IRTCP v1.0.0 (Hub server for using IR module via HTTP)

oskaremilsson

What is it?
Hub TCP server for using the IR module via HTTP.
Both to record of new signals with a given name and to play them back.
Using net since SDK doesn't have the nodejs HTTP-module available.

Why?
I really wanted to be able to call my IR module from my phone homescreen or Google Home (via IFTTT). I got it working so I wanted to share it if anyone else find it helpful

The code is what could be called a POC, so code feedback and/or changes are totally welcome.

How does it work?

Record a signal GET {ip}:1338?record={name_of_signal}
Plays a signal GET {ip}:1338?cmd={name_of_signal}
Cancel recording GET {ip}:1338?cancelRecord=true

Example;

call GET 192.168.0.100:1338?record=volume_up
Press Volume Up on remote towards IR module
returns 200 OK Signal volume_up stored!
call GET 192.168.0.100:1338?cmd=volume_up
returns 200 OK Signal sent!
Volume goes up

The code

module.json

{
	"name": "IRTCP",
	"version": "1.0.0"
}

main.js

// main.js
const net = require("net");
const ir = require("ir");
const datastore = require("datastore");

const utils = require("./utils");

const respondToClient = function(c, statusCode, message) {
	c.write(
		"HTTP/1.1 " + statusCode + "\r\n" +
		"\r\n"
	);
	c.write(message);
	c.end();
}

const handleCmd = function(c, cmd) {
	datastore.get(cmd, function(err, strBuffer) {
		if (!err && strBuffer) {
			var signal = new Uint32Array(utils.str2ab(strBuffer));
			if (!ArrayBuffer.isView(signal)) {
				return respondToClient(c, "422 Unprocessable Entity", "Unknown signal");
			}

			ir.play(signal, function(err) {
				if (!err) {
					return respondToClient(c, "200 OK", "Signal sent");
				}
				return respondToClient(c, "500 Internal Server Error", "Couldn't send signal");
			});
		} else {
			return respondToClient(c, "422 Unprocessable Entity", "Unknown cmd");
		}
	});
}

const handleRecord = function(c, name) {
	/* TODO: add a timeout for listening for complete */
	ir.record();
	console.log("recording signal...");

	ir.on("recordComplete", function(signal) {	
		datastore.put(name, utils.ab2str(signal.buffer), function(err) {
			if (!err) {
				console.log("Signal " + name + " stored!");
				return respondToClient(c, "200 OK", "Signal " + name + " stored!");
			} else {
				return respondToClient(c, "500 Internal Server Error", "Couldn't store signal");
			}
		});
	});
}


var server = net.createServer(function(c) {
  console.log('server connected');
  c.on('end', function() {
    console.log('server disconnected');
  });

	c.on('data', function(data) {
		console.log(data);
		var match = data.toString().match(/GET \/\?.[^ ]*/);

		if (!match) {
			return respondToClient(c, "403 Forbidden", "Forbidden method");
		}

		var params = utils.parseParams(match[0].split("GET /?")[1]);
		
		if (params.cmd) {
			return handleCmd(c, params.cmd);
		} else if (params.record && params.record.length > 0) {
			return handleRecord(c, params.record);
		} else if (params.cancelRecord) {
			ir.cancelRecord();
			console.log("recording canceled!");
			return respondToClient(c, "200 OK", "Recording canceled!");
		} else {
			return respondToClient(c, "403 Forbidden", "Forbidden params");
		}
	});
});

server.listen(1338, "0.0.0.0", function() {
  console.log('server bound', server.address().port);
});

utils.js

const ab2str = function(buf) {
  return String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint16Array(buf));
}

const str2ab = function(str) {
  var buf = new ArrayBuffer(str.length*2);
  var bufView = new Uint16Array(buf);
  for (var i=0, strLen=str.length; i < strLen; i++) {
    bufView[i] = str.charCodeAt(i);
  }
  return buf;
}

const parseParams = function (s) {
	var obj = {};
	var arr = s.split("&");
	var temp;

