Introduction - Ramsey Electronics ICI16 Assembly And Instruction Manual

ICI16 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the ICI16 kit . In this manual we will try to help you understand IR
remote controls and how they typically work, and also how this kit works, to
help you understand what you are building.
Virtually any modern day consumer audio or video device contains an infrared
remote control unit. Usually our living room contains several of these to control
several different pieces of equipment. In fact we often have so many of these
little gems that it becomes necessary to obtain an "all in one" remote control
that controls all the functions of your entertainment system. Of course, this
leads to having several remote control units delegated to the junk drawer, and
that brought about the idea for this kit. Let's put the old remotes to use
controlling an easy to build kit that will control different outputs. By toggling a
relay we can live the life of the future by remotely controlling our fans, lamps,
and even the coffee pot!
Let's dig into these units a little bit. A typical infrared remote contains a few
functional parts in common with each other; we'll examine them. First there is
some type of keypad assembly. Nowadays this is typically a large molded sheet
of rubber with the buttons protruding outward. The end of the button that you
cannot see is typically coated with a carbon dot that will make contact with the
printed circuit board underneath, completing the circuit when the button is
depressed (no, it's not sad, it is just making contact!). This switch closure will
cause an Integrated Circuit on the circuit board to repeat a pre-determined
code at the output. This digital signal typically drives an infrared diode to
conduct on the front of the unit "broadcasting" the infrared signal to the
equipment to be controlled.
Our eyes are sensitive detectors in the visible light range but the wavelength
of the infrared diode falls outside that detection range. So we can't see the
diode performing its function. But rest assured, given a fresh battery, it is
dutifully doing it over and over again. These codes are unique so that the
infrared detector on the equipment can determine what function each of the
buttons should be, and perform that operation. These controlling codes are
unique to each manufacturer so our kit needs to "learn" these codes to perform
the functions we require.
The RF section of the ICI16 is designed to receive pulses from an RF
transmitter that simply repeats IR pulses as RF pulses to be picked up. The
data is sent in an identical format in RF as it is in IR.
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