Velleman K8000 - [K8000 Standalone Usage] - [K8000 RC5 receiver]

K8000 RC5 receiver

Image of an RC5 remote control

One of my first K8000 applications for my FEZ board was an RC-5 receiver. This is a receiver which can decode signals that are sent from a Philips compatible remote control. In other words: You can control your K8000 with a standard remote control. All you need is an IR receiver that is connected an analog (An2) input of your FEZ.

GHI Electronics - the manufacturer of the FEZ - offers an addon for this: 'E-Block 38 kHz infrared receiver'. Using this E-block the easiest way since you can simply connect it to the FEZ with a JST3AA cable. If you prefer building your own IR-receiver you will need to get a receiver module 'TSOP4838'. This is a little integrated circuit with 3 pins: +VCC, GND and OUTPUT. You can power it with your FEZ and connect its output to the An2 input on the FEZ.

Sample Application

I have created a little sample application to show you the possibilities of combining a K8000 with a remote control. The sample allows the use of the following buttons:

Standby: Clear all outputs
1-9: Invert the state of the I/O channels 1 to 9
0: Clear all the I/O channels
Volume+: Increase the DA1 channel
Volume-: Decrease the DA1 channel
Channel+: Set all I/O channels
Channel-: Clear all I/O channels

The image below shows you developent setup. Here the FEZ is connected with the K8000 through the SCL/SDA and GND lines. The Ir E-block is connected to the Di2 analog input of the FEZ. The K8000 controls a Velleman K8000 dimmer that is connected to the 8-bit D/A output DA01 of the K8000.

Picture of my K8000 testing board

Download Sample

Here you can download the source code for this project. As for all my FEZ applications, it is written in Visual C# 2010 Express.

Download RC5 receiver