Here we show a screen capture demonstration of the ‘Batch Decoding’ feature of AnalysIR. We show Infrared signals from 4 different Air Conditioners and how we can load them into AnalysIR and execute a batch decode of all of the signals in one easy step. Included are signals from Panasonic, Vestel, Fujitsu & Daikin
Continue reading Video: AnalysIR Demo Batch Infrared Decoding
Anyone who has tried controlling an Air Conditioner unit using an Arduino, USB IR Toy, RPi or any MCU will know how difficult it can be to record the longer infrared signals they use. Typical TV systems use IR signals circa 32 bits long, while this Chigo AC unit uses a signal with 197 marks & spaces (or 97 data bits). One of our users, Sertunc – from Istanbul in Turkey, reported his success using AnalysIR to easily record the signal timings for his AC unit and sent us the details along with some nice photos. After testing the validity of the recorded signals using an Arduino, he then set about loading the signals onto his Samsung smart phone (models S4, s4 mini, S5 and more supported). This was helped by installing the free ‘Samsung IR – Universal Remote‘ app onto his phone via Google Play.
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Continue reading Controlling Chigo Air Conditioner via Infrared from smart phone
Our recent post about the silver bullet IR receiver proved very popular and we promised that we would follow-up with another variant of the poor maker’s Infrared receiver. This time we are using an IR Led (emitter), 2 resistors and any standard Arduino. You will also need to download the Arduino code provided below, compile and upload it. One of the most common problems encountered when trying to decode IR signals is that makers don’t always have the appropriate IR receiver for the job in hand or have to wait for one to be delivered by mail. Here we present an affordable method to allow you to use any IR emitter (LED) as a receiver and as a bonus we are publishing the Arduino code to make it all work.
A while ago we came across a website on infrared remote controls which suggested a simple way to view IR signals using an Oscilloscope. The idea is to use a standard IR Led mounted into a BNC/RCA plug using a spare channel making an Oscilloscope infrared receiver. So we set about ordering the connectors, which arrived in the post today. Another way of looking at this device is as a ‘poor-mans’ IR receiver, but if you have an Oscilloscope to plug it into then maybe you are not so poor after all.
Continue reading ‘Silver bullet’ – the Oscilloscope Infrared Receiver
Many electronics enthusiasts will be familiar with how Infrared receivers demodulate IR signals. In this post we show a visualisation of the time lag and distortion of the signals as they pass through the IR receiver for demodulation and noise filtering. Most DIY projects use the raw timings from the IR receiver to decode individual signals. However, not many will be aware that IR receivers can distort the signal timings by significant amounts. Fortunately, common IR decoders take this into account and compensate for timing distortions introduced by infrared demodulators / receivers.
Continue reading Infrared Receivers – signal lag and distortion
Over the last few months we have been regular contributors to the Arduino and other forums, answering questions about Infrared remote control projects. It became apparent that beginners typically trip up on many common ‘pitfalls’. So we decided to list off our ‘Top 10’.
Continue reading Arduino: 10 common pitfalls with Infrared Remote Control
Here are some photos we captured, of a sample of our MCU test rigs and custom PCB for AnalysIR.
The photo above shows some of our test setup for Arduino, Raspberry Pi, TI MSP430 LaunchPad and the (big) baby of them all the USB IR Toy. The small red custom PCBs are ones we had made via Elecrow which worked out great. So instead of just using solderless breadboards we now plug these ‘half shields’ directly into the Arduino header, or in the case of the RPi using a ribbon cable. The USB IR Toy already has the IR receivers on board and doesn’t require this PCB.
We should also be able to hook up the LaunchPad to this board using headers. So once we receive the full set of headers, we ordered on-line, we will have all our test setups much neater and more reliable. Previously, we used solderless breadboards, as can be seen in the photo attached to the LaunchPad. Continue reading Testing AnalysIR with a custom PCB
We have now reached 100 unique backers for AnalysIR and we would like to thank you all for your generous support & welcome our latest backers. In particular, we would like to give a special thanks to those who made donations without perks.
And now for the News:
use CTRL+
On the top you can see the same IR signal recorded directly by AnalysIR at the same time (via 2 different IR receivers – one connected to an Arduino & the other connected to an RPi pin)
That’s all for now……… Next week = Documentation update
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
We have decided to offer a small number of Infrared Component Kits to help users of AnalysIR get started quickly. As a minimum you will require 1 IR receiver to use AnalysIR, plus we highly recommend the ‘IR Learner’ below if you also want to measure modulation frequency.
(Note: This is an updated copy of the original document from the crowd-funding campaign. The original document can be found here.)
IR receivers/emitter in Infrared Component Kits:
| Model | Frequency | Description | Gain | Typical Application |
| TSSP4038 | 38kHz | 1 x IR receiver | Fixed Gain | Barrier + AnalysIR |
| TSMP58000 | 20 -> 60kHz | 1 x IR receiver | – | Learner + AnalysIR |
| TSOP4436 | 36kHz | 1 x IR receiver | AGC 4 | RC5/6 |
| TSOP34438 | 38kHz | 1 x IR receiver | AGC 4 | NEC |
| TSOP4840 | 40kHz | 1 x IR receiver | AGC 2 | SONY |
| TSOP2256 | 56kHz | 1 x IR receiver | AGC 2 | RCA |
| TSAL6100 | All | 1 x IR emitter | – | IR LED transmitter |
AGC 2: Standard Applications
AGC 4: Very Noisy Environment
Kits do not include AnalysIR
Select one or more kits from the following:
| Item | Kit A | Kit B | Kit C | Kit D | Kit E | Kit F | ||
| TSSP4038 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| TSMP58000 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| TSOP4436 | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||
| TSOP34438 | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||
| TSOP4840 | Y | Y | ||||||
| TSOP34156 | Y | |||||||
| TSAL6100 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||
| Bonus Gift | see 11 below |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Shipping | see 9 below |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Student Tip | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Perk Price | $8 | $10 | $10 | $12 | $13 | $15 | ||
Y = Included
Instructions:
Notes:
E.&O.E.