What About Cir Transmitter?


timofonic

GP Mafia
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
399
Hello.

I did read adding a CIR transmitter for Pandora could be cheap and simple. Pandora already has three UART ports so using one for this could be possible. This small addition could be quite nice, at least until recently univeral tv remote controllers with LCD screens were expensive in an absurd way.

QUOTE
The Game Boy Color also featured an infrared communications port for wireless linking.


There was a game for Game Boy Color called Mission: Impossible that had an option for tv remote.

111594593000oy0.png
miremotegc0.gif


There are apps for tv remotes for PDAs and adapters too, but avoid the need of extra hardware could be nice.

QUOTE
LIRC is a package that allows you to decode and send infra-red signals of many (but not all) commonly used remote controls.

http://www.lirc.org

There are quite simple schematics that only require a small PIC and some of them even just discrete components.

Regards.
 
timofonic said:
Hello.

I did read adding a CIR transmitter for Pandora could be cheap and simple. Pandora already has three UART ports so using one for this could be possible. This small addition could be quite nice, at least until recently univeral tv remote controllers with LCD screens were expensive in an absurd way.
Not a bad idea. If you don't feel like hacking up your Pandora to use as an occasional remote, there are very small, inexpensive IRDA adapters available.

418_USB_IrDa_Adaptor_1.jpg

Only $10.
 
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Chip said:
timofonic said:
Hello.

I did read adding a CIR transmitter for Pandora could be cheap and simple. Pandora already has three UART ports so using one for this could be possible. This small addition could be quite nice, at least until recently univeral tv remote controllers with LCD screens were expensive in an absurd way.
Not a bad idea. If you don't feel like hacking up your Pandora to use as an occasional remote, there are very small, inexpensive IRDA adapters available.

418_USB_IrDa_Adaptor_1.jpg

Only $10.


But maybe a internal onboard one could cost even less. Any reply from Pandora hardware devs about this?

I don't know if that one is supported by LIRC or not, that's a problem too.
 
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Indeed, just buy a USB one, that's the beautiful part of having USB. I don't want all these little niche one use features added to the platform.
 
Exophase said:
Indeed, just buy a USB one, that's the beautiful part of having USB. I don't want all these little niche one use features added to the platform.
Those little "niche" features makes the device more attractive, actually people like devices with the more built-in functions possible.

What's wrong with adding it if only could add $2 USD or even less of cost and making some people happy? Even it can be useful for able to configure Pandora for auto-setting the AV mode when connecting it to a TV, for example :)
 
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timofonic said:
Exophase said:
Indeed, just buy a USB one, that's the beautiful part of having USB. I don't want all these little niche one use features added to the platform.
Those little "niche" features makes the device more attractive, actually people like devices with the more built-in functions possible.

What's wrong with adding it if only could add $2 USD or even less of cost and making some people happy? Even it can be useful for able to configure Pandora for auto-setting the AV mode when connecting it to a TV, for example :)



There's not enough room, each $2 adds up, there's 101 other things that could also be included to make some people happy.
 
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i would love an ir transmitter, i would also love a webcam, accelerometer, evdo antenna, accelerometer, bluetooth, multi touch screen, gps, high def video output, pc card slot, aluminum case etc. The feature set that it has currently is perfect, all these extra things are awesome but devices that try to cram too many features in either never get released or end up awesome but incredible expensive and commercial failures, we dont want this to be a gizmondo or a zodiac we want it to have a lifespan of more that 2 years. As long as there is a simple usb port you can experiment with all kinds of interesting things
 
I think the old saying still holds true,
"If you try to make everyone happy, you will make no one happy."

You are better covering all the features very well that 90% of the users want and forgetting about the rest. Every time you add "one more little thing" you spend more money, take more time, and use up resources that could be better spent perfecting the core features.
 
Agreed, and IRDA is no good for a TV Remote anyway, you would want to use the expansion pins or the serial port for IR anyway.

I can see this being a very nice addon, but $2 X 3,000 consoles is $6,000, and that is a little chunk of change.

On the other hand, if a nice little addon board connects to the expansion area, it could be $10-20 and you could add it if it interests you (Personally I use a PC programmable JP1 OneForAll for $8, function always wins, on that note I would like to have an app + I2C interface for the Pandora that would let me setup that remote :D)
 
If being an expansion, the expansion would need to hang and then reducing the portability :p
 
yeah, a backside port replicator with integrated bluetooth, gps, ir, solidstatedisk, laserpointer, 16x usb2.0 hub, svga, etc. etc.

