How to activate IR Receiver on SoundBlaser Extigy

tekno · December 9, 2019 at 5:09 AM

I recently tested a Soundblaster Extigy on my Mission One running LibreElec 9.02 x86_64 . I was so impressed with the sound quality difference that I want to keep the configuration, however running one USB port short now.

So I figured I could eliminate the USB IR receiver (MCE USB that seems to have been auto detected).

The only problem is I have no idea how to activate the correct LIRC driver in LibreELEC

The following pages seem helpful as they mention the same hardware but it apparently does not apply to Libreelec

LIRC - Linux Infrared Remote Control

I also confirmed /proc/asound/cards shows (much like in the page above)

0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH

HDA Intel PCH at 0xd0810000 irq 95

1 [Extigy ]: USB-Audio - Sound Blaster Extigy

Creative Technology Ltd. Sound Blaster Extigy at usb-0000:00:14.0-4, full speed

Any help appreciated.

**HiassofT** · December 9, 2019 at 11:29 AM

I think this should work if you set driver = alsa_usb and device = hw:Extigy in lirc_options.conf (copy /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf to /storage/.config/ and edit these two lines).

See the wiki for more info Infrared Remotes [LibreELEC.wiki]

You'll probably also need to create a /storage/.config/lircd.conf file matching your remote. However I'm not quite sure which remote (protocols) the Soundblaster receiver actually supports - from a quick glance it seems IR decoding is performed by the soundblaster hardware so it could well be that the IR receiver only works with the remote that shipped with it.

It's probably easier if you keep your MCE USB receiver (that one will work fine OOTB) and maybe use a USB hub if you're running short on USB ports.

so long,

Hias

**HiassofT** · December 9, 2019 at 11:32 AM

Ah, sorry, scratch what I just wrote, this won't work. Just noticed we don't build the alsa_usb driver/plugin for lirc.

so long,

Hias

**HiassofT** · December 9, 2019 at 2:42 PM

I found out why the alsa_usb lirc driver was missing and PR'ed a fix for that lirc: add dependency on alsa-lib by HiassofT · Pull Request #4046 · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

If testing goes fine it'll be included in the next LibreELEC release.

so long,

Hias

tekno · December 9, 2019 at 11:26 PM

Thanks for that . Seems like I should wait.