Tag Archives: Infrared

Preview: A.IR Shield Nano, a high-end Infrared Shield for AnalysIR, IRremote & IRLib

The fifth member of our MakeIR series of devices & kits is the A.IR Shield Nano. This shield works out of the box with AnalysIR and is essentially plug & play , with additional prototyping options. The shield comes attached to an Arduino nano compatible device (clone). Although designed specifically for AnalysIR, users can also upload IRremote, IRLib or any Arduino sketches that run on the Nano. A.IR shield is built with only the highest quality IR components available and boasts dual Infrared emitters with configurable IR Power.

A.IR block diagram
A.IR Shield Nano 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 shield. Continue reading Preview: A.IR Shield Nano, a high-end Infrared Shield for AnalysIR, IRremote & IRLib

Latest release of AnalysIR V1 preview #3 is now available for download

Dublin, Ireland – 27th August 2015. We are happy to announce the latest release of AnalysIR V1 preview #3 is now available for download by our backers & supporters. Existing users of AnalysIR will receive an email with instructions on how to download this version. New users will receive the details as part of the registration process.

AnalysIR Screenshot
AnalysIR Screenshot

A major highlight of this release is full AnalysIR support for our soon to be released A.IR shield. A.IR was designed to function as a high-end input/otput IR device for AnalysIR and will also work with IRremote, IRLib and any other Arduino sketch. More details will be published soon.

View the AnalysIR Product Sheet(PDF)

We would like to extend a big thanks to the many users around the world who have helped with feature requests, new protocols and testing over the past 2 years.

Some Highlights in this latest release include:

Continue reading Latest release of AnalysIR V1 preview #3 is now available for download

Porting AnalysIR firmware to Particle’s Photon platform

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
Photon from Particle.io along with embedded sibling

Continue reading Porting AnalysIR firmware to Particle’s Photon platform

Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino, Part 2- RAW IR Signals

In Part 1 of this series, we demonstrated how to send signals using simple Infrared PWM on Arduino. In this Part 2 post we look at sending RAW IR signals – specifically a RAW NEC signal and a longer RAW Mitsubishi Air Conditioner signal. We have also improved the method shown in Part 1 due to some issues we identified when sending ‘real’ signals versus the ‘test’ signal we used before. (More on that later). In Part 3, we will take the signals from this post and show how to send them using their binary (or Hex) representation, which saves lots of SRAM.

Original NEC 32-bit and Mitsubishi 88-bit Signals displayed using AnalysIR
Original NEC 32-bit and Mitsubishi 88-bit Signals displayed using AnalysIR

Continue reading Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino, Part 2- RAW IR Signals

Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino

We are often asked on discussion boards, about conflicts between IRremote or IRLib and other Arduino Libraries. In this post, we present a sketch for ‘Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino’. This is the first part in a 3 part series of posts. Part 1 shows how to generate the Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino (AKA carrier frequency), using any available IO pin and without conflicting with other libraries. Part 2 will show how to send a RAW infrared signal using this approach and Part 3 will show how to send a common NEC signal from the binary or HEX value.

Example 56kHz generated Infrared signal @ 50% duty cycle
Example 56 kHz generated Infrared signal @ 50% duty cycle

Continue reading Simple Infrared PWM on Arduino

Latest release of AnalysIR V1 preview #2 is now available for download

Dublin, Ireland – 17th April 2015. We are happy to announce the latest release of AnalysIR V1 preview #2 is now available for download by our backers & supporters. Existing users of AnalysIR will receive an email with instructions on how to download this version. New users will receive the details as part of the registration process.

AnalysIR Screenshot
AnalysIR Screenshot

A major highlight of this release is full AnalysIR support for our soon to be released LearnIR (IR Learner). LearnIR delivers the best performance available for receiving and sending Infrared signals with excellent accuracy.

View the AnalysIR Product Sheet(PDF)

We would like to extend a big thanks to the many users around the world who have helped with feature requests, new protocols and testing over the last months.

Some Highlights in this latest release include:

Continue reading Latest release of AnalysIR V1 preview #2 is now available for download

Reverse engineering the Mitsubishi AC Infrared protocol

This post is the second in a two-part series about Reverse Engineering AC Infrared protocols. This time we look at the Mitsubishi Air Conditioner IR Protocol. The project was undertaken by  two of our users in France (Vincent & Mathieu), with the help of AnalysIR, who  collaborated to reverse engineer this Mitsubishi and previously the Panasonic AC Infrared protocol, both examples of the more challenging AC Infrared protocols. Not only did they identify the individual field codes & checksum but also provided some impressive documentation. Detailed information is available via GitHub which is linked below. This 288 data bit Mitsubishi AC Infrared protocol is composed of two consecutive frames. Both frames are always identical for each signal sent. In common with most AC units the complete settings are sent with every IR signal (temperature, fan, swing etc…). AnalysIR was used to record and turn the signal into HEX/Binary format from which the reverse engineering of the individual fields was tackled.

Mitsubishi AC AnalysIR Screenshot
Mitsubishi AC AnalysIR Screenshot

Continue reading Reverse engineering the Mitsubishi AC Infrared protocol

Reverse engineering the Panasonic AC Infrared protocol

Recently, two of our users in France (Vincent & Mathieu) collaborated to reverse engineer the Panasonic AC Infrared protocol, one of the more challenging AC Infrared protocols using AnalysIR. Not only did they identify the codes & checksum but also provided some impressive documentation and full source code to help others. Detailed information is available via GitHub which is linked below. This 216 data bit Panasonic AC Infrared protocol is composed of two consecutive frames. The first frame remains constant for every command sent to the AC unit. In common with most AC units the complete configuration is sent with every IR signal (temperature, fan, swing etc…). AnalysIR was used to record and turn the signal into HEX/Binary format from which the reverse engineering of the individual fields was tackled.

AnalysIR - Panasonic AC 216 bit Infrared signal
AnalysIR – Panasonic AC 216 bit Infrared signal

Continue reading Reverse engineering the Panasonic AC Infrared protocol

Infrared receiver showdown – TSOP34438 vs VS1838B winner revealed

Having helped many makers resolve problems with Infrared remote control projects over on the Arduino forum, we decided to put 2 of the more common 38kHz receivers, TSOP34438 vs VS1838B,  ‘head-to-head’ over 3 rounds in a winner takes all contest. Different people report a wide variety of problems when first attempting infrared remote control, resulting from using the wrong receiver to timer or interrupt conflicts between the various libraries available. Our commentary on the ‘face-off’ will hopefully shed some light on the ability of these 2 common Infrared receivers to deliver results, as expected.

Idle Interference on VS1838B
Idle Interference on VS1838B

Continue reading Infrared receiver showdown – TSOP34438 vs VS1838B winner revealed

AnalysIR supports PSOC 4 from Cypress

AnalysIR now provides support for the PSOC 4 Prototyping kit from Cypress. Effective immediately users of AnalysIR can use the kit to act as an Infrared source for AnalysIR. The PSOC 4 Prototyping kits are available from Cypress and via their global distributors for just US$4 plus shipping. To use the kit with AnalysIR you will also need an IR Receiver and an optional IR Learner, which can also be purchased with AnalysIR. Initially, the PSOC Firmware is available on request and will be included as part of the installation package in a future release.

PSOC4 and AnalysIR
PSOC4 and AnalysIR

Continue reading AnalysIR supports PSOC 4 from Cypress