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Play DVDs and MP3s on your PC via infrared remote control! PC Infrared Remote Receiver Dedicated DVD players come with full remote control. Now you can have remote control for the DVD player in your PC with this easy-tobuild unit. S INCE THE PUBLICATION of our MP3 Jukebox back in October 2001, we’ve had many requests for a similar remote control system for DVD players. This time around though, we’ve dispensed with the liquid crystal display in favour of onscreen display (OSD) and designed a simpler, lower-cost infrared receiver. Like the previous design, this unit hooks up to a free serial port and can be installed inside your PC or mounted externally. It even includes the ability to power up your PC remotely! In conjunction with free Windows remote control software, it can be used to drive a popular DVD player (Win­ DVD 4 or 5) and MP3 player (Winamp 3). In fact, if you’re a keen programmer, you can set it up to control just about any Windows application you desire. Project overview The hardware part of the project consists of a single, small PC board that receives and decodes infrared transmissions from a remote control handpiece. Most off-the-shelf universal remotes can be set up to work with the receiver. In addition, we’ve included specific support for Sony Playstation remotes, as they include all the function keys necessary to simplify DVD player control. After processing by an on-board microcontroller, received key presses are transmitted to your PC via a simple serial port connection. If installed inside a PC, the receiver can be powered from the motherboard’s Wake-on-LAN (WOL) connector, enabling it to “wake up” the PC from sleep mode on reception of a pre-programmed infrared command. It can also be mounted in a small project case and powered from a plugpack if so desired. This may be more practical in cases where the PC system unit is on the floor or hidden behind a desk. Key codes received on the serial port connection are interpreted and acted on by a program called “Girder”. This unusually named software package is probably one of the most versatile remote control packages of its kind. It can be programmed to perform just about any action within the Windows environment based on events from a variety of sources. Playing DVDs With DVD players now available at rock-bottom prices, why would you want one on your PC? Well, PC-based players allow you to do all sorts of things that you can’t do on stand-alone units, like capturing frames and creating playlists. On the other hand, perhaps you By PETER SMITH 22  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.1: the design is based around an Atmel AT90S2313 microcontroller (IC1), supported by an infrared receiver & demodulator (IC3) and an RS232 receiver/ driver (IC2). IC4 resets the microcontroller when the supply voltage is too low. eat and sleep next to your PC and it’s the convenience factor that you find attractive! Whatever the reason, it’s a fact that most new PCs are shipped with CD-ROM drives that can read DVD discs. All that’s required (in most cases) to play a DVD is the addition of a software player package. For use with the infrared receiver, we’ve selected WinDVD, reputedly the most popular software DVD player around. If comes pre-installed on many name-brand PCs, or can be purchased in retail shops or on the Internet at www.intervideo.com Note that only versions 4 & 5 are guaranteed to work with our remote control software. If you’re thinking of purchasing on-line, then it’s a good idea to “try before you buy”. A fully functional www.siliconchip.com.au evaluation version is available that will work for 14 days from date of installation. Minimum hardware and software requirements are all listed on Inter­Video’s web site. during the installation processes. Remote-controlling Windows Conventional Windows applications expect to receive their instruc- Playing MP3s The best (we think) and cheapest (it’s free) MP3 player in the universe is Winamp 3, so it was an obvious choice for this project. You can download it from Nullsoft’s web site at www. winamp.com Note: we recommend that you install your player software and check that it is working properly before attempting any other part of this project. Be sure to load the software into the default directories suggested August 2003  23 How it works Fig.2: follow this diagram to build the receiver module. Take care with the orientation of the two ICs , diodes D1 & D2 & the electrolytic capacitors. tions from the mouse and keyboard. For example, to start Winamp playing, a mouse click on the “play” button is required. The trick is to augment this behaviour so that a press on a remote control’s “play” button does the same thing. This is where Girder comes in. Girder can translate events from any number of