	for (i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
		temp = arr[i].split("=");
		obj[temp[0]] = temp[1];
	}
	
	return obj;
};

exports.ab2str = ab2str;
exports.str2ab = str2ab;
exports.parseParams = parseParams;

mullz

@Emil This is helpful info for investigation, but I still can't figure out why the console output appears to indicate overwriting multiple commands every time a new one is recorded:

server connected
GET /?record=test HTTP/1.1

Host: flichub.local:1338

Accept: /

Accept-Language: en-US;q=1, ru-RU;q=0.9, es-US;q=0.8

Connection: keep-alive

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

User-Agent: Flic/7.0.5 (iPhone; iOS 26.1; Scale/3.00)

recording signal...
Signal testUp stored!
Signal testDwn stored!
Signal test stored!
Signal test stored!
server disconnected
server connected
GET /?cmd=test HTTP/1.1

Host: flichub.local:1338

Accept: /

Accept-Language: en-US;q=1, ru-RU;q=0.9, es-US;q=0.8

Connection: keep-alive

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

User-Agent: Flic/7.0.5 (iPhone; iOS 26.1; Scale/3.00)

server disconnected

Unless I am reading it wrong, recording a new signal saves it, but also overwrites all previous recordings with the new IR signal, as well.

(I sent these commands from the iOS flic app, using the Internet Request feature, from one of the widgets, if that is helpful info)

Emil

@mullz I couldn't reproduce the issue. Seems to work as intended for me with oskaremilsson's code.
One thing I noticed is that the conversion to string might not always work correctly the way the encoding is done. The string that is to be saved needs to be stored in proper UTF-16 format; now you could theoretically accidentally create invalid surrogate pairs.

mullz

Hello,

I've been trying to get this script up and running on my own Flic Hub LR (firmware v4.6.0), but I seem to be running into trouble with the datastore module; nothing appears to stay saved, or else entering one IR code overwrites ALL IR codes with with string from the most recently recorded one. When I tried to investigate what was being written to the datastore, I noticed the datastore.db file appears corrupt in some way (dB Browser for SQLite says it's unreadable/malformed). This happens in both the original "IRTCP" code @oskaremilsson posted, as well as the "ir-server" version posted by @jitmo.

Am I missing something silly, or is there a change in the way the datastore puts/gets work in the latest firmware?

Emil

The next firmware update will allow for the previous call signature as well.

oskaremilsson

@johan-0 This is the best thing I have ever encountered in my life of a developer. I just googled the issue I got in console and arrived at my own thread where the answer was already solved. hahah

johan 0

@Emil It worked, thanks so much! I didn't get any email notification about a response so I just figured no one would answer, but now I got around to looking at it again

Emil

@johan-0 could you try to change the listen call to

server.listen(1338, "0.0.0.0", function(...

instead?

johan 0

Hej @oskaremilsson and others using this, thanks for the code! I've been using this successfully for years, and uploaded it with some modifications to GitHub. Now it just stopped working and I don't understand why, but I suspect an API change? @emil maybe you can answer this? My flic hub is on version 4.3.4 and I'm getting this error

RangeError: host does not a contain a valid IPv4 address: undefined
    at listen (core.js:1677)
    at <anonymous> (root/IR Server/tcpServer.js:123)
    at require (core.js:2902)
    at <anonymous> (root/IR Server/main.js:3)
    at require (core.js:2902)
    at requireMain (core.js:2910)
    at handlePacket (core.js:2944)
    at onPipeData (core.js:3015)

andreas.lorentsen

This is awesome!
In lack of better Javascript skills, I actually configured a Flic 2 button (through the "front door" main app interface ), just to be able to trigger the record action without a phone. Even though it worked, it felt kind of "offensive" to the code (like using a MacBook Pro as a bookend ). I guess I'll hack around with the example code just to get everything in one place

️

jitmo

Hey @oskaremilsson, works for me

oskaremilsson

@jitmo simply amazing!
If I were to put the original code on GitHub, would you be up to make these changes there so we get a nice history and stuff?

