University of Southern Queensland FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SURVEYING WIRELESS LAN BASED INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL A dissertation submitted by John Michael Palmer, BTEng in the fulfilment of the requirements of Course ENG4111 and ENG4112 Research Project towards the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical & Electronic) Submitted: October 2012 ii Abstract Practically all consumer electronic devices in a household are controlled via Infrared Remote Controls. A Number of these consumer devices can be controlled using one Universal Infrared Remote Control. A Smart Phone or Tablet PC with a Web Browser or an Application can be used to provide a new control interface to the Universal Infrared Remote Control. This is accomplished using WLAN communications and a Web Server built into a Universal Infrared Remote Control. An Arduino based Prototype has been designed and built that successfully demonstrates a Wi-Fi enabled Smart Phone controlling consumer home media appliances. It also has an extra feature that provides automatic volume control. iii Disclaimer University of Southern Queensland Faculty of Engineering and Surveying ENG4111 Research Project Part 1 & ENG4112 Research Project Part 2 Limitations of Use The Council of the University of Southern Queensland, its Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, and the staff of the University of Southern Queensland, do not accept any responsibility for the truth, accuracy or completeness of material contained within or associated with this dissertation. Persons using all or any part of this material do so at their own risk, and not at the risk of the Council of the University of Southern Queensland, its Faculty of Engineering and Surveying or the staff of the University of Southern Queensland. This dissertation reports an educational exercise and has no purpose or validity beyond this exercise. The sole purpose of the course pair entitled “Research Project” is to contribute to the overall education within the student's chosen degree program. This document, the associated hardware, software, drawings, and other material set out in the associated appendices should not be used for any other purpose: if they are so used, it is entirely at the risk of the user. Professor Frank Bullen Dean Faculty of Engineering and Surveying iv Certification I certify that the ideas, design and experimental work, results, analyses and conclusion set out in this dissertation are entirely my own effort, except where otherwise indicated and acknowledged. I further certify that the work is original and has not been previously submitted for assessment in any other course or institution, except where specifically stated. John Palmer Student number: 0018840451 v Acknowledgments Thank you to my family, for their continuing support throughout my degree. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Alexander Kist, for his guidance and advice, in supporting the project. I am very grateful to the USQ Engineering Team for their support that they have given and providing an external mode of study. Thank you to the Arduino microcontroller platform with its widely available parts, product support and information from the Arduino community. vi Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii Disclaimer .................................................................................................................... iii Certification .................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... v List of Figures .............................................................................................................. ix List of Tables ................................................................................................................ ix Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ x Chapter 1- Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Requirements ....................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 2 1.4 Dissertation Outline ............................................................................................. 3 Chapter 2 - Background and Literature Review............................................................ 4 2.1 History of Remote Controls ................................................................................. 4 2.2 Current Commercial Products ............................................................................. 4 2.3 User Interface ...................................................................................................... 4 2.4 Security ................................................................................................................ 7 2.5 Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 Connectivity ........................................................................ 8 2.6 Infrared IR Communications and Codes ............................................................. 9 2.7 Automatic Volume Control ............................................................................... 10 2.8 Microcontrollers MCU ...................................................................................... 11 2.9 Integrated Development Environments IDE ..................................................... 12 2.10 Availability of System Components ................................................................ 12 Chapter 3 - System Design .......................................................................................... 13 3.1 System Overview ............................................................................................... 13 3.2 Microcontroller MCU and IDE ......................................................................... 14 3.3 User Interface .................................................................................................... 16 3.4 MCU Web Server .............................................................................................. 21 3.5 Wi-Fi Shield ...................................................................................................... 23 3.6 Infrared Communications .................................................................................. 25 3.7 Automatic Volume Control ............................................................................... 27 3.8 Power System .................................................................................................... 31 3.9 MCU System Pin Assignments ......................................................................... 32 Chapter 4 - Implementation......................................................................................... 36 4.1 Prototype-1 ........................................................................................................ 36 vii 4.2 Prototype-2 ........................................................................................................ 37 Chapter 5 - System and Functional Testing ................................................................ 39 5.1 User Interface .................................................................................................... 39 5.2 Wi-Fi Connectivity ............................................................................................ 39 5.3 AsyncLabs Web Server ..................................................................................... 40 5.4 IRMimic2 IR Learning and Sending ................................................................. 40 5.5 SPL Microphone Hardware ............................................................................... 41 5.6 Automatic Volume Control Algorithm.............................................................. 41 5.7 Power System and Energy Usage ...................................................................... 41 Chapter 6 - Conclusion and Further Work .................................................................. 42 6.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 42 6.2 Future Work ....................................................................................................... 42 References ................................................................................................................... 43 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 46 APPENDIX A - Specification ..................................................................................... 46 APPENDIX B - Requirements .................................................................................... 48 B.1) System Block Diagram .................................................................................... 49 B.2) Main System Requirements ............................................................................. 50 B.3) System Requirements and Verification Matrix ............................................... 51 APPENDIX C - Safety