[vdr] Re: Ready: IR Controller with remote power on

[Rene Bartsch <vdr@bartschnet.de>]

Am Don, 2002-08-01 um 18.02 schrieb Thomas Breuer:
> Hi list,
> 
> first of all: thanks to everyone involved in developing and improving
> the VDR project. I've started with VDR a couple of months ago (my first
> Linux contact, I have to admit) and I am very impressed with the result
> and the incredible amount of time and effort the people of the VDR
> community spend for this project -- and all this for free! It's also
> remarkable that there is nothing on the market coming even close to the
> VDR with all its features and its flexibility.
> 
> I hope that I can give something back to you now. After I got the VDR
> with the AIO running, I felt that this VDR definitely deserves some
> hardware improvements. So, on a rainy weekend I started with an IR
> remote controller. The main purpose for developing this controller
> was, of course, the missing possibility of turning on the VDR by the
> IR remote. The first prototype was ready quite fast, but as we had
> a lot more rainy weekends recently I had some time to add extra
> features ;-)
> 
> The IR controller consists of an IR receiver chip, a PIC16F628 micro,
> and a few standard components. I chose the Philips RC5 code as this is
> widely used, very reliable (bi-phase coding), and has a toggle bit.
> Please note that the IR Controller does not replace LIRC, but works as
> an add-on.
> 
> Here is a description of the main features:
> 
> IR remote power key to turn VDR on/off
> --------------------------------------
> If the ATX power supply is in standby, VDR can be turned on by pressing
> the remotes' power key for at least one second. If VDR is running,
> pressing the remotes' power key invokes the shutdown script as usual.

A IR-remote-based power-on can also be done by the following setup:

1. ATX-Mainboard with keyboard power-on
2. VDR configured to keyboard-control
3. cheap IR-keyboard (e.g. from TrustMedia) on 38kHz
4. teaching IR-remote the IR-commands of the keyboard-keys used by VDR
(Space for 	keyboard-power-on)