jitmo

Hey @oskaremilsson and @Emil, great work on getting this together. I have built on top of this with the following:

timeout when recording an IR signal
optional logging of TCP requests/responses
ignore favicon.ico requests when using a browser
the server now has 4 methods using a semantic url path

The four server methods are:

GET /putIRarray/<IR_NAME>:<IR_ARRAY> to store IR arrays crowd-sourced from others
GET /getIRarray/<IR_NAME> to share your IR arrays with others
GET /recordIR/<IR_NAME> to record an IR array, with timeout
GET /playIR/<IR_SEQUENCE> to play IR sequences

<IR_NAME> (string) is the name you choose for your IR code(s)

<IR_ARRAY> (string) is, without spaces, in the form from the Flic Hub SDK docs, eg: [<CARRIER_FREQ>,<ON_us>,<OFF_us>,<ON_us>,...]

<IR_SEQUENCE> (string) is a comma-separated list of <IR_NAME>, eg: /playIR/tvOn or playIR/tvOn,lightsOff

To stagger when the IR codes start use <IR_NAME>:<SECONDS_DELAY> (0.1 second precision), eg: playIR/tvOn:2.0,lightsOff

Here's the code:

// main.js

const tcpServer = require('./tcpServer');

// tcpServer.js

// Based on work by Oskar Emilsson https://community.flic.io/topic/18043/irtcp-v1-0-0-hub-server-for-using-ir-module-via-http

const net = require('net');

const irUtils = require('./irUtils');

// Set true to log TCP (HTTP) requests/responses
const logRequestResponse = false;

const respondToClient = function(c, statusCode, message, log) {
  
  var content = 'HTTP/1.1 '+statusCode+'\r\n'+'\r\n'+message;

  if(typeof log === 'undefined') log = logRequestResponse;

  if(log) {
    console.log('\n# HTTP RESPONSE');
    console.log(content);
    console.log('# END HTTP RESPONSE\n');
  }

  c.write(content);
  c.end();
}

var server = net.createServer(function(c) {
  console.log('Server connected');

  c.on('end', function() {
    console.log('Server disconnected\n');
  });

  c.on('data', function(data) {

    // Convert TCP content byte array to string
    var content = data.toString();
    
    // Ignore favicon requests from a browser
    if(content.indexOf('GET /favicon.ico') !== -1) {
      console.log('# ignoring favicon.ico request');
      return respondToClient(c, '200 OK', '', false);
    }

    if(logRequestResponse) {
      console.log('\n# HTTP REQUEST');
      console.log(content);
      console.log('# END HTTP REQUEST\n');      
    }

    // The first line of the raw TCP will look something like this "GET playIR/tvOn:2.0,lightsOff HTTP/1.1"
    // Check for URL paths /recordIR/<IR_NAME>, /playIR/<IR_SEQUENCE>, /putIRarray/<IR_NAME>:<IR_ARRAY> or /getIRarray/<IR_NAME>

    // <IR_ARRAY> is, without spaces, in the form from the docs [<CARRIER_FREQ>,<ON_us>,<OFF_us>,<ON_us>,...]
    
    // <IR_SEQUENCE> is a comma-separated list of <IR_NAME>, eg: playIR/tvOn or playIR/tvOn,lightsOff
    // To stagger when the IR codes start use <IR_NAME>:<SECONDS_DELAY> (0.1 second precision), eg: playIR/tvOn:2.0,lightsOff

