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Using a PC to control a remote.. or as a remote

 
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TimH



Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 60
Location: Panama City, FL, USA

                    
PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 1:34 pm    Post subject: Using a PC to control a remote.. or as a remote Reply with quote

At work we use a device called a Slink-E that has a serial interface and allows you connect an IR emitter to control a device remotely. We use it to control a STB when connected to the pc via pcAnywhere. Is there an alternative that would allow, for instance, a UEI remote connected via JP1 to be controlled operationally from the PC? Maybe some other alternative that would allow a PC to act as a remote control?
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gjarboni
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Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Posts: 294
Location: Columbia, MD

                    
PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 1:54 pm    Post subject: Re: Using a PC to control a remote.. or as a remote Reply with quote

TimH wrote:
Is there an alternative that would allow, for instance, a UEI remote connected via JP1 to be controlled operationally from the PC? Maybe some other alternative that would allow a PC to act as a remote control?


Nothing JP1 related could do this. While the JP1 interface is reading and writing to and from the eeprom it holds the processors reset line low -- this is equivalent to holding in a PC's reset button. Obviously in that condition a PC can't do anything -- Likewise the remote with the reset line held low.

There are some other obscure JP1 tricks involving the 740 remotes, but they would get a response time of over 1 second per keypress. I don't think that would work for your application.
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BSchuler



Joined: 08 Jan 2004
Posts: 4

                    
PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Slink-E is just an IR Blaster for the pc. Check out www.girder.nl and it's forums for other Slink-E type devices.
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mikemcgo



Joined: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 54

                    
PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 2:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi. I have a URC-8090B00 (740 based) remote, and would be interested in messing around with this. Where could I find out more about the obscure tricks?
I also have a URC-6050 that has a 3 pin serial connector and can be controlled by a computer (details here: http://www.hifi-remote.com/ziggr/ ), but it doesn't have the device codes I need. I see that the latest version of IR supports serial, will I ever be able to upgrade this remote?
Details on this remote are available here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1/message/29582

Thanks in advance,
Mike
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classicsat



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 279

                    
PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am looking to do something along the lines of using a microcontroller or a UART to decode serial commands, and control some CMOS switches connected to the PCB/Chip from a JP1 UEIC remote.
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johnsfine
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Joined: 10 Aug 2003
Posts: 4766
Location: Bedford, MA

                    
PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

classicsat wrote:
I am looking to do something along the lines of using a microcontroller or a UART to decode serial commands, and control some CMOS switches connected to the PCB/Chip from a JP1 UEIC remote.


That's a really hard way to make a PC transmit IR.

If you want to go to the trouble to have a mcrocontroller decode serial commands, just wire an IR LED to it and directly generate the IR signals. That's simpler and cheaper than messing with button simulation on the remote and we would be glad to give you all the info about IR protocols to allow direct generation of signals.

The even simpler version involves driving the IR LED directly from an output of the computer. It's easy with a slow (1 Mhz) computer and DOS. With a computer a thousand times faster but running Windows, it probably would still work, but I can't say for certain that Windows latencies wouldn't kill it.
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johnsfine
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Joined: 10 Aug 2003
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Location: Bedford, MA

                    
PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mikemcgo wrote:
I also have a URC-6050 that has a 3 pin serial connector and can be controlled by a computer (details here: http://www.hifi-remote.com/ziggr/ ), but it doesn't have the device codes I need. I see that the latest version of IR supports serial, will I ever be able to upgrade this remote?


The IR serial is entirely different from the URC-6050 serial. So the new serial support is not even a step in the right direction. None of us have (nor are likely to) invested the time to figure out how upgrades work on a URC-6050. Clearly it's possible. Probably it's even easier than JP1 if we kew how. But it would be too hard to learn how (I would guess hundreds of hours of expert effort would be required).
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classicsat



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 279

                    
PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

johnsfine wrote:
classicsat wrote:
I am looking to do something along the lines of using a microcontroller or a UART to decode serial commands, and control some CMOS switches connected to the PCB/Chip from a JP1 UEIC remote.


That's a really hard way to make a PC transmit IR.

