Lab 5: IR Lab

In this portion of the lab, we will be looking at control versus communication (communication is what we worked with in the prior lab). The difference between the two is that with control, there is less information sent to devices, with each bit of information carrying a particular function. With communication, there is a stronger focus on sending the information from one device to another.

We will be dealing with two different communication/interpretation processes. During the first process, the raw digital signal is reformatted so that the receiving device will understand it. Other formatting is also done so that the receiving device will be the only one understanding it (a TV will be controlled by only a TV remote). The second process is known as modulation, where the signal is able to put the signal into a specific frequency band. This will prevent signals from interfering (which could cause constructive or destructive interference) and will also filter out background noise.

We first set up the Arduino IR Remote Library and created two circuits: a receiver circuit and a transmit circuit.

The receiver circuit is shown below:


The transmit circuit is shown below:



Our video shows the overall performance of this setup. The code is attached here.

Next, we sent the same IR code to trigger an action in the previous step. Since we are working with Sony codes, we'll use Sony-specific protocol. We set up both the receiver and transmit circuits so that the first Arduino can translate the IR signal into a command, and turn the LED on and off each second.

Here is the video.

Receiver and transmitter code are both attached here.