Recently I bought an old broken Sony EX-66 amplifier for a small price and fixed it but it didn't come with it's original remote. Furthermore, I bought the Arylic Up2Stream mini v3 board to integrate it into the amplifier as I'm planning to create myself a cheap but good streaming amplifier. But I didn't bought the Arylic remote for it.
What bothers me is that now I have a two devices that have IR receiver but no remotes for them, and I would like to have a single remote to control them both. The Sony's remote is an RM-EX77 and the Arylic has this one. Since I have tons of old remotes and a few Arduino Nanos somewhere around collecting dust, I thought that I could use Arduino to try to create something.
My ideas:
Connect Sony's integrated IR receiver to Arduino and connect Arduino directly to the pins of IR receiver on both Sony and Arylic, so that Arduino emulates the IR receiver. Is this even possible and if yes, how should I approach it?
If the first idea is not possible, then I though about using an IR transmitter (diode) with Arduino and placing it in front of IR sensors of both Sony and Arylic and then emulate the remote itself. Of course, this would be all placed inside the amplifier housing. I guess this should work without problems but it's a more complex solution than 1). In that case, which would be the best library to use for this?
And then the last step: finding the right codes, since I don't have the original remotes to detect them. It's not hard for the Arylic as it has a document with all the codes. But what about the Sony? By browsing through this forum, I've found this link but there's no RM-EX77 there. Is there a better solution than manually trying all the Sony codes from these documents until I don't find all codes that I need? I would like to use all functions or minimally power, input selection and volume up/down (it has an ALPS potentiometer with a motor). But it would be also good to have DBFB control and muting. I don't use the karaoke or source direct functions so those two are not needed.
I think it would be best if you can build your own remote that transmits the right codes to each device. If you put an Arduino behind the IR receiver, then you have to figure out how to work that into the amp's controller to carry out what you want the command to do. Since that logic is already built in, it seems the easier path is to just transmit the codes the amps are looking for.
The IRromote library includes a Sony section, but in both cases the key is finding the codes. That Arylic document didn't look very helpful.
Your remote would require a battery, an Arduino, an IR LED (borrowed from an old remote), a resistor, and a transistor.
I thought that there might be a library which would automatically convert the HEX code for a key into an output which would then "simulate" the IR receiver. But I guess not.
Building my own remote is not a possibility due to cosmetic reasons I don't want to carry around a huge brick full of wires to control my device or have something like that on my table I want to use a normal remote, from an old IPTV receiver or something like that (I have a few of them at home). And that's why my second solution is to build my own 2-way "remote" but inside the amplifier; the Arduino would have an IR receiver and an IR LED. It would receive signals from my remote through the IR receiver, convert them to signals for Sony/Arylic and then send them through IR LED to IR receivers of Sony and Arylic which would be located inside the housing. I drew the idea in the attachment.
I guess this is supported, right?
How to do you mean the Arylic document is useless? It contains all the codes for each button. Isn't it what I need? Last time I worked with IR on Arduino, all I had to do is to find the right code for each button. I used it only for receiving and the library returns the code on each button press and I guess for sending it acts on the same way: I have to provide the code to send.
The problem is knowing what to send to the Sony and Arylic - not just the code, but also the protocol used to transmit the code, and what carrier frequency to use. The most popular protocol is the NEC protocol described here:
But not everybody uses NEC.
The source code for the protocol used by (some) Sony devices is in the IRremote library. So if you know the key code, you can probably just use the library to transmit it, assuming your Sony remote uses that same protocol. But there's nothing in the library about Arylic. On the Arylic page, I didn't understand what all the MSG stuff was about, and it's not clear what you would need to send in addition to the two-digit hex code, or how that should be done.
It's possible you can find all this information through research or experimentation, or Sony and Arylic might even respond to an email.
I think you are at a disadvantage not having their proprietary remotes to work with. But perhaps people here have these devices and can help you figure out the codes and protocols.
I guess that Arylic has the most standard remote (probably the NEC one) as it's meant to be used for DIY. This is not a consumer device but rather a module for further development. But yes, I guess I can contact them.
Somewhere around a house I should have a remote from an old Sony AV receiver which nobody is using currently but I can't find it. I wanted to try if it will at least power on my amp.
Thank you for your help I guess I will have to build a test device on a proto board with Arduino and IR LED and then just experiment until I don't manage to get the amp to respond. And then I can try to collect all keys that are available for Sony and test them one by one.
