TV-B-Gone for the Arduino

I've ported the TV-B-Gone code to run on the Arduino board. If you haven't seen a TV-B-Gone, it's a cute gadget that you point at a TV that's bothering you, and it turns the TV off. Internally, it's an infrared remote that broadcasts more than 100 different off codes that work on almost any TV. I figured it would be interesting to get the TV-B-Gone running on the Arduino.

Update (November 2010)

I have a new, improved version of the software. Details and download are here.

The software

I started with the TV-B-Gone firmware, which is available under Creative Commons license. The TV-B-Gone runs on an ATtiny85 microcontroller, not the ATmega328 used by the Arduino, so some porting was required. One tricky part of the port is the IR signals are generated using the low-level hardware timer for PWM (pulse-width modulation). Since the ATtiny85 runs at 8MHz, and the Arduino runs at 16MHz, the timing code needed to be re-written, both the 10us delay loop and the timer register operations. The quick summary is I'm using Timer 2, scaling the clock by 8, using OCR2A to control the frequency and OCR2B to control the duty cycle, and have output on pin 3 (OC2B). (You are not expected to understand this. See my article on Secrets of Arduino PWM for details of how these timers work.)

#define freq_to_timerval(x) (F_CPU / 8 / x - 1)
...
    pinMode(IRLED, OUTPUT);
    TCCR2A = _BV(COM2A0) | _BV(COM2B1) | _BV(WGM21) | _BV(WGM20);
    TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS21);
...
    OCR2A = freq; 
    OCR2B = freq / 3; // 33% duty cycle

Another tricky thing is the original firmware stores the IR codes in program space, not RAM. The microcontrollers use a Harvard architecture, which means they have separate memory and data paths for code and data, unlike normal processors that use a von Neumann architecture. Because RAM storage is so small on these microcontrollers, the IR codes are stored in program space, with the result you need to use special methods to access them, rather than normal C pointers. Program memory storage is indicated with the PROGMEM macro and pulled out of memory using special functions such as pgm_read_byte. This makes the code somewhat confusing, for example:

const struct IrCode *NApowerCodes[] PROGMEM = {
  &code_na000Code,
...
}

data_ptr = (PGM_P)pgm_read_word(NApowerCodes+i);  

The original firmware stores the codes as compressed indices into tables of durations. See the TV-B-Gone design for details. Unfortunately, the Arduino's compiler didn't like the zero-length array in the IrCode structure, so I needed to rewrite the long file of codes to include another level of indirection.

Apart from these factors, porting was straightforward, and I tried to keep the original code where possible. I ripped out all the power-up and watchdog code. I replaced the low-level serial code with the Arduino's Serial library. Finally, I packaged it up into an Arduino sketch, which you can download. (Update: get the improved version here.)

The hardware

The hardware is straightfoward. I use pin 13 for the status LED; some Arduinos conveniently have an LED already wired up. Pin 3 is the PWM output to the IR LED through a 100 ohm resistor. If you want more range, add a driver transistor and use multiple IR LEDs. Pin 0 (update: pin 5) selects North American or European codes; leave it unconnected for North America and ground it for European. Pin 1 (update: 2) is connected via a pushbutton to ground to trigger the code transmission. (Update: pins have changed in the new version.)

To use the Arduino TV-B-Gone, point the IR LED at your TV, push the button, and your TV should turn off when the circuit hits the right code, which could take up to a minute. The visible LED should flash for each code that is transmitted. If the circuit doesn't work, use a cellphone camera to verify that the IR LED is transmitting. Don't expect more than a few feet range unless you use a transistor to increase the power. The code will print debugging output to the serial port if you set DEBUG in main.h.

Summary

Is the Arduino TV-B-Gone practical? If you want a TV-B-Gone that you can carry around to amaze your friends, the kit or product is much more compact, has high-powered IR outputs for longer range, and is nicely packaged. However, the Arduino platform is convenient for experimenting, and many people already have it, so I expect people will find it interesting.

You might wonder why I'm not using my Arduino Infrared Library for this project. Actually, I plan to at some point, but I wanted to get the straightforward port working first. In addition, my library will need some extensions to support all the codes that the TV-B-Gone supports.

I hope you enjoy the Arduino TV-B-Gone, and remember to use it for good, not evil!