Category Archives: Irdroid

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Introducing Irdroid – Wifi

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Irdroid v3 (wifi)

Irdroid v3 (wifi)

Irdroid wifi a.k.a. Irdroid version 3 is a state of the art universal remote control, that turns your Android device into a fully functional infrared remote control for your IR equipment. The third version of Irdroid consist of a small Linux device with Ethernet port a wifi interface and a USB interface. It has router functionality so that you can connect via Ethernet and get a wifi 802.11n & Infrared functionality thanks to the Irdroid USB transceiver dongle, which connects to the Irdroid wifi device.

The Irdroid wifi device has the latest version of LIRC, running and listening for remote clients @ 192.168.2.1 8765. The device has its own 1800 mAH battery which keeps the device running for up to 4 hours. This functionality combines the mobility of Irdroid v1.0 and the comfort of using wifi to control your infrared enabled devices.

 Benefits:

  • Universal IR remote control for Android
  • Extended remote control range (10+ meters )
  • Compatibility with many LIRC clients for Android & windows/Linux
  • Wide operating angle (no need to point the device to the TV )
  • KISS design (Keep it simple)
  • Home automation via IR controllable devices.
  • Wifi 802.11n 150mbps Router
  • 1800maH power bank
  • Open source software & *hardware

Irdroid wifi device features:

  • LIRC 0.9+
  • LIRC conf files downloadable via simple web interface
  • Wifi 802.11n router
  • Open source software
  • Slim & slick design

Irdroid USB IR dongle device features:

  • USB infrared transceiver
  • Compatibility with USB IRTOY drivers
  • Extended remote control range
  • Plug and Play (Uses USB ACM serial drivers)
  • Receive & transmit functionalities
  • 940nm wavelength @ 38khz
  • 3 powerful IR led to increase the TX range
  • Small PCB design & a slick transparent enclosure

How it works?

The Irdroid wifi, together with the Irdroid USB IR dongle would allow you to have a wifi to IR remote control functionality for you Android device. The Irdroid USB IR Dongle has to be connected to the Irdroid wifi USB port. The Irdroid wifi device can be switched on and it will automatically recognize the Irdroid USB IR Dongle, load the drivers for it and you will be able to connect to Irdroid Wi-Fi’s SSID “Irdroid”.

The Irdroid wifi can function as a router together with its IR functionality, the only thing that has to be done is to connect an Ethernet cable to Irdroid Wifi (by default it obtains IP addresses via DHCP) then you have a fully functional wireless internet router with an infrared functionality. You just need to connect to an SSID “Irdroid”. There are just two things in addition that you need to do – to select and configure an LIRC client and download it via Google Play, and to select your LIRC conf files for your target devices.

LIRC clients for Android

  • Amote
  • Lirc-client

Normally the above lirc clients would require you to setup a lirc server to connect to. For Irdroid wifi the settings are:

Server name:              Irdroid

Server IP:                   192.168.2.1

Server Port:                8765

 

 

The Lirc conf files are available for download via a simple web user interface which will allow you to add a remote via a single click from the list of supported remotes in the database.The remote downloader interface is web based and very simple for use. For downloading lirc conf files the Irdroid wifi has to be connected via an Ethernet cable to the Internet. The Irdroid wifi module software / operating system is open source. It is based on openwrt with lirc preinstalled in the firmware and usb acm driver that support Irdroid USB IR dongle. All the Irdroid’s wifi software will be available for download from the Irdroid’s website download section. The Irdroid USB IR dongle is based on DP USB IR TOY with modifications to extend the Infrared remote control range and to fit into a slick USB Dongle enclosure.

We have designed the Irdroid USB IR dongle with 3 powerful infrared LEDs in order to increase the infrared transmit power and to widen the transmit angle, so that you don’t need to point the device to the IR equipment that you need to control.

Irdroid USB IR Dongle

The Irdroid USB IR Dongle is a usb to infrared transceiver module. You can both send & receive infrared remote control codes with it. You can use it with Irdroid wifi & or with LIRC/Winlirc for Windows / Linux. With the Irdroid USB IR Dongle you can simply scan your remote codes in case your remote is not in the LIRC database of supported remotes. The device is based on DP USB IRTOY, with hardware modifications to allow an extended remote control range and a wider operating angle (you don’t need to point it to your IR equipment).

