pilotak / docker-lirc-watcher

Listens to LIRC daemon and sends it to MQTT

LIRC watcher

Docker container that listens to LIRC daemon (running on the host) and sends received codes over MQTT with added benefit of short and long putton press. It can also send IR remote keys through lirc by publishing to MQTT topics.

LIRC must be install on the host system. Following examples have been tested below but should work on other platforms with adjustments too.

Debian Buster

Please follow steps in wiki Install-on-Debian-Buster

Debian Stretch

Please follow steps in wiki Install-on-Debian-Stretch

Ubuntu 18.04

Please follow steps in wiki Install-on-Ubuntu-18.04

Recording codes

Test receiver

sudo systemctl stop lircd.service
mode2 --driver default --device /dev/lirc0

Output should look similar to this:

space 4195
pulse 551
space 1621
pulse 501
space 529
pulse 572
space 1553
pulse 547
space 524
pulse 551
space 525
pulse 549

If everything is ok, execute following and follow the commands in the script. Adjust name of the file should you wish.

sudo irrecord --driver default --device /dev/lirc0 ~/pioneer.lircd.conf

You will end it up with file ~/pioneer.lircd.conf.

begin remote

  name  pioneer
  bits           32
  flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  header       8544  4180
  one           578  1545
  zero          578   497
  ptrail        575
  gap          91166
  min_repeat      3
  toggle_bit_mask 0xF0F08080
  frequency    38000

      begin codes
          KEY_POWER                0xA55A38C7
          KEY_MUTE                 0xA55A48B7
          KEY_VOLUMEUP             0xA55A50AF
          KEY_VOLUMEDOWN           0xA55AD02F
      end codes

end remote

Let's move this config over to LIRC daemon.

sudo mv ~/pioneer.lircd.conf /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/
sudo systemctl start lircd.service

Test receiver again, if you see the names of your keys when button pressed, that's a win-win.

irw

Docker-compose

Now just start the docker container, alter the config to your needs and you ready to rock.

version: "3"
services:
  lirc:
    container_name: lirc
    restart: always
    image: pilotak/lirc-watcher
    environment:
      - MQTT_BROKER=192.168.0.10
      - MQTT_USER=admin
      - MQTT_PASSWORD=my-secret-pw
    volumes:
      - /var/run/lirc/lircd:/var/run/lirc/lircd

Environmental variables

Bellow are all available variables

Variable	Description	Default value
LONG_PRESS	How many messages is received to be considered as long press	12
READ_TIMEOUT	How long to wait to process new data seconds	0.2
PAYLOAD_LONG_PRESS	Payload on long press	"long"
PAYLOAD_SHORT_CLICK	Payload on short press	"short"
MQTT_BROKER	Broker address	localhost
MQTT_USER	MQTT user	None
MQTT_PASSWORD	MQTT password	None
MQTT_PORT	MQTT broker port	1883
MQTT_ID	MQTT client id	"lirc-watcher"
MQTT_PREFIX	MQTT topic prefix	"lirc"
MQTT_QOS	MQTT QOS	1

MQTT topics for receiving

When button is pressed you will receive message in format MQTT_PREFIX/REMOTE_NAME/KEY_NAME with payload short / long ie. lirc/pioneer/KEY_POWER

MQTT topics for sending

To send a remote key press, publish to MQTT_PREFIX/send/REMOTE_NAME/KEY_NAME with the payload being the number of repeats ie. lirc/send/pioneer/KEY_POWER If the payload is empty, repeats will default to 1.