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A.P.B
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| Posted: February 02 2005 at 17:04 | IP Logged
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I'd like to use Powerhome to control a Ninja Pan n Tilt, looking through the forum it seems do able but using IR, not a CM19a (will this be supported in the future?) Could somebody tell me the best way to do it? - having only recently bought Powerhome, I'm new to this so detailed instructions would be appreciated
Ta
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dhoward
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| Posted: February 03 2005 at 11:43 | IP Logged
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Well, I did some research and it appears that Dave Houston has taken offline all circuits for converting IR to RF as well as the CodeGen software which would have generated the appropriate IR Pronto codes. If someone knows where these links could be found, I would appreciate them posting it.
That would mean that at this time, there is no available way to control the Ninja Pan and Tilt. I have been monitoring the X-10 Developers forum and it appears that they intend to one day (soon I hope) release the communication protocol for the CM19A and the new CM15A. When this happens, I will add the support for them to PowerHome.
Dave.
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A.P.B
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| Posted: February 04 2005 at 03:57 | IP Logged
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Thanks, lets hope that they release the protocols soon.
Allan
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A.P.B
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| Posted: February 04 2005 at 12:56 | IP Logged
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As a follow up to my reply, though the info may be offline I would still be interested to know how it was done - it may spark a few ideas around alternatives
Allan
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dhoward
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| Posted: February 04 2005 at 14:30 | IP Logged
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Well, using the USB-UIRT IR transceiver, it was pretty easy. Because this unit has a 3.5mm baseband output jack, a very simple circuit consisting of a MBX310TX RF transmitter was used. This chip would take the pulses of IR on the baseband output and would convert them to 310 Mhz RF signals (what the Ninja needs to hear).
Dave Houston also had posted a program he had written called Codegen. This program contained all the necessary waveforms that the Ninja as well as other equipment required and would generate an appropriate IR command (RedRat2 code or Pronto code) that could be sent to the USB-UIRT so that it would ge converted to the appropriate RF signal.
If I recall correctly, there was also some theory where you could use the audio output of a soundcard to drive the same type of circuit and then play WAV files that would mimic the necessary RF patterns.
Basically, the Ninja responds to 310 Mhz RF energy that is modulated on/off in a specific bit pattern to control it's functions.
HTH,
Dave.
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onhiatus
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| Posted: February 04 2005 at 17:21 | IP Logged
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Dave Houston has done a lot of great work with this. You could try his site (actually not sure how he is associated with the site, but it carries a lot of his articles) - http://www.mbx-usa.com/
I see that he has pulled CodeGen from distribution. There is a good chance that I still have CodeGen lying around somewhere. It would be against the licence for me to provide a copy, but I don't see any problem with using it and providing the output to someone...
Dave Houston did some very cool stuff - though honestly I never got the IR to RF circuit I was building to work - eventually I lost interest when I found a better way to do what I wanted.
Hopefully he is still in good health and will rerease CodeGen and/or CodeGenPro.
The forums on http://www.remotecentral.com/ are also a good source of general X10, IR, and RF information. Try searching for "Dave Houston"
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onhiatus
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| Posted: February 04 2005 at 17:24 | IP Logged
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Here's the specific circuit for the USB-UIRT RF brodcaster: http://www.mbx-usa.com/usb-uirt-rf.htm
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A.P.B
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| Posted: February 05 2005 at 10:38 | IP Logged
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Thanks for the link, looking at the circuit it identifies connections 1,2,3 & 4 on (I assume) an RF daughter board. Looking at the daughter board in my remote control, it has 4 connections marked, Send, Enable, 0+ & grnd. I think connection 4 equals grnd, anyone know the others?
I've looked at remotecentral and it would seem that Dave Houston has not only removed his program from the public domain but has also had all posted files removed as well. As Dave's last post was at Xmas and he was in ill health, it may be some time that Codegen will be available again.
As I won't be able to generate the codes myself could someone provide the codes for the Ninja remote control & instructions on how I get it into Powerhome?
Thanks for the info so far
Allan
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mustangcoupe
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| Posted: February 10 2005 at 20:43 | IP Logged
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I will add this to my todo list... (I have a few RF receivers) at work and may be able to "look" at the signal... BUT this wont get done for a while as we are backed up and I cant get the equipment.... I also may beable to capture the audio type pattern.
Todd
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A.P.B
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| Posted: February 16 2005 at 07:44 | IP Logged
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An update in case anyone has been following this thread.
I have not been able to get a daughterboard from a x10 remote to respond to the output of the USB-UIRT. It might be due to the output of the USB-UIRT being modulated and the daughterboard expecting an unmodulated signal (though Dave Houston dosnt beleive it to be a problem with the transmitter he was using) or I could just be doing something wrong!
As the transmitter Dave used is not available to me in the UK & the daughterboard option has not worked, I have gone for a different approach which has worked.
Basically I've hotwired the Ninja remote to an IR controlled relay board (http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3142.htm) so that when a relay is toggled it bridges the button contacts. It may not be the most elegent or cheapest approach but its worked and took less than an hour to implement.
Allan
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dhoward
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| Posted: February 16 2005 at 11:53 | IP Logged
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Allan,
Wow...that was probably a fair amount of work...more than one way to skin a cat  .
Sending IR commands from a PowerHome web page...this is pretty easy. Since the page itself does not have to be dynamic, we don't need PSP and can just embed PowerHome CGI commands within standard HTML.
A couple of commands come immediately to mind...if the IR command is assigned to a Control Center button, we can use the ccbutton command. We can also use the more generic evalformula command to evaluate a ph_ir function. Below is a snippet of HTML that you can copy and paste to create a single button that plays back an IR command:
<form method="post" action="/ph-cgi/evalformula"><input type="hidden" name="formula"
value="ph_ir('NINJA CONTROL',1)"><input type="hidden" name="nexturl" value="/ninja.htm"><input type="submit"
value="NINJA UP"></form>
The key part of this snippet is the "ph_ir" command. You'll need to enter the appropriate values. Also, the text on the button is controlled by the "value" parameter of the "submit" input. The last piece is the value for the "nexturl" input. After the IR is played, this value should be the URL of the next page to load (it can be the same page that the button is on).
Let me know if you need more info.
Dave.
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A.P.B
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| Posted: February 17 2005 at 09:11 | IP Logged
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Dave, thanks for the pointer, I'll give it a go over the weekend.
To keep the story going. The next problem I've had with my Ninja setup is the remote's lack of range (approx 15-20 feet, line of sight) I followed Dave Houston's instructions on passive repeaters (http://www.mbx-usa.com/passive.htm) using an 18" piece of wire coat hanger taped to the back of the remote. For a low tech solution, the impact was amazing. The range is now up to 25 feet through 3 intervening walls! Its not a portable solution but thats not a problem for this setup.
Allan
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dhoward
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| Posted: February 17 2005 at 12:13 | IP Logged
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Heh, Dave had quite a bit of useful tidbits. Never tried the passive antenna extenders, but do remember reading about them...especially when concerning increasing the range of the motion sensors. Good to know that it does actually work 
Dave.
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Topic: Ninja Control
