Tag Archives: Photon

ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding added to AnalysIR

January 14, 2016AnalysIR Blog, IR SourcesA.IR Shield, Air Conditioner, AnalysIR, Carrier frequency, ESP8266, Infrared, IR LED, IRLib, IRremote, NodeMCU, Photon, pwm, Remote control, WiFiUser Two

A few months ago a new user to AnalysIR, from Canada, asked us to assist in adding ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding over WiFi into AnalysIR. We set about making some upgrades to AnalysIR for this and in double quick time he had AnalysIR accepting IR signals from the ESP8266 over WiFi. He stressed the ease of use of the support within the Arduino IDE for ESP8266 devices and he wasn’t kidding. This motivated us to go and order an ESP8266 for US$3.60 including shipping from Aliexpress. Just the other day the NodeMCU arrived, presumably delayed somewhat by the extended XMAS holidays & celebrations, in this part of the world. So we set about porting our existing firmware for Arduino & Photon over to the new device.

ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding with AnalysIR — AnalysIR supports ESP8266 NodeMCU over WiFi & Serial/USB

ESP8266 NodeMCU now joins a growing list of devices supported for use with AnalysIR, including: Continue reading ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding added to AnalysIR →

Preview: A.IR Shield Photon, a high-end Infrared Shield for AnalysIR

January 11, 2016AnalysIR Blog, IR Sources, MakeIR Kits, ProductsESP8266, Hardware PWM, Infrared, IR LED, IR receiver, MakeIR, NodeMCU, Particle, Photon, pwm, WirelessUser Two

The final member of our first MakeIR series of devices & kits is the A.IR Shield Photon. This shield works out of the box with AnalysIR and is essentially plug & play, with additional prototyping options. The shield plugs into a (Particle) Photon with headers or pin-compatible clone. Although designed specifically for AnalysIR, users can also upload any sketches that run on the Photon for Infrared remote control projects by customising the included firmware. A.IR Shield Photon is built with only the highest quality IR components available and boasts dual Infrared emitters with configurable IR Power. The supplied firmware supports hardware PWM for sending IR signals.

A.IR Shield Photon block diagram RevA — A.IR Shield Photon block diagram

We have provided a link below to the preliminary product data sheet and would welcome feedback on additional, nice to have or missing features, if any. Please read the data sheet for a more detailed description of the A.IR Photon shield.

MakeIR - AIR Shield Photon — MakeIR – AIR Shield Photon

Continue reading Preview: A.IR Shield Photon, a high-end Infrared Shield for AnalysIR →

Backdoor uPWM Hack on Photon for Infrared signals using UART

October 2, 2015AnalysIR Blog, Arduino, IR SourcesAnalysIR, Carrier frequency, Duty Cycle, Infrared, IR, IR LED, IR signals, IRLib, IRremote, NEC, Photon, pwm, Remote control, UART, uPWMUser Two

Since we received our Photon several months ago it has been difficult to find a working example of Hardware PWM on the Photon. Initially, we ported our softPWM approach to the Photon, which is excellent. However, we figured it must be possible to use at least one of the spare UARTs on the Photon to achieve our goal. So first we started prototyping on the Arduino and quickly got a working example with some limitations – only 40 kHz and 33 kHz carrier frequencies were possible with the UART without delving into the registers a bit more. Then we moved the code over to the Photon, leveraging our previous softPWM examples, upgraded with the Arduino code – EUREKA! The Backdoor uPWM Hack on Photon for Infrared signals.

uPWM Circuit diagram for Photon using UART

Continue reading Backdoor uPWM Hack on Photon for Infrared signals using UART →

Porting AnalysIR firmware to Particle’s Photon platform

June 16, 2015AnalysIR BlogAnalysIR, Core, decoding, Electron, Infrared, IR, IR receiver, IR signals, Particle, Photon, SparkUser Two

We have just completed porting our (single source) firmware from a range of other ‘Arduino’ type platforms to Particle’s Photon, having received it yesterday & thought it would be useful sharing some of our experiences for other ‘newbies’. The photon is one of a breed of modern IoT devices hitting the market at relatively low cost. It features a STM32F205 120Mhz ARM Cortex M3 processor running at 120MHz with 1MB flash, 128KB RAM and the all important WiFi. We have been wanting to support the previous Spark Core ($39), but couldn’t resist this little device at the low price point. Particle are also offering a similar embedded device in larger quantities of 10+, for $12, including FCC certification.

Photon from Particle.io along with embedded sibling

Continue reading Porting AnalysIR firmware to Particle’s Photon platform →