sources, including commands from an infrared remote, into actions that any application can understand. Girder is designed to be all-purpose, so it’s not supplied pre-programmed for any particular application. Our job was to program Girder to work with WinDVD and Winamp in conjunction with a number of popular remote control handpieces. Once Girder is programmed with the necessary instructions, the results can be saved to disk in a file (called a “group” file, with an extension of “.GML”) for easy recall later. The group files we’ve created for WinDVD and Winamp can be downloaded from the Silicon Chip website but more on that later. remotes, we can not guarantee that all models will work well with the key assignments that we’ve programmed (see Tables 1 & 2). For best results, use one of the specified remote controls. Doing so means that you won’t have to poke around inside Girder to reassign keys codes – something that we’d probably only recommend to those with a good understanding of Windows programming! OK, by now you should have some idea of how everything hangs together. Before assembling the hardware, let’s have a closer look at what makes it tick. Infrared remotes The infrared receiver module is designed to work with any “universal” type remote control – see panel entitled “About Infrared Remotes” in this article for all the details. It’s important to note that because the function keys vary widely between 24  Silicon Chip Fig.3: this is the full-size etching pattern for the PC board. Check your board carefully before installing the parts. Fig.1 reveals a simple but effective design based around an Atmel microcontroller (IC1). This is supported by an infrared receiver & demodulator (IC3), an RS232 receiver/driver (IC2), an MC34064 undervoltage sensor (IC4) and a power supply (D1, D2 & REG1). Power can be provided from either a 9-12V DC source or a 5V DC source. The 9-12V input (CON2) should be used in all cases except when the module is mounted inside your PC and you want to use the remote power-up function (see below). This input can be powered either by an unregulated 9V DC plugpack (freestanding unit) or a spare disk drive connector from the PC power supply (internally mounted). Reverse-polarity protection is provided by diode D1. Following this, a 100µF capacitor provides some filtering upstream of a 78L05 3-terminal regulator (REG1). The regulator output provides the +5V supply rail for the circuit. Remote power-up Some constructors have noticed that this function stops working after switching power on and off a number of times. Traced to EEPROM corruption during brownout of the +5V supply to IC1. To fix this, mount an MC34064P-5 (Altronics Z-7252/Farnell 703-709) undervoltage sensing IP on the bottom (copper) side of the PC as shown on page 98 of Nov 2013; This should be done after all components have been installed. Slip a short length of heatshrink tubing over the GND lead of the IC before soldering it. This ensures that the GND and +5V leads can't short together. This modification only needs to be done if you're using the remote power-up function. Alternatively, to make use of the remote power-up function, +5V standby power must be applied to the CON3 input. This is sourced from the motherboard’s Wake-on-LAN (WOL) connector and is present whenever AC power is present. All ATX (ACPI 2.1 compliant) motherboards we’ve seen have a 3-pin, single-row header for the WOL function. Two pins provide the stand­by power output (+5VSB and GND), while a third (SENSE) is a digital input. This pin can be driven high to bring the PC out of power-down or sleep modes. www.siliconchip.com.au Although originally designed for use with PCI networking cards, the WOL function is rarely used on home/small office machines. Back on the receiver board, the +5V standby power input is reverse-polarity protected by D2. We’ve used a Schottky diode for this circuit rather than a rectifier diode to minimise forward voltage losses. Additional filtering of the +5V rail is required for the sensitive analog circuitry inside IC3. This is provided by a 33Ω resistor and 47µF capacitor, which together form a simple low-pass filter. The PC IR Receiver module was mounted on an aluminium plate and attached to a cut-down 3.5-inch drive mounting bracket. This assembly was then attached to a plastic blanking plate, with holes drilled for the IR receiver and acknowledge LED. Note: the prototype PC board shown here differs from the final version shown in Fig.2. Infrared reception IC3 contains all of the circuitry necessary to receive and demodulate the remote’s 38kHz (±2kHz) infrared transmission. The recovered digital signal appears on pin 1 and is piped directly into the microcontroller (IC1) on pin 17. The microcontroller decodes the serial stream in accordance with either the Philips RC5 or Sony SIRCS