IR-SQS-IR

Remote IR control via AWS SQS FIFO queue.

Amazon AWS SQS FIFO Queue setup

1. Create an AWS account
2. Create a queue

Don't forget to copy or download a file with your Access key ID and Secret access key.

While creating a queue name it IRCommands.fifo and choose FIFO type. Set 1 minute as value for Message retention period and 1 KB for Maximum message size. Do not forget to enable long polling by changing Receive message wait time to 20 seconds. This will reduce the service polling rate and allow more economical use of the request limit available in the free tier.

With Amazon SQS Free Tier you can get started with Amazon SQS for free. All customers can make 1 million Amazon SQS requests for free each month. Some applications might be able to operate within this Free Tier limit. Amazon SQS pricing

IR receiver setup

Follow this detailed article Raspberry Pi IR Receiver by Gordon Turner to learn about alternate hardware options (IR receiver sensor, breadboard prototyping) and for verbose command output examples when testing functionality.

Infrared receiver wiring diagram

I'm using a KY-022 module connected as follows:

KY-022 (IR receiver) pinout:
 A) Signal = GPIO 14 [Pin 08]
 B) Vсс+ = 3.3V [Pin 01]
 C) GND = GND [Pin 06]

Raspberry Pi pinout:
      Pin 01 Pin 02
    +3V3 [B] [ ] +5V
 GPIO 02 [ ] [ ] +5V
 GPIO 03 [ ] [C] GND (Pin 06)
 GPIO 04 [ ] [A] GPIO 14 (Pin 08)
     GND [ ] [ ] GPIO 15 (Pin 10)
         ... ...

Raspberry Pi setup

Use the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite (2020-12-02-raspios-buster-armhf-lite.zip) with the new kernel drivers for IR communication (no more LIRC).

Update the config variables:

$ sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add the following to the end:

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=14
dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=15

Note: As part of this configuration, IR transmission is also configured. If transmission is not needed, exclude dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=15.

Reboot:

$ sudo reboot

Confirm gpio modules are loaded:

$ lsmod | grep gpio
gpio_ir_recv           16384  0
gpio_ir_tx             16384  0

Install ir-keytable:

$ sudo apt install ir-keytable -y

To confirm install, run:

$ ir-keytable

Enable all the kernel protocols:

$ sudo ir-keytable -p all

Note: It's necessary to re-enable all protocols after reboot, so we will schedule this later using cron:

$ sudo ir-keytable -s rc0 -p all
$ sudo ir-keytable -s rc1 -p all

Test remote with rc0 (if the receiver device is assigned to /sys/class/rc/rc1 use rc1):

$ ir-keytable -t -s rc0

Install Python and python-evdev package:

$ sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev python3-setuptools python3-wheel
$ pip3 install evdev

Install boto3 - The AWS SDK for Python:

$ pip3 install boto3

Set up AWS Credentials and Region for Development

Create .aws directory in your home directory:

$ mkdir .aws

Create AWS credentials file:

$ nano ~/.aws/credentials

Replace YOUR_KEY and YOUR_SECRET with your credentials obtained from IAM (see "Amazon AWS SQS FIFO Queue setup" section):

[default]
aws_access_key_id = YOUR_KEY
aws_secret_access_key = YOUR_SECRET

Create simple AWS config file:

$ nano .aws/config

Provide region:

[default]
region=us-east-1

Copy sender.py to your home directory.

To test run:

$ python3 sender.py

Register script to run at startup with crontab:

$ crontab -e

Add the following to the end:

@reboot sudo ir-keytable -s rc1 -p all
@reboot python3 /home/pi/sender.py

Note: Instead of rc1 you may need to register rc0. I have noticed that executing both commands may not work at startup:

@reboot sudo ir-keytable -s rc0 -p all
@reboot sudo ir-keytable -s rc1 -p all
@reboot python3 /home/pi/sender.py &

After reboot you will be able to send IR commands to the remote queue. To stop it execute $ sudo pkill -f python3.

