I bought an MCE Remote to go along with Mythtv. This was a generic ebay MCE Remote with a label VRC-1100. This remote also
goes by the name of Hama MCE Remote, or ORTEK VRC-1100. This guide is based on three other ones, sources are listed below.
– Plug in the IR Sensor
– Open up a terminal and execute the command:
$ cat /proc/bus/input/devices
– The output will look something like this :
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=05a4 Product=9881 Version=0110
N: Name=”HID 05a4:9881″
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:02.0-3/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.0/input/input7
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=sysrq kbd event7
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=e080ffdf01cfffff fffffffffffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7I: Bus=0003 Vendor=05a4 Product=9881 Version=0110
N: Name=”HID 05a4:9881″
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:02.0-3/input1
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.1/input/input8
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd mouse0 event8
B: EV=17
B: KEY=1f0000 2020000 3878d801d001 1e000000000000 0
B: REL=103
B: MSC=10
– Identify your remote by looking for the two sections of code that contain the code “Name= “HID 05a4:9881”, I read that because this remote has a mouse and a keypad, it has two of these sections. Look for the section of the code that says what event your remote has. Mine ended up being event 2 and event 3. Make a note of this.
– If you havent yet, istall LIRC, Answer none to both questions that the LIRC installer asks you
$ sudo apt-get install lirc
– Next, edit the hardware.conf file under /etc/lirc/
$ sudo nano /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
– Once open, erase (and backup if you want) the contents by pressing Ctrl-K multiple times, then paste the contents of the hardware.conf file included.
– Replace the events2 and event 3 in the hardware.conf file with the corresponding events that your machine detected.
– Save the file by pressing “Ctrl-X” and then saying “Yes”.
– Now edit the next Lirc file by executing:
$ sudo nano /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
– Once again pressing “Ctrl-K” to erase the contents and paste everything in the lircd.conf file onto the lircd.conf file.
– Save the file.
– Once you have these two files, its time to test if they are setup correctly. Restart LIRC.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart
– Followed by the lines :
$ irw or $ irw /dev/lircd
– If everything works correctly, pressing buttons on the remote will display a signal on the terminal. If you dont get this something has gone wrong…
– This third file (lircrc) I needed to create because It wasnt in my system. Execute:
$ sudo nano ~/.mythtv/lircrc
– Paste everything from the lircrc file onto this file.(Again, backup as you need).
– LAST : make sure the device is listed properly on mythtv general settings, this should be the default settings upon installing mythtv.
/dev/lirc
Problems:
– I have to restart lircd everytime the computer starts so that lircd is loaded at startup.
– I flipped the Volume and Channel buttons so that I could hold down the volume keys(channel on remote) and Mythtv would repreat the signal.
—————–
Sources:
http://xbmcmediacenter.com/hama-mce-remote-lirc/
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=230550
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VRC-1100_Ortek_Technology_MCE_Clone_Remote
lircrc.txt <– Remove the extension “.txt” and put on the ~/.mythtv/ folder
lircd.conf <– This goes in the /etc/lirc/ folder
hardware.conf <– This goes in the /etc/lirc/ folder as well