Infrared to serial signaler

I'm not sure I understand what you want but most IR to serial devices will not have an output that matches the serial protocol of your (unspecified) device. Most output either a non-specific (but unique) code (e.g. IRMan) or output CCF codes.

It sounds like you need a custom IR-serial translator. Take a look at Celadon - they do this type of thing.

Following are links to a few IR to RS232 devices I found so far. Drivers are provided but you'll still need to do some coding since most are intended for specific purposes such as file transfer.

are provided but you'll still need to do some coding since

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Many thanks it was the Indutrologic device i was looking for.

BR Stephen

Which uses Sony SIRC 40khz IR codes. Are you using Sony devices and remotes?

No, but I am. I just ordered an IR232 from them to control my GVI-MUXes. The MUXes have serial inputs that respond to text commands and I'll be controlling them with Sony VCR codes on AUX1 and 2 of my X-10 UR24A remote. I talked to one someone on the phone (Gary, IIRC) and described what I wanted to do and how I had problems doing it with C-Max, an Ocelot and a serial bobcat because of problems recognizing codes reliably enough and fast enough. He said it should work and a with a lot less fuss then the Ocelot. Besides, I'm C-Max challenged and I fall off ladder logic about as readily as I do real ladders. (-: In any event, they have a good return policy if it doesn't work out.

The addition of more dogs and more cameras meant I had run out of modulated channels. If the IR232 works, I will redo the system so that the output of each MUX feeds a modulator. The dogs have one 16 channel MUX on channel 85, the house and perimeter cams are on another MUX that is modulated to channel

1. I am going to put a third one on line that shows a camera focused on the gas meter dial, a camera on the water meter, the electric meter, the Sony CD55 jukebox readout, the alarm panel status and the wireless thermometer so I can select some "utility" views. Supercircuits sell focusable low light BW board cams that have more than adequate resolution for . I remember when even a B&W TV camera was the size of suitcase!

-- Bobby G.

My IR232 came today. Within 5 minutes of opening the box, I was playing with it, firing every Sony remote I have at it. All you do is plug it in to the wall wart (supplied!) and the 9 pin serial cable (also supplied) and run the terminal emulator on the enclosed CD (packaged right on the top where it was nearly slit in two with a razor knife!!!!!).

As soon as it's running, tap ESC three times (remember that old TwiZone ep with the elevator to hell?) and a command prompt appears. Fire a Sony remote at it and the Device and Function code magically appear on the screen. I am getting about 40' max with bright sunlight in the room. They claim 50' max with a twenty degree angle of acceptance. We'll see.

Now all that's left is for me to select two different Sony device codes for the AUX1 and AUX2 of my 8-in-1 remotes and map the text strings that control the GVI video MUXes to the corresponding buttons on the remotes. They even specify how to format the table as an ASCII text file so you can create the map in a text editor and upload it to the IR232 instead of keying the text strings in one at a time via Hyperterm. Uber slick!

While it's not really fair to compare this unit to the Ocelot/Serial Bobcat solution I *tried* to implement, I will anyway! The Ocelot, of course, is infinitely more flexible. But I didn't want flexibility as much as I wanted ease of implementation. With the IR232 there was no program I had to load on my PC, no tedious learning of IR codes (that just about did me in and admittedly gave me a negative impression about the Ocelot, at least for converting IR to serial text messages in a timely fashion). No hunting down the latest version of C-Max, resetting some bizarre parameter that was not set correctly at the factory, apparently and some other issues that kept derailing the project.

Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate the power of the Ocelot. Its combination of inputs, ability to talk to X-10 and use IR and its reliability have enabled people to do remarkable things with it. Perhaps now that I've freed it up from the MUX project I'll be able to explore it more leisurely.

Ladder logic seems to come easily to those who have had experience with similar programming languages or pinball machine controllers. But for someone who learned on Pascal, PL-1 and Cobol, like me, it's really jarring. No procedures? Yikes! It's the way conditionals evaluate in ladder logic that threw me and seems to throw most newcomers. That and the magical parameters that give great flexibility, but add considerably to the complexity of creating a C-Max program.

What I wanted to do was really simple. I had unused IR devices (slots, channels, whatever) available on my UR24A remote. I had two CCTV MUXes that had no built-in IR controller, but did have a serial input that accepted text strings to control the unit. The GVI MUX is normally controlled by about 33 little chiclet style buttons crowded together on a very narrow faceplate. But that's *very* inconvenient unless you are a security guard sitting directly in front of a bank of them. I wanted the MUX and the rat's next of more than 32 cables that plug into it to be buried in the basement and the attic, where most of the cameras are.