IR transmitter setup

Follow this detailed article Raspberry Pi IR Transmitter by Gordon Turner to learn about alternate hardware options (IR LEDs, breadboard prototyping) and for verbose command output examples when testing functionality.

Infrared transmitter wiring diagram

IR transmitter module KY-005 connected like this:

KY-005 (IR transmitter) pinout:
 A) GND = GND [Pin 06]
 B) Vсс+ = 3.3V [Pin 01]
 C) Signal = GPIO 15 [Pin 10]

Raspberry Pi pinout:
      Pin 01 Pin 02
    +3V3 [B] [ ] +5V
 GPIO 02 [ ] [ ] +5V
 GPIO 03 [ ] [A] GND (Pin 06)
 GPIO 04 [ ] [ ] GPIO 14 (Pin 08)
     GND [ ] [C] GPIO 15 (Pin 10)
         ... ...

Raspberry Pi setup

Use the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite (2020-12-02-raspios-buster-armhf-lite.zip) with the new kernel drivers for IR communication (no more LIRC).

Update the config variables:

$ sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add the following to the end:

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=14
dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=15

Note: As part of this configuration, IR receiver is also configured. If receiving is not needed, exclude dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=14.

Reboot:

$ sudo reboot

Confirm gpio modules are loaded:

$ lsmod | grep gpio
gpio_ir_recv           16384  0
gpio_ir_tx             16384  0

Actually, that's it, now you can send IR commands with ir-ctl -d /dev/lirc0 -S nec:0x408, but we need to receive them from our queue.

Install Python:

$ sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev python3-setuptools python3-wheel

Install boto3 - The AWS SDK for Python:

$ pip3 install boto3

Set up AWS Credentials and Region for Development

Create .aws directory in your home directory:

$ mkdir .aws

Create AWS credentials file:

$ nano ~/.aws/credentials

Replace YOUR_KEY and YOUR_SECRET with your credentials obtained from IAM (see "Amazon AWS SQS FIFO Queue setup" section):

[default]
aws_access_key_id = YOUR_KEY
aws_secret_access_key = YOUR_SECRET

Create simple AWS config file:

$ nano .aws/config

Provide region:

[default]
region=us-east-1

Copy receiver.py to your home directory.

Note: Used IR protocol hardcoded in the variable protocol. To determine the protocol your IR remote uses execute (on a device with IR receiver, see "IR receiver setup" section) ir-keytable -t -s rc0 and capture few button presses.

To test run:

$ python3 receiver.py

Register script to run at startup with crontab:

$ crontab -e

Add the following to the end:

@reboot python3 /home/pi/receiver.py &

After reboot you will be able to receive IR commands from the remote queue and transmit them to a device. To stop it execute $ sudo pkill -f python3.

References

The following are references that I found helpful:

• General instructions:
  • Raspberry Pi IR Receiver
  • Raspberry Pi IR Transmitter
  • Using Bare Metal IR on the Orange Pi Zero
  • ir-keytable on the Orange Pi Zero
  • Sending Infrared Commands From a Raspberry Pi Without LIRC
  • ir-ctl - a swiss-knife tool to handle raw IR and to set lirc options
  • Remote control media player without lirc using ir-keytable
• Amazon AWS SQS:
  • Setting up Amazon SQS
  • Getting started with Amazon SQS
  • Set up AWS Credentials and Region for Development
  • Displaying AWS SQS Message Counts on a Raspberry Pi
  • Boto3 - The AWS SDK for Python
  • Boto3 Docs - Developer guide - Configuration
  • Boto3 Docs - Developer guide - Resources
• Additional packages:
  • python-evdev - Docs - Tutorial
  • python-evdev - API Reference - events
• Alternative Python packages:
  • pigpio
  • ircodec - A Python package that simplifies sending and receiving IR signals for the Raspberry Pi using pigpiod