JPH0578238B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a remote control transmitter used in a remote control device, and particularly to a remote control transmitter that controls household appliances to perform predetermined operations.

(b) Prior Art Conventionally, for example, in a remote control device using infrared rays, a receiver is configured to perform a function (operation) according to the received signal when it receives a certain infrared pulse signal train. There is. Further, the transmitter is configured to generate an infrared pulse signal train in response to the operation of a push button switch or the like.

This infrared pulse signal train basically includes an instruction code of a certain number of bits, but the encoding format of the signal train differs depending on the manufacturer and set. Therefore, in order to perform a certain function (operation) on the receiving side, it is necessary to use a transmitter that can output a corresponding transmission signal, and when controlling multiple devices remotely, I had to use multiple transmitters.

In order to eliminate this complexity, programmable transmission allows a single transmitter to learn the functions of multiple transmitters and selectively remotely control multiple devices using only that transmitter. machine is being developed. This programmable transmitter is configured as follows. First, an infrared signal output from an arbitrary transmitter is received by a built-in receiving circuit, a repeating pattern of the received signal is identified by a microcomputer, data is compressed, and the data is stored in a memory. Then, at the time of retransmission, data is read from the memory, and a pulse signal is generated by data compression and reverse processing, and then transmitted.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in such a conventional remote control transmitter having a learning function, when compressing the received signal pattern and storing it in memory, the “H” level and “L” level of the signal are ``Categories of combinations of level periods are created in advance in a table and stored as a set of category data, so for example, 1 to 2 bytes of storage capacity is required for 1 bit of the serial signal, and multiple transmissions are required. A large amount of memory is required to learn the multiple functions of a machine. For example, most average remote control transmitters have a configuration of 32 bits per command, and it takes about 46 bytes to store one command. Therefore, in order to store 30 commands (30 keys), a memory capacity of 1380 bytes or more is required.

Generally, the internal RAM capacity of a single chip microcontroller is 256 bytes, and the maximum is about 1K bytes, so the capacity is insufficient to store data for the number of command keys (30 keys) required, so it is more than 2K bytes. external SRAM is required. This has been a factor in increasing the size and cost of the device.

In addition, in order to always store data once stored, RAM battery backup was required, and a special circuit and power supply were required for this purpose.

The purpose of this invention is to reduce the storage capacity per command (one key operation instruction), and to reduce the memory capacity (for example, internal RAM of one chip microcontroller).
By providing a remote control transmitter with a learning function that is smaller and lower in cost by making it possible to configure ^a system with It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control transmitter having a learning function that does not require up-setting.

(d) Means for solving the problem By the way, general remote control transmitters encode the data to be transmitted using PCM. Therefore, its format is infinitely conceivable. However, currently (from 6 to 7 years ago), due to the following reasons, the code formats that have been adopted are 14 types from 8 domestic companies and 3 types from 2 overseas companies.
Most of the species fall into one of a total of 17 formats.

(1) Do not change the format in order to maintain compatibility with your company's existing systems (products) or to prevent mutual interference (malfunction) with other companies' or your own systems.

(2) If the number of data bits is increased unnecessarily, the power consumption of the transmitter will increase, shortening the battery life and slowing down the response speed, so even if the number of bits is expanded in the future, there will still be a certain upper limit. do.

Therefore, in this invention, major format data is stored in advance, and the signal to be learned is stored as data representing the format type and data content (code data), thereby achieving significant data compression. This made it possible.

The invention described in claim 1 is a remote control transmitter having a means for receiving signals from a plurality of types of other remote control transmitters having different formats and storing the information, which comprises: a format data memory for storing format data; a format identification data generation means for generating format identification data from a reception signal received from another remote control transmitter and the contents of the format data memory during learning; and a format identification data generation means for generating a code from the reception signal. means for extracting data; a transmission code memory for storing the format identification data and code data; and contents of the format data memory that match the format identification data read from the transmission code memory at the time of transmission, and the code data. , and means for reproducing the transmitted signal.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the configuration described in the first aspect, the format identification data generation means generates a received signal when there is no format data matching the received signal in the format data memory. The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with a received signal storage means for storing the received signal.

