In this article you will learn:
how to use infrared
remote control;
how to record and play back
sounds;
how to detect and respond to
sounds.
Many indoor projects lend themselves well to infrared remote
control, so for the first project, we’ll show you how to add an infrared
receiver to your board that will work with a TV-style remote control. We’ll then
add an external voice recorder module and show you how to record and play back a
sound clip via remote control.
To get started, let’s look at the infrared remote control side
of things.
Infrared remote control
Every infrared remote system consists of two parts: a
transmitter and a receiver. There are many different protocols for sending
infrared data, with most major manufacturers opting for their own "standard".
The PICAXE system uses the Sony infrared remote control (SIRCS) protocol,
allowing it to be used with a normal TV-style remote control.
Fig.1: this simple circuit adds infrared support to the PICAXE-08M. A Vishay TSOP4838 infrared receiver module detects and demodulates the infrared data stream, which is then fed into the microcontroller on input 3.
All universal, "one-for-all" style infrared remote controls can
be set up to control Sony brand equipment and therefore will work with this
project. It’s just a matter of programming the remote with one of the Sony
equipment codes provided in the accompanying instructions. For example, the
TVR010 remote control featured here must be programmed with the unique code
C-2-1-2.
