FIRST POST: I've written an excel spreadsheet that takes a Pronto HEX code as input and converts it to a format for a proprietary IR blaster. Since we don't know what's on the receiving end, the only problem I encountered was that the Pronto HEX format does not tell me the duty cycle (i.e., time ON vs OFF in a single IR pulse). I messaged Mr Pronto (Barry) and he didn't see a way to reverse engineer the duty cycle from a Pronto HEX code either. So, I performed the conversion for a number of Pronto HEX codes for Samsung and hard-coded a duty cycle of 1/3 and it worked great on the Samsung TV in our lab.

Right now, I'm researching whether the duty cycle can be assumed based on the frequency (e.g., do all 38kHz IR protocols use a 1/3 duty cycle?). Has anyone assembled a list of IR protocols that contains the frequency and duty cycle for each? I'm not interested in protocols that are no longer used.

And, before I convert this spreadsheet to code, I'd like to test my Pronto HEX converter on IR codes for devices (we have a bunch TVs in our lab) that use all of the popular IR protocols of today. I've read that Sony uses the SIRCS protocol, Philips uses the RC5/RC6 protocols, Panasonic uses the Matsushita protocol, and the NEC protocol is used by a number of manufacturers but I don't know who they are. I'm sure there are other AV manufacturers that use these and other IR protocols. Has anyone assembled a list of AV manufacturers and the IR protocol(s) they use?

What we're building is definitely cool but I don't get to talk about it yet. Soon my IR Master friends... soon.

Best regards,

- IR Padawan