Installation

Hardware Device Driver

Before a LIRC supported hardware is plugged in into the system, obtain the appropriate hardware device from the corresponding company or company web site. At the time of writing of this document, it is not guaranteed that WinLIRC.NET would be fully functionally with all WinLIRC supported hardware except for Iguana transceiver. Iguana transceiver hardware device driver can be downloaded at http://iguanaworks.net/downloads/windows/iguanaIR-1.0.1.exe. Download iguanaIR-1.0.1.exe and install them before any of their transceivers are plugged-in into the system. At some point of time in the future, it is anticipated that WinLIRC.NET is guaranteed to with any others or all supported hardware of WinLIRC.

LIRC

For detailed installation of LIRC over a Linux platform, visit http://www.lirc.org. At the time of writing of this document, it is not guaranteed that WinLIRC.NET would be fully functionally with LIRC in any flavor of Linux platform. At some point of time in the near future, it is anticipated that WinLIRC.NET is guaranteed to with all supported flavors of LIRC.

WinLIRC

WinLIRC Configuration Window

Download the latest version of WinLIRC from http://winlirc.sourceforge.net. At the time of writing this document, the latest WinLIRC package is winlirc-0.8.7a-(15-05-2011).zip which can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/winlirc/files/winlirc/0.8.7a/winlirc-0.8.7a-%2815-05-2011%29.zip/download.

Extract the contents of the zip file into the WinLIRC installation destination directory. Run winlirc.exe from the WinLIRC installation directory and configure input plug-in and configuration file. As of the time of writing of this document, all other plug-ins other than iguanaIR.dll is not guaranteed to work properly with WinLIRC.NET. The appropriate WinLIRC remote control configuration file can be downloaded at http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes.

For more detailed technical information, visit http://winlirc.sourceforge.net/technicaldetails.html. For developer information regarding WinLIRC server and how to interact with it, visit http://winlirc.sourceforge.net/developer.html.

WinLIRC.NET

This section describes the procedure involved in the installation of WinLIRC.NET manually as well as via Microsoft Windows Installer using MSI files on any of the support Microsoft Windows platform.

Manual Installation

This section describes the procedure involved in the installation of WLN manually using raw physical files. Please note that this approach is recommended only for expert users. Following are the physical files required to perform a manual installation of WLN in any supported Microsoft Windows platform. It is recommended to use always the greatest version of these files to experience full functionalities and features.

• WinLIRC.NET.dll
• WinLIRC.Messages.dll
• WinLIRC.Configuration.dll
• WinLIRC.Test.dll
• WinLIRC.Transmitter.Daemon.exe
• WinLIRC.Receiver.Daemon.exe
• WinLIRC.Configuration.Editor.exe
• WinLIRC.Debug.exe
• WinLIRC.Transmitter.Daemon.exe.config
• WinLIRC.Receiver.Daemon.exe.config
• WinLIRC.Test.dll.config
• WinLIRC.Debug.exe.config

Note that all *.config files always goes along with it’s respecting *.exe or *.dll files. If a DLL or an EXE cannot find its corresponding CONFIG files, the component may fail to function properly. The files WinLIRC.Test.dll and WinLIRC.Test.dll.config are necessary if you’re planning to perform unit testing using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2010. The files WinLIRC.Debug.exe and WinLIRC.Debug.exe.config are required only for testing and debugging purposes – testing WinLIRC.NET signal transmitter and receiver. The WinLIRC.NET configuration editor, WinLIRC.Configuration.Editor.exe is required only for generate WinLIRC.NET remote control configuration file from WinLIRC remote configuration file. Once and only when WinLIRC.NET configuration file is generated and loaded by WinLIRC.NET transmitter and receiver daemon, WinLIRC.NET is fully functional. The file WinLIRC.NET.dll contains core framework functionality which is accessed by both WLN transmitter and receiver daemon.

It is not recommended to deploy any unnecessary files/components in production environment.

Installation and Configuration Procedure

Step #1: Acquisition of files

Obtain all necessary WLN files and copy them to desired installation folder.

Step #2: Registering in GAC

Register the following in GAC (Global Assembly Cache) using gacutil.exe which is provided with .NET framework.