protocol definitions. Switching between the two protocols is performed “on the fly”, based on information in the first part of the received data. Each “chunk” of data from the infrared remote contains both a code for the key pressed and an equipment address (VCR, TV, CD, etc). This is packaged with a synchronisation (start) byte and a checksum byte and then transmitted out the micro’s TXD line (pin 3). IC2 converts the transmitted data from TTL signal levels to ±10V (nominal) RS232 levels, after which it appears on the D-9 connector (CON1) at pin 2. Each time the micro receives a key press from the remote, it flashes the “Ack” LED by driving pin 15 low for about 100ms. Assembling the IR receiver All parts mount on a small PC board, coded 07108031. Using the overlay diagram in Fig.2 as a guide, begin by installing the single wire link using tinned copper wire. Follow up with the four resistors and two diodes (D1 & D2). Next, install the two sockets for IC1 and IC2. These go in opposite ways around, so be sure that you have the pin 1 (notched) ends oriented as shown. Don’t plug in the ICs just yet, though. Leave them out until you’re ready to test the completed unit. The crystal (X1) can go in next. It www.siliconchip.com.au The completed unit slots into a spare drive bay on your PC or can be used as a freestanding module. mounts horizontally, so bend the leads at 90° (about 2mm from the body) before soldering it into position. To hold it firmly in place, solder a short length of tinned copper wire to the top edge of the can and the pad directly below. Install all of the capacitors next, aligning the positive leads of the three electrolytics as indicated by the “+” marking on the overlay. All remaining parts except for the LED and infrared receiver (IC3) can be installed next. LED1 and IC3 should be set aside until you’ve devised a mounting method for the module. You’ll then be able to gauge the required lead length and bend needed to position both devices so that they protrude through any panelwork. Note: the microcontroller (IC1) must be programmed before it can be used in this project. If you’ve purchased a kit, then this will already have been done. However, if you’re sourcing all the parts yourself, then you’ll need to either buy a pre-programmed microcontroller or program a “blank” device yourself. The microcontroller program file (IRR.HEX) can be down­ loaded from the Silicon Chip web site. Pre-programmed micro­c ontrollers (and PC boards) are available from RCS Radio, phone (02) 9738 0330. Installing the module The small size of the receiver board August 2003  25 Fig.4: you can use an off-the-shelf “pin-to-pin” cable for the serial port connection or make your own using the connections shown here. Fig.5: if you’re mounting the module inside your PC but don’t need the power-up function, then make up this cable for connection to a spare disk drive power socket. Cat. XC-4630) if your PC has a spare 5.25-inch drive bay. Another option might be to attach it to a convenient spot on the metalwork behind the case cover. It all depends on the design of your case as well as how much time you’re willing to spend to make the result look “original equipment”! Note: all tracks (including ground) on the rear of the PC board must be isolated from the PCs metal casing. Use non-metallic brackets, nylon/plastic stand-offs or some other method to ensure isolation. Don’t want to fiddle around inside your PC? Well, you can also install the module in a small instrument case and power it from a 9V DC plugpack. This method offers the advantage of being able to position the unit anywhere in your room! Whatever mounting method you choose, the hole for the infrared receiver (IC3) must be drilled a little larger than the bump on the package so that the lens is not obscured. The receiver lens should then be positioned inside the hole, with the body of the package flush with the rear of the panelwork. In addition, light from the LED must not illuminate the infrared receiver, as this will interfere with its operation in low-light situations. Serial cabling Fig.6: to use the remote powerup function, you must power the module from the motherboard’s WOL header. Here’s how to wire up the necessary cable. Keep the length as short as possible and twist the three wires tightly together. will allow it to fit comfortably behind a 3.5-inch or 5.25-inch drive-bay blanking plate. A right angle bracket attached to the 3mm holes on the PC 26  Silicon Chip Fig.7: if you’re building a freestanding unit, then power the unit from a 9V DC plugpack. You’ll need a panel-mount DC socket for the plugpack connection, wired up as shown here. board is one possible mounting meth­ od (see photos). It could also be fitted to a 3.5-inch to 5.25-inch drive adapter (eg, Jaycar For connection between the module and your PC’s serial