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diff --git a/content/projects/amp-automation/cambridge-cxa60-ir-codes.png b/content/projects/amp-automation/cambridge-cxa60-ir-codes.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2b8c09 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/projects/amp-automation/cambridge-cxa60-ir-codes.png diff --git a/content/projects/amp-automation/index.md b/content/projects/amp-automation/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15e612a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/projects/amp-automation/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Amp Automation" +date: 2023-10-25T20:01:27-04:00 +tags: ["Shool Projects"] +--- + +My parents music amplifier had an idle timeout. To avoid +having to turn it on manually, I configured a raspberry pi +to send infrared signals which turned it on and set its input +channel when a device would want to stream music. + +Whenever that Cambridge Amplifier was idle for 45 minutes, it automatically +shut itself off to save power. The main issue with this design is that the +amplifier could power two distinct zones. In the case of my parents, those +zones were the living room and the kitchen. This meant that, since the +amplifier itself was in the living room, whenever we wanted to stream music in +the kitchen, we had to: + +1. Walk to the living room +2. Turn on the amplifier an set it's zone to only the kitchen +3. Pair the device that would stream music via bluetooth to it +4. Walk back to the kitchen + +Doing this once or twice is fine, but having to do it daily quickly became tedious. So +I decided to see what I could do to automate it. Back then, I already had a raspberry +or 2 lying around so I took that as my starting point. The Cambridge came with a remote +so I figured I could use infrared signals to control it. after a bit of digging, I found +this precious little datasheet detailing the different IR codes which existed for the +model of amplifier my parents had: + + + +Another tool I discovered during my research was [shairport-sync][1]. It emulates +an airport express which allowed me to stream my music directly to it instead of walking +to the living room. Another great this this utility has are hooks. I could tell it to +execute a command whenever music got started or stopped. I figured if my music was streaming +through this, I could set a command to send IR signals whenever I started/stopped streaming +music. To do this, I needed to do two things: + +- Make a small circuit for an infrared diode +- Figure out a way to correctly send the IR code to the diode via a script + +Thankfully, hooking up a diode to a raspberry pi isn't all that hard. A transistor, +a resistance, and a couple of wires and you're good to go. When it came to sending the signal, +I discovered a beautiful little python package called [lirc][2] which can properly convert +numeric codes into impulses that can be sent to the raspberry pi's GPIO pins. + +AND IT WORKED! All in all, this was quite a simple project. But getting to use it everyday, +I must say it did feel quite gratifying and fun! + +[1]: https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync +[2]: https://lirc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ |
