The IrToy contains a few GPIO, which are normally unused. It is easy to solder some LEDs to these, to get an idea of what the thing is trying to do, and to help with debugging. Actually, I implemented this in IrScrutinizer already in version 1.1.2, the current version, but never told anyone about it :-). It works like this: Whenever the device is opened, one LED (RA5) is on. When the device is waiting for IR signals, another (RA3) is on. Finally, RA4 is lit whenever IR transmission takes place.
I just implemented this in the Lirc driver by Peter Kooiman, irtoy.c. The first three LEDs work in a similar fashion, there is also a fourth one, RA2, which is on during actual reception of IR. It is submitted as merge request to Lirc, https://sourceforge.net/p/lirc/git/merge-requests/15/ (https://sourceforge.net/p/lirc/git/merge-requests/15/) where it can be downloaded for those who do not want to wait.
Turned out that the "data LED" caused too much traffic, so I removed it. To be compatible with IrScrutinizer, changed to receiveLed when ready to receive. (So the original description is not 100% accurate any more,) Added a documentation page for the Lirc IrToy driver.
If someone has already downloaded the first version, please update.