port, you’ll need a D-9 male to D-9 female “pin-to-pin” cable. If you’re making the cable yourself refer to Fig.4 for the wiring details. For internally mounted modules, the cable must be routed out through the rear of the case in order to connect to one of the external 9-pin serial port connectors. The quickest way to achieve this is to remove one of the brackets adjacent to the PCI expansion bus and feed the serial cable out through the exposed slot. Note that ready-made serial cables with large moulded backshells may not fit through the slot. In this case, you can cut the (male connector) end off and replace it with your own D-9 solder type connector, without a backshell. Alternatively, make up a cable using IDC-style connectors & IDC cable. This method works well, because you can route the cable neatly inside the case and only make it as long as it needs to be. www.siliconchip.com.au Power cabling As mentioned previously, internally mounted modules can be powered from either a spare disk drive power connector (Fig.5) or the motherboard’s Wake-on-LAN (WOL) connector (Fig.6). The latter connection is required in order to use the remote power-up function. The motherboard WOL header is generally of the 2mm-pitch variety. Unfortunately, sockets to mate with these high-density headers are not currently available from the usual kit suppliers. We made ours up from a WOL cable that was supplied with a PCI network card. You may be able to score one of these from your local PC equipment installer. Alternatively, a 2mm-pitch socket for unshrouded type headers is available from Farnell Electronic Components, Cat. 672-300. Note: the WOL header (and some parts of the motherboard circuitry) are live whenever AC power is applied. Disconnect AC power from you PC before connecting/disconnecting cables or inserting/removing PCI cards. Refer to your motherboard manual for the location of the header and the position of pin 1. Setting up and testing Check that jumper JP1 is set according to the power source that you’ve chosen and remove jumpers JP2 & JP3 if you fitted them earlier. Now apply power and reach for your trusty multimeter. The following measurements are all made with the negative probe connected to any convenient ground point (the negative side of the 10µF or 47µF capacitors, for example). If the module is powered from the WOL header, then the voltage drop across D2 will reduce all of the readings by at least 0.4V. With your meter set to read volts, measure at pin 20 of IC1 and pin 16 of IC2. Both readings should be about +5V. That done, measure pins 2 and 6 of IC2. These readings should be about +9.5V and -9.4V, respectively. OK, let’s check out the infrared receiver section. First, set up your infrared remote as per the instructions in the “About Infrared Remotes” panel. Now point your remote at the infrared receiver and press any key. The “Ack” LED should flash each time a key is pressed. www.siliconchip.com.au Parts List 1 PC board coded 07108031, 47mm x 59mm 1 3-way 2.54mm SIL header (JP1) 2 2-way 2.54mm SIL headers (JP2, JP3) 3 jumper shunts 1 20-pin IC socket 1 16-pin IC socket 1 9-way 90° PC-mount female ‘D’ connector (CON1) 1 3-way 2.54mm SIL connector & socket (CON3) 1 2-way 2.54mm SIL connector & socket (CON2) 9-way RS232 cable (D9M to D9F) for serial connection (see text) Red, black & yellow light-duty hook-up wire Small cable ties Semiconductors 1 AT90S2313P-4 (or –10) microcontroller (IC1), programmed with IIR.HEX 1 MAX232 RS232 receiver/driver IC (IC2) 1 38kHz infrared receiver module (IC3) (Jaycar ZD-1952, Altronics Z-1611) 1 MC34064P-5 undervoltage sensing IC (IC4) 1 78L05 +5V regulator (REG1) 1 1N4004 diode (D1) Programming the power-up function Disconnect power from the receiver module and install a jumper shunt on JP2. Power up again and point your remote at the receiver. Press the key that you wish to use as the power-up key (usually the “Power” key!). The “Ack” LED should flash five times to indicate that the new key has been accepted. Now power off and remove the jumper. The microcontroller stores the key code in on-chip EEPROM, so it is not lost when power is disconnected. However, the code can be reprogrammed at any time by repeating the above steps. Before the power-up function will work it must be enabled in your PC’s BIOS setup. Generally, you can access the BIOS setup by hitting the <Esc> key during power up. 1 1N5817 or 1N5819 Schottky diode (D2) 1 3mm red LED (LED1) 1 4MHz crystal, HC49 package (X1) Capacitors 1 100µF 25V PC electrolytic 1 47µF 16V PC electrolytic 1 10µF 16V PC electrolytic 5 1µF 50V monolithic ceramic 2 100nF 50V monolithic ceramic 2 22pF ceramic disc Resistors (0.25W, 1%) 1 10kΩ 1 470Ω 1 150Ω 1 33Ω Additional parts for internally mounted module: 1 4-way cable mount PC disk drive plug (Jaycar PP-0743) OR1 3-way 2mm-pitch SIL