(e) Effect The configuration of this invention is shown in FIG. In the figure, 10 is another remote control transmitter to be learned, and other blocks constitute the remote control transmitter according to the present invention. The receiver circuit 1 receives signals transmitted from other remote control transmitters 10,
Output the received signal. Code data extraction means 2 extracts code data (data content) contained in the received signal. The format determining section 4 determines the format for encoding from the received signal, such as modulation method, presence or absence of a reader, bit length, basic pulse width, etc. A plurality of types of main format data are stored in advance in the format data memory 6. The format data search unit 5 searches the format data memory 6 for content that matches the format data determined by the format determination unit 4, thereby determining format identification data representing the type of format. The format determination section 4 and the format data search section 5 constitute a format identification data generation means 3 according to the present invention. The transmission code memory 7 stores the code data obtained by the code data extraction means and the format identification data obtained by the format identification data generation means 3. Eventually, signals transmitted from other remote control transmitters 10 are stored as this code data and format identification data.

The transmission signal reproducing means 8 reads the contents (format data) from the format data memory 6 based on the format identification data read from the transmission code memory 7 at the time of transmission, and also reproduces the transmission signal using the code data. The transmitting circuit 9 transmits this signal using, for example, infrared radiation.

With the above configuration, in order to store a signal received from another remote control transmitter as code data representing the content of the signal and format identification data representing the type of encoding format of the signal, one command is required. The memory capacity required is extremely small. For example, if the code data has a 32-bit configuration, it can be represented by 32 bits (4 bytes), and the format identification data can be represented by 5 bits if the format data stored in advance in the format data memory 6 is 32 types or less. . Therefore, in this case, one command can be stored with a memory capacity of about 5 bytes.

In the invention as set forth in claim 2, when the format data search section 5 does not have content matching the format data in the format data memory 6, the received signal storage means 21 stores the data in the receiving circuit 1.
The received signal is stored in the received signal memory 22. Therefore, the format data memory 6
Received signals in formats not stored in the received signal memory 22 are stored as they are in the received signal memory 22. The transmission signal generating means 8 reads the reception signal from the reception signal memory 22 and transmits it from the transmission circuit 9.

(f) Embodiment FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control section of a remote control transmitter according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the same figure, 1
is a receiving circuit which uses a photodiode 33 to receive an infrared pulse signal train transmitted from an external transmitter and converts it into a logic level signal train.
Reference numeral 30 denotes a 1 which receives the signal train from the receiving circuit 1 and performs the aforementioned data compression and transmission signal reproduction processing.
It is a chip microcomputer. The internal configuration of this one-chip microcomputer 30 is as follows. The OSC 19 generates a reference clock signal using an externally connected crystal oscillator 20. A timing signal generation circuit 11 generates a predetermined timing signal based on a reference clock signal.

The shift register 12 serially inputs the serial data output from the receiving circuit 1 at a predetermined timing. The latch circuit 13 latches the contents of the shift register 12 at a predetermined timing.
The CPU 14 reads and decodes a program written in advance in the ROM 16 to generate control signals to each section. A specific area of the RAM 17 is used as a transmission code memory according to the present invention, and other areas are used as various working memories. A keypad 31 is externally connected to the I/O port 18, and the CPU 14 reads key operation contents by generating a key scan signal and reading a key return signal from this port. A transmitting circuit 32 is connected to the I/O port 15, and the transmitting circuit 32 is connected to the I/O port 1.
The signal is transmitted by driving the LED 34 with the output signal of 5. Also, E ² PROM22 is the first
This is the received signal memory shown in the figure.

Now, here are the contents of ROM, RAM and CPU
Before explaining the processing procedure, a general encoding format will be explained.

FIG. 6 shows the structure of the transmitted signal. As shown, each frame consists of a leader and data, and frame spaces are provided between frames.

FIGS. 7 to 9 show examples of three types of modulation methods that are major classifications of frames. Figure 7 shows the PIM (Pulse Interval Modulation) method, and in this example the data is
It consists of 32 bits from Do to D31. FIG. 10 shows the waveforms of data 0 and data 1 in this data portion. In this way, when the pulse interval consisting of the "H" level period T is To, it is defined as data 0, and when the pulse interval is T1, it is defined as data 1. Here, To is the basic pulse interval. As shown in FIG. 7, the leader section is also composed of "H" level and "L" level that are an integral multiple of this basic pulse interval To.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the PWN (pulse width modulation) system, and in this example, the data portion consists of 12 bits Do to D11. FIG. 11 shows the waveforms of data 0 and data 1 in the data portion. in this way. Data "0" and "1" of each bit are defined by the ratio of pulse widths ("H" level period and "L" level period). Here, Toff+Ton0, which is the minimum pulse interval time, is the basic pulse width (To). In the example shown in FIG. 8, the leader portion consists only of 2To "H" level.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the PPM (Pulse Position Modulation) system, in which a fixed time frame is provided between the reader and the end bit, and data "0" and "1" are defined depending on the level at each timing. This example shows data 00100.

