irsend working with HP mceusb on laptop but not HTPC

I can’t work this out at all.

I’ve got an HP mce usb transmitter/receiver. When I plug this into my laptop (Ubuntu 16.04) I can get irw and irsend working immediately. However, when I use it on my HTPC (Kodi running on an Xubuntu 16.04 minimal), irw is fine but I get no output with irsend.

Given it works on the laptop, I know this isn’t a hardware issue (so maybe I’m in the wrong forum…).

The hardware.conf file on my laptop looks like this:

Code:
# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf#
#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE="Windows Media Center Transceivers/Remotes (all)"
REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev mceusb"
REMOTE_DRIVER=""
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
REMOTE_SOCKET=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="mceusb/lircd.conf.mceusb"
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Chosen IR Transmitter
TRANSMITTER="Microsoft Windows Media Center V2 (usb) : Direct TV Receiver"
TRANSMITTER_MODULES="lirc_dev mceusb"
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER=""
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE=""
TRANSMITTER_SOCKET=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF="directtv/general.conf"
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Disable kernel support.
#Typically, lirc will disable in-kernel support for ir devices in order to
#handle them internally.  Set to false to prevent lirc from disabling this
#in-kernel support.
#DISABLE_KERNEL_SUPPORT="true"

#Enable lircd
START_LIRCD="true"

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

#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES="true"

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

#Forcing noninteractive reconfiguration
#If lirc is to be reconfigured by an external application
#that doesn't have a debconf frontend available, the noninteractive
#frontend can be invoked and set to parse REMOTE and TRANSMITTER
#It will then populate all other variables without any user input
#If you would like to configure lirc via standard methods, be sure
#to leave this set to "false"
FORCE_NONINTERACTIVE_RECONFIGURATION="false"
START_LIRCMD=""

and on my HTPC it’s like this:

Code:
# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf#
#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE="Windows Media Center Transceivers/Remotes (all)"
REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev mceusb"
REMOTE_DRIVER=""
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lircmce"
REMOTE_SOCKET=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="mceusb/lircd.conf.mceusb"
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Chosen IR Transmitter
TRANSMITTER="Microsoft Windows Media Center V2 (usb) : Direct TV Receiver"
TRANSMITTER_MODULES="lirc_dev mceusb"
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER=""
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE=""
TRANSMITTER_SOCKET=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF="directtv/general.conf"
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Disable kernel support.
#Typically, lirc will disable in-kernel support for ir devices in order to
#handle them internally.  Set to false to prevent lirc from disabling this
#in-kernel support.
#DISABLE_KERNEL_SUPPORT="true"

#Enable lircd
START_LIRCD="true"

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

#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES="true"

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

#Forcing noninteractive reconfiguration
#If lirc is to be reconfigured by an external application
#that doesn't have a debconf frontend available, the noninteractive
#frontend can be invoked and set to parse REMOTE and TRANSMITTER
#It will then populate all other variables without any user input
#If you would like to configure lirc via standard methods, be sure
#to leave this set to "false"
FORCE_NONINTERACTIVE_RECONFIGURATION="false"
START_LIRCMD=""

The only other bit I should add is that I’ve created a custom udev rule as my TV tuner also appears as a lirc device. However, I’ve tried editing the REMOTE_DEVICE to “/dev/lirc1” and I get the same issue.

Can anyone help me to get the transmitter working on my HTPC?

This thread is also posted on the ubuntuforums site here: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2349431 I’ll link to any solutions posted on there and vice versa.