For me, a rather "dumb" device that does nothing but read IR and spits out predetermined ASCII text is by far the best way to go. The IR232, as you noted, Bill, does NOT appear to read any of my non-Sony remotes, so that might be critical to someone who wanted to send text strings from something other than a Sony remote or a universal remote like the UR24A that can send Sony strings for a number of different devices.

All I have to figure out how to do is to create my crossmap table and upload it to the unit. That gives me all the intellectual control I need of this process and an easy way to make changes if it turns out I need to modify my map. The unit accepts global as well as individual erasures of memory slots.

Then, if all works according to plan, when I press AUX1 and then 5, the MUX1 will display camera 5. I'll probably run into some issues with getting 16 digits from the remote. I am not sure I can process the messages to create the text string "/XG" (select camera 16) without some trickery. As soon as I press 1 it will be sending "/X1" to select camera one and when I press 6 it will send "/X6" to select camera six. I suppose I could see what happens when I use the X-10 Shift key and use that as a 10+ key. If I press shift +

Lots of stuff to try! I hope this works out. At least it's starting off a lot better than the Ocelot and Bobcat effort did. The return deal is a lot better too. If I can't get it to do what I want in 30 days, all I am out is the $16 postage here and back.

-- Bobby G.

Thank you Bobby. This is very helpful. As you know, I also have two Samsung GVI video multiplexors so this is directly pertinent and appreciated.

As best I can tell from the description, the Industrologic IR232 only has one input which is soldered to the board, right? IOW, multiple inputs would require additional homebrew?

Also, are you controlling two multiplexers from the same IR232 (using multidrop RS-232) ?

TIA ... Marc Marc_F_Hult

Why were you using a Bobcat? The Ocelot can send about 32 ASCII strings (it's been years since I played with this so details are hazy) and you can trigger them with IR, X-10 or other inputs. Have you looked at Guy Lavoie's tutorial on C-Max programming? I'm surprised you had trouble learning Sony

Ladder logic really isn't a programming language. It predates most computers and most of the languages you learned. It was and is widely used in the automotive and other industries for process control. These days they use PLCs; in olden times they used cabinets full of relays, solenoids, etc. I read one opinion that the death of the pinball industry came about as a result of switching to electronics - the mechanics who readily understood ladder logic were lost when it came to electronics and electronics techs could make more money servicing computers and computerized equipment.

The Celadon device I mentioned can handle multiple IR protocols, can send ASCII or Binary (I assume that's what they mean by HEX output) via RS232 and has custom firmware available for many different devices (mostly Home Theater oriented). I have no idea how much one costs.

Your posts about them are what inspired me to purchase some of my own.

The answer to your question is that I ordered the board and the case and to my surprise (and delight!) it was already assembled. Peeking inside I see a

The IR232 is very small - much smaller than I visualized (about 2.5" square and 1" thick). I'm going to use a DB9 switch box to switch between the functions:

(1) connected to the PC's DB9 to load mapping data and (2) connected to MUX DB25 serial input for IR to serial operation

The big problem for now is that the database of text/hex commands I've made from the listing in the GVI MUX manual has 93 records. So far, no Sony definition on the UR24 maps more than 22 discrete keys. I won't need all 93 commands because I can do some things via hyperterm but 22 keys may not be enough to really manage the MUX remotely unless I can work some magic with the GVI "macro" function.

One thing that really surprised me was what the IR232 said about my Sony AV system master remote (RM-P501). It explained why I've had so much variability in learning certain codes from this particular remote. The IR232 reports as many a four different device/function codes for a single button press. Other buttons are context sensitive and change depending on the state of other button presses. I think this particular Sony remote (11 devices!) could be made the master remote for the GVI because it appears able to generate several hundred discrete codes.

Whoa, dude! The UPS guy just brought it to me! (-:

Right now, I am sitting at the PC, stepping through all the Sony codes that are in the UR24A and mapping them to the remote's buttons. The problem I can see immediately is that I can't reach cameras 11-16 without doing something strange. It's way too early in the process to determine whether I will be able to connect the two units. Dan's already discovered some issues with daisy-chaining them. IIRC, they ask you to be sure to check the status of the MUX before issuing a command, but provide no way of actually doing it. It's also hard to be absolutely sure that something selling for 1/10 the best street price is 100% functional. Have you been able to connect the two MUXes together using the In/Out modular ports on the rear?

