IR Control via LIRC on Raspberry Pi Zero W – Isaax Camp https://camp.isaax.io/hc/en-us/articles/360000237908-IR-Control-via-LI...

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Updated 18 days ago

Illustration by Victorgrigas

Even though many modern home appliances have moved to Bluetooth or WiFi (or in some cases
some custom radio-based communication) controls, many of them are still controlled via IR. Having
a universal IR control attached to an SBC located somewhere in a room is a very powerful feature
for a smart home or even a public area. Turning on, raising volume on a TV with a smartphone?
Scheduled AC power-up with a target temperature in a hospital waiting room? No problem!

In this article we're going to build a prototype with RasPi Zero, some IR receiver/transmitter
diodes and LIRC to record and replay IR commands for a TV. We'll make our RasPi turn on the
TV at a scheduled time and Isaax will help us deploy and update the code.

When I first thought of controlling my TV via alternative means, the idea was to use Arduino
with IR diodes and a desktop PC / SBC to talk to Arduino. While there is a couple of decent IR
libraries for Arduino IDE I felt they were a bit bulky to use. Its hard to detect and map
commands and add new remote controls if they have different IR protocols. I mean it's totally
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libraries for Arduino IDE I felt they were a bit bulky to use. Its hard to detect and map
commands and add new remote controls if they have different IR protocols. I mean it's totally
doable, just a little bit hard to manage.

LIRC on the other hand, significantly reduces the burden of IR command detection and
mapping and since RasPi Zero W is a Linux-based SBC and is very comparable to most
Arduino/ESP boards price-wise - I'd say it wins as a universal IR control big time.

And to add to this: LIRC has wrappers for most modern languages (Python, Node.js, Go, etc.)!

Ok, so here is the list of what we will use for the prototype:

a Raspberry Pi Zero W
a transmitting IR diode
a receiving IR diode (I used TSOP1738)
the IR remote control from the device you want to control (mine was
a Samsung TV)
some regular pins to be soldered to the RasPi for the dupont wires
(optional)
dupont wires (optional)

Here is the self-explanatory fritzing:

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Here is the self-explanatory fritzing:

We wire IR receiver signal to GPIO17 and IR transmitter to GPIO27 .

Note: If you want a more robust hardware IR solution, take a look at this nice RasPi HAT:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/anavi-technology/infrared-phat

While LIRC installation is no different from a usual Linux app, the configuration is a bit tricky.
LIRC moved to systemd and devmapper driver as default recently (since 0.9.4), but all of the
guides for LIRC+RasPi out there refer to upstart / hardware.conf config. So you might find
yourself lost on how to configure LIRC the devmapper way for RasPi.

To tackle this we will switch the driver from devmapper to 'default', then just add the usual
hardware.conf and configure LIRC the old way.

Note: If you do know how to configure LIRC on RasPi with devmapper we would love to see your
solution down in the comments.

Here is step by step guide for RasPi on Raspbian Stretch:

Install LIRC:

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install lirc

Switch from devmapper to default in your /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf :

driver = default
device = /dev/lirc0
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driver default
device = /dev/lirc0

Create /etc/lirc/hardware.conf file with the following content:

LIRCD_ARGS="--uinput"
LOAD_MODULES=true
DRIVER="default"
DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
MODULES="lirc_rpi"
LIRCD_CONF=""
LIRCMD_CONF=""

In your /boot/config.txt :

dtoverlay=lirc-rpi,gpio_in_pin=17,gpio_out_pin=27

GPIO17 for IR input, GPIO27 for output, remember?

Restart LIRC:

sudo systemctl stop lircd.service

sudo systemctl start lircd.service

Check LIRC status:

sudo systemctl status lircd.service

And finally reboot:

sudo reboot

Let's check if our setup works. Stop LIRC:

sudo systemctl stop lircd.service

Use mode2 command to test IR receiver:

mode2 -d /dev/lirc0

Now grab the remote and press some buttons, you should see something like this:

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IR Control via LIRC on Raspberry Pi Zero W – Isaax Camp https://camp.isaax.io/hc/en-us/articles/360000237908-IR-Control-via-LI...

