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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hacking an Infoglobe - part 4

The next step, after the  necessary frequency generation and 38 kHz burst management, is to actually be able to send a message, following the specifications defined before.
Basically the next step is to sending out  a buffer (max. 40 bytes) using the 38 kHz burst to send the zero bits, with a 1 ms bit time.

Hardware
The purpose of the second prototype, is to develop a code capable to send messages to the rotating arm of the Infoglobe, driving the Infrared LED.

Because the memory capacity of this specific micro-controller, will not be possible to install a code to handle the Zig-Bee protocol, unless to use a complete external ZigBee module, like the ones MaxStream.

The second prototype is developed in two steps :
  1. send a message to the rotating arm pressing a pushbutton
  2. send a message to the rotating arm, received from a RS232 input 
The specific micro-controller used ( an MSP430F2012) has an internal USART capable to handle an SPI or I2C connection, but NOT a RS232 UART.
So in order to receive an RS232 message, a soft-UART is  developed, using a standard I/O Pin.

Here a basic schematic for the the second prototype

A quick explanation of the circuit.
The transistor enable or disable the signal from the base to the IR.
The two diodes basically forms an OR, mixing the two signals directed to the rotating arm.
One from the base (that can be disabled) and one from the micro.
In theory is possible to leave on  the base generator and send a message from the micro, however since we can not control the messages generated by the base, is possible to end up with some conflicts, obtaining only garbled messages.

The correct sequence to use is to prevent the messages generated by the base to reach the IR diode, and then send out the message from the micro.
As long the messages generated by the base are disabled, the rotating arm will display the last received message.

The RS232 section is optoisolated in order to protect the PC from possible spark from the Infoglobe, that it can be connected to the phone line (it is a caller ID).
The pushbutton allows to select different options or for test purposes.

List of the needed material/tools for the experiment :
  • modified Infoglobe(see previous articles)
  • USB development system for the MSP430F2012
  • C cross compilator for MSP430 - IAR (with the USB spi-by-wire development system)
  • cad Eagle to draw schematics
Electronic components (see schematic)
    • micro MSP430F2012 (on the development kit PCB)
    • male connector DIL 2.54 7+7
    • female connector DIL 2.54 7+7
    • PCB RJ11 connector
    • 3 3k3 Ohm resistors
    • 3 10k Ohm resistors
    • 1 4k7 Ohm resistors
    • 1 2k7 Ohm resistors
    • 2 power supply regulator capacitors
    • 1 power supply regulator 3.3 V Lm1117
    • 1 10uF tantalium capacitor
    • 1 optoisolator 4n35
    • 1 transistor NPN
    • 3 1n4148 diodes
    • 1 pushbutton
    • breadboard
    There are many ways to connect the micro to the development system.
    I prepared a flat cable that brings out the micro pins to a standard DIL plug.



    First test circuit - breadboard

    Connect the 7+7 male Dil connector to the microcontroller PCB, so to be able to have it connected to the test circuit (maybe using a cable to have it on a breadboard).
    The 14 pins are basically in parallel to the micro-controller pins, so for prototyping is perfect.

    On the experimental board, put the female 7+7 DIL, that will be used to connect the micro and the RJ11 outlet, connected to a cable to the Infoglobe, the power supply regulator, to bring down to 3.3 V the 5V coming from the Infoglobe.








    Important Note.
    Before to connect the micro-controller PCB to the test circuit, be sure to REMOVE the SMD resistor R1 from the micro-controller PCB.
    In this way the micro-controller will be powered from the P1 pin instead the USB development system.

    Software

    Here the flow chart of the state machine to be included in the timer interrupt management.
    This state machine will be called every millisecond and if something will be present in the buffer, will be sent.
    The fetch part of the code will run in the main loop.


    I made some measurement using the pin 1.0, the one connected to the LED put on the microcontroller PCB.
    Here some time execution in the interrupt :
    • ~1.4 uSec in IDLE
    • ~3.8 uSec in START/SEND (sending bit)
    • ~6.8 uSec in SEND (loading character/test)
    I also included in the code a couple of defines, to create a test environment, capable to only generate the 38 kHz burst, for fine tuning.
    Simply uncommenting one of the two defines CALL_MODE0 or CALL_MODE1 (not together at the same time) and compiling the code, the basic frequencies will be generated constantly, so to be able to measure and tune the timer.

    In this way there is no need to switch back on the initial test code.

    (note, I'm still deciding if/where/how/when to create a public repository for my code. For the moment if somebody wants the code, just write me)

    6 comments:

    1. Hi - I started on this idea of hacking the infoglobe about 5 years ago. At that time I had exchanged a few emails with Andrew R Morris who had sent me a word document having details on what he did. I used that at that time trying to implement it using a PIC micro-controller which had to be coded up in assembly. I ran into some problems with getting the timing right and never got around to finishing that project.
      Fast forward 5 years and I have been playing with the Aurdino Uno board and realized that it could be used in a clever way to do what I had given up with the PIC chip. So thanks to your write-up and Andrew's documented work, I again have a project that I can work/think on in my spare time. My original idea was to hook it up to an rss news feed (say news.google.com) and just display a ticker tape of news/weather etc. I need to carefully read your posts and get an aurdino board to use at home and get started.

      Thanks,

      Raj
      R dot Rajamani AT geemail DOT com

      ReplyDelete
    2. Hi RR, especially with newest microcontroller, more powerful and easy to work with, this hacking could be improved a lot. With a ZigBee module for example you could feed the Infoglobe with RSS, news, alarms from home automation and many many more things.
      For a while I used my hacked Infoglobe to display the IP connected to my server, just for fun, not real use :-)
      One day maybe I'll find the time to improve it :-)
      Thanks for reading :-)

      ReplyDelete
    3. I don't want to hack into the infoglobe. I just want to know if you can and how you can change the bulb in it . my globe does not light up. can you help me please?

      ReplyDelete
    4. Hi Anonymous
      There is no "bulb" in the Infoglobe. On the rotating arm there are some LEDs. If your Infoglobe is not showing anything, there are multiple possible causes and I'm afraid your description is not enough to even guess where to start to diagnose the problem.
      It can be the base, or the rotating arm or the power supply. Or it can even be a simple mechanical problem.
      I don't know if somebody fix these things.
      I unfortunately don't have time for this kind of activity.
      Maybe is more cheaper just to try to buy a new one :(
      You can try to sell your broken one on ebay for spare parts.

      ReplyDelete
    5. Thank you for your response. I have put in new batteries, checked the power cord. The arm still spins just no displays at all. this happened after a storm and power went out. it blinked when power came back then went blank. You are right it may just be time to replace it. thank you so much again for your response.

      ReplyDelete
    6. Hi Anonymous
      The fact the arm still spinning indicates that at least some power supply still exists. Too bad. Meaning that fixing the unit can be more difficult since you should do measurement to figure out the nature of the problem.
      The fact the problem happened after a storm, make me think that very probably is the "base" that has problems. The base is "hooked" to the phone line, a very critical and sensitive area for lightning. It is possible a overcharge fried some components on the base, damaging the microcontroller that sends the messages to the rotating arm.
      Just to determine if the base is broken you have to be able to open the unit and have specific tools/experience to track the signals on the board.
      The good new is that IF the rotating arm is still working, then with the hack you can still use it to hook it up to a computer :)

      ReplyDelete