[mythtv-users] LIRC and serial to usb

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Sat Mar 24 12:13:18 UTC 2007


On Mar 24, 2007, at 5:42 AM, Brian Walter wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I've decided on the IR Receiver from irblaster.info.  This particular
> one uses a serial port.  However, the motherboard I'm building this
> system on does not have an integrated serial port.
>
> Two questions:
>
> 1) The motherboard has a connector for a serial port, just needs the
> port/bracket (not a card).  Has anyone found *just* a bracket for  
> serial
> ports to be connected to the motherboard?

Usually these come with the motherboard. You have to be careful as  
there is no accepted "standard" for the pinout and they vary with the  
maker, if you have the docs you can see what the various pins are and  
make your own with a DB9 or DB-25 connector.

>
> 2) I've found serial to USB adapter cables.  Is this a viable  
> solution?
> Has anyone tried this with success?

Again you have to be careful. Most of the devices made to be used  
with LIRC use the signaling lines of the RS-232 ports in a non- 
standard way, and thus USB-to-serial adapters will not work. I  
believe the unit you mention falls into that category.

Units like the MyBlaster (which may no longer be available from what  
I've seen here) use the serial port in a "normal" way and thus will  
work with a USB-to-serial adapter if it supported by Linux itself.

Costs are funny, you can buy an entire PVR-150 with a built-in IR  
blaster that will work with a patched LIRC for less than the cost of  
some USB-to-Serial adapters alone, which may not even work. Sort of  
like getting a cheap blaster with a free capture card with hardware  
encoding and the remote itself, for under $50.

But those are USA prices and I'm not sure where you are, I know  
prices start getting pretty ridiculous outside the USA. gmail could  
be anywhere on the planet (or even beyond I suppose).


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