Restarting the USB-IRT device, ideas?

loo_hoo_ser · Post by **loo_hoo_ser** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:23 pm

Hi Y'all -

Got a bit of a thats-out-there situation with my HB.

I currently am using an USB extender over Cat5E cable so I can hook up the PC that runs the Housebot server to control my USB-IRT over the cat5E wiring. What I have is an USB-IRT in my living room that I would like to use to control my gear. And, it does work! I am able to get HB to control my stuff over this configuration with my cat5E wiring connecting the USB-IRT to my HB PC.

BUT... there is always a but, for some reason, USB-IRT doesn't really like being connected so far away from the PC after a while. I've got the extender cable plugged into a USB hub so that the USB-IRT receives power locally from the hub and data just flows through the extension cable and not power. After a while though, the Housebot PC acts as if the USB-IRT is no longer connected to the computer. To get the USB-IRT working again, I have to unplug and plug it back into the hub.

To try to fix this problem, I did try a different hub to no avail. I tried rewiring this particular cat5E cable for this USB connection, but no avail either. One thing I did come across was a utility program called "USB sniffer" (link here: http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/UsbSnoop/default.htm).

One of the features the software has is to allow me to unplug and plug back in a USB device with the click of a button. It even comes with source code!

However, I'm not versed in Windows programming *at-all* let alone have the right compiler. I was thinking if I could (or someone) could compile a program that allows me to "replug" the USB-IRT (rather, the hub that's plugged into it) to restore functionality. It could be a command-line program and the user would provide it with an argument which is the USB device handle of the USB device needing to be "replugged".

However, for this scheme to work, I have to do the following:

(1) Detect that USB-IRT has stopped working - HB does throw out error messages when it attemps to communicate with an unresponsive USB-IRT, so maybe that could be monitored.

(2) Upon detecting USB-IRT failure, to invoke the above said program to "replug" the USB-IRT device.

(3) Quit and restart Housebot to reestablish and reconfigure the USB-IRT device.

Well, thoughts? I know its kind of a kludge but I don't have any better ideas and I'd really like to get my USB-IRT working because it is so much better than using those standalone "universal" remotes based on the way I set up my SW remote running on my Dell Axim to control my gear.

Thanks.....

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:34 pm

It sounds like you are fighting the problem with workarounds whereas you should just get the UIRT to keep on working like it should.

Not sure what PC you run the device on and how old it is, but did you ever update your BIOS. I had the same thing happen to me some time ago and a BIOS update fixed it. This could very well be BIOS or mobo driver related.

Another solution you can think about is just putting the UIRT close to the PC again and buy an IR extender. There are lots of wireless IR extenders for not much money around. That could always solve the problem if you don't get to the solution you are thinking about now.

loo_hoo_ser · Post by **loo_hoo_ser** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:11 pm

I forgot about the IR extender idea! I could do an IR extension over Cat5 cable and have the IR signal boosted locally. What would you suggest for an IR extension/blaster set up?

Something like this perhaps:

USB-IRT -> IR w/ Cat5 extender -> IR blaster (with local power source)

I believe the IR blaster (maybe it's a repeater?) will need to have its own power source because the voltage drop due to the cable length would attenuate the signal greatly and be too weak to drive the IR LEDs directly.

Aside from that, I do know that when I plug the USB-IRT into the Housebot PC directly, I have no problems with it, even over a short length of the Cat5 cable. I suspect there is something up with the length of the Cat5 cable that causes an USB transaction timing error (just ever so slightly) since USB is effectively a half-duplex protocol and requires both receiver and senders to share the two data wires (the other two wires are power and ground). However, without dedicated analysis tools, I won't know for certain.

I'll look into the BIOS suggestion.

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:21 pm

Forget about the bios if it works without the cat5.
Also forget about the cat5.

http://www.marmitek.nl/nl/pdf/8900.pdf

Normally USB only extends to 5 meters and then it needs to be hubbed again. I guess you did that.

The above link shows a wireless extender. It is Dutch, but Smarthome has many of the same devices. They are very common and can be bought just everywhere. It is an IR repeater and it will fix your problems for sure.

loo_hoo_ser · Post by **loo_hoo_ser** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:12 am

All - just to bring closure to this thread. I decided to extend the reach of my USB-UIRT by extending the IR signal using the Cat-5E cabling and an IR terminating block. More details can be found in this post:

http://www.housebot.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=855949