• WinLIRC.NET.dll
• WinLIRC.Messages.dll
• WinLIRC.Configuration.dll

Syntax:

gacutil.exe -i [path to DLL]

Commands:

gacutil.exe -i [path to DLL WinLIRC.NET.dll] gacutil.exe -i [path to DLL WinLIRC.Messages.dll] gacutil.exe -i [path to DLL WinLIRC.Configuration.dll]

Step #3: Registering Windows Services

Register WLN transmitter (WinLIRC.Transmitter.Daemon.exe) and receiver daemon (WinLIRC.Receiver.Daemon.exe) services to system services using sc.exe provided in any of WLN supported Microsoft Windows platform. By default, the Windows service would be registered to run under LOCALSYSTEM system account in Manual startup mode. This can be changed to run any system/user account of appropriate privilege in Automatic mode using Windows Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

Syntax:

sc.exe create [windows service name] binPath=[whitespace][path to windows service]

Commands:

sc.exe create WinLIRC.NET-Transmitter binPath= [path to WinLIRC.Transmitter.Daemon.exe] sc.exe create WinLIRC.NET-Transmitter binPath= [path to WinLIRC.Receiver.Daemon.exe]

Step #4: Creating Microsoft Messaging Queues

Create two non-transactional private MSMQs with sufficient privileges to read and write by the WinLIRC.NET transmitter and receiver daemon, using Microsoft Messaging Management Console – one for WinLIRC.NET transmitter to send outbound IR signals from WinLIRC.NET infrastructure to WinLIRC (e.g. winlirc_send) and one for WinLIRC.NET receiver to receive inbound IR signal from WinLIRC into WinLIRC infrastructure (e.g. winlirc_recv).

Step #5: Building WLN Remote Control Configuration

Create a WLN configuration file (a XML file) for the desired remote control using WLN Configuration Editor, WinLIRC.Configuration.Editor.exe from WinLIRC remote control configuration file. WLN Configuration Editor facilitates mapping for remote control keys from WinLIRC to WLN.

Step #6: Configuring Transmitter

Open WLN transmitter daemon configuration file (WinLIRC.Transmitter.Daemon.exe.config) and update the following in settings XML tag under Configuration – as required and needed.

• Locate the executable, Transmit.exe of WinLIRC in its installation directory and update its full path in the Client attribute.
• Locate the WLN remote configuration file and update its full path in the RemoteKeys attribute.
• Add/remove/clear applications under Applications XML tag as needed.
• Update ID attribute with a unique GUID for every application configured.
• Update the MSMQ path for every application desired to communicate with WLN and transmit IR signals.

Step #7: Configuration Receiver

Open WLN receiver daemon configuration file (WinLIRC.Receiver.Daemon.exe.config) and update the following in settings XML tag under Configuration – as required and needed.

• Specify WinLIRC port number in Port attribute. By default, WinLIRC sends out decoded IR signals at the port number 8765.
• Locate the WLN remote configuration file and update its full path in the RemoteKeys attribute.
• Add/remove/clear applications under Applications XML tag as needed.
• Update ID attribute with a unique GUID for every application configured.
• Update the MSMQ path for every application desired to communicate with WLN and transmit IR signals.

Step #8: Starting up Transmitter and Receiver

Start WLN transmitter and receiver using Windows Services Microsoft Management Console. Change the services startup mode to Automatic if required to let the services startup during system startup automatically.

Step #9: Testing Transmitter and Receiver

Open WNL Debug configuration file (WinLIRC.Debug.exe.config) and update the setting WinLIRC_TransmitterQueue and WinLIRC_ReceiverQueue with the full path of the created signal transmitter and receiver MSMQ. Execute WLN Debug (WinLIRC.Debug.exe) and open signal transmitter and receiver. Start the receiver, send a signal using transmitter and verify is the same signal is received by the receiver. Ensure that you execute WLN Debug signal transmitter in the machine where WLN transmitter daemon is installer and WLN Debug signal receiver in the machine where WLN receiver daemon is installed and properly configured to wire up each other.

Step #10: Using WLN Messages

WLN Messages is a library which facilitates any external application to communicate with WLN framework for sending and receiving IR signals. Any external application that desires to communicate with WLN infrastructure should have the configuration settings WinLIRC_TransmitterQueue and WinLIRC_ReceiverQueue in its configuration file (*.config). WLN Debug is one such application that uses WLN Messages which is built for testing and debugging purposes.

Windows Installer Installation

This section shows the installer screenshot of WLN MSI installations.

WinLIRC.NET Complete Suite

This section shows the installer screenshot of WLN (A complete suite with WLN debug, WLN configuration builder, and unit test library and batch files to create/delete/start/stop WLN transmitter/receiver daemon windows services) installation. Ensure that you’ve the following files before your start the installation.

• WinLIRC.NET.msi
• setup.exe

Execute the MSI file, WinLIRC.NET.msi to start the installation of WinLIRC.NET (complete suite).

WinLIRC.NET Messages

This section shows the installer screenshot of WLN Messages installation.

Ensure that you’ve the following files before your start the installation.

• WinLIRC.Messages.msi
• setup.exe

Execute the MSI file, WinLIRC.Messages.msi to start the installation of WinLIRC Messages.