If you want to go to the trouble to have a mcrocontroller decode serial commands, just wire an IR LED to it and directly generate the IR signals. That's simpler and cheaper than messing with button simulation on the remote and we would be glad to give you all the info about IR protocols to allow direct generation of signals.

The even simpler version involves driving the IR LED directly from an output of the computer. It's easy with a slow (1 Mhz) computer and DOS. With a computer a thousand times faster but running Windows, it probably would still work, but I can't say for certain that Windows latencies wouldn't kill it.


The thing is though, I need the small CPU power and space I do have (I have only 2K of code memory) to translate the data coming in, into an IR stream (of which it will be controlling a couple devices with totally different protocols. I figure something I can send simply key commands into, AND can be programmed like a JP1 remote
(right now, most of the devices I would control use custom upgrades, and are controlled by an OFA universal remote.) Not to mention I am a bit keener with hardware than software.
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johnsfine
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Joined: 10 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It wouldn't take much code on the micro to directly transmit IR.

I assume you know (better than I do) how to connect a couple IR LED's (in series) to an output of a micro, so it can turn them on and off directly under program control.

1) The PC must be able to tell the micro a wavelength (typically 26 microseconds) at which to turn the LEDs On and Off (The wavelength is total of On+Off. The duty cycle doesn't matter too much, anything from 7 On 19 Off through 13 On 13 Off would be a perfectly good 26).

2) The PC then gives the micro a series of Modulate and Silent counts. A Modulate count tells the number of cycles of the above modulation to do. A Silent count (in any convenient units: cycles or microseconds or whatever) tells how long to wait before the next Modulate.

3) You also need a way to say stop and wait for a new wavelength.

4) Some buffering may be needed in the micro depending on the speed of the PC to micro connection.

Pronto Hex is basically that wavelength followed by a series of cycle counts of modulate and silent. I expect most of the signals you want are available already in Pronto Hex. But I'd be glad to help you put them in a form that is a little more appropriate to whatever PC to micro communication method you choose.

If you really don't like that idea and want to connect CMOS switches to the PCB of a UEI remote, what help or advice were you looking for?

On the PCB of a UEI remote there are 8 "scan lines" and 6, 7, or 8 "sense lines". To "read" the keyboard the micro in the UEI remote puts a pulse on each of the 8 scan lines in turn and looks to see if that pulse shows up on one of the sense lines. Each button shorts one scan line to one sense line, so if exactly one button is pressed then it will see a pulse on only one sense line and only when one scan line is set.

To "hibernate" waiting for a key press, it puts a level on all eight scan lines and waits for it on any sense line.

I'm sure you can easily find the sense and scan lines on the PCB, and if you are willing to destroy the normal use of the remote, you could solder connections to each scan and sense line.

If your micro were much faster than the 8Mhz micro in the UEI remote, you could skip the switches. Wire the scan lines as inputs and the sense lines as outputs:
1) Assert a sense line to wake up the remote.
2) When you see the 8 scan lines deassert, you deassert the sense line.
3) Watch the scan line for the key you care about. When you see it assert, very quickly assert the sense line. When you see the scan line deassert, deassert the sense line.
4) Continue doing step 3 for the duration that you want the remote to think the key is pressed.

Otherwise, you need a lot of CMOS switches on a lot of intersections of scan and sense lines at one for each key you want to simulate.
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classicsat



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 279

                    
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am not having an trouble, yet... (it is as of right now a concept, however I might have to get a new remote to replace my main remote, a 6800, which may be sacrificed for the project, if my RS 8102 won't work)

As to scanning the matrix, it will be as simple as using two sets of CMOS switches, one connecting an X-matrix to a common, another connecting that common to the Y matrix, using two 8 to 1 binary controlled switches.
The trouble would be to getting this simple UART I have to decode serial to the switches, although looking at it, I may be able to direclty control them with my micro.

As to why not directly control the LED as you stated, it is that the "PC" controlling the micro is not a PC at all, but an embedded system I won't have much control over.(to be truthful it is a Tivo, the micro is an Atmel AT90s2313, and it will be controlling two wholly different satellite receivers.
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