I used to have this dream of a "computerized home" where a benevolent computer, on a piece of plywood on the wall in the basement somewhere, would oversee the lights and heating, turn on radio or TV when interesting shows come on, make voice announcements of important reminders and so on. I would be able to control this wondrous machine with a remote control from anywhere in the house, or call it up on the telephone, or push buttons on a locally wired keypad or whatever.
I started working on this thing during my spare time after work in 1992, a piece at a time, without a firm plan in mind. The main part was the controller board, with the ubiquitous 8031 microcontroller. I hadn't fully realized that the complexity of what I was up to was not a good match for such a simple CPU programmed in assembly language. My 68008 board would have been a better idea, and some sort of surplus PC (at the time this would have been a PC/XT class machine) or even an old Commodore 64 a better one yet.
Anyway, here we have the main controller board.
On the left, the power connector, the serial port connector (for a short ribbon cable with a standard DB25 connector on the end) and the connector for the 40 character x 2 line LCD display. About 2/3 across, the connector for the keypad, and on the far right, the connectors for the ribbon cables going off to the other modules.
Here are the keypad (salvaged from a calculator; any final version of the system would have used a nicer one of course) and the LCD.
The first order of business, given my interest in telephony (this was before I built my PBX), was a telephone interface, which we have here:
This interface could monitor a telephone line for DTMF tones, with or without actually picking up the phone. The idea was that it would sit in front of an answering machine and let the machine answer, and listen for a DTMF code on the line. If the correct code was heard, it would pick up, disconnect the answering machine, and take over. Of course, it also had a ring detector and autonomous answer capability. The IC on the left is a Crystal Semiconductor 8870 DTMF decoder.
If you're going to answer the phone, it helps if you have something to say. I remembered that Radio Shack used to have voice synthesizer chips, but when I looked in the catalog, they were not there any more, having gone obsolete (as computers were getting more powerful, dedicated voice synthesizer hardware was no longer needed - the Amiga had a perfectly good software voice synthesizer from about 1986). However, a colleague had bought some years before and not used them so he resold them to me. The chips have 1984 date codes. Here is the board, with the text-to-speech IC, the synthesizer IC and the ancillary parts to make them work.
With this added, my system could talk. Right away, this was integrated with the telephone capability. Now, you could phone it up, enter the code, and it would break into the line and say "Hello". Then you could navigate your way through voice menus, with your input being DTMF tones, and the remote end responding by voice.
About that time, I found a couple of identical TV remote controls in the garbage at work. Hey, cool! Remote control capability. I hooked a storage oscilloscope across the LED at work, and plotted out the signals emitted by the remote when various buttons were pushed. The protocol was not hard to figure out. Also, Radio Shack had a $5 module that received infrared remote control signals and output a TTL version of the signal.
To decode this waveform on the 8031 required all its attention, so I had to build a second CPU board dedicated to remote control operations. Here it is. The two small connectors connect to the IR receiver and transmitter.
I started working on the firmware for this board. It had a command line interface like the main board (you could remotely login to the infrared board from the terminal connected to the main board) and it could learn remote codes and replay them later under direct command control, or through a communication protocol under command from the main processor. Infrared remote control codes are sent with a 38KHz carrier frequency (that is "on" is a 38KHz flicker, "off" is darkness). The receiver module took care of demodulating this, but to transmit, I had to generate the carrier again, and of course I did this in software.
By the time I was done this part, I had quite a nice standalone learning remote control system. For the transmitter, I initially used an infrared LED that I had bought. But the results were not encouraging: I got a useful range of about 30 centimetres. How could this be, when a normal remote control got fifty times as much? I went back to the oscilloscope. Aha! The real remote control pumped something like 2 amperes of current through its two LEDs. The LEDs could survive this because of the short pulses. At this point, I sacrificed one of the remote controls and sawed off the whole front part of the circuit board, where the LEDs and the driving transistors were, and interfaced that to my board. I made sure to AC couple the enable signal, so a software fault could not leave the LED on for more than a millisecond or so. Otherwise I would have soon burned it out.
Here is the still intact remote control, and the infrared transmitter.
That's all the hardware. The only thing missing is the infrared receiver. That's because I needed the receiver module for my jukebox system
I wrote a lot of code for this thing. I started with the command line interface routines that I had written for my data switch. The fancy timer code was later integrated into the data switch, and the infrared remote control code found a home in the jukebox remote pod. In fact, as I went along, I built up quite a library of useful routines. Some snippets of code made it into my PBX too.