Goodies: standard-hardware, no LIRC needed anymore

Rene

> 
> PC power switch to turn VDR on/off
> ----------------------------------
> The PC power and reset switches on the PC front panel could be
> pressed unintentionally, causing an unwanted hard reset. The IR
> Controller solves this problem as follows (provided that the hardware
> changes described below have been applied): If VDR is in standby,
> pressing the power switch will simply turn on VDR. If VDR is running,
> pressing this switch will cause the IR Controller to send a software
> generated RC5 code directly to LIRC via the RS232 interface. This way,
> the usual VDR shutdown script can by initiated. If necessary, pressing
> and holding the power switch for at least 5 seconds will cause the IR
> Controller to reset the PC immediately via the reset input of the
> motherboard. Therefore, the reset switch becomes redundant.
> 
> RS232 level within specifications
> ---------------------------------
> All of the home brew LIRC receivers use only a single 5 volts supply.
> However, the RS232 specs require signals of +/- 5 to +/- 15 volts. The
> range from -3 to +3 volts is undefined. Additionally, the IR receiver
> chips do not pull their output fully down to 0, but only to about
> 1 volt. This makes it even worse, but still most of the RS232 interfaces
> will tolerate this. But there are also many people wondering that their
> LIRC receiver isn't working. The IR Controller level shifts the incoming
> signals as well as the PIC generated codes to +/- 5 volts which is
> within the specs.
> 
> Learning mode
> -------------
> You can enter a learning mode to teach the IR Controller which key of
> the remote transmitter should be used for turning on/off VDR. All other
> keys are still defined in LIRC. Also, a boot delay time can be entered
> (this is for the status LED, see below).
> 
> Emergency reboot ;-)
> --------------------
> Well, sometimes VDR or DVD player crash ...
> If you press the 0-key for at least 5 seconds, the IR Controller will
> send a special RC5 code to LIRC. Suitable entries in lircd.conf and
> lircrc can now call a reboot script via irexec. I have used the IR
> Controller for several weeks now. Whatever happened to VDR: the LIRC
> demon was always alive, so a convenient remote reboot was possible.
> 
> Bicolor status LED
> ------------------
> A bicolor LED (red/green) turns on or flashes as follows:
> 
> VDR standby     red
> VDR booting     flashing green (while no remote commands are accepted)
> VDR running     green
> VDR shutdown    flashing red (while no remote commands are accepted)
> 
> Additionally, there are some special LED signals related to the learning
> mode. Also, each time a valid RC5 code has been received, the LED turns
> off for 50ms. As the RC5 code repetition rate is 114ms, it will actually
> flash 9 times per second. The RC5 decoding is very reliable, so no codes
> from other keys or other IR transmitters can start VDR.
> 
> ICSP-Interface
> --------------
> The PIC micro can be programmed via this interface (Microchip's ICSP =
> In Circuit Serial Programming). This even works while VDR is running.
> There should be some simple DIY serial programmers on the net, but I
> have not yet looked for any.
> 
> 
> Of course, some connections to the PC hardware are required. Just in
> brief so that you are warned ;-)
> 
> - The power and reset switches must be unplugged from the motherboard.
>   The connector at the end of the power switch cable must be plugged
>   onto the IR Controller. The (now unconnected) power and reset pin
>   headers on the motherboard must be connected by two wires with the
>   IR Controller.
> - A 10-wire ribbon cable with 10-pin connectors on either side is
>   used to connect the motherboard's RS232 (usually a 10-pin header for
>   COM2 is available on the MB) with the IR Controller. Only two wires
>   are actually used, data and ground.
> - The +5 volts standby (brown) and -5 volts (white) of the cable bundle
>   coming from the ATX power supply must be tapped using tap splices and
>   connected to the IR Controller.
> 
> If anyone is interested, I will upload the schematic, the layout, the
> PIC assembler source code, and the hex code. The schematic and the
> layout were made with EAGLE (of course). So far the layout is in SMT
> only, but routing a layout for thru-hole components should be quite
> easy. You can have a look at some info right now, it's here:
> http://www.tb-electronic.de/vdr/ir_controller.html
> 
> If the rain continues (well, actually even then I don't have that much
> time left ...) one could think of the following:
> 
> - Making the communication to the PIC micro bidirectional via RS232
> - Using a PIC with some more I/O pins
> - Adding an RTC, an LCD-Interface, and some spare I/O lines
> - Adding some software in VDR (plugin-version ...)
> 
> Then this PIC module could handle the IR power on/off and the other
> stuff as described above, could receive all timer information from VDR,
> display this info on the LCD (without LCDproc) even if VDR is standby,
> turn on and off VDR depending on the timer settings (without using
> nvram-wakeup), some keys could also be added, as well as one or more
> record LEDs, and so on ...
> 
> 
> In this context I would also like to ask Klaus to add a full LIRC
> support to VDR (i.e. with the possibility of defining entries in
> lircrc). For example, I had a problem with the reaction to the Power
> key command: If sent by an RC5 remote transmitter (about 9 times per
> second), holding this key a bit too long starts and immediately aborts
> the shutdown. I solved this in my IR Controller now. Another example:
> The URC-7040 has a 'Record' key (which has to be pressed two times to
> prevent unintentional recording). It would be great if this key could be
> defined for instant recording in VDR.
> 
> How is Andreas' DVD player integrated into VDR? It uses the same keys as
> VDR, but could it also be made controllable by LIRC defined keys exactly
> as done with MPlayer? I just ask because I solved the problem with the
> different remote 'layers' by using a universal remote control, namely
> the OneForAll URC-7040. I can control VDR/MP3/Mplayer with one layer and
> change to another layer for DVD control. This is quite perfect, but
> changing the layer wouldn't be necessary if the DVD control codes could
> be defined separately in the lircd.conf and lircrc as it is the case
> with MPlayer. Take a look at the site listed above, I also placed two
> tables there with the URC-7040 keys that I use. The content of the first
> table is copied from the VDR manual, and the second table contains my
> additional definitions for both layers (MPlayer and DVD). You can also
> find my lircrc and lircd.conf for the URC-7040 there.
> 
> BTW, to Karsten Mueller: I have exactly the same problem with the
> 'Pause' key in MPlayer as you described in the MPlayer Users List :-(
> It used to work when I installed MPlayer 0.90pre3 the first time. After
> updating to 0.90pre5 it failed, and now I can't get it to work again.
> Did you also notice that sometimes the > symbol of the MPlayer OSD turns
> into the || symbol for a split of a second when you press pause? Without
> LIRC, 'Pause' works just fine via the keyboard.
> 
> Thomas
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>