Neuros Technology Forums

quote:Originally posted by Chameleon

I read in some of the schematics or white paper documents that the Neuros already (at least theoretically) supports a remote transmitting in the less-than-FM-band frequency range... like less than 80 MHz.

I think it can tune a wider range than the 'normal' FM dial. That's good, but the issue is still that anything with an FM broadcast circuit is gonna be an FCC mess to get approved, so it's not much of a hobbyist or kit kind of project. Unless we can find an already-certified device that can be trivially modified to become a remote -- even with that, any real modification may require FCC reapproval.

Does anyone know of another device using an FM remote? It would certainly be easier to co-opt someone else's protocol than to build a new device.

Another possibility I came up with was subverting the USB1 port on the Brain. In a USB2 unit (such as mine) you don't need the USB1 port, and my understanding is that it is implemented (almost?) entirely in software on the DSP. This means that potentially it could be reprogrammed to a different (simpler?) protocol such as a simple 9600bps async serial port. This would allow for a lot of new IO expansion options like a remote.

Does anyone with some familiarity with this hardware/software have any comments on the practicality of this?

I had a couple of thoughts about a remote for the Neuros.

First, it'd be prtty easy to crack open the brain and solder extensions to the existing button pads, and bring them out on a micro DB9 or something. Pros: Doesn't require any software changes. Cons: Can't be deployed to other people easily.

Second: I've been looking for an existing FM remote, or an existing FCC-licensed FM transmitter that could be driven to work as a remote. I couldn't find a real FM remote, but an idea occurred to me. I have a Belkin TuneCast 1, which has a stereo audio in and can transmit on one of four 88.x freqs. I suspect I could hook this up to a line-level tone or pulse generator, and generate tone or pulse patterns that the DSP on the NII could pick out of the noise, if it knew what frequency to listen on. Not sure if tones or pulses would be easier to decode. Pros: No hardware changes needed inside Neuros. Wireless. Cons: Requires firmware support. Requires battery power on transmitter. Hard to make into a real product, due to FCC licensing and such.

Third: Make a wired remote that patches into the MIC input on the Neuros and use pulse patterns generated by a tiny microcontroller (PIC?) to communicate button pushes to the Neuros. Pros: No hardware changes needed inside Neuros. No FCC/broadcast mess. pretty easy to make into a kit or product. Cons: Requires firmware support. Not wireless.

Comments?