header socket for WOL (see text) Mounting hardware to suit Additional parts for freestanding unit: 1 plastic instrument case, “UB1” size or similar 4 10mm tapped spacers 4 6mm pan head screws 4 6mm countersunk head screws 1 2.5mm panel-mount DC socket 1 9V DC 150mA (min.) plugpack Once in the BIOS setup, look for the “Power Management Setup” menu (or similar). There you’ll need to enable both the “ACPI” and “Resume on LAN” options. The menu probably also displays a long list of APM (power management) options. You should not need to alter any of these for the WOL function to operate. Note: power management setup menus vary considerably between motherboards. Refer to your motherboard manual for details on how to enable the Wake-on-LAN function. Well, that completes the hardware part of the project. The next task is to download and install the Windows remote control software. Downloading Girder Point your browser to www.girder. nl and go to the main download page. Click on the “Girder Installer” link at August 2003  27 Fig.8: Girder looks after all the remote control stuff in Windows. Here it’s shown ready to direct all the action in WinDVD 5. named “xml”. Move both the file and folder to the Winamp plugins folder at “C:\Program Files\Winamp3\Wacs”. If all that sounds a little confusing, have a look at the “readme.htm” file included in the ZIP archive. It explains in detail where each file should reside. To check that they’re in the right places and operating correctly, launch Winamp and press <Ctrl><P> to open the “Preferences” window. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and you should see an entry named “Girder” (see Fig.14). Note: future plugin releases may use different filenames to those described above. If in doubt, refer to the documentation included with the download or check out the on-line help at www.girder.nl Download & installing the “group” files Fig.9: settings on the “General” tab control Girder’s startup and shutdown options. the top of page to download the latest version. At time of writing, Girder was at release 3.2.9b but this will obviously change over time. In addition to the Girder Installer, three “plugins” are also required for this project. Plugins are used to extend the functionality of Girder, as we’ll see shortly. Click on the “Plugins” link at the top of the main download page to go to the plugins download page. Download the following three plugins by clicking on their respective links: “Generic Serial IR”, “Popup OSD” and “Winamp 3”. Installing Girder Navigate to wherever you saved the Girder Installer file and double-click on it to launch the installation. Follow the prompts to complete the installation, using the default options as presented. OK, let’s install the three plugins. Begin by unzipping the “Generic Serial IR” file, named “uir_m_1.5.zip” (or similar), into a temporary directory. This archive contains just one file, named “uir_m.dll”. Move this file into 28  Silicon Chip Fig.10: our system requires the use of several extensions, or “plugins”, to do everything we’ve asked of it. This is where we tell Girder which plugins to load. Some plugins have their own settings dialog, accessed by highlighting the plugin name and clicking on the “Settings” button. the Girder plugins folder located at “C:\Program Files\girder32\ plugins”. Next, unzip the “Popup OSD” file, named “PopUp.3.0.6.zip” (or similar) into the temporary directory. This time you’ll see two files, “PopUp.dll” and “ReadMe.txt”. As described above, move the “PopUp.dll” file into the Girder plugins folder. Finally, unzip the “Winamp 3” file, named “Winamp-1.6.zip” (or similar) into the temporary directory. You’ll notice that a folder named “plugins” has been created in the temporary directory. Under the “plugins” folder is another folder named “Winamp3” and a file named “Winamp3.dll”. Again, move the “Winamp3.dll” file to the Girder plugins folder. Go back to the temporary directory and open the “Winamp3” folder. You’ll now see another folder named “wac”. Open this folder, and inside you’ll find a file named “girder.wac” and a folder Your Girder installation is now almost ready to go. All that remains is to program it for the task at hand, which in this case is to control either Winamp or WinDVD in conjunction with the infrared hardware. We’ve already done the programming job for you and the fruits of our labour are available for download from the Silicon Chip web site. Point your browser to www.siliconchip.com.au and then click on the “Software Downloads” link on the left side of the main page. Download the “GirderGroups. zip” file listed for this month and unzip it into a temporary directory. Navigate to “C:\Program Files\ girder32” and create a new folder named “groups” to hold the new files. Now move the files unzipped above into the new folder at ‘’C:\Program