Now, FIG. 3 shows the contents of the format data memory configured in the ROM 16.
Each format data consists of 10 items of data described below. "Bit length" is the number of bits that make up one data, "length of leader code"
is the "H" level period of the leader portion, and is stored as a multiplication factor of the basic pulse width (8 in the example of FIG. 7). The "leader code space" is the "L" level period of the leader portion, and is stored as a multiplication factor of the basic pulse width (4 in the example of FIG. 7).
As mentioned above, the "basic pulse width" is the minimum pulse interval time To in the received data, and is stored as "0" for 1 ms, "1" for 1.125 ms, "2" for 1.2 ms, and "3" for 0.85 ms. are doing. The reason why it can be categorized in this way is that the ceramic oscillators used in source oscillation circuits are 455KHz, 480KHz, 400KHz, and 440KHz.
This is because the fundamental pulse width is determined by integer frequency division of the source oscillation frequency. The "bit separation pulse width" is a multiplication factor of the basic pulse width indicating the "H" level period of the data portion, and is set to data _00H in the PWM method (0.5 in the example of FIG. 7). "Frame period" is a magnification of the basic pulse representing the period of one frame. "Pulse interval of data "1"" is a magnification of the basic pulse width of the period constituting bit 1. (In the example of Figure 7, 2, 8
1.5 in the example shown). The "bit separation space width" is a multiplication factor of the basic pulse width representing the "L" level period of the data portion, and is set to data _00H in the PIM system (0.5 in the example of FIG. 8). "Carrier frequency" is data representing the frequency of a subcarrier that modulates infrared light, and usually has a value of 33 to 42 KHz.
The "PPM flag" is set when the modulation method is PPM.

FIG. 4 shows a memory map of the above-mentioned RAM. M1 is a 10-byte work area used for key input data and other buffers. M2 is a 96-byte receive data work area that stores 48 bits of serial signals obtained by reception, and performs code data extraction, format determination, etc. M3 stores the requested code data and format identification data.
This is a 144-byte transmit code memory area. 1
If you reserve a 7-byte area for the command,
144/7≒20.6, so 20 commands can be stored. M4 is a 6-byte stack area.
As mentioned above, 256 bytes of RAM is used.

FIG. 5 shows the contents of the above-mentioned transmission code memory. Each data item stores various data necessary for reproducing a transmission signal for each key number. "Extended flag"
is a flag indicating that the format has an expanded number of bits, as will be described later. The "format name" is data indicating which format data is stored in advance in the format data memory shown in FIG. The "basic pulse width" is the minimum pulse interval time in the transmission data, and consists of 2-bit data indicating four types of predetermined times. "Code data" is code data extracted from the received signal, and 4 bytes are reserved so that up to 32 bits can be stored. ``Number of extended bits'' is the number of extended bits when there are further extended bits for the 32-bit code data, and ``extended code data'' is the longest 12-bit code data of the extended part. As described above, a command consisting of code data of the maximum length of 44 bits is stored in a 7-byte area.

FIG. 12 shows the processing procedure of the CPU in learning mode. In this mode, in the first half of the process (FIG. 12A and B), data of each item constituting the format data is obtained in order to identify the format of the received data. In the latter half of the process (FIG. 12C), the format is identified by determining whether each item of the format data matches the contents of the format data memory.

First, receive the received data in the receive data work area M2.
(See Figure 4) (n1). Specifically, the adjacent “H” level period and “L” level period of the received signal
The unit consisting of the level period is regarded as one bit,
The "H" level period and the "L" level period are each stored as 1-byte data. Continuing,
A pattern for one frame is extracted from the captured received data based on data repetition patterns, the presence of a leader part, etc. (n2). Thereafter, it is determined whether a leader is attached or not based on the time of the "H" level and "L" level of the first bit of the received data and the following bits (n3). If YES, it is determined whether the ratio of "L" level and "H" level in the data portion is 1:2 (n4).
If it is 1:2, that is, if it is a PWM method, basic pulse width data is created, and reader data (leader code length data and leader code space data) is created (n5→n6). If NO at step n4, it is determined whether the pulse interval is 1:2 (n7). If it is 1:2, that is, if it is the PIM method, basic pulse width data and reader data are created (n7→n8→n9).

Even if there is no reader, it is determined whether it is PIM or not based on the pulse interval ratio (n10).
Depending on the ratio of “L” level width and “H” level width
Determine whether it is PWM or not (n13). In this case, if it is neither PIM nor PWM, it is assumed to be PPM and basic pulse width data and reader data are created (n16→n17).

