USB OTG infrared transmitter/receiver and IR Widget-Android

NEC1 · Post by **NEC1** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 2:35 am

Even though this topic concerns both hardware and software, it mainly concerns software.
As far as you may know, some Android handheld devices support USB On-The-Go (USB OTG).
I think it is possible for the IR Widget to be supported under Android – are there any plans for such support?
In my experience, transmission and reception of infrared remote control signals (including the important carrier frequency) is possible with even the earliest version of IrDA (115.2K), so this should also be possible with a USB-serial (TTL RS-232) converter along with a few other components including IR emitters and a driving transistor, as well as an IR photodiode (with transistor buffer) or phototransistor for receiving IR signals with the carrier (keeping the carrier frequency is important to distinguish the protocol properly).
115.2K should be enough to do most protocols (even the RCA protocol with a 58kHz carrier), except for the B&O protocol which uses a 455kHz carrier (I seriously doubt that I would ever handle equipment which uses such a protocol!)
There is support under Android for USB to serial converters, including the PL2303 (standard 115.2K), the FT232R (pay attention to suffix!) with baud rates up to 3Mbit with bit banging (1-1.5Mbit should do just about every remote including B&O with its 455kHz carrier frequency – this chip seems ideal!), and most recently, the versatile FT311D.
Are there any plans for developing Android tools to decode remote control transmissions and to transmit infrared signals (both in UEI format) with such hardware?
Also, are there any plans to develop Android software which also supports programmable remote control layouts (with colour options for each key) and a learning function for each key, and can import/export UEI format functions for each key and device?

cauer29 · Post by **cauer29** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:08 pm

NEC1 wrote:Even though this topic concerns both hardware and software, it mainly concerns software.
As far as you may know, some Android handheld devices support USB On-The-Go (USB OTG).
I think it is possible for the IR Widget to be supported under Android – are there any plans for such support?
In my experience, transmission and reception of infrared remote control signals (including the important carrier frequency) is possible with even the earliest version of IrDA (115.2K), so this should also be possible with a USB-serial (TTL RS-232) converter along with a few other components including IR emitters and a driving transistor, as well as an IR photodiode (with transistor buffer) or phototransistor for receiving IR signals with the carrier (keeping the carrier frequency is important to distinguish the protocol properly).
115.2K should be enough to do most protocols (even the RCA protocol with a 58kHz carrier), except for the B&O protocol which uses a 455kHz carrier (I seriously doubt that I would ever handle equipment which uses such a protocol!)
There is support under Android for USB to serial converters, including the PL2303 (standard 115.2K), the FT232R (pay attention to suffix!) with baud rates up to 3Mbit with bit banging (1-1.5Mbit should do just about every remote including B&O with its 455kHz carrier frequency – this chip seems ideal!), and most recently, the versatile FT311D.
Are there any plans for developing Android tools to decode remote control transmissions and to transmit infrared signals (both in UEI format) with such hardware?
Also, are there any plans to develop Android software which also supports programmable remote control layouts (with colour options for each key) and a learning function for each key, and can import/export UEI format functions for each key and device?

I'm not really seeing a plan here. If you want to use the existing widget design, then indeed it is just a software project. Then you go on about alternative hardware I suppose for the transmit side which the Widget does not do. Perhaps you should have a look at the IRTOY by DangerousPrototypes, as that one can run the Widget FW and can also transmit LIRC or some similar format.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/USB_IR_Toy_v2

A.A.

NEC1 · Post by **NEC1** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:49 pm

Are there any plans to make the IR Widget work under Android with infrared logger which logs infrared signals (and lets you note the particular function on each signal) as well as let you note the manufacturer and model of the remote controlled device?

cauer29 · Post by **cauer29** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:09 am

NEC1 wrote:Are there any plans to make the IR Widget work under Android with infrared logger which logs infrared signals (and lets you note the particular function on each signal) as well as let you note the manufacturer and model of the remote controlled device?

The software to record what the widget outputs is quite trivial. Once the port is opened, the widget simply sends a byte containing the count of pulses it saw in the previous 100us window. 100us later, it sends the new current count again, rinse/repeat. I expect that even the cramped programming environment of Android can handle that.

That said, I believe that there was a proposal many months back to make a portable widget based capture device, but IIRC it was all hardware based with no need to dirty one's hands with Android programming. There wasn't much interest, what with laptops being so prevalent these days and you need a real computer to run all of the rest of the JP1 tools anyway.

A.A.

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