Re: USB Receiver Advice?

On 10/15/17 08:39, Wade Berrier wrote:
> ...

> My next computer upgrade didn't have serial, so I opted for an hp mce 
> usb receiver from ebay.  There were some issues using this receiver with 
> usb2, so I pursued[1] getting a patch upstream to get it working.

I have had pretty good experience with this thing, both for sending 
(plugging one or two stick-on emitters in the back) and receiving. But I 
have used it directly from /dev/lirc using IrScrutinizer, so this may 
not contradict your experience.

> The problem is, it only "registers" about 80% of the button presses. I'm 
> not sure where the issue lies.  mceusb driver issue?  Pulse frequency 
> mismatch issue?  (ie: remote is 38kHz, and I think the mce receiver is 
> 36kHz?)  Not sure... Any thoughts on this?

As has been said many time (but still is not in the FAQ?), 38 vs 36 kHz 
is not an issue.

> In any case, I started investigating other options.  I happened to 
> stumble upon building a receiver with an ftdi chip.  I got a 
> TTL-232R-3V3-PCB and a TSOP53438 from digikey and soldered it together. 
> It seems to have great range, and xmode2 looks pretty good.  But, when I 
> go to use irrecord to generate a remote file, I get the following error:
> 
>      Something went wrong: Cannot decode data
 >
> I can record in "raw" mode, but that seems wrong to not be able to 
> decode a well know ir signal (NEC).  Plus, it appears that this method 
> doesn't properly decode the "repeated" button marker code.  Any 
> suggestions for this?

IMHO, it is time to retire irrecord. You can use IrScrutinizer instead, 
either reading from /dev/lirc or by using mode2.

> So, my next thought is to try another receiver that's well used and 
> tested among lirc folks, which seem to be: IguanaIR, IrToy, or GIR/arduino.

Iguana should work fine; I think Alec is the expert here. Drawback is 
that it requires a daemon process. Alec?

IrToy basically works fine, but often seems to exhibit some "quirks". I 
recommend using the in-official firmware called 2.4. (There is a "clone" 
available with the name IrDroid, "half" the capacities for "double" the 
price... Among other things, the non-demodulating receiver and the boot 
loader are missing.)

The Arduino/AGirs stuff are from me, so I am biased here of course.

The two latter options also work directly with IrScrutinizer.

> The other option is to get all of them and see which one works best :)

Please do, and report back!

Greetz,

Bengt

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