Tag Archives: Arduino

Update: AnalysIR network enabled, Kits, RPi, Yún

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The first set of kits has shipped today and because we were able to get a discount on the components we also included some bonus components as a gift (2 x npn transistors, 4 x 100 ohm resistors & 4 x 4k7 ohm resistors). These extra components may be of use to those who want to build their own IR led Driver circuit with the TSAL6100. We didn’t realise that shipping components was such an ordeal (individual Customs & Air Safety declarations depending on destination). The shipping cost was more than budgeted, but was also offset by the discount achieved.

On the Raspberry Pi front, AnalysIR is now running well without any noticeable glitches. The approach we have adapted is to connect to the RPi over the network. The solution was to pipe the output over the LAN to a virtual serial port on the Windows PC. The virtual serial port utility is freely available for Windows and the network stuff on the RPi is just standard shell commands. I should point out that we haven’t yet tried to measure the modulation frequency on the RPi, just straight decoding though the IR Receiver. When idle we are using only 1.3% CPU on the RPi, when recording a single signal it goes to 1.6% CPU & when full out recording IR it goes up to ~ 4.9% CPU usage. This is pretty good as it doesn’t impact on other processes; considering our first attempt was using 99% CPU when idle 🙂

The potential to decode & analyze over a network may lead to some interesting features in future – ideas welcome. As a minimum, the work with the RPi will make the port to the Arduino Due easier (we are expecting a Due next week) and also when the Arduino Yún is released with WiFi

Update: Kits, IR Compression, Serial Hack etc….

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As we are approaching the last 10 days of the campaign we would like to share the following updates:

● Today we were informed that the kit components were shipped via UPS to us here in Dublin. Hopefully, they will arrive within a few days, which means we should be able to start posting them out over the weekend or early next week.

● We have been busy this week with preparing the Windows installation package and it seems to be going well – so far.
● We also improved the Arduino code and increased the effective RAM available for AnalysIR.
● We have also integrated the IR modulation measurement into the GUI and it works well with the Modulation frequency being updated ‘at least’ once per IR signal. As we mentioned previously, we have not seen an example of IR modulation frequency being measured on an Arduino before, and particularly not simultaneous with IR decoding.
● We have also added support for compression of IR when importing or exporting in Global Cache format.
● Yesterday we had an interesting experience with the Arduino. As we were swapping out one IR receiver and held the signal line in the hand – a signal received by AnalysIR. We inspected the signal and it seemed to be pretty consistent, so it was analysed quickly using excel and it turned out (not surprisingly) to be mains hum which in this part of the world has a frequency of 50Hz (vs 60Hz elsewhere). That then got me thinking about the following hack!
● We then tested sending a series of serial signals from another Arduino into the IR rx pin and voila the serial trace appeared in the display of AnalysIR. We successfully tested up to 38400 BAUD and bit higher. So even though we do not plan to ‘officially’ support serial protocols at this time, it means that you could potentially use AnalysIR as a pseudo Serial analyzer or even a basic digital signal/logic analyzer of sorts. The limit would be somewhere between 40-50kHz, on a 16MHz Arduino. Not bad a hack before release  🙂

● We have recently come across several new IR protocols including:
Denon
Motorola
Samsung
Daewoo
Japanese Code

– To date we have completed all the investigations needed to decode them and add them to AnalysIR. However, we will have to defer this until after the initial release has settled down & we can get reliable source signals to verify against. Once we complete these new signals we will be heading towards an even more comprehensive list of supported protocols.

 

……stay tuned

Update: New IR component kit perks & 80+ backers

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Today we have added a new perk of IR starter kits and retired some of the other perks.

The kits are provided as a quick starter aid for backers who dont have IR receivers to hand. Please note that a learner IR receiver is required to measure the modulation frequency and at least one IR receiver is required otherwise (=Kit A).

Of course you can still use the powerful import/export feature without any Arduino or IR receiver connected.

Please feel free to purchase your own components directly. Otherwise we have a student ready to do all the leg work for a small bribe (oops I meant Tip).

On the technical side of things – we have greatly improved the performance, design & implementation of the Arduino based code along with some User Interface improvements, over the last few days .

Finally, a big welcome to our latest backers and thanks again to all our 80+ backers.

Well another truly amazing day – have now reached 60 backers for AnalysIR.

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Today we tested out the new export feature with one of our backers who had lost a remote control for a cool RGB light, but had previously recorded the NEC (extended) codes using IRremote. As a first test of the new export facility, we were able to read the NEC codes into AnalysIR & then export them into Pronto format because our backer had a smart-phone app & IR blaster that only takes Pronto codes as input.rgblamp

 

Getting the codes into AnalysIR was easy, because we happened to have a similar remote in our collection, which had many of the same codes. Otherwise we would have used an Arduino IR library to generate the IR signal for AnalysIR.