Files\girder32\groups”. You’ll note that there are six files in all: (1) Winamp3_RC5.GML, (2) Winamp3_SONY.GML, (3) WinDVD4_RC5.GML, (4) WinDVD4_SONY, (5) WinDVD5_RC5.GML; and (6) WinDVD5_SONY.GML. As you can see from the names, we’ve provided group files for Winamp 3, WinDVD 4 and WinDVD 5. There are two sets of files for each application, one for use with universal remotes (RC5) and one for Playstation remotes (Sony). Setting up Girder Launch Girder from the Windows www.siliconchip.com.au Start menu. From the main menu bar at the top of the Girder window, click on File and choose Settings. The “Settings” dialog box appears with the “General” tab visible (Fig.9). Click on the “Browse” button and navigate to the group files that you saved earlier in “C:\Program File\girder32\ groups”. Double-click on the file appropriate for your setup. For example, if you want to control Winamp with a universal remote, choose “Winamp3_RC5.GML”. Next, click on the “Auto Load”, “Load Girder on Windows startup” and “Hide on startup” check boxes to enable them. These options ensure that everything happens automatically at Windows startup. Still on the “General” tab, click on the “Register Filetype” button. This creates an association between the Girder application and it’s group (.GML) files. Skip over the “User Interface” tab, as the default settings are generally OK. Instead, click on the “Plugins” tab (Fig.10). Enable the following plugins by clicking in the boxes next to their names: “AlarmTimer”, “Generic serial based IR receiver”, “OSD PopUp” and “Winamp3”. If any of the last three plugins aren’t listed, then you may not have installed them correctly. Go back and double-check that you’ve copied all the relevant files into the Girder plugins folder as described under “Installing Girder”. Now click on the “Auto Enable input device”, followed by the “Apply” button. That done, we can now set up Girder to receive data from the infrared receiver hardware. Serial port & infrared receiver configuration Highlight “Generic serial based IR receiver” in the plugins list and click the “Settings” button. The “Device configuration” dialog should now appear (see Fig.11). Change the settings as necessary to match those shown in Fig.11. Make sure that all of the options listed under “Device Settings”, “Timings” and “Filtering” are disabled (not ticked)! In addition, two settings need to be altered to suit your system. Under “Port settings”, select the COM port that you’ve using with the infrared receiver, and set the “Code length” to match your infrared remote. For a universal remote, www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.11: key codes from the infrared receiver are picked up by this plugin, which then passes them on to Girder. Your settings should look like this, although you may need to change the “Port” and “Code length” entries (see text). choose “4” bytes. For a Playstation remote, choose “5”. That done, click on the “OK” button to close the configuration window. Note: if you’ve highlighted the “Generic serial based IR receiver” and clicked on the “Settings” button but nothing happened, then chances are that the “Device configuration” window has appeared behind the main Girder window. Look down on the Windows task bar. If you see a “Device configuration” button, click on it to make the window visible. On-screen display settings Finally, click on the OSD Settings tab (Fig.12). Information here determines the basic format of the on-screen displays and can be changed to suit your taste. The default character size is much too small, so click on the “Select Font” tab and change the font to “Arial” and the size to “20” as a reasonable starting point. Click on the “Apply” and then the “OK” buttons at the bottom of the “Settings” window to complete your Girder setup. If you’re still with us, you should now have a fully functional system. From the main Girder menu, select File -> Exit Girder, then restart your computer. System checkout When Windows starts, Girder should start up automatically. An icon in the System Tray will be the only indication that it is running. Point your remote at the receiver and press the “Open/Close” button to launch your chosen application. You should now be able to control the most commonly used Winamp/ WinDVD functions via remote control! Controlling both Winamp & WinDVD So far, our instructions have assumed that you only want to be able to control either Winamp or WinDVD. To control both applications on the same system, you need to switch between the two Girder group files. Let’s say that you’ve set up Girder to automatically control Winamp at startup, but now you want to switch to WinDVD. To do this, double-click on the Girder icon in the System Tray to open it. Next, from the main menu bar, select File -> Open and load the group file for WinDVD control. You