Return of the Jedi

I managed to spend a fair amount of time over the 4 day weekend working on Elmo (thank you Royal Wedding).

After initially having great success with learning the codes from the Sky remote, the amplifier was very elusive. In the end I had to write some new signal analysis software, capture the raw data on the development box and then process it on my laptop, using a bit of human intervention as well.

The results have been very encouraging as I can now control 3 different devices using the codes I captured. The only downside is the reliability of the control is not good and this is because I am always transmitting the same code, whereas most IR remotes alternate between two codes each time you press the button (so the device can tell the difference between holding down a button and pressing it twice in rapid succession). I had anticipated this on the transmission side, but do not yet have a capture algorithm that can find the two versions of the signal.

My tasks during the week whilst away from home are firstly to develop an algorithm to detect the two codes. To this end, I have captured raw data from the 4 devices I originally want to control and will feed this through my new software as I develop it. Secondly, I need to develop the client-server software so I can actually control some devices - initially using the laptop. When I can achieve both of these, a fledgling Elmo will have been born.