Replacement for USB-UIRT?

[fbures]

One of my USB-UIRTs died so I ordered another one. However, there does not seem to be any reaction to my order from the vendor (other than confirmation of payment from PayPal).

It looks like USB-UIRT has been abandoned and I will have to ask PayPal for refund.

Is there any other readily available blaster I could replace USB-UIRT with? I need to control a Rogers cable box from STV.

Thanks
Frank

[JustFred]

I see no indication that the product's been abandoned.

Remember, it's just a one-man operation. Web page says he ships in 3-5 business days. How long has it been since you placed the order?

Last time I ordered one, the only notifications I got were from PayPal for payment, and then a notification that the product had actually shipped.

[fbures]

JustFred;608820 Web page says he ships in 3-5 business days. How long has it been since you placed the order?

It's been a week yesterday. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Amazon

Anyway, are there any alternatives?

[graywolf]

Being summer, could be on vacation. Remember 1 I bought took 2 weeks because of vacation

I have 3 currently and have been rock solid but this reminds me I need to see if I have a spare. If not I'll order one

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by fbures

It's been a week yesterday. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Amazon

Anyway, are there any alternatives?

nothing as good.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by fbures

It's been a week yesterday. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Amazon

Anyway, are there any alternatives?

Why don't you try email them at support@usbuirt.com

[BobPhoenix]

You might try eBay. I bought one on eBay when I thought the same thing.

[fbures]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

You might try eBay. I bought one on eBay when I thought the same thing.

None is available on eBay.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by SHS

Why don't you try email them at support@usbuirt.com

Or send a PM to jrhees on this forum.

[mlcarson]

I'm also looking for an alternative. This was a 5/1/2016 Amazon review:

"This item is no longer supported.

Here's the backstory: An individual engineer produced a bunch of these items on a hobbyist basis, with a small number of basic drivers and some recommendations of software packages that would work with it. There's also a forum for Q&A. Very DIY and hobbyist, but it seems like it was a viable model.

Unfortunately, it seems like everything fell off a cliff around the 2011/2012 time frame.

The drivers are no longer updated: one is for Windows 98/ME/XP/2K, and one is for Windows Vista/7/8. Notice what's missing?

The forum had a lot of posts up to 2011, but barely any activity since then. The latest post in the general forum is from September, 2012."

Assuming that orders are still being taken, the pricing is $60 + $8 ship = $68 ea.

What are the thoughts on this as an alternative?
Global Cache IP2IR iTach Wired TCP/IP to IR
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BFTKUC
It's pricey at $92.68 but also has 3 IR emitters and works via Ethernet rather than USB. I need this as a way of controlling sources for IPTV encoders and use FLIRC's for IR receivers. I've not purchased one or tried one but it looks like it has potential.

Or what about the TIRA-2.1?
I've owned a TIRA-2.1 in the past but I think it might have gotten left behind in my last move. This seems like more of a direct alternative to the USB-UIRT. Pricing is $49 + $5 ship = $54.

[wayner]

The USB-UIRT is still somewhat supported. The individual engineer that you mentioned is Jon Rhees. He occasionally posts on these SageTV forums. See here https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/sho...0&postcount=30

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by mlcarson

What are the thoughts on this as an alternative?
Global Cache IP2IR iTach Wired TCP/IP to IR
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BFTKUC
It's pricey at $92.68 but also has 3 IR emitters and works via Ethernet rather than USB. I need this as a way of controlling sources for IPTV encoders and use FLIRC's for IR receivers. I've not purchased one or tried one but it looks like it has potential.

Maybe check out this thread: https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64372

[timg11]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Maybe check out this thread: https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64372

That looks interesting, but I'm not sure how it would integrate with SageTV v9 on Windows?

MacDaddy shows a nice Linux GENTUNER script, but does SageTV Windows provide similar flexibility to drive the IP based IP2IR?

[SHS]

Originally Posted by timg11

That looks interesting, but I'm not sure how it would integrate with SageTV v9 on Windows?

MacDaddy shows a nice Linux GENTUNER script, but does SageTV Windows provide similar flexibility to drive the IP based IP2IR?

Some one could write HTTP Tuning plug-in dll like what Ericvic did here so it should be possible.
https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=28

[SHS]

Originally Posted by fbures

One of my USB-UIRTs died so I ordered another one. However, there does not seem to be any reaction to my order from the vendor (other than confirmation of payment from PayPal).

It looks like USB-UIRT has been abandoned and I will have to ask PayPal for refund.

Is there any other readily available blaster I could replace USB-UIRT with? I need to control a Rogers cable box from STV.

Thanks
Frank

That not true he has not abandoned the USB-UIRT as I talk to Jon and said Yes, we still sell and support the USB-UIRT.

[mlcarson]

I finally got back to playing with this and have a working Windows solution using the IP2IR ITach.

I originally found this which looked like it should have worked but I was never able to get it to work consistently. It's a Perl solution. It worked via CLI but I ran into issues as soon as I tried to add it to OpenDCT.

https://github.com/Coder96/itach

Instead, I just wrote my own solution using FreePascal and Synapse. Having a single EXE that didn't have any other dependencies made things easy to add to OpenDCT. It took me a couple of hours as a guy who hasn't used Pascal in 25 years. Most of that time was googling Pascal syntax. The TCP socket stuff is trivial with Synapse:
sock := TTCPBlockSocket.Create;
sock.Connect(DEV_IP, TCPPORT);
sock.SendString(command);
sock.Free;

Maybe things are just as easy with other languages but this is what I had the most familiarity with. I could post my code if somebody really wanted it but would be kind of embarrassed of it compared to what the actual coders here do.

My use case is the Itach control of a Tivo Mini connected to a TBS2603 IPTV capture device. This was just to add back channels which are DRM enabled to the SageTV system.

A network-based IR transmitter that can control 3 independent devices priced at $92 seems like a better deal than the $63 UIRT that controls a single device. It's also a better technical solution since it only needs a network connection rather than having to be connected via USB.

Originally Posted by timg11

That looks interesting, but I'm not sure how it would integrate with SageTV v9 on Windows?

MacDaddy shows a nice Linux GENTUNER script, but does SageTV Windows provide similar flexibility to drive the IP based IP2IR?

[JDavis]

I know this is old, but if mlcarson or anybody else would be willing to post their code to make the IP2IR work under Windows I'd really appreciate it.

Eventually I'll rebuild my SageTV system with Linux, but that's not a project I want to tackle right now...

[DougTV]

I wrote a little script using AutoIT (www.autoitscript.com/site/) to control the Global Cache IP2IR device from Windows, pointing at my Cox Cable 4742HDC boxes.

It does the following:
1: takes the device number and channel parameters from ExeMultiTuner,
2: looks up the IP2IR digit commands in an INI file,
3: creates a command text file with the complete channel command set for the IP2IR,
4: runs a netcat command to pass the command file contents over to the IP2IR.

I put the compiled AutoIT executable, along with the INI file and the netcat executable, in the SageTV folder. I used the 1.12 version of netcat found at www.eternallybored.org/misc/netcat/.

I tried to use the AutoIT TCPSend() function to talk to the IP2IR, but could not get it to work. Netcat seems very reliable, so I used it.