Android infrared (IR) transmitter code sample for Kitkat and Jelly Bean

There are many remote controller application in Google play store. But, I was not able to find an app that I can put my own IR pattern. For some reason, I need to transmit my own pattern.

So, I made a remote controller application. Now I can reach my purpose. It was easy to make for Kitkat OS. but, I wanted to make it run for Jelly Bean OS. Despite of Android API officially offer IR API from Kitkat(4.4). apparently, I see few Samsung Android device has IR transmitter which is running Jelly Bean OS(4.2).

When I run the same app which is using IR API. It didn't run on Jelly Bean as expected. I was wonder how I can control the IR from Jelly Bean OS. Luckily, I found a code sample from https://github.com/rngtng/IrDude thanks to him.

There are list of manufactur IR pattern. Please refer http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/codes/


\AndroidManifest.xml
Just make sure that minSdkVersion is 17 and target version is 19. as well it needs a permission and feature to handle IR transmitter.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.devtrigger.remotecontrol"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.TRANSMIT_IR"
    android:required="false" />
    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.consumerir" />
    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="17"
        android:targetSdkVersion="19" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <activity
            android:name="com.devtrigger.remotecontrol.MainActivity"
      android:screenOrientation="portrait"
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

\res\layout\activity_main.xml
There are just power , Channel up and down button.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonPower"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="irSend"
        android:text="Power" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonChUp"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="irSend"
        android:text="CH +" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonChDown"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="irSend"
        android:text="CH -" />

</LinearLayout>

\src\com\devtrigger\remotecontrol\MainActivity.java
I just removed my own pattern to generalize it and share it on my blog. I put Samsung TV IR pattern on below sample and this Class works find for my Samsung Android device. I have test Galaxy S4 mini Jelly Bean and Galaxy S4 Kitkat.

package com.devtrigger.remotecontrol;

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.hardware.ConsumerIrManager;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.SparseArray;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    Object irdaService;
    Method irWrite;    
    SparseArray<String> irData;
    TextView mFreqsText;
    ConsumerIrManager mCIR;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        // Be sure to call the super class.
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        irData = new SparseArray<String>();
  irData.put(
    R.id.buttonPower,
    hex2dec("0000 006d 0022 0003 00a9 00a8 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0702 00a9 00a8 0015 0015 0015 0e6e"));
  irData.put(
    R.id.buttonChUp,
    hex2dec("0000 006d 0022 0003 00a9 00a8 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0040 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0702 00a9 00a8 0015 0015 0015 0e6e"));
  irData.put(
    R.id.buttonChDown,
    hex2dec("0000 006d 0022 0003 00a9 00a8 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0015 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 003f 0015 0702 00a9 00a8 0015 0015 0015 0e6e"));

  
   if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT){
    
    irInit4KitKat();
   }else{
    irInit4JellyBean();
   }
  
    }
    
    @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT)
    public void irInit4KitKat() {
     
     // Get a reference to the ConsumerIrManager
        mCIR = (ConsumerIrManager)getSystemService(Context.CONSUMER_IR_SERVICE);
 
 }

 public void irInit4JellyBean() {
  irdaService = this.getSystemService("irda");
  Class c = irdaService.getClass();
  Class p[] = { String.class };
  try {
   irWrite = c.getMethod("write_irsend", p);
  } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
 }

 public void irSend(View view) {
  
  if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT){
   
   irSend4Kitkat(view);
  }else{
   
   irSend4JellyBean(view);
  }
 }
 
 @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT)
 private void irSend4Kitkat(View view) {

    
  String data = irData.get(view.getId());
  if (data != null) {
   String values[] = data.split(",");
   int[] pattern = new int[values.length-1];
   
   for (int i=0; i<pattern.length; i++){
    pattern[i] = Integer.parseInt(values[i+1]);
   }
   
   mCIR.transmit(Integer.parseInt(values[0]), pattern);
  }
 }
 
 private void irSend4JellyBean(View view) {
  String data = irData.get(view.getId());
  if (data != null) {
   try {
    irWrite.invoke(irdaService, data);
   } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
   } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
   } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
   }
  }
 }

 protected String hex2dec(String irData) {
  List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList(irData
    .split(" ")));
  list.remove(0); // dummy
  int frequency = Integer.parseInt(list.remove(0), 16); // frequency
  list.remove(0); // seq1
  list.remove(0); // seq2

  for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
   list.set(i, Integer.toString(Integer.parseInt(list.get(i), 16)));
  }

  frequency = (int) (1000000 / (frequency * 0.241246));
  list.add(0, Integer.toString(frequency));

  irData = "";
  for (String s : list) {
   irData += s + ",";
  }
  return irData;
 }
}