Jeenode/Arduino infrared receiver and sender

[Mdamen]

I want to create a infrared receiver and sender, to control my a/v equipment.
This could also be done with commercial products like for example IRtrans, but it's not even half the fun of doing it yourself.

Project goals:

• Send and receive IR goals over the air (using HopeRF)
• Control my Samsung LCD TV
• Control my xtreamer
• Control my media center
• Control my 5.1 surround set
• Status of devices should be tracked, I want to relay all IR commands through my Jeenode

I will be blogging about the process:

Jeenode infrared project part 1: getting started -> http://www.maartendamen.com/?p=257
Jeenode infrared project part 2: going wireless -> http://www.maartendamen.com/?p=265
Jeenode infrared project part 3: sending test -> http://www.maartendamen.com/?p=280

[Mdamen]

New part in these blog series: http://www.maartendamen.com/?p=280

[Digit]

Great!

One question though: how easy is it to make use of existing IR code databases like the ones that exist for the Pronto, Harmony or others?
Or do you have to learn all codes yourselves? And if so, have you encountered any problems with that?

[Mdamen]

You need to find the correct pulse.. which is not that hard (I figured that out in about a hour)
There are a few parameters that need to be defined, these are different for each brand.
Once you get the pulse you can get the hexadecimal code used to control buttons from LIRC (http://www.lirc.org)
LIRC has a huge database of remotes.

Here's a snippet from my Samsung TV remote:

begin codes
POWER 0x40BF
SOURCE 0x807F

1 0x20DF
2 0xA05F
3 0x609F

So most information is right there. You can also 'record' each individual button, but that would take ages.. I didn't go down that road

[Digit]

Thanks, good to hear it wasn't to hard to determine the right codes. IR codes have always been a bit of a ''mystery' to me; to much different types etc.
I bought a Samsung TV 2 days ago, so i will definitely have a look at this

So now you have a JeeNode with a IR LED near the receiving unit (TV).
Maybe you can say something about the range that you can achieve with this IR LED?
Have you tried larger distances between IR LED and your TV?

[gvdham]

Wow nice project.. can u tell something about the price? Would it be possible to use it in Homeseer?

[Mdamen]

If you need some help with it, let me know.. the lunch was good at Rheden

About the IR led, it has shit range the way I configured it now (1 meter max).. I should use a transistor to improve the range (it's directly connected right now)
I do not need it for my project though, my idea is to use IR extender cables and connect them to my Jeenode (like the one's you get with Marmitek IR extenders for example)
A big plus IMHO is that the original IR receiver is blocked, so all IR receiving will be done by my Jeenode IR receiver.. this way I will always be aware of device states (e.g. ON/OFF which HDMI port etc.)

[Mdamen]

@gvdham

So far I purchased the following parts:

- Jeenode -> €17,50
- Vishay IR receiver module TSOP 1838 -> €1,57
- Vishay IR sender diode TSUS 5401 -> €1,11
- As for receiving side, I use a Jeelink (29,50) but you could also use another Jeenode which has the same hardware (but not a nice case)

So the total price is €49.68 just under 50 euro's, which is less then half of a commercial solution like IRtrans.
Integration with Homeseer wouldn't be that hard to create, however the current project is still a bit in a hackish state.
Would be nice if other people could use it, but that would mean I need to implement allot of IR protocols.

[Digit]

This all sounds very good
Thanks again for your info; 1 of the JeeNode kits i have here (still) waiting to be assembled, has been assigned to IR right now

[Mdamen]

Had some spare time today, so I fitted the infrared receiver inside a box.
More info is here: http://www.maartendamen.com/?p=321

[Digit]

Great!

I had the same as you; putting all the wires in a little box can be quite time consuming; you feel like as if you need your fingers to be half as thick as they are

Did you spray the outside of the enclosure with some sort of silver color?
On some pics it looks like that.

[Mdamen]

Yeah those wires get really annoying
No it's not silver paint, guess it's my bad cell phone camera
My camera got broken, so I am taking pictures with my cell phone camera right now.