Testing IR interface

Greetings all from Brisbane, Australia. Would appreciate any advice please.
BACKGROUND:
I have an MF17 (Korean built Humanoid Robot) which is controlled by an IR remote controller. The robot is operated by ROBOBasic. An IR SENSOR transfers an RS232 signal to the (Arduino / GrovePi like) controller board and is read by ROBObasic as - ERX 4800, A, MAIN - where the 4800 baud digital number (0 - 32) is stored into variable A for interpretation by ROBObasic. My MF17 (Ted!)has stopped responding to the IR REMOTE.
a) The REMOTE seems to be working fine - flashes visible on smartphone test.
b)Using my Rasberry Pi and GrovePi+ as a testing board I have tested the IR SENSOR using D8 on the GrovePi and the grove_ir_receiver.py example code and NO signal is being received. From this I assume that the IR SENSOR has packed up and I have ordered a replacement.
QUESTION:
If I plugged D8 into my MF17 (socket is the same) is there any Python / Grove code that I could use to send the numerics 0-32 to the MF17 to test that the fault does not lie within the MF17. In other words can I use my GrovePi as an RS232 simulator to test the MF17.
I suspect that the answer is too obvious for my newbie status to see :frowning: Appreciate your patience.
regards, ianm

Hey Ian, a quick question: have you run the install scripts we have for the LIRC? You’ll need to run this before the IR will work. Also, what version of the grove IR sensor are you running?

Hi John, Thanks for picking up my query. Yes I have installed the LIRC. The sensor is as supplied with my MF17 robot.
I am afraid that my long spiel just clouded the issue. Too much background. The REAL question should have been :
What code can I use to get the GrovePi ETX pin (on SERIAL 4 pin plug) to ‘send’ decimal 0 thru 32 to the same connection on my MF17 PLEASE.
The GrovePi will serve as a simulator to in fact replace the IR so that I can have wireless control.
The IR stuff has actually been resolved and I need the above information so that I can use my RasberryPi to control the MF17 robot. I have assumed that it would be better to use the GrovePi as an interface because it will give me many additional IoT options.