The Irdroid wifi and the Irdroid USB IR transceiver are to be released mid November 2013 and the approximate price for the two modules would be around $70

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Irdroid user experience on the Internet

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We made a simple search in Google with a keyword “Irdroid”. The idea is to put here in this post all the relevant link posts found in blogs , forums from the Internet regarding Irdroid.

More to come…

 

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Irdroid serial IR cable specifications and description

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The irdroid serial cable Kit , is a inexpensive serial (RS-232) device that allows you to capture IR remotes data. The Serial cable kit does not have any decoding logic. All the infrared signal decoding is performed via the irrecord application , which is part of the LIRC project.  In the Gallery below the schematics, and the pcb layout files of the Irdroid serial IR cable kit are provided.

The following is required to build the kit:

  • Soldering Iron
  • FTP flexible cable or any other cable with 6 wires
  • DB9 RS-232 connector

The Kit contains the following components:

1. PCB  0217 – 1 pcs.
2. U1

IR Receiver TSOP1838
SFH5110-38 or PNA4612M – 1 pcs.
3. VD1,2 Diode double BAY70 SMD – 1 pcs.
4. VD3 Zener diode 5,1V – 1 pcs.
5. VD4 LED F3

– 1 pcs.
6. С1 capacitor 22µF/6,3V – 1 pcs..
7. R1 resistor 910 (820)Ω – 1 pcs.
8. R2 resistor 1,8 (2,2)kΩ – 1 pcs.
9. R3 resistor 4,7 (3,3)kΩ – 1 pcs.
10. Enclosure Canon DB 9 / front plate – 1 pcs.

The Serial Ir receiver is to be connected to a unused RS-232 (serial) port of your computer and it is power supplied from the serial port. For this purpose the lines RTS and DTR are used. The Signal lines RTS and DTR are established in a level “0” state, this level (in the RS-232 standard) corresponds to a voltage of +10 volts. The Zener diode VD3 limits this voltage to 5 volts, which is needed for the proper function of the infrared receiver IC. The Capacitor C1 has a filtering function. The Infrared receiver module U1 is a specialized IC, which amplifies the infrared signals and demodulates them. The carrier frequency between 30 and 50khz (most commonly used 38khz) is used.  Depending on wheather there is a carrier frequency emitted or not, the output pin of U1 generates voltages which corespond to logical “0” and logical “1” . These bits are then transfered to the DCD line of the RS-232 and it is further decoded by the software installed in the PC. Most of the Software solutions that work with the infrared receiver module allows for choosing of the line which carries the data. In our case it is the DCD line.The cable lenght of the receiver should not be longer than 2 meters ( a limitation of the RS-232 ).

For information regarding the software used to capture IR codes please refer to this article:

https://irdroid.com/2013/02/recording-ir-remotes-using-inexpensive-ir-receiver-device/

 

 

You could purchase irdroid serial IR receiver from the DIY section below :

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Interactive Irdroid handbook

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This small handbook is an effort to describe in detail the Irdroid project – an open source, open hardware infrared remote control for the Google’s Android operating system. Discover how to: – Customize the Irdroid source code – Setup you Android Development Environment. – Configure the Android Emulator. – Make a custom Infrared module for you Android phone. – Make your own Android infrared control APP.

Click on the image below to browse the Irdroid handbook

 

Irdroid HandBook

Irdroid HandBook


 
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Androlirc & Irdroid App Demo

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The Androlirc App is a port of LIRC (Linux Infrared Remote Control) made by Zokama. The App has advanced configuration features like custom remote control sets, remote buttons customizations and you can configure all your remotes in a one control set, creating one remote for All your IR controlled devices. The App was available in Google Play, but the App Author has unpublished it as Androlirc is now part of another App , called “Coversal” (Available in Google Play).

