RedoXyde's CEC2Usb Brings Consumer Electronics Control, Interactive Bias Lighting to Any HTPC Build
Built around an ATmega32U2, the design turns HDMI-based CEC control into keyboard inputs suitable for any device.
Pseudonymous engineer RedoXyde has launched the CEC2Usb adapter, a compact device designed to bring Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) support to any device that can accept a USB keyboard — and which even acts as a controller for interactive bias lighting.
"I recently moved from a Raspberry Pi to a full HTPC and lost the CEC feature I really liked," RedoXyde explains of the project. "I needed a replacement. There are few other available products on the market but I thought they were too expensive and/or too complex for my needs so I designed my own for cheap (apart from the PCB and HDMI headers, I had all the parts laying around).
"Instead of requiring a host software (like cec-client) it acts as a standard keyboard," RedoXyde continues. "[And it] provides Hyperion-compatible interface for Ambilight[-style] setups," the latter giving the board the ability to control RGB LED lighting strips to mimic Philips' Ambilight bias lighting functionality — a system whereby addressable LEDs can be used to make the image appear to be extending beyond the confines of the display.
The Microchip ATmega32U2-AU-based board's design includes the ability to run from USB or HDMI power, a ICSP header, broken-out SPI port which can be used to control WS2811 LED strips or for any other task, and TWI/I2C wired to the HDMI bus — the latter feature part of an in-development firmware upgrade which will allow the controller to read the physical address of the connected home theater PC, rather than relying on a hard-coded value.
More information on the CEC2Usb, including a schematic, can be found on RedoXyde's project page, or the board can be purchased as a kit for $7 or fully-assembled unit for $22 on Tindie.