Tag Archives: WiFi

Preview: A.IR Shield ESP8266/ESP32 Tx, a high-end IR Shield

A.IR Shield ESP8266/ESP32 Tx for AnalysIR with IR Blasters

The latest member of our MakeIR series of devices & kits is the A.IR Shield ESP8266/ESP32 Tx. This shield works out of the box with AnalysIR and is essentially plug & play, with additional custom Firmware options. This shield is a ‘sibling’ to our related TRx shield, and features IR multi-send only vs the send & receive of the TRx shield. The shield plugs into a Wemos D1 Mini (ESP8266) with headers or any pin-compatible clone (e.g. ESP32 Mini D1). Although designed specifically for AnalysIR, users can also upload any sketches that run on the ESP for Infrared remote control projects by customising the included firmware. A.IR Shield ESP8266/ESP32 Tx is built with only the highest quality IR components available and boasts dual Infrared emitters with configurable IR Power. The supplied firmware uniquely supports hardware PWM for sending IR signals (on ESP8266). Continue reading Preview: A.IR Shield ESP8266/ESP32 Tx, a high-end IR Shield

Preview: A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx, a high-end IR Shield

The latest member of our MakeIR series of devices & kits is the A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx.

A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx with Wemos D1 Mini

This shield works out of the box with AnalysIR and is essentially plug & play, with additional custom Firmware options. The shield plugs into a Wemos D1 Mini (ESP8266) with headers or any pin-compatible clone. Although designed specifically for AnalysIR, users can also upload any sketches that run on the Wemos for Infrared remote control projects by customising the included firmware. A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx is built with only the highest quality IR components available and boasts dual Infrared emitters with configurable IR Power. The supplied firmware uniquely supports hardware PWM for sending IR signals.

A.IR Shield block diagram ESP8266 TRx
A.IR Shield block diagram ESP8266 TRx

We have provided a link below to the 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 ESP8266 TRx shield. The shield is now available to purchase via our web shop.

A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx Wemos D1 Mini sidebyside
A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx Wemos D1 Mini side-by-side

Custom Firmware

Although designed to work with AnalysIR, users can customise the provided firmware to send and receive IR signals via web requests, thus making integration into projects easy. More advanced users can integrate into platforms like Alexa or similar.

Also check out our example for creating your own IR send sketch for a variety of Signals (Air Conditioner, HEX, RAW & protocol based) using this shield with a Wemos D1 Mini or any ESP8266.

Continue reading Preview: A.IR Shield ESP8266 TRx, a high-end IR Shield

Updated ESP8266 NodeMCU Backdoor uPWM Hack for IR signals

In our previous post we showed how to generate stable IR carrier signals using the ESP8266 NodeMCU module. A feature of the original approach was that the output IR signal was inverted and required some additional circuitry to invert it again before transmission. Since the original post we have figured out a method to output a non-inverted or standard IR signal thus removing the need for the additional circuitry. This is achieved by using what turned out to be a very simple setting hidden deep in the ESP8266 UART registers which is covered below. Like all simple solutions it also threw up some other quirks of the ESP8266 NodeMCU, which were eventually overcome with the addition of a simple resistor. The Updated ESP8266 NodeMCU Backdoor uPWM Hack for IR signals is detailed below – including updated source firmware, new circuit diagram and explanation of the ‘quirk’. Read on….

Esp8266 NodeMCU and MakeIR SendIR module from AnalysIR
ESP8266 NodeMCU and MakeIR SendIR module from AnalysIR

Continue reading Updated ESP8266 NodeMCU Backdoor uPWM Hack for IR signals

ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding added to AnalysIR

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

Update: The kits have landed, roll-out plans & Arduino vs Raspberry Pi performance

We posted another update a couple of days ago covering many of these points, but it seems to have evaporated (Maybe I forgot to hit the ‘Post’ button).

We know some of the kits have arrived locally in Ireland. However, one backer reported that the packaging was ‘compromised’  but that the components were OK. He sent us some photos & we will now update packaging on all future kit shipments. If any backer experiences a problem with the packaging, email us and we will sort it out. We plan to post the next batch of kits over the weekend or early next week.

On the Raspberry Pi front we have learned some differences compared to Arduino. For what we are doing with AnalysIR, Arduino appears superior, which was initially surprising considering the 16MHz vs 700Mhz CPU speed. But apparently, it’s because Arduino is dedicated exclusively to IO & RPi is a linux based OS doing lots of other things simultaneously. I believe RPi may perform better with kernel patches or over-clocking, but we don’t want to go there yet.

Yesterday we got the measurement of IR modulation frequency working on RPi using GPIO. This may be a world first for both Arduino & RPi. The only downside is that we cannot decode the signal & measure the modulation frequency simultaneously on the RPi, which we can on the Arduino. So for now, we will just provide a command line facility on RPi for measuring modulation Frequency. We have also written a script to take the raw output from LIRC on the RPi and convert it to AnalysIR format via LAN, which means we can also use LIRC as a real-time recording mechanism on RPi. (In theory, it should be easy to extend this to every other Linux platform with LIRC installed)
One bonus with the RPi is that we can already decode & analyse IR signals over the LAN, a feature which the Yún will also provide via WiFi. We also read the blog post on the upcoming Arduino Yún release and can’t wait to get AnalysIR running on it…… The Yún should work out of the box, via serialUSB as it also has a Leonardo on-board and we will have to write up some small script to enable the WiFi part (Oct+ time-frame for WiFi).

Regarding our planned roll-out (circa 9th Sep), we plan to stick with a 2 phase approach as outlined on the main campaign page. If there are additional slots available for the initial phase we will contact backers directly. The reason is to avoid wasting time for 100+ people with a new release.

I would like to finish off by thanking you all for supporting AnalysIR.