Now grab the remote and press some buttons, you should see something like this:

If you see similar output, treat yourself - you are halfway there!

Now is the time for real LIRC magic - command recording. Make sure LIRC is
not running and type this:

irrecord -d /dev/lirc0

Then follow the guide and record some commands from your remote. You will be prompted to
press random buttons first to 'generate dots', then press a single button as fast as you can, etc
- real fun! After you're done LIRC will generate the remote configuration file with the recorded
commands.

I ended up with a file the looks like this /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/tv.lircd.conf :

begin remote
name tv
bits 16
flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH
eps 30
aeps 100

header 4484 4536

one 529 1710
zero 529 594
ptrail 532
pre_data_bits 16
pre_data 0xE0E0
gap 108055
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pre_data 0xE0E0
gap 108055
toggle_bit_mask 0x0
frequency 38000

begin codes
key_power 0x40BF
key_volumeup 0xE01F
key_volumedown 0xD02F
end codes

end remote

Notice that I have three commands recorded here :

key_power ,  key_volumeup and  key_volumedown . Pretty obvious, I guess. LIRC has
reserved keywords for command names (you won't be able to enter custom ones), to list them
type:

irrecord --list | less

Lets see if we can send the recorded commands. To power up the TV, type:

irsend send_once tv key_power

If your TV went online, treat yourself once again - you are almost there!
If not, here are some tips to troubleshoot:

use irsend send_start ... to start repeating the command and look at your
transmitting IR diode through a camera. Digital cameras detect IR light and you should
see it blinking. By the way, that's how night vision works: you 'light up' the scene with
invisible IR light (remember those numerous LEDs around surveillance cameras?) and the
camera 'sees' the scene clearly.
if the transmitter is blinking but TV doesn't react, make sure there are no obstacles
between the diode and the TV receiver and the diode 'is looking directly' at it. I used a
cheap IR LED and it really needed to be directed straight at the TV. But the original IR
transmitter from the TV's remote worked even through the palm of my hand!
if the transmitter doesn't blink - make sure that all the contacts are soldered/connected
properly and GPIO config is correct

Note: Bear in mind that AirCon controls (the ones with LCD displays on them) behave differently
from TV-like controls. They send configuration, not commands, so you won't be able to record
them with irrecord . Sending configuration is more advanced but, you can, for example, set
target value for temperature and set swing mode with one 'packet' (i.e. set temperature to 24, swing
off). And as you already may have guessed, you can't set target volume with a TV remote command
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off). And as you already may have guessed, you can't set target volume with a TV remote command
- only increase/decrease. Detecting and replaying AC configs is a different story and is out of scope
of this article, but its is still possible with LIRC.

Now why don't we control LIRC from our application? I guess there is no reason why we
couldn't call a command and handle its output with any programming language we like. But
LIRC has been around for a while and is now quite mature, so mature in fact that convenience
wrappers have emerged in many languages. Some languages even have multiple wrappers,
some have LIRC/HTTP wrappers, and there is a wrapper for Node-RED too!

As I'm a Node.js guy - I'll demonstrate it using lirc_node npm package. The code is pretty
trivial: the TV is powered up on scheduled time each day. I won't go into detail, you can look at
the code here: https://github.com/yentsun/node-lirc-isaax-example

One small thing to note is, I set the hour and minute for the schedule with env vars. This is done
to easily change them via Isaax envars - no code commits needed.

If you have no idea how to setup a new project and register a device on Isaax - you are
welcome to go through the guides here: User Manual.

Before we register our RasPi as an Isaax device, we need to do two things:

set up project's envars for the schedule:

change the project's post-update script so Isaax Agent will install npm packages after
each update (but before the apllication actually starts running):

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Ok, we are ready to register our RasPi and launch it as an Isaax project's device. If everything
went well, you should see the output in the Isaax 'Notifications' pane. In my case, when I
update the schedule via envars I see:

And when the time comes and the IR command is sent I see:

That's it! You are now prepared for the ultimate IR control hub deployment!
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That's it! You are now prepared for the ultimate IR control hub deployment!
Manipulate TVs, heaters, AC units, colored lamps and what not with you RasPi and LIRC... and
Isaax.

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