The Solution

Published February 10, 2016 © GPL3+

Making Old Things IoT - IR Control

This project brings a pre-IoT audio receiver up to speed using Blynk and a TI Launchpad to send IR signals through WiFi from an iPhone.

IntermediateShowcase (no instructions)4,076

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Texas Instruments MSP-EXP430F5529LP MSP430 LaunchPad

Texas Instruments CC3100BOOST SimpleLink CC3100 Wi-Fi BoosterPack

Seeed Studio grove IR module

Software apps and online services

Blynk

Texas Instruments Energia

Story

Background:

I love to listen to music. When I'm working, relaxing, cooking, cleaning, whatever there is always music playing in the background. With the advent of IoT and smart TVs etc. it is getting easier and easier to have music everywhere you go and in every room of the house. I finally got a product that took my music listening to a whole new experience in the Chromecast. It is awesome to be in any room of my apartment and pick a band on Pandora or a video on Youtube and cast it straight to my TV which I have hooked up to ~2005 era Bose sound system. Now this sound system as far as audio is concerned is amazing, however the internet capabilities are seriously lacking (hint: there are none). What good is being able to cast my favorite band straight to my TV when my receiver is off and I have to get up and find the remote for the receiver anyway?

I was faced with two alternatives, shell out for a new smart sound system when this one works perfectly, or find a hack so that I can fully control my music from my smartphone and never have to dig through seat cushions again!

The Solution:

In order to solve my audio receiver's problem, I decided to bring it up to the IoT generation by setting up a Launchpad with an IR emitter that could be controlled over WiFi from my iPhone. This allows me full functionality of both the Chromecast and my receiver from the same device without having to leave my chair!

Video of the finished product!

Hardware:

MSP4305529 Launchpad
CC3100 WiFi BoosterPack
SeeedStudio IR emmiter grove module

Software:

Energia
Blynk

Making it Work:

Step 1: Getting the Launchpad to control the Bose Receiver:

I used Seeed's Grove IR emitter grove module to easily enable my Launchpad to send IR commands. I started with the existing Seeed arduino library for the IR emitter and adapted it to interface with the MSP4305529 Launchpad. I also picked up a Grove IR Receiver and wrote some quick code to decipher an incoming signal. Using this, I was able to figure out the Bose remote codes for Power, CBL-SAT (which changed my receiver to the correct input), Volume Up, and Volume Down. I then hard coded all of these commands and wrote code so that my Launchpad could send these signals.

The IR Emitter Grove Module from Seeed Studio

Step 2: Getting Blynk to Control the Launchpad:

Fortunately, Blynk makes it very easy to control a Launchpad over WiFi. I used a project by Daniel Ogilvie as a starting point (found here). I was using a CC3100 BoosterPack instead of the CC3200 Launchpad so was a couple lines in the library to modify, but it worked for the most part as it does in the tutorial. I then put together a quick Blynk app with four buttons and tied them to four different virtual pins.

Blynk Remote Control App

Step 3: Bringing the Two Together:

I continued to adapt Daniel Ogilvie's tutorial and made four different virtual pin subroutines, one for each of the commands I wanted to send. I was now able to send IR commands from my Launchpad using the Blynk app! Success! The code to used on the Launchpad can be found below, but needs the authorization token from blink as well as SSID and password modified before it can work.

#include <IRSendRev.h>
#define BIT_LEN         0
#define BIT_START_H     1
#define BIT_START_L     2
#define BIT_DATA_H      3
#define BIT_DATA_L      4
#define BIT_DATA_LEN    5
#define BIT_DATA        6
#define commandMax      4
const int ir_freq = 38;                 // 38k
IRSendRev IR;

#define BLYNK_PRINT Serial    // Comment this out to disable prints and save space
#include <SPI.h>
#include <WiFi.h>
#include <BlynkSimpleTI_CC3200_LaunchXL.h>

// You should get Auth Token in the Blynk App.
// Go to the Project Settings (nut icon).
char auth[] = "XXXXXXX";

// Your WiFi credentials
char ssid[] = "XXXXX";
char pass[] = "XXXXX";        // Set to "" for open networks


struct cmd_t{
  unsigned char dta[20];
} IRout[commandMax];

 
void setup()
{
    dtaInit();
    IR.setSend(40);
    pinMode(pb1,INPUT_PULLUP);
    Serial.begin(9600);
    Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass);
}
  int i =0;
void loop()
{
  Blynk.run();
  if (digitalRead(pb1) == 0){
    //Serial.print("Sending IRout ");
    //Serial.println(i);
    IR.Send(IRout[i++].dta, 38);
    while(digitalRead(pb1) == 0){
    }
    if(i>3){
      i=0;
    }
  }
    delay(100);
}

