I have a B-8 stickgrip from an A-10 (similar to this: [url][Link: ottoexcellence.com][/url] that I got in my previous life as a Hog driver. My plan is to turn this into a remote control to turn on the AV receiver and TV in my bar and to select music and/or change channels.. I have pinned it out and all 8 buttons work. This will have to be a rather simple simple remote unless I can assign a macros to each button using discrete codes.

My plan A was to get a cheap universal remote control, program it, and then hack it by soldering the leads from the grip buttons to the button traces on the PCB. I've tried with 3 different remotes but none have done exactly what I want due to the inability to program them beyond the very basics. So I shifted gears and am now planning to use an Arduino to send out the ir pulses for each button. some really smart guy wrote the software library for the Arduino to do just this, so it should be relatively easy to customize the code for my components.

The software library supports Sony, NEC, RC5, and RC6 protocols. My AV receiver is an Onkyo NR-TX708 and the TV is a Samsung PN50c8000. before I prioceed, I'd like to ask a few questions.

Does anyone know what ir protocol these two components use?

In the IR Code lists i downloaded for the Onkyo, the give a "code" for each discrete function such as "D26D 04" (PowerOn). I'm guessing this is hex code?
Would creating a macro be as simple as stringing together a series of these discrete codes?

Is there any problems with programming a button to send different codes to both the AVR and the TV if they are different protocols?

Has anyone here messed around with ir remote control on the Arduino?

Thanking you guys in advance for any help you can give me!

Regards,

Spike

Both Onkyo receivers and Samsung TVs use the NEC IR protocol. However, there are 4 popular variants of NEC plus several other less common variants.

Onkyo uses NEC1 (most functions) and NEC2 (e.g. volume +/-). Samsung uses the NECx2 variant. I do not know if the Arduino software directly supports any variant other than NEC1, which is by far the most common. However, perhaps it supports Pronto Hex, which is a learned signal format.

The Onkyo spreadsheets provide the IR signals in the format you posted, and in Pronto Hex format. The Samsung signals are also known in either description.
BTW, D26D 04 is device 210, subdevice 109, function number 4. (D2 is hexadecimal notation. D is 13 decimal, and 13*16+2 = 210 decimal.)

Anyway, why not simply use a decent universal remote? The RCA RCRP05B (less than $20 at Sears, Best Buy, etc.) will send the signals you need, whether as macros or discrete on/off signals. If you want to solder internally to the buttons, that's fine, or you could just use the remote as is.

Yeah, I bought the RCA remote but it has a problem with the master power on button - has to be in CBL mode for it to work. That would eat up at least one extra button, and remember, I only have 8 to work with. As far as using the remote as is, that would negate the coolness of having a stick grip control them system ;-)

Right now there is a Harmony One controlling everything and it works great - if I could program an 'activities' to a few of the grip's buttons that would be perfect. I'm not crazy about hacking it up for this project though and it is definitely overkill for what I use it for. Is there any way to clone the Harmony's output or are there any devices capable of learning from it?

The RCRP05B is much more programmable than you seem to realize. However, the master power button has special restrictions on how it can be programmed. So don't connect your intended Master power wires to the Power button on the RCRP05B. Hook it up instead to any other unused button (but not device buttons or Setup). The other buttons don't have the restrictions.

I think in general you should attach the wires to buttons which don't natively have the functionality you want. For example, don't wire your A-10 volume button to the RCRP05B volume button. Instead wire it to say the Page - button. The assign a macro to the Page - button which first switches the RCRP05B to Audio mode, and then invokes the the Vol- button. Similarly, connect the A-10 power button to, say, the RCRP05B Live button, and assign a macro to Live which first switches to Audio, invokes Power toggle, switches to TV mode, and invokes Power toggle in TV mode. I think you'll get a lot more flexibility this way.

If the remote is already wired to the A-10, you can redefine all of the buttons except device, Power and Setup to send any IR signal. So you could make Vol - invoke a macro that calls e.g. PIP Move, and also assign the IR signal needed to lower the Onkyo volume to the PIP Move button. This would be a little harder to keep track of, in my opinion.

If you really want to mess around, build a JP1.3 flash cable, and load a firmware extender. That would allow you to use long and short key presses on the A-10 to invoke different macros, for example.

Partial description of 9XX commands to program UEI remotes.

Thanks 3FG, this looks like a good plan. I started reading about J1.3 yesterday and that looks like a great way to go about it, and should work better than using an Arduino because it is native,not to mention that extending the buttons to more than 8 would help immensely. Funny how all my projects seem to branch off into new areas. I want this to work right and work well so looks like I need to bone up on J-1 programming :-)