Planning my DIY Arduino Trigger controlled power on remote

[JKCashin]

Inspired by Chuck Elliot's dDIY Intelligent Trigger Control project, I have decided to try my hand at something similar.

I will soon have a new (to me) XMC-1, and it will be driving my lovely XPA-1Ls for stereo listening. Turning on the XPA-1Ls is easy, I can just use the trigger out.

But for surround listening, I need to turn on a HK AVR-635 that I will be using as a kind of poor-mans XPA-7 ;-)  Seriously though, the HK will be doing duty as my surround amp until such time as I can buy dedicated amplification for the surrounds. That means I need to find a way to turn it on when the XMC-1 triggers the surround trigger.

Well, it turns out that the HK AVR-635 has an RS-232 port, and published specs on how to talk to that port to send all kinds of commands to it, including a discrete on/off, and even to adjust pretty much any parameter of the amp, yes, including volume. Even better, my TV, an older Sharp LCD also supports RS-232 control!

So the plan is to design an Arduino project (thanks again Chuck!) that initially does the following: when it sees the 12v trigger, it will send the on message to the TV, and the HK amp. When the trigger goes off, so do the TV and amp!

Improvements to the project will include actually handling 2 triggers, and essentially extending Chucks project so that trigger 1 would turn on my XPA-1Ls, staggered by 3s, and then trigger 2 would be auto-delayed an additional 3s, and would turn on the TV and HK. I would add LEDs: 1 white power LED, and some trigger LEDs. Two of the trigger LEDs would be inputs and would simply indicate red for off, and green for on. The output LEDs would be red for off, yellow for pending, and green for on. Pending meaning waiting for timer to expire, and/or waiting to send serial data to turn on/off the external units.

I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew here. Phase 1, getting the Arduino to talk to the HK and TV will commence soon, as a friend wants to get back into Arduino tinkering and has a unit, so we will work on it together.

Encouragement welcome.... and definitely open to suggestions for good looking project boxes!

Jamie

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I will update information here:

GitHub: ZMZ-1 Nothing here yet... just a placeholder so far.

More to come..

[Chuck Elliot]

This is the project box I'm using. Parts-Express

The front and rear panels slip out of the "clam-shell" which makes it easier to drill out.

They have other sizes with the same design.

[Chuck Elliot]

I don't know why the page will not link.

parts-express #Part 320-482

[JKCashin]

Actually  Chuck the link worked fine, thanks!

[JKCashin]

Update!

So, the design is just on paper so far. This weekend, I may not have time to do any serial testing but I hope so. Need to see if the TV and Amp respond to serial commands as documented. If they don't then it's not really worth proceeding... well, at least with the serial approach. If that is the case, I will switch to IR as a solution, though I have found that to be flaky in the past. Serial would be best because both of the units either respond to the commands, or in the cases where there's no response, you can query values. Wish me luck.

Oh, and it's grown from 2 inputs to 4! If anyone's interested in following the project, let me know (just click like) and I will update the design. If not I will let the thread die.

[wizardofoz]

I'll like this...but not sure I would need it, but will be very interested to see the code and hardware you end up with. I have dabbled in Arduino and still find it entertaining when I have free time and in the mood...sadly not often enough.

[JKCashin]

Well OK then! All I needed was an audience of 1. Tonight I will post what it actually does and maybe you do have a need!

[Chuck Elliot]

Love to see your code! I'm thinking about adding IR to my project which has been running for about 3 weeks.

I still need to post pictures in my thread!

[JKCashin]

The code's not done yet. There will be a component that does the timed turn on of the mono blocks based on trigger 1. Trigger 3 and 4 will be a pass through but delayed based on the other triggers. Trigger 2 is the surround trigger and will turn on the TV and power amp, so that's serial, but it's contingent on the serial ports on the TV and HK working, and I need to test that first. Tomorrow hopefully, unless the spouse makes me go to the race track again. If the serial does not work, on either device, then I will investigate IR.

[JKCashin]

Also, right now the Arduino I will be using is a friends... I kind of hoped there was a good OS-X (Apple Mac OS) simulator available but most are for Windows or Linux. I do have a Linux box, and could run a VM but I'm too lazy at this hour (it's 04:30) so I'll have to do some more searching later. Looks like the stuff at 123d.circuits.io may work for me though.

[wizardofoz]

Don't forget the circuits fritzing.org/download/

[geebo]

Apr 23, 2016 14:27:11 GMT -5 Chuck Elliot said:

Love to see your code! I'm thinking about adding IR to my project which has been running for about 3 weeks.

I still need to post pictures in my thread!

I'd love to see those pics.

Mine's been working flawlessly.

[JKCashin]

So here's the behaviour I have in mind for the system... would love to hear your thoughts.

4 input triggers, with 4 LEDS. Off is red, on is green.

Each trigger has a pushbutton under it to override it’s behaviour.

XMC-1 main power on, trigger 1, labelled :TV”. Turns on TV. This is indicated by a TV LED. It’s red for off, yellow when communicating with the TV, and green when the TV should be on. Communication is via RS-232 serial.

Trigger 2, labelled “Mains”, also comes up with the XMC-power, but is defeated by the headphone jack. It has two outputs, turning on my left XPA-1L, delaying a little, and then turning on my right XPA-1L. It has two LEDS. Both are red when untriggered. They will go yellow when in delay mode, and green when they have triggered an amp on.

Trigger 3 is the “Surround” trigger. Like the TV trigger it’s via RS-232 serial to the HK. The nice thing about this is I can probably do it with a single RS-232, since I only need to use one at a time. It will come on when the XMC is processing something that needs the surrounds, and it will have a single LED… red for off, yellow for communicating, and green for on.

Trigger 4 is labelled “House” and is zone-2 and is just passed through but allows me to show an LED. It will be subject to delay so the LED will be red for off, yellow for waiting (delay), and green for on (pass-through)

Triggers 2-4 will go off when headphones are plugged in.

If you want to listen to music and have the TV off, you can press the TV toggle. I am thinking of having a switch that when toggled will tie the TV to the surround channel, so it only comes on when listening to surround material. The settings would be Off, Follow XMC-1 Power, and Follow Surround. Off would be a non-persistent state… turn off the XMC-1, and next time you turn it on the TV would come on.

[JKCashin]

Apr 24, 2016 9:42:39 GMT -5 wizardofoz said:

Don't forget the circuits fritzing.org/download/

Seems to only allow electronic prototyping. I need Arduino emulation as well. Or did I miss something?

[JKCashin]

So, question is, the XPA-1Ls have a "display" in the middle, as does the XMC-1. I plan to put my project in a 1RU 19" rack... but I was thinking of putting the display off to the left, like so:



What say all of you? Should I centre it? Or leave it on the left (you can click it to make it larger)

Oh, and it's a blue OLED display.

Jamie

[wizardofoz]

IMHO I would centre it

[geebo]

May 11, 2016 2:16:04 GMT -5 wizardofoz said:

IMHO I would centre it

Agreed. Center it. Symmetricity is best.

[JKCashin]

Ok. Thanks. Lemme mock it up and see what it looks like.

[geebo]

May 11, 2016 7:48:31 GMT -5 JKCashin said:

Ok. Thanks. Lemme mock it up and see what it looks like.

Looking forward to it!

[JKCashin]

. Change of plans! I just acquired this which is 19" wide and 1RU tall. The left side is open for a display and it has 8 buttons and 17 LEDs