But then I got bored with it and never really "finished" it, though all the parts you see worked.
There are no schematics for this stuff, just a few scribbled notes on pieces of paper long ago misplaced. But I still have all the code.
Main Board part1.asm - main code part2.asm - lots of utility functions part3.asm - timer interrupt and keypad scan part4.asm - LCD menu and infrared user interface part5.asm - timer code part6.asm - telephone interface code part7.asm - main event loop Infrared Board ircode1.asm ircode2.asmBecause the assembler was slow, and downloading code to the board was slower, the code was assembled as independent pieces, each allocated a RAM area where it would go. They communicated through common global variables and a global jump table. Each module filled in the jump table entries that it provided and skipped over the ones that it didn't. This way, I only needed to assemble and download the piece I had modified.
It goes without saying that if anyone wants to use my 8031 routines for whatever purpose, they are welcome to, though I ask that they drop me a line and tell me what for.
Here are some design notes for the system.
OUTPUTS - Can be NAMED - Up to 64 outputs, 500mA open-collector drivers. Applications such as - Lights (toggle on/off from light switch) - Computer on/off - Slide projector remote control? - Each output has a timer that can be set to turn the output off automatically after a preset time. INPUTS - Can be NAMED - Up to 64 inputs, each configurable to - turn an output on - turn an output off - turn an output off after a certain amount of time (combinable with turning it on) - toggle an output - turn an output on as long as the button is down (toggle actions get ignored while this is in progress) - Provide some sort of adjustable debounce facility for inputs? REMOTE CONTROL - "POWER" button reserved for menu mode. Remaining 15 buttons can provide 15 additional inputs. Better yet, several sets of 15 additional inputs, selectable via menu. - Remote control input sets are automatically named. TIMER - Timer events can be triggered as follows: - Once at a given date/time - On such and such a day of the month, and time - On such and such a weekday, and time -- maybe a subset of the 7 days - Daily, at a given time - Hourly at a given minute - Timer events can do: - Turn outputs on - Turn outputs on for a preset amount of time - Turn outputs off - Add messages to the flash list - Send remote control codes - There can be several actions, with a user-definable pause between each successive action. PHONE - Via phone, can control outputs, check inputs, send remote control codes, add messages to the flash list. No timer events (too complicated). - Enable audio inputs to phone line (microphone, external) INTERESTING CAPABILITIES - Call home and listen to the sounds in the house - Call home and control the VCR to record a TV show (external audio input used to verify on/off and select channel) - Call home and turn on the computer to log in by modem. - Leave reminder messages that come up flashing at future times (can flash them several times with the capability of having a timer event do several things at discrete times) - Use remote control to control lights, etc. - Provide an automatic "timeout" on lights and other things using the "off after such and such a time" feature.
EVENTS Inputs: 0-127 Physical inputs as far as implemented 128-187 4 sets of 15 remote control functions 188 Telephone ring indicator 189-199 Keypad buttons Outputs: 0-127 Physical as far as implemented 128,129 Remote control set select all others Memory registers Actions: 1 ON <n> Output <n> on 2 OFF <n> Output <n> off 3 TOGGLE <n> Toggle <n> between on and off 4 GET <n> Get state of input <n> 5 GETOUT <n> Get state of output <n> 6 PUT <n> Set state of output <n> 7 FLASH <n> Flash message <n> 8 UNFLASH <n> Clear flashing message <n> 9 START <n> <time> Start interval timer <n> at <time> if not running 10 CANCEL <n> Cancel interval timer <n> without expiring 11 EXPIRE <n> Expire interval timer <n> immediately Applications: 1. Alarm clock, goes off at 7:00AM on weekdays, stays on until "cancel" input is asserted or until 10 minutes have passed. Can press "holiday" button night before, which will cancel alarm from going off. TIMER 1 MON TUE WED THU FRI 7:00 EVENT 1 ITIMER 1 EVENT 2 INPUT <cancel> ON EVENT 2 EVENT 1: GETOUT 200 PUT <alarm> OFF 200 START 1 10:00 EVENT 2: CANCEL 1 OFF <alarm> INPUT <holiday> ON EVENT 3 EVENT 3: ON 200 2. Light switch with timeout INPUT <switch> ON EVENT 1 ITIMER 1 EVENT 2 EVENT 1: TOGGLE <light> CANCEL 1 START 1 5:00 EVENT 2: OFF <light>
