IR Remote Control with Lirc

[waffle]

Now that the Moode 6.5.0 is released and I had to reinstall lirc, I thought I'd share an up-to-date guide.
At the time of writing the current lirc version is 0.10.1

Guide updated for Moode 8.3.0. Current lirc version is 0.10.2.

Setup

1. Install lirc:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y lirc

2. Navigate to lirc directory and disable the devinput driver config:

Code:

cd /etc/lirc
sudo mv ./lircd.conf.d/devinput.lircd.conf ./lircd.conf.d/devinput.lircd.conf.dist

3. Set up the hardware

Open lirc_options.conf:

Code:

sudo nano lirc_options.conf

And replace

Code:

driver          = devinput
device          = auto

with

Code:

driver          = default
device          = /dev/lirc0

4. Set the input pin you want to use

Open /boot/config.txt:

Code:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

And add this line at the end (replace 25 with whichever gpio pin you use):

Code:

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=25

5. Set up the irexec service to start on boot:

Code:

sudo systemctl enable irexec

6. Reboot


Usage

All your remotes are stored in /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/ directory.
You can have multiple configuration files for different remotes:

Code:

ls /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/
KNOB.lircd.conf  RC-5330.lircd.conf  RM-860.lircd.conf

These files contain remote-specific protocol information and translate IR codes to user-defined key codes:

Code:

   KEY_POWER                    0x0EFB38
   KEY_UP                       0x0EFBA7
   KEY_DOWN                     0x0EFBA6

   
These key codes are then used in irexec.lircrc file to map button presses to actions (see The lircrc file format)

Code:

begin
   prog   = irexec
   button = KEY_POWER
   config = python /home/pi/scripts/shutdown.py
end

begin
   prog   = irexec
   button = KEY_UP
   repeat = 1
   delay = 2
   config = mpc volume +5
end

You can get remote configuration files from the remotes database, or you can record them manually using the irrecord utility:

1. Stop the lircd service:

Code:

sudo systemctl stop lircd

2. Run irrecord and follow the instructions, the generated file will be saved as /home/pi/myremote.lircd.conf:

Code:

irrecord -n -d /dev/lirc0 ~/myremote.lircd.conf

3. Copy the file to lirc remotes directory:

Code:

sudo cp /home/pi/myremote.lircd.conf /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/myremote.lircd.conf

After adding your remotes and configuring the lircrc file, restart lircd and irexec services:

Code:

sudo systemctl restart lircd
sudo systemctl restart irexec