can then send Girder back to the System Tray by selecting File -> Close Window or by clicking on the “X” in the top right corner of window. That’s it! Help, it doesn’t work! Fig.12: system-wide OSD (On Screen Display) settings can be customised here. OK, so you’ve pressed a key, the “Ack” LED on the receiver board flashed, but nothing happened in Windows. First up, try launching Winamp/ August 2003  29 Fig.13: shed your basic Winamp skin and slip into something sexy! This is just one of many available for download from www.winamp.com WinDVD manually and see if they respond to key presses. If remote control is now working, this suggests that the key we’ve assigned for the Open/ Close function is not compatible with your remote. In this case, you can either start the application manually or reassign the key code for the Open/ Close function (see Tables 1 & 2 and “Reassigning remote keys” below). Still not working? OK, let’s make sure that Girder has loaded the group (.GML) file and that it’s receiving the key presses. Double-click on the Girder icon in the System Tray to open it. Along the top of the Girder window, you should see the name of the currently loaded group file. The contents of the file are displayed on the left side of the Girder window. This is the programming information that instructs Girder on what action to take when it receives a remote key press. If there’s no indication that the group file was loaded, then go back over the steps under “Setting up Girder” to correct the problem. Assuming it was loaded successfully, point your remote at the receiver and press any key. The 4-byte code for the key should appear on the status (bottom) bar of the Girder window. If it does, have a close look at the number displayed (it’s in hexadecimal notation). The first byte is always FE (the sync byte), the next is the equipment address, the third is the key code and the last byte is the checksum. It is vital that the second byte of the string is 05, as this is the equipment address for VCRs. If it’s some other value, then you’ve chosen an incompatible device code for your remote. Refer to the information in the “About Infrared Remotes” panel for details. Note: the above information applies only to universal remotes set up for Philips (or compatible) appliances. For Playstation remotes, the code will be five bytes long and cannot be incorrect. If you’re still with us, we assume this means that nothing is displayed on the status bar when you press a key on your remote. The most likely problem at this point is either incorrect setup of the “Generic serial based IR receiver” plugin or a problem with serial communications from the receiver module. Start by double-checking the settings for the plugin, as described under “Serial port & infrared receiver configuration” above. Note that the last received key code should be displayed under “Activity monitor” on the bottom line of the configuration window. No go? Then you can determine if the serial connection is working by monitoring the COM port input with any serial terminal application. HyperTerminal (included with Windows) will do the job, although all you’ll see when you press a key is a bunch of strange ASCII characters. To see the actual key code values, you’ll need a terminal application that can display in hexadecimal. Check out RealTerm, available free from realterm.sourceforge.net Set it up to match the chosen COM port, with a baud rate of 9600bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity. Note: Girder must be closed before attempting to access the serial port from any other application. To do this, select File -> Exit Girder from the main menu. Reassigning remote keys These are the four remotes recommended for use with this project (left to right): Sony Playstation remote, Jaycar BC-3000, and Altronics AIFA RA7 & AIFA Y2E. 30  Silicon Chip If you’re using a different universal remote to the ones in our list and the function keys don’t do what you want, www.siliconchip.com.au About Infrared Remote Controls As mentioned throughout the article, the infrared receiver module will work with any “universal” style remote control. This type of remote can be programmed to work with hundreds of different devices. It’s just a matter of selecting the appropriate device from the supplied list and punching in the matching code per the instructions. The receiver module masquerades as a Philips brand appliance. Although many different manufacturers use the Philips infrared protocol (RC5), always try the Philips codes first. In order to work with the Girder group files that we’ve provided, you must choose a VCR code from the device list. Unfortunately, no two universal remotes are alike when it comes to the function keys. Some have more keys than others and to confuse matters, key labelling differs even though the keys