JP3392751B2 - Remote control device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control signal transmission / reception system technology for remotely controlling a device such as a television and a video using infrared rays and the like, and more particularly to the field of technology for reducing the power consumption of a remote control signal receiving section.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An infrared remote control transmitter is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, a series of control code and identification code signals are output following a continuous signal called a reader code for a predetermined period.

On the other hand, the remote control receiver always monitors the input of the signal from the transmitter, and when the signal is input, analyzes the control code and the identification code to control the equipment.

Therefore, in the remote control receiver, it is necessary to always drive the light receiving element and the control unit such as a microcomputer for identifying and analyzing a signal and to make it stand by.

As a method for solving this, the following technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-264674 is considered.

This is to make the remote control signal receiving circuit of the receiving section operate intermittently and to output a series of remote control signals from the remote control transmitting section a plurality of times. When the remote control signal is received during the intermittent operation, the remote control signal receiving circuit is received. Is operated continuously, the command of the remote control code received next is analyzed and controlled, and when the reception of the remote control signal is not recognized, the intermittent operation is performed again.

However, in this technique, since the remote control signal receiving circuit such as the light receiving element can be intermittently driven in order to identify that the remote control signal is received during the intermittent operation, the remote control signal identifying circuit must be always driven. The operation period of the intermittent operation also requires time that can be identified by the identification circuit.

Further, since all remote control signals are detected in the intermittent operation, the command codes from all remote control transmitters must be output a plurality of times in succession, which increases the power consumption of the transmitters. However, it is not possible to make the pause period of the intermittent operation of the remote control receiving circuit wide.

Along with this, the reduction of the power consumption of the remote control receiver during standby is also limited.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and drives a remote control receiver by intermittent operation in a short operation period and a long rest period,
Another object of the present invention is to further reduce the standby power consumption of the remote controller reception unit by monitoring the input of the remote control signal without driving the signal analysis and identification unit such as a microcomputer.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a remote control device for intermittently operating a remote control light receiving unit, wherein the remote control light receiving unit is driven by a pulse generated at a predetermined interval. When the remote control light receiving unit receives a predetermined number of light continuously, the remote control code analyzing unit is operated.

Further, by the above remote control code analysis unit,
When a predetermined code is detected, the power is turned on.

Specifically, an infrared light receiving element driven by an intermittent pulse, a low pass filter for removing a carrier frequency component of an output signal of the infrared light receiving element, a counter for counting the output of the low pass filter, and a remote control code are analyzed. When the counter counts a predetermined number, the infrared light receiving element is continuously driven to drive the remote control code analysis unit.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a remote control device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the receiving section of the remote control device according to the present invention. In the figure, (1) is a light receiving element,
Generates a signal in response to infrared input.

The infrared signal is transmitted as an infrared signal by the remote control transmitter shown in FIG. 3 by placing a control code corresponding to a key input signal stored in advance on a carrier signal of a predetermined frequency.

(2) is a low-pass filter, which cuts off the carrier frequency transmitted from the remote control transmitter.

(3) is a counter, which counts the output of the low-pass filter (2).

(4) is a counter, which is a light receiving element (1)
The sensor drive pulse supplied to the counter is counted, and the output thereof resets the counter (3).

(5) is a signal analysis processing unit, which analyzes and processes the command of the received remote control signal. Although this signal analysis processing unit is composed of, for example, a microcomputer, the analysis method is a well-known technique, and a description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 4 is an infrared signal waveform output from the remote control transmitter according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

This signal waveform consists of a header part and a control signal part following it.

The header portion is a continuous signal of a predetermined width having a carrier frequency of about 38 kHz.

The control signal section is the conventional remote controller control signal shown in FIG. 1, which includes a reader code and a series of control / control signals.
It is an identification code signal.

When the above-mentioned signal is transmitted from the remote control transmitter, the remote controller receiver performs the following operation.

The operation will be described below with reference to the timing chart of FIG.

First, the signal (a) in the header portion is detected by the light receiving element (1) driven by the intermittent pulse (b), and the detection signal (c) is removed by the low pass filter (2) from the carrier frequency component. The signal of (d) is obtained.

This signal is input to the clock of the counter (3) and counted.

Then, the signal analysis processing unit (5) is turned on and driven by the signal Q1 (e) which is output when the predetermined number is counted.

As a result, the signal analysis processing section (5) operates and the control / identification code signal that is subsequently input is analyzed.

As a result of this analysis, when it is judged that the instruction is to turn on the power of the device to be controlled, the power of the device is further turned on and the signal analysis processing unit (5) is continuously driven and input. Analyze the remote control signal.

Further, as a result of the analysis, if it is determined that the instruction is not for turning on the power, the signal (f) from the signal analysis processing section (5) resets the counter (3) and the counter (4). , Signal analysis processor (5)
The intermittent standby operation is performed again by stopping the driving of and turning it off.

Here, the counter (4) counts the sensor drive pulse, and the output (Q2) outputs the counter (3).
Is for resetting, and Q2 is set to be output with a count value larger than Q1.

In order to prevent the counter (3) from being reset during counting, the output of the low pass filter (2) is input to the clear input of the counter (4) via the OR gate (6).

As a result, since it is not necessary to analyze the signal of the remote control light receiving section, the signal input can be detected and the input of the remote control signal can be detected without driving the signal analysis processing section (5) such as the CPU. The pulse width for driving the light receiving element in operation can be reduced, and by increasing the output period of the header portion of the output signal, the interval between the drive pulses of the light receiving portion can be increased.

Furthermore, by clearing the counter (3) by the counter (4) at regular intervals, no malfunction occurs, and it is possible to analyze the control / identification code and reliably turn on the power. .

