Getting Started LIRC (Linux Infra-Red Remote Control

LIRC is a package that allows you to receive, decode and send the infra-red (IR) signals used by many commonly available remote controls.

The most important part of LIRC is the lircd daemon that will decode IR signals received by the device drivers and provide the information on a socket, available for user applications.

Detailed information on LIRC project can be found in the official web site: http://www.lirc.org.

Driver Model

Platform supported

Using LIRC

Make sure that the LIRC package is installed, for example stm-sh4-lirc-0.6.6-6.sh4.rpm. Boot the ST40 Linux Kernel on your target board and perform the following steps:

• Create the lirc device in your target FS:

  target# mkdir /dev/lirc
  target# mknod -m 666 /dev/lirc/0 c 61 0

• Load the generic LIRC device driver into the kernel:

  target# insmod -f lirc_dev.o

• Load the hardware specific device driver using the insmod command. For example:
  • for the STi5528 Evaluation board (mb376):
    • lirc_mb376_UHF.o
    • lirc_mb376_IRB.o
    The IRB and UHF receivers are identical and independent, except that the IRB receiver does not use the noise filter. On this platform the receptors are jumper selectable as following:
    • Jumper 81: 1-2: IRDA input; 2-3: UHF input
    • Jumper 86 must be set as 1-2 (IRDA input enable)
  • for the Espresso
    • lirc_Espresso_UHF.o
    This platform doesn't require any HW setting; only the UHF receiver is used.
• Start the lircd daemon:

  target# lircd --device=/dev/lirc/0 /etc/lircd.conf

• Run now your application or a lirc test (for example irw, it will access the /dev/lircd device and will print the received data on the stdout).

How-to get the sources