void dtaInit()
{
    //Power
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_LEN]        = 9;			// all data that needs to be sent
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_START_H]    = 180;			// the logic high duration of "Start"
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_START_L]    = 91;			// the logic low duration of "Start"
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA_H]     = 11;			// the logic "long" duration in the communication
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA_L]     = 33;			// the logic "short" duration in the communication
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]   = 4;			// Number of data which will sent. If the number is other, you should increase or reduce dtaSend[BIT_DATA+x].
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA+0]     = 93;			// data that will sent
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA+1]     = 210;
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA+2]     = 50;
    IRout[0].dta[BIT_DATA+3]     = 205;
    //Set Input
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_LEN]        = 9;			// all data that needs to be sent
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_START_H]    = 180;			// the logic high duration of "Start"
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_START_L]    = 91;			// the logic low duration of "Start"
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA_H]     = 11;			// the logic "long" duration in the communication
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA_L]     = 33;			// the logic "short" duration in the communication
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]   = 4;			// Number of data which will sent. If the number is other, you should increase or reduce dtaSend[BIT_DATA+x].
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA+0]     = 93;			// data that will sent
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA+1]     = 210;
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA+2]     = 168;
    IRout[1].dta[BIT_DATA+3]     = 87;
    //Voluem Up
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_LEN]        = 9;			// all data that needs to be sent
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_START_H]    = 180;			// the logic high duration of "Start"
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_START_L]    = 91;			// the logic low duration of "Start"
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA_H]     = 11;			// the logic "long" duration in the communication
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA_L]     = 33;			// the logic "short" duration in the communication
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]   = 4;			// Number of data which will sent. If the number is other, you should increase or reduce dtaSend[BIT_DATA+x].
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA+0]     = 93;			// data that will sent
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA+1]     = 210;
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA+2]     = 192;
    IRout[2].dta[BIT_DATA+3]     = 63;
    //Volume Down
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_LEN]        = 9;			// all data that needs to be sent
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_START_H]    = 180;			// the logic high duration of "Start"
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_START_L]    = 91;			// the logic low duration of "Start"
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA_H]     = 11;			// the logic "long" duration in the communication
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA_L]     = 33;			// the logic "short" duration in the communication
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]   = 4;			// Number of data which will sent. If the number is other, you should increase or reduce dtaSend[BIT_DATA+x].
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA+0]     = 93;			// data that will sent
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA+1]     = 210;
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA+2]     = 64;
    IRout[3].dta[BIT_DATA+3]     = 191;
}

#include <IRSendRev.h>
 
#define BIT_LEN         0
#define BIT_START_H     1
#define BIT_START_L     2
#define BIT_DATA_H      3
#define BIT_DATA_L      4
#define BIT_DATA_LEN    5
#define BIT_DATA        6
#define LED GREEN_LED 
const int pinRecv = 2;              // ir receiver connect to D2
IRSendRev IR; 
    boolean state = 0;
void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(115200);
    IR.Init(5);
    Serial.println("init over");
    pinMode(LED,OUTPUT);

    digitalWrite(LED,LOW);
}
 
unsigned char dta[20];
 
void loop()
{
    if(IR.IsDta())                  // get IR data
    {
        IR.Recv(dta);               // receive data to dta
 
        Serial.println("+------------------------------------------------------+");
		Serial.print("LEN = ");
        Serial.println(dta[BIT_LEN]);
        Serial.print("START_H: ");
        Serial.print(dta[BIT_START_H]);
        Serial.print("\tSTART_L: ");
        Serial.println(dta[BIT_START_L]);
 
        Serial.print("DATA_H: ");
        Serial.print(dta[BIT_DATA_H]);
        Serial.print("\tDATA_L: ");
        Serial.println(dta[BIT_DATA_L]);
 
        Serial.print("\r\nDATA_LEN = ");
        Serial.println(dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]);
 
		Serial.print("DATA: ");
        for(int i=0; i<dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]; i++)
        {
            Serial.print("0x");
            Serial.print(dta[i+BIT_DATA], HEX);
            Serial.print("\t");
        }
        Serial.println();
 
		Serial.print("DATA: ");
        for(int i=0; i<dta[BIT_DATA_LEN]; i++)
        {
            Serial.print(dta[i+BIT_DATA], DEC);
            Serial.print("\t");
        }
        Serial.println();
        Serial.println("+------------------------------------------------------+\r\n\r\n");
    }
    if(dta[BIT_DATA] == 100){
      state = !state;
      digitalWrite(LED,state);
    }
    dta[BIT_DATA] = 0;
}

Credits

Chris Roberts

8 projects • 21 followers

I am an applications engineer with Texas Instruments working with the Launchpad by trade, and a maker by passion!

Making Old Things IoT - IR Control

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Background:

The Solution:

Making it Work:

Code

smartBose

IRGrove

BlynkLib

IR Receive

Credits

Chris Roberts

Comments

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Making Old Things IoT - IR Control

Making Old Things IoT - IR Control

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Background:

The Solution:

Making it Work:

Code

smartBose

IRGrove

BlynkLib

IR Receive

Credits

Chris Roberts

Comments

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