View source for Script - SKY channel changer

{{Script info
|author=David Greaves
|short=Channel-change script for Sky
|long=Channel-change script for Sky
|category=Channel Change Scripts
|name=SKY channel changer}}


Here's a channel changer script for Sky in the UK. It cooperates with  [[SKY dog remover script]].

My box occasionally misses a digit so this is thorough:
* send a couple of BACKUPS to clear things out.
* wait a second
* do it again
* sleep 2 seconds to let the channel change happen
* send a couple of BACKUPs to clear the show info banner

You can achieve faster and more reliable channel changes on sky hardware by using a wired solution instead of infra-red. The [[UK_Television#Sky.2FSky.2B_Box]] page lists several options.

{{perl|/usr/local/bin/change_channel|
<pre>
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use ir;

my $chan=join(" ", split(//,$ARGV[0]));

get_lock || die "No lock : $!\n";

print "Sending $chan\n";
system "irsend SEND_ONCE SKY BACKUP BACKUP $chan";
sleep 1;
system "irsend SEND_ONCE SKY BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP";
sleep 1;
system "irsend SEND_ONCE SKY BACKUP BACKUP $chan";
sleep 2;
system "irsend SEND_ONCE SKY BACKUP";

clear_lock;
</pre>
}}

I install this as <code><nowiki>/usr/local/bin/change_channel</nowiki></code>

It uses <code><nowiki>ir.pm</nowiki></code>:

{{Code box|/usr/local/lib/site_perl/ir.pm|
<pre>
# a couple of useful utility functions for locking during IR activity
use Fcntl;

my $MAX_TRIES = 10;
my $LOCK_FILE="/tmp/ir_lock";

sub get_lock() {
  my $tries = 0;
  while (-f $LOCK_FILE && $tries < $MAX_TRIES ) {
    sleep 1;
    $tries ++;
  }
  return 0 if $tries == $MAX_TRIES ;
  sysopen(IR_LCK, $LOCK_FILE, O_RDWR | O_EXCL | O_CREAT) || return 0;
  return 1;
}

sub clear_lock() {
    close IR_LCK;
    unlink($LOCK_FILE);
}

1;
</pre>
}}

This is installed as <code><nowiki>/usr/local/lib/site_perl/ir.pm</nowiki></code>

Ask if you have any problems --[[Abandoned_User_Pages#David_Greaves|David Greaves]]

[[Category:HOWTO]]
[[Category:Channel Change Scripts]]