TIMER DESGIGN Time formats MODE YEAR MONTH DAY HOUR MINUTE SECOND -- one byte each MODE 0 Never -- will never run 1 Once, at the exact time specified, then go to "Never" 2 At the exact time specified, then add an hour 3 At the exact time specified, then add a day 4 At the exact time specified, then add a month 5 At the exact time specified, then add a year. 128-255 At the exact time specified, then go to next weekday as specified in the lower 7 bits. All timer entries have the date set to the "next activation". This makes it easy to scan for ones that should run, eliminates confusion as to which ones have run if we're late on a scan. Whenever a cyclical one hits, its "next activation" date is updated. Entry/display formats: 0 NEVER 1 HH:MM:SS DAY MON DD YEAR 2 MM:SS HOURLY 3 HH:MM:SS DAILY 4 HH:MM:SS DAY DD OF EACH MONTH 5 HH:MM:SS MON DD YEARLY 6 HH:MM:SS SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT CLI input format: 0 NEVER 1 ONCE YY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS 2 HOURLY MM:SS 3 DAILY HH:MM:SS 4 MONTHLY DD HH:MM:SS 5 YEARLY MM/DD HH:MM:SS 6 <Weekday names> HH:MM:SS
MEMORY MAP 2100-2102 Tick interrupt vector 2200-22FF External RAM variables 2300- (23DD) Jump table 2400-24FF Message string table 2800- (2D81) Part 1 (mainline) 3400- Part 7 (event stuff) 4000- (48DD) Part 2 (utilities) 5000- (517F) Part 3 (interrupt server) 6000- (674A) Part 4 (message table, remote control stuff) 7000- (798D) Part 5 (timer stuff) 9000-90FF Remote control name table 9100-91FF Timer table (10 entries) 9800- Part 6 (telephone stuff)
INFRARED CODES NEC remote control, POWER button held down for a while. First, the normal code. 0172 00AD 001E 000E 001E 0010 001D 003D 001D 0010 001D 0010 001D 0010 001C 0012 001C 0010 001D 003E 001C 003D 001D 0011 001C 003E 001C 003D 001D 003E 001C 003E 001C 003E 001C 0011 001B 0012 001B 0012 001C 003E 001B 0012 001C 0011 001B 0012 001B 0012 001C 003F 001A 003F 001B 003F 001C 0011 001B 003F 001C 003F 001B 003F 001A 003F 001C Then the "key still down" codes... OFF ON OFF ON 0641 0166 0055 001B 0F0C 0167 0055 001B 0F09 016A 0055 001B 0F07 016C 0054 001B ... and so on. So first comes a long preamble pulse. Then comes a pause and another pulse. The pause determines which kind of code it is: 00AD : Key pressed 0055 : Key still down If it's a "key pressed" code, there are 32 more pauses and pulses and the pauses again fall into two length categories: 003F : "1" bit (arbitrary) 0011 : "0" bit. So we want a subroutine "timepause" which we keep calling to return pause lengths until a pause is too long, i.e. the code is over. Valid pause lengths include the above four and the pause between "key still down" codes. We can do all the computing during the pulses, which are over 600 instruction cycles in length. HOST COMMUNICATIONS ------------------- Create a special "request key status" packet that has its own packet start byte (not ^A like regular packets). This packet can be responded to while busy listening to the remote control as well as from the regular input loop. Run an I/O line to the main processor which is asserted whenever there is a key status the main processor doesn't know about yet. Remote control listening is secondary to other tasks of the IR processor. So if any code other than the "request key status" one comes in (e.g. key typed in CLI, other kind of packet), then instantly abort the listening and go back to ready mode. If a key is already down, signal to the host that the key is up again regardless of its real status. NEC REMOTE CONTROL CODES ------------------------ Code Button 6F907788 Power 6F903BC4 1 6F905BA4 2 6F901BE4 3 6F906B94 4 6F902BD4 5 6F904BB4 6 6F900BF4 7 6F90738C 8 6F9033CC 9 6F907B84 0 6F905FA0 Vol. up 6F901FE0 Vol. down 6F9057A8 Mute 6F907F80 Chan. up 6F903FC0 Chan. down LLOYDS REMOTE CONTROL CODES --------------------------- Code Button 68977788 Power 68971FE0 Chan. down 68975FA0 Chan. up 68975BA4 Review 68973BC4 Cue 68970BF4 Fast forward 68972BD4 Play 68971BE4 Pause 6897738C Stop 68976B94 Record 689753AC Slow 68974BB4 Rewind