danward79 / roon-extension-roonbridge-remote

Infrared Remote Control Roon Bridge with Linux System Events

Remote Control RoonBridge using Linux Keycode & system events

Credit: This extension is a modification/fork of the work done by naepflin in the original roon-extension-linuxkeyboardremote.

Introduction

This extension monitors Linux keycode events and activates Roon commands based on a configured event.

The extension is intended to be installed on a bridge device and appears in the Roon extensions section of the settings as the hostname of the device. This is intentional as it allows for several independent devices to run the extension for there own control.

Requirements

The extension has been tested with:

• Node.js v12.14.1
• NPM 6.13.4
• Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)

Git also needs to be installed.

How the extension works

The extension uses linux keycode system events to trigger the Roon api. These events are detailed in linux event codes.

Keycode Event	Event Code	Roon API
KEY_PLAY	207	play
KEY_PAUSE	119	pause
KEY_PLAYPAUSE	164	playpause
KEY_STOP	128	stop
KEY_NEXT	407	next
KEY_PREVIOUS	412	previous
KEY_STOP	128	stop
KEY_MUTE	113	mute toggle
KEY_VOLUMEDOWN	114	volume down
KEY_VOLUMEUP	115	volume up
KEY_PROG1	148	convenience tba
KEY_PROG2	149	convenience tba

The keycodes are hard-coded and could be changed in the app.js, however for this use case this is probably unnecessary, as the intent is to map IR or other inputs to trigger the internal events elsewhere, this can be achieved using ir-keytable.

The configuration of ir-keytable is discussed below.

Extension Installation

To install this extension, it is necessary to clone this repository, then install the service that runs the extension automatically.

After the extension is successfully started, the extension should be enabled and selected on the Roon Core.

Note: The installation presumes that the extension is installed in the pi user's home folder.

Use the following steps (Some steps will require sudo):

git clone https://github.com/danward79/roon-extension-roonbridge-remote.git
cd roon-extension-roonbridge-remote
npm install

mkdir ~/roonbridge
mkdir ~/roonbridge/rc
mkdir ~/roonbridge/extensions
cp remote.conf ~/roonbridge/rc
cp -r ../roon-extension-roonbridge-remote ~/roonbridge/extensions
cp *.service /etc/systemd/system/
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable roonbridge-remote
systemctl start roonbridge-remote
systemctl enable ir-keytable
systemctl start ir-keytable

You can verify that the service is running using: systemctl status roonbridge-remote.service

There should be no errors, see below:

roonbridge-remote.service - RoonBridge-Remote
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/roonbridge-remote.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-01-22 03:30:05 AEDT; 7h ago
 Main PID: 533 (node)
    Tasks: 11 (limit: 2319)
   Memory: 34.1M
   CGroup: /system.slice/roonbridge-remote.service
           └─533 /usr/bin/node /home/pi/roonbridge/extensions/roon-extension-linuxkeyboardremote/.

Jan 22 03:30:05 RoonBridge77dd1bc4 systemd[1]: Started RoonBridge-Remote.

The extension is run as a systemd service, so will automatically start with the host system.

Extension Configuration

Open the Roon Controller and enable the extension. Then, pick the zone and device path (e.g. "/dev/input/event0") in the extension settings.

Infrared Control Config

ir-keytable is used to manage and map incomming IR commands (scancodes) to internal OS events (keycodes) and requires a functioning IR receiver, ir-keytable will also need to be installed and run as a service to allow seamless functionality.

IR Receiver Install

You can use a Vishay TSOP38238, connected to the Raspberry Pi as such:

IR Receiver Pin	GPIO Pin	Physical GPIO Pin#
1(Out)	GPIO 26	37
2(Gnd)	Ground	39
3(VS)	3V3 power	1 or 17

See below header pinout (courtesy of raspberrypi.org):

After physically interfacing the IR receiver, the GPIO needs to be enbled in /boot/config.txt (nano will require sudo):

nano /boot/config.txt

Uncomment or add: dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=26 then reboot: sudo reboot

Test IR Receiver

In order to test the receiver, install ir-keytable.

Use the following steps (Some steps will require sudo):

apt-get install ir-keytable

Then run ir-keytable -t, if the receiver is installed correctly when buttons on the remote are pressed, there should be events similar to this:

pi@RoonBridge77dd1bc4:~ $ ir-keytable -t
Testing events. Please, press CTRL-C to abort.
30484.360061: lirc protocol(necx): scancode = 0x2d2d3b
30484.360100: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0x2d2d3b
30484.360100: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
30484.420054: lirc protocol(necx): scancode = 0x2d2d3b repeat
30484.420088: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0x2d2d3b
30484.420088: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

If this is not the case Do Not Proceed!

Map IR Remote to events

This section deals with mapping the remote control scancodes to the keycodes used by the extension.

The relationship is such that ir-keytable maps to linux keycode system events:

IR Receiver > ir-keytable (remote.conf) > linux keycode system event > roon-extension-roonbridge-remote

The mapping is configured in the provided remote.conf file. This file will need editing to suit your remote control device.

Run ir-keytable -t and press a key that you wish to map to an event. The output in responce to a button press should be similar to below:

pi@RoonBridge77dd1bc4:~/roonbridge/extensions/roon-extension-roonbridge-remote $ ir-keytable -t
Testing events. Please, press CTRL-C to abort.
4727.530038: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0x403
4727.530086: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0x403
4727.530086: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_down: KEY_VOLUMEDOWN(0x0072)
4727.530086: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
4727.580057: lirc protocol(nec): scancode = 0x403 repeat
4727.580095: event type EV_MSC(0x04): scancode = 0x403
4727.580095: event type EV_SYN(0x00).
4727.710051: event type EV_KEY(0x01) key_up: KEY_VOLUMEDOWN(0x0072)
4727.710051: event type EV_SYN(0x00).

The scancode for the key should be noted and used in remote.conf to map to the corresponding system event. For example 0x403 from above is mapped to KEY_VOLUMEDOWN below

# table lgtv_remote, type: nec
0x408 KEY_PROG1
0x402 KEY_VOLUMEUP
0x403 KEY_VOLUMEDOWN
0x409 KEY_MUTE
0x4b1 KEY_STOP
0x4b0 KEY_PLAY
0x4ba KEY_PAUSE
0x48e KEY_NEXT
0x48f KEY_PREVIOUS

This file should be saved in /home/pi/roonbridge/rc/

To ensure that ir-keytable is started with the correct config ir-keytable.service is provided.

After the configuration is complete, either reboot the device or restart the service:

systemctl restart ir-keytable.service 
systemctl status ir-keytable.service 

License

Apache 2.0