    // From the Hub SDK documentation "If another play is started before a previous one has completed, it gets enqueued and starts as soon as the previous completes (max 100 enqueued signals)"

    var recordIRmatch = content.match(/GET \/recordIR\/(.[^ ]*) HTTP/);
    var playIRmatch = content.match(/GET \/playIR\/(.[^ ]*) HTTP/);
    var putIRarraymatch = content.match(/GET \/putIRarray\/(.[^ ]*) HTTP/);
    var getIRarraymatch = content.match(/GET \/getIRarray\/(.[^ ]*) HTTP/);
    
    if(recordIRmatch && recordIRmatch[1]) {
      // Start recording an IR signal
      irUtils.record(c, recordIRmatch[1]);
    }
    else if(playIRmatch && playIRmatch[1]) {
      // Play an IR signal or IR signal sequence
      var items = playIRmatch[1].split(',');
      irUtils.play(c, items);
    }
    else if(putIRarraymatch && putIRarraymatch[1]) {
      // Store an IR signal
      var splitPath = putIRarraymatch[1].split(':');
      if(splitPath.length == 2) {
        var irArray = JSON.parse(splitPath[1]);
        if(Array.isArray(irArray) && irArray.length % 2 === 0) {
          irUtils.put(c, splitPath[0], splitPath[1]);
        }
        else {
          respondToClient(c, '400 Bad Request', 'Use the form /putIRarray/<IR_NAME>:<IR_ARRAY>\r\n\r\n<IR_ARRAY> is, without spaces, in the form from the Flic Hub SDK docs [<CARRIER_FREQ>,<ON_us>,<OFF_us>,<ON_us>,...] and must have an even number of items (finishing with an <ON_us> item)');
        }
      }
      else {
        respondToClient(c, '400 Bad Request', 'Use the form /putIRarray/<IR_NAME>:<IR_ARRAY>\r\n\r\n<IR_ARRAY> is, without spaces, in the form from the Flic Hub SDK docs [<CARRIER_FREQ>,<ON_us>,<OFF_us>,<ON_us>,...] and must have an even number of items (finishing with an <ON_us> item)');
      }
    }
    else if(getIRarraymatch && getIRarraymatch[1]) {
      // Retrieve an IR signal
      irUtils.get(c, getIRarraymatch[1]);
    }
    else {
      respondToClient(c, '400 Bad Request', 'Valid url paths are recordIR/<IR_NAME> and playIR/<IR_SEQUENCE> \r\n\r\nWhere <IR_SEQUENCE> is a comma-separated list of <IR_NAME>, eg: playIR/tvOn or playIR/tvOn,lightsOff \r\n\r\nTo stagger when the IR codes start use <IR_NAME>:<SECONDS_DELAY> (0.1 second precision), eg: playIR/tvOn:2.0,lightsOff');
    }

  }); // on.data

}); // net.createServer

server.listen(1338, function() {
  console.log('Server bound', server.address().port);
});

exports.respondToClient = respondToClient;

// irUtils.js

const ir = require('ir');
const datastore = require('datastore');

const server = require('./tcpServer');

// Set true to respond before playing IR signals (and after checking all signals have been recorded)
// You may want a faster response for the system requesting the IR signal(s) playback, although you will not know if ir.play() fails
const respondBeforePlaying = false;

const _irSignal2str = function(signal) {
  // Instead of using signal.buffer use the JS object (undocumented, this might not always be available)
  // The object keys are "0", "1", etc and the values are the integers that need to be in the array

  // Convert the JS object to an array of integers
  var items = [];
  for(var i=0; i<Object.keys(signal).length;i++) {
    items.push(signal[i]);
  }

  return JSON.stringify(items);
}

const _str2irSignal = function(str) {
  return new Uint32Array(JSON.parse(str));
}

const put = function(c, name, data) {
  console.log('@ irUtils.put',name,data);
  
  datastore.put(name, data, function(err) {
    console.log('@ datastore.put callback');
    if (!err) {
      console.log('IR signal '+name+' stored');
      server.respondToClient(c, '200 OK', 'IR signal '+name+' stored');
    } else {
      console.error('# error: ', error);
      server.respondToClient(c, '500 Internal Server Error', 'Could not store IR signal');
    }
  }); // datastore.put
}

const get = function(c, name) {
  console.log('@ irUtils.get '+name);

  datastore.get(name, function(err, str) {
    console.log('@ datastore.get callback');
    if(!err && typeof str === 'string' && str.length > 0) {
      server.respondToClient(c, '200 OK', str);
    }
    else {
      server.respondToClient(c, '404 Not Found', 'Could not find IR signal '+name);
    }    
  }); // datastore.get
}

const record = function(c, name) {
  console.log('@ irUtils.record '+name);
  