What I hope to do in the next few days is to control a single MUX with a single box. I believe that if worst comes to worst, a second IR232, programmed with Sony codes exclusive of the way the first one is set up, could operate in tandem, requiring me to only select between AUX1 and AUX2 to control either one. It would be nice to use only one IR232, but that would some sort of networking connection between the two MUXes or a way to feed the output of the IR232 to both MUX serial inputs.

I just opened the box and the DB9's soldered to the board and there's about enough room on the PCB between that connector and the power input connector to put a small 4 or 6 pin modular phone jack in between them. You might also be able to replace the DB9 with a DB15 connector if you needed more I/O to the unit for some reason.

One other thing that I like: As soon as you connect the unit and tap ESC three times, it writes a very thorough "crib sheet" similar to what PKZIP uses to the screen. I think it's thorough enough so that most people could program and reprogram the unit without having to locate the documentation.

Unfortunately, progress will be slower than I like over the next few weeks as outside maintenance chores begin consuming chunks of time, but I will try to document what I discover in a timely fashion, even if it leads to the same dead end the Ocelot did.

-- Bobby G.

There was some issue that seemed to require it. IIRC, it was a either a difference in the way the two items handled text strings or it was to avoid having to unplug and replug the Ocelot's single serial port to switch between programming modes and operational modes. I'd have to check my notes again, but I'll turn the question around and ask "why do they make the serial Bobcat if the Ocelot can do it all?" (-:

It may have been that I calculated I needed more than that to manage the GVI MUX's 93 possible commands (I'll post those in a separate, HTML formatted message). There was *some* issue but my raging senility is preventing me from remembering it and my raging laziness is too great to let me go to ADI's forum to look up my previous posts there.

It's been *months* for me and the details were never very clear to me to begin with!

Oh yes. He's written some excellent material, as have some other very helpful folks at ADI's forum but if the paradigm is not clear, even the best explanations will be of limited help.

One thing that might have been tripping me up was that I was trying to learn stacked commands. The IR232 clearly shows some Sony button presses send up to four discrete device/function code pairs. I had alway thought it was "one man, one vote" and "one button, one code." Whatever I was doing, the Ocelot always seemed to have trouble recognizing certain codes but not others. Things got a little better when I followed Guy's advice to hold the buttons down for a full second during both learning and operation, but they did not improve completely. Worse, still, the one second presses are not intuitive and extending the presses really affected overall response lag. From what I am reading, I could still face some serious timing issues if the commands are sent too quickly and the serial data overflows.

IR-Max? I have that among the 61MB and 117 files I've DL'ed into my ADI directory but it seemed instead of getting easier, things just kept requiring more and more work arounds and add-ons. While I realize a pro like Guy could bang out the code I needed in a few hours or less, for a tyro like me it just seemed I was descended further and further into the weeds.

The IR232, by contrast, has already "learned" every Sony IR code (well, not my Sony DVD 400 disc jukebox!!!) and merely has to be programmed to spit out a certain text string over its serial port when it sees a specific device/function code on IR. That's SO much easier than training the Ocelot or loading it with canned IR codes from a database. Admittedly, the Ocelot is incredibly more flexible, and can operate with a much larger spectrum of remotes, than the IR232. But I am looking for simple and that's exactly what I got.

If I ever decide to build a pinball machine, I can see where ladder logic would come in handy. But my experience with it would not make me want to trust my home control to it, simply because nearly every complex conditional statement I ever wrote in C-Max evaluated "unexpectedly" for me.

The Sony-only limitation of IR232 isn't really a handicap in this installation. The IR232 sends binary and ASCII, too.

I think this is going to be a keeper based solely on how quickly I was able to fire it up and see output. But nothing's a certainty in this life so we'll just have to see how it goes. Thanks for the offer, though.

-- Bobby G.

Apologies for posting in HTML, but it was the only way I could get formatted output that looked anything like the original function table. My task now is to map 20 of the most useful commands to the available UR24A remote buttons. Some are sent as ASCII, some as Hex. I believe the IR232 can send both, but the devil may be in the handshaking details. The table below is a list of the serial commands that the GVI supports. Clearly, I won't need all 16 readdress commands since I am using only two MUXes. I am not sure at this point what the difference is between a "Front Key Emulation" and a "Functional Remote" command type, but I assume some experimentation will sort it out.

