IR-CTL(1) User Commands IR-CTL(1)
NAME
ir-ctl - a swiss-knife tool to handle raw IR and to set lirc options
SYNOPSIS
ir-ctl [OPTION]...
ir-ctl [OPTION]... --features
ir-ctl [OPTION]... --send [file to send]
ir-ctl [OPTION]... --scancode [protocol and scancode to send]
ir-ctl [OPTION]... --keycode [keycode to send]
ir-ctl [OPTION]... --receive [save to file]
DESCRIPTION
ir-ctl is a tool that allows one to list the features of a lirc device,
set its options, receive raw IR, and send IR.
IR can be sent as the keycode of a keymap, or using a scancode, or us-
ing raw IR.
Note: You need to have read or write permissions on the /dev/lirc de-
vice for options to work.
OPTIONS
-d, --device=DEV
lirc device to control, /dev/lirc0 by default
-f, --features
List the features of the lirc device.
-r, --receive[=FILE]
Receive IR and print to standard output if no file is specified,
else save to the filename.
-s, --send=FILE
Send IR in text file. It must be in the format described below.
If this option is specified multiple times, send all files
in-order with a 125ms gap between them. The gap length can be
modified with --gap.
-S, --scancode=PROTOCOL:SCANCODE
Send the IR scancode in the protocol specified. The protocol
must one of the protocols listed below, followed by a colon and
the scancode number. If this option is specified multiple times,
send all scancodes in-order with a 125ms gap between them. The
gap length can be modified with --gap.
-K, --keycode=KEYCODE
Send the KEYCODE from the keymap which must be specified with
--keymap. If this option is specified multiple times, send all
keycodes in-order with a 125ms gap between them. The gap length
can be modified with --gap.
-k, --keymap=KEYMAP
The rc keymap file in toml format. The format is described in
the rc_keymap(5) man page. This file is used to select the KEY-
CODE from.
-1, --oneshot
When receiving, stop receiving after the first message, i.e. af-
ter a space or timeout of more than 19ms is received.
--mode2
When receiving, output IR in mode2 format. One line per space or
pulse.
-w, --wideband
Use the wideband receiver if available on the hardware. This is
also known as learning mode. The measurements should be more
precise and any carrier frequency should be accepted.
-n, --narrowband
Switches back to the normal, narrowband receiver if the wideband
receiver was enabled.
-R, --carrier-range=RANGE
Set the accepted carrier range for the narrowband receiver. It
should be specified in the form 30000-50000.
-m, --measure-carrier
If the hardware supports it, report what the carrier frequency
is on receiving. You will get the keyword carrier followed by
the frequency. This might use the wideband receiver although
this is hardware specific.
-M, --no-measure-carrier
Disable reporting of the carrier frequency. This should make it
possible to use the narrowband receiver. This is the default.
-t, --timeout=TIMEOUT
Set the length of a space at which the receiver goes idle, spec-
ified in microseconds.
-c, --carrier=CARRIER
Sets the send carrier frequency.
-D, --duty-cycle=DUTY
Set the duty cycle for sending in percent if the hardware sup-
port it.
-e, --emitters=EMITTERS
Comma separated list of emitters to use for sending. The first
emitter is number 1. Some devices only support enabling one
emitter (the winbond-cir driver).
-g, --gap=GAP
Set the gap between scancodes or the gap between files when mul-
tiple files are specified on the command line. The default is
125000 microseconds.
-?, --help
Prints the help message
--usage
Give a short usage message
-v, --verbose
Verbose output; this prints the IR before sending.
-V, --version
print the v4l2-utils version
Format of file
When sending or receiving raw IR, two formats can be used. The first is
a list of integers representing pulse and space values. A pulse value
can be prefixed with + and a space with -, but this is optional. The
rc-5 scancode 0x1e01 is encoded so:
+889 -889 +1778 -1778 +889 -889 +889 -889 +889 -889 +1778 -889 +889
-889 +889 -889 +889 -889 +889 -889 +889 -1778 +889
The other format mimics the mode2 tool. This produces one line per
space or pulse. For receiving it can selected by specifying --mode2.
Here is the same message as above, now encoded in mode2:
carrier 36000
pulse 940
space 860
pulse 1790
space 1750
pulse 880
space 880
pulse 900
space 890
pulse 870
space 900
pulse 1750
space 900
pulse 890
space 910
pulse 840
space 920
pulse 870
space 920
pulse 840
space 920
pulse 870
space 1810
pulse 840
Note that in this format, the carrier can also be specified. This can
only by done with a separate --carrier=38000 command line option with
the first format.
Rather than specifying just the raw IR, in this format you can also
specify the scancode and protocol you want to send. This will also au-
tomatically set the correct carrier. The above can be written as:
scancode rc5:0x1e01
If multiple scancodes are specified in a file, a gap is inserted be-
tween scancodes if there is no space between them (see --gap). One file
can only have one carrier frequency, so this might cause problems if
different protocols are specified in one file if they use different
carrier frequencies.
Note that there are device-specific limits of how much IR can be sent
at a time. This can be both the length of the IR and the number of dif-
ferent lengths of space and pulse.
Supported Protocols
A scancode with protocol can be specified on the command line or in the
pulse and space file. The following protocols are supported: rc5,
rc5x_20, rc5_sz, jvc, sony12, sony15, sony20, nec, necx, nec32, sanyo,
rc6_0, rc6_6a_20, rc6_6a_24, rc6_6a_32, rc6_mce, sharp, imon, rc_mm_12,
rc_mm_24, rc_mm_32. If the scancode starts with 0x it will be inter-
preted as a hexadecimal number, and if it starts with 0 it will be in-
terpreted as an octal number.
Wideband and narrowband receiver
Most IR receivers have a narrowband and wideband receiver. The narrow-
band receiver can receive over longer distances (usually around 10 me-
tres without interference) and is limited to certain carrier frequen-
cies.
The wideband receiver is for higher precision measurements and when the
carrier frequency is unknown; however it only works over very short
distances (about 5 centimetres). This is also known as learning mode.
For most drivers, enabling carrier reports using -m also enables the
wideband receiver.
Global state
All the options which can be set for lirc devices are maintained until
the device is powered down or a new option is set.
EXIT STATUS
On success, it returns 0. Otherwise, it will return the error code.
EXAMPLES
To list all capabilities of /dev/lirc2:
ir-ctl -f -d /dev/lirc2
To show the IR of the first button press on a remote in learning mode:
ir-ctl -r -m -w
Note that ir-ctl -rmw would receive to a file called mw.
To restore the normal (longer distance) receiver:
ir-ctl -n -M
To send the pulse and space file play on emitter 3:
ir-ctl -e 3 --send=play
To send the rc-5 hauppauge '1' scancode:
ir-ctl -S rc5:0x1e01
To send the rc-5 hauppauage '1' key from the hauppauge keymap:
ir-ctl -k hauppauge.toml -K KEY_NUMERIC_1
BUGS
Report bugs to Linux Media Mailing List <linux-media@vger.kernel.org>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2016 by Sean Young.
License GPLv2: GNU GPL version 2 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
To display decoded IR, or set IR decoding options, see ir-keytable(1).
The keymap format is described in rc_keymap(5).
v4l-utils 1.22.1 Tue Jul 5 2016 IR-CTL(1)
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