  // Start recording
  ir.record();

  // Set up a timeout timer for 5 seconds
  var timeoutTimer = setTimeout(function(){
    ir.cancelRecord();
    console.log('Recording IR signal '+name+' TIMEOUT');
    clearTimeout(timeoutTimer);
    server.respondToClient(c, '408 Request Timeout', 'Recording IR signal '+name+' TIMEOUT');
    return;
  },5000);

  // Wait for recordComplete event
  ir.on('recordComplete', function(signal) {  

    console.log('@ ir.on.recordComplete');
    // Stop the timeout timer
    clearTimeout(timeoutTimer);
    
    // Convert the signal to a string
    var data = _irSignal2str(signal);
    console.log(data);

    // Store the data
    put(c, name, data);

  }); // ir.on.recordComplete
}

const play = function(c, items) {
  console.log('@ irUtils.play '+items);

  // Check all the IR codes exist
  const retrievalMs = 20;
  var index = 0;
  var irCodes = {};
  var errors = '';

  // datastore is async, so give each item time to be retrieved
  var fetchingTimer = setInterval(function(){
    var item = items[index].split(':')[0];
    if(typeof irCodes[item] !== 'undefined') {
      console.log('# '+item+' already retrieved');
      if(++index === items.length) clearTimeout(fetchingTimer);      
    }
    else {
      console.log('# getting '+item+' from datastore')
      datastore.get(item, function(err, str) {
        console.log('@ datastore.get callback');
        if(!err && typeof str === 'string' && str.length > 0) {
          irCodes[item] = str;
        }
        else {
          console.error('Cannot find IR code '+item+' in datastore.');
          errors += 'Cannot find IR code '+item+' in datastore. ';
        }    
        if(++index === items.length) clearTimeout(fetchingTimer);
      }); // datastore.get
    }
  },retrievalMs); // setInterval

  // Wait for datastore to finish
  setTimeout(function(){

    if(errors !== '') {
      server.respondToClient(c, '400 Bad Request', errors);
      return;
    }

    console.log(JSON.stringify(irCodes,null,2));
    
    if(respondBeforePlaying) server.respondToClient(c, '200 OK', 'Sending IR signal(s)');
    
    // Set up a timer to process the queue and pauses
    var pausingTenths = 0;
    var sendingTimer = setInterval(function(){
      if(pausingTenths > 0) {
        // Keep pausing
        pausingTenths--;
      }
      else {
        if(items.length > 0) {
          var itemSplit = items.shift().split(':');
          // Play the IR code
          console.log('# Sending IR code '+itemSplit[0]);
          var signal = _str2irSignal(irCodes[itemSplit[0]]);
          ir.play(signal, function(err) {
            if(err) {
              clearTimeout(sendingTimer);
              if(!respondBeforePlaying) server.respondToClient(c, '500 Internal Server Error', 'Could not send IR signal '+itemSplit[0]);
              return;
            }
          });

          // Add a pause if requested
          if(itemSplit[1] && typeof parseFloat(itemSplit[1]) === 'number') {
            var pause = parseFloat(itemSplit[1]);
            console.log('# Adding '+pause+' seconds pause');
            pausingTenths = parseInt(pause*10);
          }
        }
        else {
          // Finish up
          console.log('# Finished IR send');
          clearTimeout(sendingTimer);
          if(!respondBeforePlaying) server.respondToClient(c, '200 OK', 'Sent IR signal(s)');
        }
      }

    },100); // setInterval
    
  },retrievalMs*(items.length+1)); // setTimeout
}

exports.put = put;
exports.get = get;
exports.record = record;
exports.play = play;

oskaremilsson

@Emil Thanks, and thank you for quick responses on questions

Emil

Nice!
This is great work, like to see more of this.

oskaremilsson

I forgot to add how I'm calling this from my homecreen of my phone.
I'm using HTTP Shortcuts-app widget.