Is there JUST a transceiver if you already have IRMan?? [Archive]

worldrave

October 13th, 2002, 03:55 PM

I already have an IRMan which works awesome, and wondered if there
was anything i can buy (or rather build with a driver available) that
i can use to compliment my IRMan to send signals to my equiptment?

I just started reading (A LOT) of posts in this forum just today and noticed it looked like an almost finished product with working driver is out now, which looks to have BOTH built in which is fine (i could give my IRMan to my brother or something) if this actually works good both ways. I have a lot of theatre equiptment (i'm an HT installer) and am loving to find something that works that i could use.

kari

October 13th, 2002, 03:55 PM

Hi.

I did some searching of my own sometime around last november. The only thing I could find apart from the UIRT that was capable of transmitting previosly learned codes (on the 'net that is, and in DIY form), was the CIR http://www.ziplabel.com/cir/. This circuit has the advantage that it has the very lowest component count / cost that it is possible to get. I built it myself, more or less for a joke, and can verify that, almost in the face of all probability (seeing how extremely simple it is), it does actually work. The two biggest drawbacks are these:
1) Due to the extremely large amount of signal processing (right down to demodulation) that the computer has to do, it completely blocks processing while capturing codes. If for some reason it cannot capture a code (due to malfunction or whatever) the only way out is a hard reset.
2) There are, as far as I know, no plugins available for it in Girder.

If you decide to go with the UIRT there are at least three hardware designs to chose from:

http://people.a2000.nl/rwvgesse/Uirt.htm is Ruud van Gessel's original design. It is powered from the serial port and features in-circuit programming of the PIC. Drawbacks are that it does not work on all serial ports (due to power requirements) and the IR transmitting power is somewhat mediocre.

http://www.geocities.com/jon_rhees/UIRT/ is Jon Rhees' implementation. It has dropped in-circuit programming and requires an external power supply. It may also have more transmitting power (I haven't built this version myself). It also has a connection to the PC power button to enable the UIRT to turn on the computer on a remote command.

http://users.skynet.be/sky50985/ is Luc Degrande's implementation. It also requires external power supply, but does support in-circuit programming. It also features a Wake-On-Lan connection to wake the computer from standby, and lots of extra control connections. It should have an improved transmitting power. Note that this is according to the author a preliminary version.

You will also need firmware and a Girder plugin. These are also available in at least three flavours.
You will find Ruud's original firmware on his page and a plugin on the Girder download page.
Jon has firmware and plugin on his page.
Danijel Pticar http://free-zg.hinet.hr/DPM/uirt.htm also has firmware, plugin and support software, along with suggested modifications for Ruud's hardware. His version has the special bonus that the firmware can be tuned somewhat with the help of his support software, and in my case this was the only way I could get the UIRT to work correctly with my Sony remote. A drawback is however that it uses a different protocol and thus works only with Danijel's own plugin (which I'm having minor problems with).

Finally, Richard Lynn Ownes has an excellent page http://www.caseserve.com/ht/UIRT/uirt.htm with information about building the UIRT.

Please note that the above information is based solely on what I have gleaned from the Girder discussion threads and the referred homepages and my experience from building and modifying one version of the Girder. Your mileage may vary.

Hope this helps,
-Kári.