Smart Home Blog

CommandIR 2 - a second generation of hardware extension for Linux media PC’s, was reviewed on the MythPVR.com. It allows to control Linux box itself and any A/V equipment via IR. The CommandIR 2 is equiped by four independently controlled IR blasters, on-board IR receiver, wired IR receiver (optional), six software controllable LEDs (they can be used to indicate something like starting recording, high level of system load etc) and USB port to connect the PC.

The CommandIR 2 is design specially for Linux. MythTV supports it from the box. But for other Linux distributions the CommandIR 2 can be configured manually.

The CommandIR 2 seems very interesting devices to extend control of home entertainment system. It’d be nice to add it into LinuxMCE since it already supports GC100, IRTrans USB, Tira-2.1 and USB-UIRT.

[via MythPVR.com]

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Using Nokia770 or its next generation N800 is limited just your imagination and a little bit of hardware issue. The new Maemo application Ir Remote Control can be a good confirmation of that. The application gives a easy way to use Internet Tablet as remote control for your A/V equipment and home appliance.

The first versions of the Ir Remote Control used a dedicated PC with running LIRC server there. The latest one has its own LIRC back-end and supports IR Trance Ethernet to send IR command via LAN.

Basically, the Ir Remote Control uses LIRC client library to send desired command:

netirsend --server 'localhost' --port '8765' 'SEND_ONCE' 'Yamaha_RAV16' 'Vol+'

where
- server - IP address or service name where LIRC is running;
- post - LIRC server port;
- SEND_ONCE - LIRC directive, can be also SEND_START and SEND_END;
- Yamaha_RAV16 - the name of remote supported by LIRC (the command LIST can be used to get the list of all remotes);
- Vol+ - desired command, in that case - increasing of volume.

So, using Nokia770 or N800 together with IT Trance Ethernet and Ir Remote Control gives you an elegant and efficient way to control your IR stuff.

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