced a newer device, known as the 24xxx series.  This 
had a number of hardware changes.  I modified the pvrusb2 driver to 
adapt accordingly, which is why the driver handles either device just as 
well.  But one of the changes was the IR receiver.  Hauppauge removed 
the discrete I2C-hosted IR receiver chip and replaced it with some FPGA 
logic, all accessed not by I2C but rather by some additional commands to 
the FX2.  I really didn't want to get into the business of rolling my 
own IR chip driver, so I did something different in the pvrusb2 driver.  
For 24xxx series devices, the driver creates a "fake" IR receiver chip 
in software - from outside the driver it looks exactly like the chip 
found in the 29xxx devices and thus the same lirc_i2c driver can attach 
and "operate" it.  Internally, the pvrusb2 driver implements the fake 
chip by translating operations aimed at it into appropriate commands to 
the FPGA logic.  (This was almost trivial to emulate because the 
interface is very simple.)  Problem solved.  For now.

Then a while ago Hauppauge changed the device again.  This time the 
changes were not as pervasive and they kept the model number the same.  
Unfortunately however the IR receiver changed again.  They added an 
internal IR blaster to the device, and in doing so the IR receiver once 
again became a "normal" I2C device in the box.  However it's a 
completely different device now so the lirc_i2c driver can't recognize.  
Instead, later versions of lirc (8.1 or later?) contain another IR 
receiver driver that you're supposed to use instead.  I don't know the 
details though because I haven't really tried this.  Others have, and 
report success.  There is a discussion about this in the list archives.

Unfortunately there is a point of confusion though.  See Hauppauge 
didn't change the model number on this last spin so the pvrusb2 driver 
still treats this 3rd variant as the same 24xxx device.  Thus the driver 
still creates that "fake" IR receiver chip, and then lirc_i2c will 
happily probe it and try to use it.  But it won't work because the 
internal FPGA stuff of course isn't there anymore.  So you're left with 
what looks like a dead receiver.

There is a module option you can specify to turn off the fake receiver.  
I suspect if you turn it off, then lirc_i2c will go away.  The option is 
"ir_mode"; see here:

http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/usage.html#Logging

for the description.

So this is why I'm asking if you have the 24xxx model with the IR 
blaster.  If you do, then you're probably erroneously talking to the 
fake receiver and not the real one - which needs a different LIRC 
driver.  I don't remember the LIRC driver name off the top of my head, 
but it's in the archives here and perhaps someone else might add his/her 
$0.02 here about that.  If you don't have the IR blaster on your device, 
then my only comment is that everything you showed above looks correct 
and that the problem must be in how you have LIRC itself setup, but 
there I can't help you :-(

  -Mike


-- 

Mike Isely
isely @ pobox (dot) com
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