Introduction
Remote controlling the media center is a major application of Linux Infrared Remote Control (LIRC). There are quite a number of tutorial on how to implement infrared remote control with XMBC/KODI. After following the excellent tutorial published by adafruit.com, my DVD remote control unit can do the basic stuff well. However, as you can see from the picture, it does not have a volume control button. Therefore I had to adjust the volume by the long way, which was a major irritation for me. So I need to customize the remote control to extend its functionality.
Scope
This instructable will cover the following:
Modify the existing LIRC’s remote control configuration to enable volume control
This instructable will NOT show how to create a new LIRC remote control configuration
Audience
Anyone with a Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc and currently using a remote control to remote control the XBMC/KODI.
Step 1: Configure a basic working remote control
Follow the steps in adafruit’s tutorial.
Step 2: Understand the relationship between LIRC and XBMC/KODI
LIRC represents the “hardware” remote control unit. It generates LIRC events such as button pressed events This is implemented in lircd.conf
XBMC/KODI responds to XBMC events such as play video, play music and the like. This is implemented in remote.xml.
The lircd.conf and remote.xml are implemented differently thereby making it necessary for XBMC/KODI to map remote control button pressed (LIRC) events with XBMC events. This mapping function is implemented in Lircmap.xml
Step 3: Find XBMC/KODI events that increase and decrease the volume
Open the terminal emulator
Remote login to Raspbmc
ssh XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX -l pi
Type commands shown in the screen shot.
For more detail: Reuse Unwanted Infrared Remote Control to Use With XBMC/KODI on Raspberry Pi