might transmit identical codes. To make life much easier, we have preprogrammed the system to work with several readily available universal remotes, as follows: (1) AIFA Y2E (Altronics A-1013) (use code 379); (2) AIFA RA7 (Altronics A-1009) (use code 379); (3) BC-3000 (Jaycar AR-1710) (use code 278). We’ve also included support for the Sony Playstation remote. These are available at reasonable prices (especially the clones) and provide all the keys necessary to control a DVD player with ease. Tables 1 & 2 list the functions we’ve assigned to the keys on these remotes. The universal models don’t have enough keys to control all possible functions, so we’ve included a “shift” mode. To control any function that requires a shifted key (listed with the “Shift-” prefix), make sure that shift mode in active (press the “Shift” key). For WinDVD, the shift state is toggled each time the “Shift” key is pressed. By contrast, shift is active for one key press only in Winamp. www.siliconchip.com.au Table 1: WinDVD functions and the associated remote control keys. Table 2: Winamp functions and the associated remote control keys. August 2003  31 Fig.14: click in the main Winamp window and press <Ctrl><P> to bring up this dialog. Scroll down the list and you should find a “Girder” entry if you’ve installed the Winamp plugin correctly. then it’s not too difficult to change the key assignments. To begin, make sure that both Winamp and WinDVD are closed. Next, open the Girder window and load the appropriate group file using the File -> Open menu command. In this example, we’re assuming that you’ve loaded “Winamp3_RC5.GML” On the left side of the window, you’ll see a tree structure that looks a bit like a directory listing in Windows Explorer (Fig.8). Click on the “+” next to the “Winamp3” folder (top level group) to open it. The tree expands to show a number of folders (groups) underneath. Open the “Non-shifted” group to access all commands related to non-shifted keys. Under the “Non-shifted” group WinDVD has a simple easy-touse interface but it’s even easier via remote control. 32  Silicon Chip you’ll find the commands further subdivided into “General”, “Volume” and “Track Select”. Open the “General” group to see all the keys assigned to general commands, such as “Play”, “Pause”, etc. Now click on the “Stop” command and in the bottom right of the Girder window, you’ll see the action performed when this command is executed. Until you understand how Girder works, this probably won’t mean much. However, you don’t actually need to know how the command works to change the key assignment! Next, click on the “+” next to the “Stop” command to open it. Below, you’ll see an entry named “Eventstring”. This entry contains the actual key code associated with the “Stop” key on your remote. Click on the “EventString” entry to highlight it and the key code is displayed in large dot-matrix style characters on the right side of the window. To change this code, first make sure that the drop-down list at the top right of the window reads “All”, then click on the “Learn Event” button. Point your remote at the receiver and press the key you want to assign to the “Stop” command. Girder immediately updates the EventString entry with the received key code. Now save the updated group file by selecting the File -> Save command from the main menu. All done! Of course, you probably wouldn’t want to change the assignment of the “Stop” key – this was just a convenient choice for our example. Most other key assignments can be changed in a similar fashion. Always save a backup copy of a group file before modifying it, just in case! Other uses Your new infrared remote receiver is not limited to controlling just Winamp and WinDVD. If you’re into programming and like a challenge, then you can program Girder to perform just about any task via remote control. Check out the on-line help at www.girder.nl for more information. As a bonus, we’ve included support on the receiver board for applications that work with the Irman. This commercially available infrared receiver works with dozens of popular remote-enabled applications. To enable Irman compatibility, power off the receiver and install a jumper shunt on JP3. For details on Irman and supported software, visit www.evation.com/ irman Note: jumper JP3 should only be installed if you specifically require Irman compatibility. Do not install it when using the module with Girder. Also, we have not tested the receiver with all Irman-enabled applications and can not guarantee that it will work in all cases. The receiver module is also eminently suitable as an add-on to existing microcontroller projects. A simple two-wire serial interface is all that’s required for the connection. Perhaps you’ll be driving your next PICAXE project from your armchair! SC Enjoy! www.siliconchip.com.au