The basic pulse width data creation processing in n5, n8, n11, n14, and n16 is executed in detail as shown in FIG. 12D. First, among the received signals,
Minimum pulse interval time T (see Figures 7 and 8)
(n16), and this time T is the frequency of the commonly used ceramic oscillator, 445KHz,
It is determined whether the signal corresponds to 480KHz, 400KHz, or 440KHz (n62 to n65). In accordance with this determination result, basic pulse width data of "0" to "3" is stored in a predetermined memory area of the transmission code memory shown in FIG. 5 (n66 to n69). As a result of the determination in n62 to n65, if the time To does not correspond to any oscillation frequency, it is determined that there is no matching format in the format data memory,
The received signal is stored in the E ² PROM 22 (n70). This also applies when there is no matching format based on the discrimination based on the data level ratio and the pulse interval of the reader code in n7.

After distinguishing between the presence or absence of a reader and the three types of modulation methods as described above, various other data representing the format are created as shown in FIG. 12B to obtain format data for retrieval.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 3C, a block of format data in which all of the format data items match is searched from the format data memory (n50). If there is a block with completely matching items, set its format name and basic pulse width in the specified area of the transmit code memory (n51
→n52→n53). Further, the code data already extracted is set in a predetermined area in the transmission code memory (n54).

By block search, even if each item of format data does not completely match, only the bit length is large, the number of overlapping bits is 12 or less, and the signal in the overlapping part is composed only of data 0 and data 1. If so, the extension flag is set, and the number of extension bits and extension code data are set (n55 to n60).

In the procedure in the learning mode described above, steps n1 to n50 correspond to the format identification data generation means according to the present invention. Also, n1~
n25, n1 to n35, or n1 to n43 correspond to code data extraction means according to the present invention. Further, n70 similarly corresponds to received signal storage means.

FIG. 13 shows the processing procedure of the CPU in normal mode. Normally, the transmitter is in standby (HALT)
state and starts execution when a key press is performed. First, identify the operated key and enter its key number.
The transmission code corresponding to the transmission code is stored in the transmission code memory (5th
The contents of the format name included in the data are read from the format data memory (see FIG. 3). Then, according to the format, the code data is developed into a data string representing the time of the "H" level period and the "L" level period. The output LED is driven at the carrier frequency specified based on the time data string developed in this way. Specifically, the developed data is set in a timer sequentially, and the data is transmitted at the carrier frequency.
The infinite loop program that drives the LED can be modulated by causing a timer interrupt with the timer.

(g) Effect of the invention As described above, according to the invention described in claim 1, the storage capacity per one command (one key operation instruction) is reduced, so the storage capacity is reduced (for example, the internal memory capacity of one chip microcomputer). RAM, etc.) can configure the system. This makes it possible to suppress an increase in size and cost due to an increase in the number of parts. In addition, E ² with small external capacity
By using PROM, etc., it is possible to configure a system that does not require battery backup. Furthermore, since it recognizes the format pattern of the received signal from other remote control transmitters, there is no inconvenience that would occur if a signal with noise superimposed is stored as the original pattern, and the playback signal would deteriorate due to learning. do not have.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, since the received signal is stored as it is when the format pattern of the received signal is not stored, the stored contents can be changed depending on the remote control signal to be learned. Even remote control signals composed of formats that are not included in pre-stored format patterns can be learned accurately.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention. Figure 2 is a block diagram of the control section of a remote control transmitter that is an embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 3 is its ROM.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the RAM, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of the transmission code memory in the RAM. Figures 6 to 11 are diagrams related to transmission signals, with Figure 6 showing its general configuration, Figure 7 showing the PIM method, Figure 8 the PWM method, and Figure 9
Each shows the signal format of the PPM method. Also, Figures 10 and 11 show the PIM method and
It shows the waveform of the data part of the PWM method. FIGS. 12 and 13 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure of the CPU in learning mode and normal mode.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a remote control transmitter having means for receiving signals from multiple types of other remote control transmitters having different formats and storing the information, there is provided the following: a format data memory for storing data; a format identification data generation means for obtaining format identification data from a received signal received from another remote control transmitter and the contents of the format data memory during learning; and a format identification data generating means for generating code data from the received signal. a transmission code memory that stores the format identification data and the code data; and a transmission code memory that stores the format identification data and the code data; A remote control transmitter consisting of: a means for reproducing a signal; 2. The remote control transmitter according to claim 1, wherein said format identification data generating means is provided with received signal storage means for storing the received signal when there is no format data matching the received signal in said format data memory.