:rolleyes:

I would like to use the pandora as a remote control for both my pc and tv. Hopefully, someone will find a way to integrate ir and bluetooth in the chassis and publishs a foto-tutorial. We would still need a fancy guy for this, since I wouldn't believe, a gba-emulator could make use of such a devie and xrc is rather ugly.
 
timofonic said:
If being an expansion, the expansion would need to hang and then reducing the portability :p

No, the expansion would go internally, there are solder pads, etc inside, and no need to use USB for something so simple. I wonder if there are high-power SMD IR LED's? The addon wouldn't be very large at all.

If you really desire the functionality, it simply must be done as a modification. (I wonder how big the market for "ultimate" pandoras would be, with every conceivable option, and the cost? probably over $800)
javaJake said:
With all these USB devices adding up, we'll be needing a micro-USB hub. Is there any such thing?
Yes, mine will be internal (if I can't figure out the existing extra USB pads :p), type Eeepc hacking into google, amazing stuff.

I thought that more than one USB was available? And I am sure that the pads are run from the BGA if there are.
 
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timofonic said:
Exophase said:
Indeed, just buy a USB one, that's the beautiful part of having USB. I don't want all these little niche one use features added to the platform.
Those little "niche" features makes the device more attractive, actually people like devices with the more built-in functions possible.

What's wrong with adding it if only could add $2 USD or even less of cost and making some people happy? Even it can be useful for able to configure Pandora for auto-setting the AV mode when connecting it to a TV, for example :)

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.
 
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MWeston said:
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?

IMO you'd find that only diehard Pandora fans would be into paying for it. You definatley wouldn't find your average user into this sort of thing. As much as it would be awesome to have everything complexity can kill it for people.

Maybe if you left the possibility for some modifying of the Pandora by these diehard Pandora people then you could probably please them as well.
 
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MWeston said:
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. :)
Yes, I'm quite interested about the IR remote LED and the main one is LIRC. There are already Linux software for it, the thing I'm still not sure is an appropriate GUI for a handheld system. What do you think is the best way to know how many people are interested to it? A forum poll?

I found this on the specs of the IMAP 3530, so things look easier than I did think...
QUOTE
Three UARTs (One with Infrared Data Association [IrDA] and Consumer Infrared [CIR] Modes)


QUOTE

This chapter describes the function, operation, and configuration of the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART)/infrared data association (IrDA)/consumer infrared (CIR) module on the OMAP35xx Applications Processor.



QUOTE

UART3, which adds infrared communication support, is pinned out for use as a UART, infrared data association (IrDA), or consumer infrared (CIR) device, and can be programmed to any available operating mode.



QUOTE

1.1.3 CIF Features

The CIR mode uses a variable pulse-width modulatin (PWM) technique (based on multiples of a programmable t period) to encompass the various formats of infrared encoding for remote-control applications. The CIR logic transmits and receives data packets based on a user-definable frame structure and packet content.

The CIR (UART3 only) included the following key features to provide CIR support for remote control applications:
- Transmit and receive
- Free data format (supports any remote-control private standards)
- Selectable bit rate
- Configurable carrier frequency
- ,5/12, 1/3, or 1/4 carrier duty cycle



Full document HERE.

http://www.vishay.com/ir-transceivers/ (those one supports CIR for sure)
http://www.irda.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1...barticlenbr=114
http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/1948/t/al
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?I...ocName=en010407
http://www.smsc.com/main/datasheets/circc.pdf
http://www.sharpsma.com/Page.aspx/americas...3d1572781/IrDA/

I recommend you to look What About The Expansion Ports? thread and say your opinion about it. Maybe those small connectors could fit inside and it will make *A LOT* easier to put internal addons into the Pandora.

So Pandora will have USB host and USB OTG (On-The-Go)? What are the real differences between USB host and USB OTG (it seems like OTG can act as host or client but not supporting USB hubs, not sure)? If wanting to have internal/external aditional USB ports over a hub, will be possible to add a internal pass-trought that connects between the external USB output and the system USB output and then able to add more devices?

The problem of external addons is the lack of portability and if wanting to have lots of them, your Pandora will be a Medusa instead :lol:

What about thinking to check the empty space inside the Pandora? If very very few space available, this could probably make the expanding abilities extremely limited features and practically being near zero except some very simple one like the IR one. What do you think of this? It better to know the possibilities to people could get used to it and reduce the HYPE on certain ideas.

I understand the cost problems of a system like this and the extra problems of a small new company doing it, but you know that users want everything. :)
 
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