#254 Infrared Remote Protocol Translator (Arduino Nano)

I made a mistake I bought the technically best TV for our living room as far as I can tell this is where the problem started gritty youtubers here is the guy with a Swiss accent with a new episode and fresh ideas around sensors and microcontrollers according to reviews the best 49 inch TV came from Sony the old was a Samsung TV connected to a UPC set-top box also built by Samsung and to my trusted old Yamaha receiver amplifier which drives these cute boxes the Yamaha and the big boxes are all from a time when things were analog and when music stars lasted longer than two months it took me a long time to get these boxes to our living room as you might guess all was controlled by this remote in addition to the set top box commands it also had volume buttons and a TV on off what I forgot during my evaluation was that this was only possible because the TV was also from Samsung when the new TV was delivered I replaced the old Samsung and when my wife came home presented everything to her she again told me that this investment was not really necessary but accepted it after all these years she knows the man at her side now we nearly could stop the video with a sentence and they lived on happily till the end of their lives unfortunately that's not the case during the evening she called me and complained that she was no more able to change the volume with a remote a significant thing for her as usual I first thought it is a user error maybe my instructions before had be a little bit too fast then I tried and it also did not work for me this is when I started to understand that I had a problem here is the issue in the old set up it was not necessary to control the volume of the amplifier because this was done through the TV the new design was very different the Sony TV does not care about Samsung's IR signals and even with its proper remote did not change the volume because the Yamaha amplifier now was connected via an optical link at a constant signal level what a mess my wife insisted on one remote and it had to be the one from the set-top box as before a little depressed I went to my lab this was not a success I dreamed of but being a maker I did not want to give up so what's the problem I have to solve I have to make the Samsung remote speak Sony and Yamaha I needed a bubble fish for IR devices the bubble fish was a universal translator used in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy written by Douglas Adams my bubble fish should be simple it has to consist of a receiver for the Samsung remote and the transmitter for the other two devices oh by the way I forgot to tell you something because it was not needed in the old setup the Yamaha remote had disappeared a long time ago so I had to find out the IR code without having the original remote a real headache receiving IR signals is quite easy you find the details in video number 171 most devices use a 38 hilla hertz career and modulated with a digital signal using a modulation is necessary to distinguish between our remote signal and daylight fortunately we can buy ready-made parts which receive the IR signal do some conditioning and provide a digital signal as an output ready for decoding by an Arduino I use the T sop 4438 for my purpose I also could have used a DSO P 48 38 or a V s 1838 P I do not know the differences the heart of my IR bubble fish consists of an arduino nano because it is smaller than you know and can be programmed directly via USB so I connect the T sop 4438 to the Nano and upload the IR rec dump v2 dot I and O example file and really the codes are pouring out the serial monitor I start to cool down a little I need the following signals TV on volume up and down and mute all four coats are samsung coats a piece of cake with this sketch next we have to find the codes for the TV I use the Sony remote and press on we see that the command is a 90 and it should switch the Sony TV on how easy would it be to use the Yamaha remote to find the three missing codes but as said before it is gone and I did not find the replacement so no shortcut possible the search on the internet started and finally after many hours I found a way on how to get the ancient codes on remote central.com I found the codes of a similar receiver amplifier in so-called pronto format pronto was one of the first universal remote controllers made by Philips you still find many IR codes in this format I did not find a ready-made converter to transpose this code in hex code used by the Arduino IR library but I found a arduino sketch which consent prompter code so I used this sketch to transmit the code found on remote central using a second or we know uno I are received on v2 showed the right 32-bit codes so the hardest problem was solved I was able to write a small bubble fish sketch it listens to the known Samsung codes as soon as it discovers volume up for example it sends the corresponding code to the Yamaha and so increases the volume the same with volume down and mute the TV on off is translated into a signal for the Sony TV the hardware looks like that the T SOP 4438 receiver delivers the signal to the Arduino Nano because I wanted enough IR power I