Hex ASCII Results CmdType 00 NUL (Changes active multiplexer) ReAddress 01 1 (1st connected multiplexer) ReAddress 02 2 (2nd connected multiplexer) ReAddress 03 3 (3rd connected multiplexer) ReAddress 04 4 (4th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 05 5 (5th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 06 6 (6th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 07 7 (7th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 08 8 (8th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 09 9 (9th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 0A 10 (10th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 0B 11 (11th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 0C 12 (12th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 0D 13 (13th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 0E 14 (14th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 0F 15 (15th connected multiplexer) ReAddress 10 16 (16th connected multiplexer) ReAddress

/MU Menu Front Key Emulation

/TP VCR Front Key Emulation

/MA Macro Front Key Emulation

/SX Record Front Key Emulation

/FZ Full Front Key Emulation

/PP PIP Front Key Emulation

/22 2 x 2 Front Key Emulation

/33 3 x 3 Front Key Emulation

/44 4 x 4 Front Key Emulation

/SQ Sequence Front Key Emulation

/2N 2ND Front Key Emulation

/FR Freeze Front Key Emulation

/ZO Zoom Front Key Emulation

/ST Set Front Key Emulation

/ES Escape Front Key Emulation

/UP Up Front Key Emulation

/DO Down Front Key Emulation

/LE Left Front Key Emulation

/RI Right Front Key Emulation

/01 Camera 01 Front Key Emulation

/02 Camera 02 Front Key Emulation

/03 Camera 03 Front Key Emulation

/04 Camera 04 Front Key Emulation

/05 Camera 05 Front Key Emulation

/06 Camera 06 Front Key Emulation

/07 Camera 07 Front Key Emulation

/08 Camera 08 Front Key Emulation

/09 Camera 09 Front Key Emulation

/10 Camera 10 Front Key Emulation

/11 Camera 11 Front Key Emulation

/12 Camera 12 Front Key Emulation

/13 Camera 13 Front Key Emulation

/14 Camera 14 Front Key Emulation

/15 Camera 15 Front Key Emulation

/16 Camera 16 Front Key Emulation /S1 Panic record (Camera 1) Functional Remote /S2 Panic record (Camera 2) Functional Remote /S3 Panic record (Camera 3) Functional Remote /S4 Panic record (Camera 4) Functional Remote /S5 Panic record (Camera 5) Functional Remote /S6 Panic record (Camera 6) Functional Remote /S7 Panic record (Camera 7) Functional Remote /S8 Panic record (Camera 8) Functional Remote /S9 Panic record (Camera 9) Functional Remote /SA Panic record (Camera 10) Functional Remote /SB Panic record (Camera 11) Functional Remote /SC Panic record (Camera 12) Functional Remote /SD Panic record (Camera 13) Functional Remote /SE Panic record (Camera 14) Functional Remote /SF Panic record (Camera 15) Functional Remote /SG Panic record (Camera 16) Functional Remote /AV Stop panic record Functional Remote /AF Setup menu Functional Remote /AU Factory Reset Functional Remote /AD Alarm History List Functional Remote /AL Alarm History List Functional Remote /X1 Select Camera 1 for display Functional Remote /X2 Select Camera 2 for display Functional Remote /X3 Select Camera 3 for display Functional Remote /X4 Select Camera 4 for display Functional Remote /X5 Select Camera 5 for display Functional Remote /X6 Select Camera 6 for display Functional Remote /X7 Select Camera 7 for display Functional Remote /X8 Select Camera 8 for display Functional Remote /X9 Select Camera 9 for display Functional Remote /XA Select Camera 10 for display Functional Remote /XB Select Camera 11 for display Functional Remote /XC Select Camera 12 for display Functional Remote /XD Select Camera 13 for display Functional Remote /XE Select Camera 14 for display Functional Remote /XF Select Camera 15 for display Functional Remote /XG Select Camera 16 for display Functional Remote /_U Up (press & hold arrow button) Functional Remote /_D Down (press & hold arrow button) Functional Remote /_L Left (press & hold arrow button) Functional Remote /_R Right (press & hold arrow button) Functional Remote

I'll have time to answer this more fully this weekend, but have you noticed the vast real estate inside the multiplexor case that is unused? The IR232 would easily fit inside (one less box, cable and wall-wart). That's where my video IP cards are going, so that video is available simultaneously both as analog signal and over TCP/IP

Thanks for checking this out and reporting on it.

Later ... Marc Marc_F_Hult