[coldsource]

I have bought an ASUS motherboard which was supplied with an IR remote control.
Here is a picture of the remote :


The receptor is an HID receptor that is not supported by LIRC, nor fully supported by evdev so only half of the keys are working.

I have developped a generic HID mapper which can convert any HID signal to a key event that can easly be used in XBMC.

Here is the driver :
hid_mapper.tar.gz

And a step by step guide for how to use it :
First we have to build the hid_mapper. Untar the archive and CD to hid_mapper. Then type 'make' to build the driver.

Type ./hid_mapper --list-devices to see if your device if recognized here. For example I have :

Found HID device at /dev/hidraw0
Manufacturer : PHILIPS
Product name : MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plusf0r ASUS

It is then necessary to blacklist the device in Xorg so it does not conflict with the mapper. Create a new file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/. I have named it 50-remote.conf and it contains :

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Remote blacklist"
MatchProduct "PHILIPS MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plusf0r ASUS"
Option "Ignore" "on"
EndSection

Match id done on the manufacturer and the product name. Restart Xorg and you're done. At this point the remote is not recognized anymore.

Next you have to use hid_mapper in learn mode to capture HID events :
./hid_mapper --learn --manufacturer 'PHILIPS' --product 'MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plusf0r ASUS' --map ''
If i press "OK" key of the remote I get

Found HID device at /dev/hidraw0
01 00 00 28 00 00 00 00 00
01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

The first event is the "key down" event, containing the key code. This is what we need. Capture all the events you need to write a map file. This my map file for the asus remote :

010000520000000000:KEY_UP
010000510000000000:KEY_DOWN
010000500000000000:KEY_LEFT
0100004f0000000000:KEY_RIGHT
010000280000000000:KEY_ENTER
030000000000020000:KEY_KP1
030000000000040000:KEY_KP2
030000000020000000:KEY_C
030000000000008000:KEY_TAB
030010000000000000:KEY_KP3
02004000:KEY_ESC
02040000:KEY_KPMINUS
02020000:KEY_KPPLUS
02000002:KEY_PLAY
02000800:KEY_STOP
02000100:KEY_R
02800000:KEY_F
02010000:KEY_MUTE
02400000:KEY_PREVIOUSSONG
02200000:KEY_NEXTSONG

The list of the keys can be found in /usr/include/linux/input.h.

Last step is to run the mapper :

./hid_mapper --manufacturer 'PHILIPS' --product 'MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plusf0r ASUS' --map 'asus-spinel.map'

At this point the remote should work and emit the keys specified in the map file.

Since the hidraw driver is generic, this mapper should work with any HID receiver, even if it is not a remote. HID is used for keyboard, mouses, joysticks...

I hope this can help someone.

Bob