Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!sco!rosso
From: rosso@sco.COM (Ross Oliver)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Making IR remote controls
Message-ID: <1631@viscous.sco.COM>
Date: 15 Feb 89 07:56:19 GMT
References: <8504@aw.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: SCO Technical Support
Lines: 39

In article <8504@aw.sei.cmu.edu> rsd@ae.sei.cmu.edu.UUCP (Rich D'Ippolito) writes:
>In article <5093@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us> Jon Zeeff writes:
>
>>What we really need is a IR control with a serial port (instead of buttons)
>>for input.
>
>Yep.
>
>While we're back to the subject of IR remote controls, does anyone know of a
>source for the IR transmitter/receiver chip set so that I can make my own
>system similar to the ones used in audio/TV devices?  They have to be cheap,
>as they're so ubiquitous.

If it's a serial digital signal you want to transmit, it would probably
be easier to use frequency-shift keying using a 555 timer IC as the
transmitter, and and a 567 tone decoder as the receiver.  In one of Radio
Shack's new line of project mini-books, there is a transmitter/receiver
pair of that type.  I think it is in the optoelectronics book.

Plessy Semiconductors makes a chip that is intended to be used in TV/VCR
infrared remote control units.  The MV500 IC is the transmitter, and the
MV601 is the corresponding receiver.  These and lots of other neat hacker
chips are described in Plessy's "Satellite, Cable, & TV IC Handbook."
The book is free for the asking.  Plessy Semiconductors, 1500 Green
Hills Road, Scotts Valley, CA, (408) 438-5576.

National Semiconductor makes a remote control transmitter/receiver
IC pair that can transmit up to six channels of analog or digital
data.  These chips are intended to be used in radio-controlled toys,
but they can be used as infrared devices as well.  LM1871 is the
transmitter, and LM1872 is the receiver.  They run about $1.50 each
in single quantities.  These chips are described in National's
"Linear Databook 3," available for about $10 from most major electronics
retailers, or free for the asking from your friend National sales
rep (I don't understand it either).

Ross Oliver
Technical Support
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.