[sci.electronics] IR universal for amiga

atn@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Alan Nishioka) (01/07/91)

A while back there was a file (zapper.txt) going around about using
a computer as a universal Infrared remote which learns and repeats
back IR remote commands.

Has anyone written a program for use with the amiga?

I was trying this past weekend, but I couldn't get the joystick port
or parallel port to go fast enough. (400ms pulses)

How can you speed up port access?  I was using Write() to par: and
WritePotgo() for the joyport.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Nishioka      KC6KHV      atn@cory.berkeley.edu      ...!ucbvax!cory!atn
974 Tulare Avenue, Albany CA 94707-2540     37'52N/122'15W    +1 415 526 1818

ludtke@physics.rice.edu (Steve Ludtke) (01/08/91)

In article <10045@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, atn@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Alan Nishioka) writes...
>A while back there was a file (zapper.txt) going around about using
>a computer as a universal Infrared remote which learns and repeats
>back IR remote commands.
> 
>Has anyone written a program for use with the amiga?
> 
>I was trying this past weekend, but I couldn't get the joystick port
>or parallel port to go fast enough. (400ms pulses)
> 
>How can you speed up port access?  I was using Write() to par: and
>WritePotgo() for the joyport.
> 

Yes. I did this a couple of years ago on my ami, just for the heck of it. Speed
isn't really a problem. However, the various system interrupts (and task
switching) totally destroy the content of the signals. You need to disable
interrupts and task switching when you do your actual recieving/sending. This
of course means you can't use a lot of the system calls. I just wrote/read
directly from the joystick port. (btw - you CAN use low level graphics calls I
believe) Anyway, once I did that, everything worked fine.

Steve Ludtke					
Ludtke@physics.rice.edu
72335,1537 compuserve

gt4662b@prism.gatech.EDU (BRANHAM,JOSEPH FRANKLIN) (01/09/91)

> >A while back there was a file (zapper.txt) going around about using
> >a computer as a universal Infrared remote which learns and repeats
> >back IR remote commands.
> > 
> >Has anyone written a program for use with the amiga?
> > 
> >I was trying this past weekend, but I couldn't get the joystick port
> >or parallel port to go fast enough. (400ms pulses)
> > 

There is a commercial product out for the Amiga, called Illuminlink. It
uses the Joystick port and can handle most IR waveforms. The current
version doesn't handle multi-frequency IR waveforms very well, but
this is due to be fixed in V2.0. The cost is $75. I'll post ordering 
info and a review of the beast as soon as I get a chance to play with
the one I'm buying tonight. 

BTW-Illuminlink uses Arexx for communications--and has a seperate
input for decoding touch-tones. It can emulate a mouse from a cordless
phone! Neat toy.



-- 
<------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
<  FRANK BRANHAM                      | "I exist; therefore I am."             >
<  Georgia Institute of Technology    |  	Stunning thoughts from the pen >
<  Internet: gt4662b@prism.gatech.edu | 	of August Derleth.             >

fs_reise@rcvie@tuvie.uucp (Christian Reiser) (01/09/91)

In article <10045@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> atn@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Alan Nishioka) writes:
>A while back there was a file (zapper.txt) going around about using
>a computer as a universal Infrared remote which learns and repeats
>back IR remote commands.
>

I never saw this file, but if somebody has it, please e-mail it to me,
because I made souch a remote controle for myself and alone at home 
on a PC with aditional hard ware.

I use a 8255 3*8 binary IO chip, a phototransistor with schmitt-trigger
to scan and a oscilator chip, power transistor and infrared diod to send.

My software is written in C++ (without a single line in assembler) and 
without any problems fast enough on a 4.77 MHz PC.

If there are any questions, e-mail them, I will answer as many as possible
in this news groop.

Greetings from Vienna/Austria
CR

Christian Reiser                        Tel.: +431 39 16 21 / 247
Alcatel Austria-ELIN RC                 Fax.: +431 39 14 52
Ruthnergasse 1-7                        E-mail: fs_reise@rcvie.at
A-1210 Wien                              or: ...(!mcsun)!tuvie!rcvie!fs_reise
Austria

ron@vicorp.com (Ron Peterson) (01/10/91)

In article <10045@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> atn@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Alan Nishioka) writes:
>A while back there was a file (zapper.txt) going around about using
>a computer as a universal Infrared remote which learns and repeats
>back IR remote commands.
>Has anyone written a program for use with the amiga?
>I was trying this past weekend, but I couldn't get the joystick port
>or parallel port to go fast enough. (400ms pulses)
>How can you speed up port access?  I was using Write() to par: and
>WritePotgo() for the joyport.
I wrote a program for the Amiga to do something related to this (which
I am currently looking for a publisher for---anyone out there interested
in a general purpose multimedia program?)  I used assembly language
routines to toggle bits in the CIA's directly and interrupts for timing
and timely aquisition.  The interrupt code in particular was a bit tricky
to write.
ron@vicorp.com  or uunet!vicorp!ron