It should be noted that the power consumption of the remote control transmission section is not affected by attaching the header section only to a specific remote control code (for example, power-on) and outputting.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The second embodiment is an embodiment of the receiving section corresponding to the output signal of the conventional remote controller shown in FIG.

Further, the circuit of the remote control receiver shown in FIG. 2 similar to that of the first embodiment is used, but the operation of the timing chart of FIG. 6 is performed by setting the timing of the intermittent operation as follows.

The signal of this remote controller consists of a continuous signal called a reader code for a predetermined period of time followed by a series of control code and identification code signals, where the reader code is 9 ms and the carrier frequency is 38 KHz.

Therefore, the operation period (g) of the intermittent drive pulse of the light receiving element (1) is set to a width of 2.63 μs or more, and the rest period (h) is set to 3 ms or less.

First, the reader code (i) is detected by the light receiving element (1) driven by the above intermittent pulse, and the detection signal (j) is carrier frequency component removed (k) by the low pass filter (2). Get the signal of.

This signal is input to the clock of the counter (3) and counted.

Then, the signal analysis processing unit (5) is turned on and driven by the signal (l) output when the predetermined number is counted.

As a result, the signal analysis processing section (5) operates, and the control / identification code signals such as custom codes and function codes that are subsequently input are analyzed.

As a result of this analysis, when it is judged that the instruction is to turn on the power of the device to be controlled, the power of the device is further turned on and the signal analysis processing section (5) is continuously driven and input. Analyze the remote control signal.

Thus, by setting the operation timing of the light receiving element, it can be applied to the signal used in the conventional remote controller without adding a special signal newly.
The standby power consumption of the receiver can be reduced without changing the remote controller transmitter or remote controller signal.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the third embodiment, the CPU is provided on the light receiving portion side.
Also, the light receiving element is intermittently driven, a specific code (startup code) is transmitted from the remote control transmission unit, and a regular remote control code (for example, a code for instructing power ON) is transmitted after a predetermined period.

As shown in FIG. 7, the light-receiving unit side has a structure in which the CPU is operated by a timer at regular intervals and power is also supplied to the infrared light-receiving unit during the operating period of the CPU.

On the other hand, the remote control transmission unit is, for example, powered on.
When the button for instructing is pressed, the start-up code is transmitted for at least the idle period of the CPU or longer.

As the start-up code, it is assumed that a code pattern having a length that can enter at least one during the operation period of the CPU is continuous or pulses are continuously transmitted, and this continuous signal is equal to or longer than the operation interval of the remote control light receiving unit. Set to be sent over a period.

As a result, signal transmission is performed at least once during one operation period of the remote control light receiving unit.

When the CPU analyzes and detects this, the CPU
Starts a continuous operation, and thereafter, if a power-on code is detected within a predetermined period, the power-on operation is performed.

If the power ON code is not detected within the predetermined period, the intermittent operation is performed again.

Here, the power source is turned on from the startup code.
The quiescent period until the transmission of the N code is a predetermined period (T5) of T4 or more in FIG.

T5 is set to a time slightly longer than T4.

The remote control light-receiving section performing the intermittent operation is
Immediately after the startup code is detected during the operation period, the continuous operation mode is immediately entered to continue monitoring the remote control signal.

During the start-up code period, the remote controller receives light at the interval of T4, but if the remote controller does not receive light after the time of T4, it is recognized that the start-up signal has ended, and the remote controller signal is monitored again.

Normally, the original remote control code is transmitted after the time T5, so the remote control code is analyzed. However, if the normal remote control code is not transmitted even after the time T5, noise or start-up error will occur. It is thought that other remote control codes without signals were mistakenly regarded as the startup code and the continuous operation mode was entered.
The remote control light-receiving unit enters the intermittent operation mode again.

The remote control code added with the start-up code is a remote control code (for example, TV, V
(TR power button, VTR PLAY button, etc.).

As a result, since no extra start-up code is sent in the operating state, the remote controller responds quickly and the power consumption on the remote control sending side can be reduced.

[0064]

As described above, according to the remote controller of the present invention, it is possible to shorten the operation period of the intermittent drive during standby of the remote controller and increase the idle period.

Further, the remote controller signal analysis processing unit such as the CPU is suspended to enable the standby operation of the remote controller, so that the standby power consumption can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, since the CPU analyzes the control code and controls the device after the light receiving section has detected infrared rays a predetermined number of times, malfunction due to noise or the like can be prevented.

By setting the intermittent drive timing to a specific value, it can be applied to the conventional remote control signal.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a waveform diagram of a conventional remote control signal.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a remote control transmitter.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a receiver of the remote controller according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram of a remote control signal according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Light receiving element 2. Low pass filter 3. counter 4. counter 5. Signal analysis processing unit 6. OR gate

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04Q 9/14

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An infrared light receiving element driven by an intermittent pulse, a low pass filter for removing a carrier frequency component of an output signal of the infrared light receiving element, a counter for counting the output of the low pass filter, and a remote control code are analyzed. The remote control code analysis section for resetting the counter is reset every time a predetermined number of the intermittent pulses are input, and when the counter counts the output of the low pass filter by a predetermined number, the infrared light receiving element is continuously driven. A remote control device for generating a signal for driving the remote control code analysis unit. 2. An infrared light receiving element driven by an intermittent pulse, a low pass filter for removing a carrier frequency component of an output signal of the infrared light receiving element, a first counter for counting the output of the low pass filter, A second counter that counts intermittent pulses; and a remote control code analysis unit that analyzes a remote control code. When the second counter counts a first predetermined number, the first counter is reset, A remote control device, wherein when the first counter counts a second predetermined number, the infrared light receiving element is continuously driven to generate a signal for driving the remote control code analyzing section.