What was really impressive is that this all worked first time. Happy us & happy Backers.

We hope to do similar tests with all the other export formats this week, including Global- Cache commands.

Finally, a big welcome & thanks to all our new backers!

Maker Faire – Timelapse & RFE deadline

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Created on the Timelapseberry Pi, a Raspberry Pi-based timelapse camera (AnalysIR is on the right)

PS: As I was typing this timelapse sequence of Maker Faire last week just arrived, which shows the AnalysIR stand on the right. (looks like it can only appear at the top of an update)

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Great News!

Yesterday we successfully managed to import from the RAW/DUMP output of the 2 main Arduino IR libraries (IRremote & IRLib). To use it’s very simple, just copy and paste all of the text output and paste into AnalysIR. Simple! You then get a graphical display of the signal and the option to save it to disk as part of the session History. We will continue to test over the coming weeks and maybe even add another import source. Suggestions Welcome!.

You may ask – why is this feature useful when AnalysIR can just record and decode and save the signal directly. Well there happens to be a huge resource across the Internet of pre-recorded signals from all sorts of tools & devices, and it may be beneficial to import them into one place for comparison or troubleshooting. Another use would be to help others who are looking for help on support Forum(s) etc. Once the signal is imported into AnalysIR, you can then export an image of the signal trace (or plot) which could also have advantages in education.

Now that the end date is on the Horizon, we are finalising our release plans. So if there are any feature requests, from backers we would like to hear about them in the next 3-5 days at the latest, so that we can include them in the initial release(if feasible).

Update: 50% of Campaign target reached

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Great News – we have passed 50% of the minimum target, but with lots of hard work remaining to get to 100%.

We had a great weekend with the Maker Faire & coverage on the Arduino Blog. I believe we also got coverage on Adafruit yeaterday, all of which really helps to get the message out for AnalysIR.

Thanks again to our backers who shared the link to our project (see earlier post on how to) – it really helps and we can see the impact via the analytics.

We will make another update once we have fully recovered from Maker Faire (Great fun and very very hard work on the day and in preparation).

This morning we were pulling our hair out using the Leonardo platform, but it seems that unlike other Arduinos you need to properly close the serial port in the windows application before exiting, otherwise the Leonardo is visible as a COM port but unusable. It took hours to debug this and we will make a post on the Arduino forum in case others hit the same problem.

……more later and a BIG welcome to all of our new backers.

AnalysIR featured on Arduino blog for Dublin Maker Faire

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New infrared applications using Arduino at Mini MakerFaire Dublin (tomorrow!)

Friday, July 26th, 2013

AnalysIR

Here is an extract of the Arduino blog post featuring AnalysIR. Click the the link above to visit the Arduino Blog.

The power of infrared light was widely and best appreciated with invention of television’s remote controls. The signal between a remote control handset and the device it controls, consists of pulses of infrared light, which is not visible to the human eye.

Tomorrow at MakerFaire Dublin you’ll we able to see the work of AnalysIR, a project that is taking this technology to a whole new level.

They implemented a Windows application which connects to an Arduino with the addition of an IR receiver and can decode new IR signals in a fraction of the time: no need for expensive Logic Analyzers or Oscilloscopes.

Here they are with their Indiegogo campaign:

At MakerFaire they will be showing some cool demos of what you can do with IR like generating electricity, seeing the invisible -Using iPhone & Android camera to check if TV remote is working, long range TV remote Control Demo Using Optics and many more applications for a total of 10 installations. Look out for them on Saturday!

Update: Arduino Guru, Massimo Banzi tweets for AnalysIR

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We are off to the faire tomorrow, for a day of Fun  – Maker Faire that is. We are presenting 10 IR based exhibits (more later).

BanziTwitterIt has been an exciting day for us here in Dublin with the coverage on the Arduino blog. I have uploaded a screen grab from our twitter feed showing one of the Arduino founders tweeting about AnalysIR.  The blog is accessible from the Arduino website or via http://j.mp/16hAGH7 .

20+ IR sensors evaluated & Arduino first for AnalysIR

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We got 11 different IR sensors delivered by UPS today for testing & evaluation. So far we have established that the sensors we were already using are probably the best. At this stage we have evaluated over 20 different sensors & will probably leave it atthat for now.

We also managed to measure the modulation frequency and the ‘demodulated’ IR signal simulataneously on an Arduino (Duemilenova). This was achieved with the Arduino plus 2 cheap components (More later). No reason it wont work on other Arduino models running @ 16Mhz

This should allow us to report & record the Decoded IR signal along with its modulation frequency for every signal decoded by AnlaysIR.

We have essentially cracked the Arduino bit, but the Windows GUI will need to be updated (hopefully during the campaign).

From a technical perspective, this may be a first on the Arduino (At least i havent seen it implemented simultaneously before).