added a beefy n-channel FET and a 3 watt IR D out with a lens to get audible feedback I added a buzzer the last question was where to place the bubble fish looking at the situation on the receiver and the TV the only valid positioned with line-of-sight to the TV and the amplifier was somewhere in front of the TV and the Yamaha below the table for example fortunately enough of the Samsung remote signals were reflected back to my bubble fish now my wife has to be happy again a first test showed that the TV did not react to my device I checked again and did not find the issue I had to go one level deeper to the bare metal to do that I connected one of these cheapo logic analyzers to ABS 18:38 P receiver and fired up sig rock an open source logic analyzer software yes I know I could use another software but it would be illegal Sigrid close the issue even if I only press the button of the Sony remote for the shortest time it already sends four times the same code so I changed my sketch and now my device also repeats the signal a few times and the TV switches without issues now it was time for the so called user acceptance test I installed everything and proudly presented the features and functions she was not really impressed if something works as it worked before it is nothing thrilling for her it was more a correction of my mistake unnecessary to explain her the different complicated moves which were necessary to create my bubble fish I left her watching TV and went back to my lab the video for Sunday is still not produced by artificial intelligence after only five minutes yelling from the living room she wanted to decrease the volume when loud music started and they took her forever also this was a step backward from her old system the resolution of this issue was simple again repetition of codes instead of sending only one volume up or down I sent now five in a row like that the Yamaha reacts faster and she is ok with it but she is not at all ok with the wiring of our living room a cable in the middle of the room to the device under the table was just unacceptable now I had a real problem and I our remote is not exactly a low power device and cannot easily be driven by a battery if it has to be always on the place below the table was strategically chosen because the eye our race had a free line-of-sight to the TV and the amplifier desperate I tried a last resort I printed a new case and placed the IR transmitter at the top bubble fish version 2.0 was born I put it close to the amplifier and really because the sheer power of my design reflections were also seen by the Yamaha and later tests showed that the TV one-story higher also got its fair share of reflections now bubble fish version 2 quietly sits here in the compartment and can be hidden if her girlfriends come for a visit together with all the other uncool technical stuff who would have thought that a happy end here in Switzerland happy wife happy man again and I learned a few things about IR remotes which can also be used for other projects we can receive and send codes with the same Arduino sketch the IR remote library is quite powerful in detecting all sorts of codes and is an enormous help if you still have the remote control please also keep your old remotes it may save your pot remote central komm is an excellent source for loss I are coats together with a pronto coat transmit the sketch on another Arduino you can translate this code into the format needed by the IR remote library if you want to increase transmission power you can do that by adding an n-channel MOSFET and a powerful IR diode a capacitor helps here to stabilize the power rail I our reflection seem to be quite strong with the help of a little power you can also bend line-of-sight to your advantage imagine the non maker alternatives to my bubble fish a new Samsung TV and a new sound system would have been the smallest damage the big one would have been a divorce and the maker solution below ten dollars and a few happy hours in the basement what a wonderful life by the way later on I discovered that the TV switches off after a particular time because it is only used as a display and does not get any IR signals during a typical session so I enhanced the code now the TV also gets a message from time to time I choose the volume down command which does not affect this setup other than telling the TV it is used I hope this video was useful or at least interesting for you if true please consider supporting the channel to secure its future existence you find the links in the description thank you bye you

Channel: Andreas Spiess

Views: 36,222

Keywords: pronto code, LORAWAN, esp32, guide, esp8266 project, ir transmitter and receiver, Arduino remote control, esp8266, beginners, simple, do-it-yourself, hack, philips pronto, esp32 project, ir transmitter, Infrared, esp32 weather station, electronics, ttgo, wifi, greatscott, how to, ir pronto, nodemcu, ESP32 project, arduino, IR translator, iot, IR, babelfish, wemos, Arduino Nano, esp32 tutorial, hobby, smart home, diy, arduino project, eevblog, babel fish, project, Remote control

Id: 5yyy7h7qh80

Length: 12min 55sec (775 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 03 2019