Features:

  • Custom Remote Control Sets
  • Support Irdroid v1.0 & v2.0 modules
  • Parsing a LIRC file via a file picker
  • 3 remote designs
  • unlimited number of remote control sets
  • Free Application (Download)

The video demonstrate the Androlirc app usage


Androlirc.swf


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Building Irdroid v1.0 on a breadboard

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The Irdroid v1.0 infrared aplifier module for Android , built from our schematics on a breadboard by  “7thrx”

Downloads:

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Recording IR remotes using inexpensive IR Receiver device

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Many people asked me weather the Irdroid hardware modules support “learning” of infrared remote codes. The two modules (Irdroid v1.0 and Irdroid v2.0) have only IR transmit functionality for the moment. There are plenty of units available all over the Internet which offer the infrared codes recording functionality, they are compatible with LIRC , and can be purchased for relatively low cost depending on their features. Here I will present a very simple device that can be built in a minutes. It is a DCD Serial Device (RS-232 interface), it works with both LIRC (for linux) and Winlirc (for Windows). The device schematic consist of a quite few components and it is perfect for DIY fans.

Irdroid IR Receiver schematic

Irdroid IR Receiver schematic

The schematic consist of a standard 38khz IR receiver module, 3 diodes, 1 LED indication LED and 3 resistors . The communicates with a PC is via a RS-232 serial interface and all the components are on a very small PCB inside a standard DB-9 female serial connector. I  will not explain here how the hardware and / or software works. There are already plenty of explanations of the above schematic all over the Internet. The schematic is shown in order to demonstrate the simplicity of the device. I will focus on using the Device with winlirc as it is most commonly used with Windows and I am using it as well. Winlirc is responsible for processing the signals received by the device and it can also send signals to the device, so it is a transceiver module. The application “irrecord.exe” (part of the winlirc package) under windows is used to capture the infrared remote codes. The application “reads” the received signal from the serial port (in our case) and it tries to decode and store the signal into a file. Before using “irrecord” you need to choose the driver for a DCD serial device from winlirc configuration settings and select the serial port to which the device is attached to. Irrecord will try to identify the protocol of the received infrared signal and to decode it and store it in a LIRC configuration file, or if it is unknown protocol it can store the RAW codes in the file, so that they can be reproduced later. Irrecord is a command-line tool and you will need to type some command line  parameters as well in order to capture your remote codes.  

The IR receiver hardware works with a standard computer serial ports, it won’t work on a USB to RS-232 cables as these are not emulating the serial port with all its signal lines. For best result use a desktop PC with available free serial port in order to connect the IR receiver.

If you want to get a IR receiver module the cost is $12 and you can buy one from the Irdroid DIY Section.

The screenshots shows the winlirc configuration settings dialogue and the Irdroid IR receiver unit / schematic . From this dialogue you need to select the SerialDevice.dll driver for the Serial IR receiver. Then you need to click on driver setup in order to set the needed configuration settings foe the Serial IR Receiver. The screenshot shown on the right shows you the SerialReceiver driver configuration settings. You need to select the serial port number to which the device is attached. The baudrate is 115200 in most cases and you need to select DCD Receiver type as the Serial IR Receiver is a DCD type device.

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Irdroid v2.0 – universal remote for Android

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Irdroid v2.0 is advanced version of the Irdroid remote control hardware. The unit is standalone, powered by 12V DC adapter and it has a bluetooth communication module. The unitfeatures a infra-red remote control for android and a Bluetooth Music receiver in one. The module can be used simultaneously to control home TV/AV equpment and to turn any speaker into a wireless bluetooth speakers.

How it works?

The user connects with his Android device to the Irdroid v2.0 module and after a
Bluetooth A2DP (Audio) connection is established all the Audio that comes from the
Android device is fed into the Irdroid v2.0 unit. If you connect a stereo speakers,
or headphones in the audio jack of the unit , you will be able to listen the
audio output from your Android device. To use the module as a remote control for

your IR equipment you have to make sure that a bluetooth audio connection is established
and then you need to start one of the supported Ir remote control Apps (Irdroid,
Androilirc, Coversal).

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