2010-04-14

Sending IR with CUL

I finally had a positive breakthrough with the CUL-stick. It has been working fine for sending to all supported protocols on the 433MHz band for controlling switches. But this band is also used for IR-extension devices such as the PowerMid, which is used to transmit IR remote control signals via radio. If I could tap in to their protocol, the CUL-stick could also be used as a generic IR-transmitter via a PowerMid! And now I finally got that to work. By modulating the mark pulses with 40KHz, the signal is received by the PowerMid receiver and sent as IR signals! This makes the CUL stick kind of a Swiss army knife of home control – both light switches and any IR remote controlled device can be managed!

11 comments:

  1. Hello,

    Very very good job !!

    It's possible to download the CUL Firmware (with source ?) anywhere ? I don't see it on your website.

    I try to do working Nexa on CUL, but I can't do it working :'(

    Regards,

    Mickael

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  2. Thanks Mickael!
    I have not released the CUL firmware officially yet. There is one version available to the beta testers of ProtocolAnalyzer (for reception). The firmware is based on GPL-licensed code written by R.Koenig, so I will release it with all source. If you want to use it for sending, I would recommend waiting a couple of weeks until the code is a bit more mature, but if you really can’t wait, I can of course give you access to it in its current state.
    The Nexa support I have implemented uses the encoders in NetHome, and the CUL-firmware just sends the raw pulse data. The cc1101 on the CUL-stick is not really very easy to program...
    /Stefan

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  3. Many thanks for all you job Stefan.

    I can wait for a couple of week :)

    Thanks again

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  4. I downloaded the beta, and get some 433mhz reception. What changes did you make to the culfw version?

    cc1101 settings could be calculated with TI's Smart RF studio...
    (Just bought the CUL433...)

    Rinie

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  5. I have rewritten the encoding/decoding parts and replaced them with raw encoders/decoders which just send and receive raw pulse data. TI's Smart RF Studio is a great help for calculating parameters, but it does not help for everything. I still get way to low precision on the received pulse lengths to be really useful for a generic receiver. But sending works like a charm!

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  6. Thanks, looking forward for the new CUL firmware relase.

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  7. Hello Stefan,

    Any news ?

    Many thanks,

    Mickael

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  8. No real news so far. Unfortunately I have had to deal with a strange reception problem in AudioProtocolParser reported by some users, so I have not done any real progress on the CUL. But I will continue as soon as this problem is solved...

    /Stefan

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  9. Hello Stefan,

    Sorry to ask you again...

    Do you have an SVN where we can download the current working version ?

    Many many thanks in advance,

    Mickael

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  10. Hi Mickael
    Sorry for the slow progress, but I have been stuck with a serious problem that has affected the AudioSampler with the latest update of the Java JRE. This has occupied all “project time” the last weeks. My SVN-repository is not open on the net, so I will make a dump of the current state of the firmware for you.

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  11. OK, many thanks Stefan

    I hope your firmware can help me to progress on my project. :)

    Best regards,

    Mickael

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