LIRC remote control won't send (irsend: hardware does not support sending)

Question

I'm trying to build a TV remote control using Raspberry Pi, and I get the following error when I try to send a command:

pi@raspberrypi:~$ irsend SEND_ONCE Samsung_BN59-00937A KEY_POWER

irsend: command failed: SEND_ONCE Samsung_BN59-00937A KEY_POWER    
irsend: hardware does not support sending

I've built an IR circuit, which works fine when I test it using a simple blinking script:

#!/usr/bin/python
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
print "Starting blink test.."
GPIO.setwarnings(True)
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(17, GPIO.OUT)
while True:
    GPIO.output(17, True)
    time.sleep(1)
    GPIO.output(17, False)
    time.sleep(1)

When I run this I can see the IR LED blinking using a camera LCD viewfinder. The circuit is wired according to this tutorial.

I set up LIRC following this tutorial.

My /etc/modules has these two lines in it:

lirc_dev
lirc_rpi gpio_in_pin=18 gpio_out_pin=17

My /boot/config.txt has this line in it:

dtoverlay=lirc-rpi,gpio_in_pin=18,gpio_out_pin=17

My /etc/lirc/hardware.conf looks like this:

# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
# Arguments which will be used when launching lircd
LIRCD_ARGS="--uinput"

#Don't start lircmd even if there seems to be a good config file
#START_LIRCMD=false

#Don't start irexec, even if a good config file seems to exist.
#START_IREXEC=false

#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES=true

# Run "lircd --driver=help" for a list of supported drivers.
DRIVER="default"
# usually /dev/lirc0 is the correct setting for systems using udev
DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
MODULES="lirc_rpi"

# Default configuration files for your hardware if any
LIRCD_CONF=""
LIRCMD_CONF=""

My /etc/rc.local has this line in it:

modprobe lirc_rpi gpio_in_pin=18 gpio_out_pins=17

I also tried following the suggested answer from this question and added the file

/etc/modprobe.d/ir-remote.conf

with this line in it:

options lirc_rpi gpio_in_pin=18 gpio_out_pin=17

But I still get the same error with irsend. Please could somebody help me fix this? Thank you.

EDIT: This is the output of lsmod when I remove the lirc lines from /etc/modules, /etc/rc.local, and /etc/modprobe.d/ir-remote.conf:

pi@raspberrypi:~$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
bnep                   10340  2 
hci_uart               17943  1 
btbcm                   5929  1 hci_uart
bluetooth             326105  22 bnep,btbcm,hci_uart
brcmfmac              186403  0 
brcmutil                5661  1 brcmfmac
cfg80211              427855  1 brcmfmac
rfkill                 16037  4 cfg80211,bluetooth
snd_bcm2835            20447  1 
snd_pcm                75762  1 snd_bcm2835
snd_timer              19288  1 snd_pcm
snd                    51908  5 snd_bcm2835,snd_timer,snd_pcm
bcm2835_gpiomem         3040  0 
bcm2835_wdt             3225  0 
lirc_rpi                6478  0 
uio_pdrv_genirq         3164  0 
uio                     8000  1 uio_pdrv_genirq
lirc_dev                8310  1 lirc_rpi
rc_core                16468  1 lirc_dev
i2c_dev                 5859  0 
fuse                   84037  3 
ipv6                  347594  46 

Answer 1

Verify that the service is starting correctly via

sudo /etc/init.d/lirc status

A common cause is a bad lircd.conf file.

Answer 2

I wrote some initial tricks in http://martinho.comuf.com.

But be attention on "UNCONFIGURED" lines in config files.

As I wrote there You have to remove all lines with word "UNCONFIGURED" in /etc/init.d/lirc

I don´t know why but a script look for that word even as comment.

Make backup of files before edit and dont´t forget to reboot after changes.

---I´m using a Raspberry PI3---

Answer 3

Check out this forum post: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=191425#p1213186

It mentions version 0.9.4 of lircd has a new config file format which is incompatible with the old, and that there is an included script (/usr/share/lirc/lirc-old2new) you can run which fixes it all up.

Solved my problem.