Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[vickyg2003]

Temptuous posted a good link about using infrared with puppy.
I have an old laptop with limited resources. I'd like to get a USB IR transmitter to turn my laptop into a remote. It appears that an Iguanaworks USB transmitter or a Windows MCE remote kit might work.
The windows plug and play devices are a lot less expensive than the iguana device, but do I don't know if they will work on this old hardware. I'm mostly concerned with the driver size since my computer is so resource starved.

Ideally I'd like to take the data from TitanTV.com and schedule IR transmissions. But the first step would be to find a USB IR transmitter that will work with puppy on my machine with limited resources.

My hardware
Toshiba Satellite 9300
Processor Celeron 700 MHz
Installed Memory 192 (SDRAM) Maxed out
Hard Drive 10 GB IDE 6GB Free
Display 13 in. DSTN Passive Matrix 800x600 24 bit color
Operating System Microsoft Windows ME
Weight 6.84 lb.
Processor Intel Celeron
Processor Speed 700 MHz
Motherboard
Bus Speed 100 MHz
Installed Cache Memory 128 KB
CD / DVD Type CD-ROM
Optical Drive Read Speed 24x (CD)
Floppy Drive 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy
Video
Installed Video Memory 4 MB
External Video Resolution 1280 x 1024


Audio
Audio Output Type Sound card
Operating System
Operating System Microsoft Windows ME
Platform PC
Technical Features
Input Method Accupoint II • Keyboard
Modem
Modem Type Fax / Modem
Analog Modulation Protocol ITU V.90
2 PCMCIA slots (1 occupied with wireless card)
2 USB ports

Any ideas ?

[jakfish]

Puppy 4.1.2 has the ks959-sir.ko and I used that with moderate success (I don't know if 4.31 still stocks the module):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=297943

The Kingsun 959 is often sold on ebay, but I think with puppy, it can only mount a speed of 56K. That might be enough to run a remote, but I never tried.

Infrared is tricky business with most OSs and Linux is no exception.

Jake

[Aitch]

Belkin do one, or on ebay, from HK, about £5

http://tinyurl.com/5v6aoys

Without knowing where you are difficult to provide other links

There are many s/h ones on ebay cheap

I see no advantage advertised for Iguana or Polar, both of which are pricey, IMHO

Aitch

[Aitch]

vickyg2003

Try searching for IrDA, instead of infrared

Aitch

[vickyg2003]

I'm in the U.S.

[Aitch]

Big choice it seems

http://www.lirc.org/html/table.html

I don't think I'd call it a noob task either, but then I haven't tried it

Here is an old thread, but really I think tempestuous is the man you need

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=14417

Aitch

[vickyg2003]

Actually its a pretty small list. Most of the USB devices are only receivers, for controlling the PC. Only a handful transmit signals. Of those many are only available overseas so its not as big as it seems.

I don't think this is a noob task either, but I see a need for this kind of application. I think most people using an IR transmitter would be using a bigger home theater computer with mythtv. I'm looking for more of a puppy sized application. I don't want to record and play, I just want to schedule channel changes on a dta.

In the AV forums, there are lots of posts looking for something like this to tune their dtas for their analog recorders.

I found that a laptop puppy is the perfect companion to my cable system. My cable company doesn't give you a guide unless you have a more expensive package. The only way I know what's on tv is by using an online tvguide. Puppy is perfect for this. The only thing that would make this more useful is to be able to set up a schedule of tv changes to be sent to the DTA. TitanTV will save little text files for you with all the information you need to set up a recording.

Can you see where this is going?

[Aitch]

Oh, absolutely, and I wish you luck with it

Have you seen the MythTV stuff?

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Using_an_IR_Blaster_with_MythTV#Installing_the_IR_Blaster

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/IRBlaster

There is a MythTVPup

http://mythpup.shawwebspace.ca/pages/view/welcomepage/

sadly the download is dead

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21920

Though I think it's based on an older puppy.............

Else go to the Slackware repo and download sources from there, maybe

One day soon it'll be a dotpet, if it isn't already lost in the forum somewhere....

Aitch