Pandora As A Remote Control

[Series-8]

I was thinking of building a Ir SDIO Accessory... (Seems pretty straight forward... AVR+ IR diode/Phototransistor+misc surface mount parts)

SDIO seems to be pretty simple in that it only needs SPI and the 1-bit 'SD' protocol for minimal functionality.

The AVR does all the 'heavy' (bwahaha) lifting, all I/O is bitbanged.

(Also you can draw 200ma from the SDIO port....for a Power IR LED - perhaps?)

What do the resident electrical engineers think?

 

[EdCa22]

This device: http://www.usbuirt.com/overview.htm has so many infra red transmitters/receivers because it is able to work with any CIR device; any frequency, transmit or receive.

This is a pic of the innards of that device. It seems too big to mod into the Pandora, even if you were to remove the external IR jack.

Yes, there will obviously have to be some compromise made... hence my pointing out the cirrus logic chip, though there are other ways of doing it.

 

[aq21]

If you are going to open the pandora, you can surely find some free GPIO connection:
- maybe the RTS or the DTR of the serial port,
- or one of the OMAP pins that is unused and can be configured to be GPIO (many of them can)
- or from the audio codec

If you find it, all you need is a simple circuit - see:

for example. There is no sense in putting a serial to IR or USB to IR board.

 

[urjaman]

- or from the audio codec

If you find it, all you need is a simple circuit - see:

for example. There is no sense in putting a serial to IR or USB to IR board.

Fail to see more than an empty line... pandora as an IR remote control didn't occur to me, but i think one could design a simple IR transmitter to connect to the pandora's EXT port.
Essentially fusing the technology of TV-B-Gone kit and the EXT port voltage conversion PCB - it wouldnt even need the boost converter, just a logic conversion of one CMOS 1.8V serial port to 2.8V levels for the AVR (the AVR can run on 2.7V+).

 

[christo930]

My friend who owns a hacked PSP 2000 says he could control a TV with his PSP... Could this be implemented into the Pandora

Go on ebay and find a $5 palmpilot (just make sure to get one with a good ir port, I forget which models have the best IR port) and you have yourself the most versatile remote control you could ever ask for.

Chris

 

[fordp]

I am interested in both TV Remote Control and GPS. If there is a spare serial port then I would use the Transmit for TV remote and the Recieve for Sat NAV.

A custom PCB would have to be made but that is not so hard.

IRDA does not work well because it's optical frequency is different from that used by TV style remotes and the power output level is much lower too. The UIRT contains just a small Microchip PIC processor and a USB to serial converter and some IR LEDs.

As for the GPS see here:-

CODE
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8936


A Palm Pilot will work no where near as good as a high end remote, but the Pandora can be a great remote.


See this over the top guy to see what other remotes can do:-
CODE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmrr_HRiSKg

 

[WizardStan]

I am interested in both TV Remote Control and GPS.
YES! Never again will the phrase "where's the farking clicker?" (or some variation thereof) be uttered!

 

[fordp]

be uttered!

Well I was not planning on using both fetures at the same time. I think you have something there however

 

[timofonic]

For GPS, just use one over BT. You can even use the GPS of some cell phones too.

I'm interested on a good CIR solution for Pandora, able to send and receive (so I could make it "learn" new remote controls). The one using a PIC plus some IR transceivers seems small size (so able to install it internal) and good

 

[b1llygo4t]

i want this

 

[peca]

Why PIC? Pandora has CIR capable UART on ext port

 

[timofonic]

Why PIC? Pandora has CIR capable UART on ext port

Oh, the bravety of people rescueing old forum threads...

Here's another thread, with a reply from MWeston. I copy it here too:

Well, I need you to look at this from our perspective. The price of Pandora is pretty much fixed. Even though it seems like every day something turns out to cost more than it did six months ago, or isn't available and we have to use something else twice as expensive, people have been pretty adamant about the price not being increased. This means that every little thing we add decreases the profit that can be made on the system. Yes, people like to have all this extra stuff, but no, they won't tolerate the extra cost. We are already running on margins much less than any big company would dare to get away with but we are trying to get away with it due to low overhead.

If I can get the headphone connector I want, then the A/V port will be powered. The USB port is powered and the expansion port is powered. There is potential to add more if it seems like more than one person wants it, but it would have to be an add on. I am into this project from many months ago and until the day no one buys it anymore so I will design any little custom feature people want as long as it isn't impossible, I have the time, and the people that want it are willing to cover the cost of it.

That powered USB port is a pretty powerful feature don't you think? You don't find that everywhere. That was one of our contributions to the idea of add on accessories. The powered serial port on the A/V connector was the other (again, still trying to find a connector with enough pins though). Your IR remote LED would be a fairly simple add-on and I can help with the design if it still interests you and others later on. Right now, it would be interesting since the console is dumped to that port.

Hopefully this was informative enough to get you to stop saying we "should" be adding all of this stuff to suggestions of neat add-ons to "maybe" consider some day.


Nubie: I have always liked that idea of an "ultimate" Pandora with all of this stuff (including DVI), but I just don't know if anyone would pay for it? Also, those extra USB pads are really the footprints for ESD protection on the USB port.

The OMAP3 has one OTG and three HOST ports all needing external PHY components and the pins are all muxed with other features. We needed the pins on two of the host ports for other things so only one of each was available. It would be neat to squeeze in a hub controller hack like people do with the EEE. I'm not sure about the room available inside. Sorry, but I have been trying to optimize the space usage as much as possible to benefit the system as is.

BTW, the expansion port is under the battery and cannot be accessed through a door in the case. It wasn't designed to be used that way.

I'm still interested to have a CIR mod for Pandora when I buy it.

I also found some schematics, using microcontrollers as a PHY:

http://www.lirc.org/improved_transmitter.html
http://www.foxharp.boston.ma.us/avrlirc/
http://www.fukushima.us/UIRT2/
http://iguanaworks.net/projects/IguanaIR/wiki/hardware
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/AddAnInfraredReceiverAndTransmitterWithLIRC

 

[peca]

I'm still interested to have a CIR mod for Pandora when I buy it.

This one MWeston's post is about CIR on UART3 which is leaded out to expansion port.

...
- UART3 (RX,TX) connected to the console in Linux, this one has hardware support for CIR so could rebuild kernel to switch console to UART2 if necessary
...

EDIT: I guess that if You don't want access Linux console trough the UART3 then rebuilding kernel is not needed.