Introduction
Carrier Frequency
Protocol Frame Pattern
Leader and Trailer Section
Zooming in to look at the leader shows that it is a solid block lasting 8.45 mS (338 cycles of 40kHz) followed by a gap of 4.225 mS (169 cycles of 40kHz). This is probably intended to be 8mS (320 cycles of 40kHz) and 4mS (160 cycles of 40kHz) respectively. To save space on the page here I'll just tell you that the trailer is just a single stop pulse of 0.5mS (20 cycles of 40kHz) and a gap of 25mS (1000 cycles of 40kHz). The stop pulse is needed to see if the last data pulse (preceding the stop bit) and gap is a 1 or a 0 as described in the Data Section below.
Data Section
Here just to show what the pulses look like, you can see that some are
a 0.5 mS block (20 cycles of 40hKz) followed by a 0.5mS gap which
represents a binary 0, while others are a 0.5mS block followed by a 1.5 mS
gap (60 cycles of 40hKz) which represent a binary 1. There are 32
such pulses in all, so the shortest data section of all zero's would be
(0.5 + 0.5) x 32 = 32mS while the longest data section of all one's would
be (0.5 + 1.5) x 32 = 64mS, so what we have here is a variable frame
length. This is referred to as a Pulse Position Modulated Protocol.
So to reiterate: zero is a pulse followed by a short gap, 1 is a pulse
followed by a long gap. The pulses are always transmitted LSB first,
MSB last. As described above, after the 32 data pulses there is one
final (33rd) pulse (the stop bit) that indicates if the last data pulse
was followed by a short or long gap.
Data DetailSo as we have seen, there are a total of 32 bits in the data section. This data is broken into two main parts, first a Custom Code (16 bits) and then a Data Code (16 bits). Then each of those 16 bit codes is further broken into two parts, first the actual 8 bit code, and then the ones complement of the code where each bit is the opposite value of the same bit in the original 8 bit code. This is done for error checking at the receiver. Each of the 8 bit sections or bytes in fact are transmitted from the handset least significant bit (LSB) first and most significant bit (MSB) last, so when reading from left to right, the bits need to be reversed before working out the value. So the complete coding system can support 256 different custom codes and 256 different data codes with all bits error checked. So you could have 256 different handsets with 256 buttons on each and every button would be unique if all the 256 pieces of stereo gear were in the same room. For clarification, refer to the following table for all the bit values for all the buttons on the Pioneer CU-P0069. The overline is the convention for indicating the ones complement or inverted value column. Note also the Hex Code column. Here the first two characters are the hex equivalent of the Custom Code and the second two characters are the hex equivalent of the Data Code. This hex format is the usual way the data values are described but as you now know, there is more to it than just knowing that to be able to throw the right pulses of light at your stereo to make it work! The description of hex notation is outside the scope of this page but you can look it up.
If you look at the picture to the left that I use in PCRemote to represent the handset for all my Pioneer CD Changers, you'll notice that there are a couple of extra buttons at the bottom. These are just a cut and paste in the picture but I use them for Power ON and Power OFF rather than using the regular Power Toggle button at the top. If you look in the table above you'll see that Power Toggle is A21C. I just tried some other values around that and found that A21A and A21B were the proper ON and OFF buttons so I added them to the virtual handset in PCRemote. You can do the same thing with all Pioneer equipment that I have seen that have a Power Toggle button. This gives better reliability in computer controlled applications where the computer never really knows if the hardware is ON or OFF if the power can only be toggled. Complete Frame TransmissionSo now that we know all about the format of the NEC frames, lets see how the remote transmits the infrared light to the stereo: Leader, Custom Code LSB first, Custom Code LSB first, Data Code LSB first, Data Code LSB first, Trailer Let's look at some frame pictures that more clearly show what the frames look like rather than the scratchy traces from the oscilloscope. These pictures are all screen shot segments from the Remote Control configuration in PCRemote where it learns the patterns from the handsets and where they can be edited. This is about as close as you can get to seeing the light on this subject... Remember, a pulse followed by a short gap is a binary 0, a pulse followed by a long gap is a binary 1. Pioneer CU-P0069 Play Button Referring to the above trace, the bits are 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1. Remember, the last (33rd) pulse is the stop bit at the beginning of the trailer. Next, check that the Custom Code (first 8 bits) and
Custom Code (second 8 bits)
are complementary and reverse the order of the 8 bits and convert to hex: Next, check that the Data Code (third 8 bits) and
Data Code (fourth 8 bits)
are complementary and reverse the order of the 8 bits and convert to hex: So the trace above is the PLAY button on a Pioneer CU-P0069 or play on any Pioneer CD player in fact. Now work out what the buttons are for the next examples. If you can do that, you've got it! Exercise 1
Click here for the
answer! Exercise 2
Click here for the
answer! Inside The Pioneer CU-P0069
Pioneer SR Bus
Pioneer SR Bus CD Play Button
CD-DECK SYNCHRO Bus
Another connector worth mentioning to complete the control picture is the CD-DECK SUNCHRO jack. This is normally used to connect between Pioneer CD players and Cassette decks. The tape deck can be set to start and stop recording when the CD player starts play and stop when CD play stops. The bus is again a simple +5V TTL rail that is held high by the receiver (The tape deck). When the CD player (the sender) is playing, it pulls the rail down to 0V (GND). Again as with the SR bus described above, the ground connection between the two units is made with audio ground. When play stops, the CD player releases the rail and it goes back to its normal +5V state. Here again though, Pioneer are inconsistent in that this connector is not provided on all CD players (the PD-F1009 plus several others) but this is clearly a useful jack to monitor with a computer control application like PCRemote so that it knows when CD play has ended for sure. On CD Changers that do not have this jack, monitoring the voltage on the chucking motor does just as well although it requires drilling a hole in the back of the player to fit the new jack!
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Like
most (but not all) remote control infrared transmissions, the solid blocks
of time where the light or pulse exists is represented by a flashing LED
rather than a full on LED where the frequency of the flashing is usually
in the range of 30kHz to 50kHz, so that's 30 to 50 thousand flashes a
second. This is done to save power at the transmitter and to make
the receiver more effective by blocking out other frequencies. Now let's
see what the CU-P0069 does. All the following traces are produced
just by connecting the oscilloscope probe to the output LED of the
handset. To the left, the scope is zoomed in on the carrier pulses
that are inside a single block of the transmission and as you can see,
there are exactly two pulses for each division on the grid and those
divisions represent 50uS each. So that means that each pulse is 25uS
in length which is 0.000025 of a second. 1 second divided by
0.000025 gives 40,000 pulses for 1 second so the carrier frequency is
40kHz.
Now
if we zoom in even more on a couple of the pulses we can see that the
pulse fills about 2/5 of the time of the entire cycle so this means that
the duty cycle is about 40%. Also as you can see, the falling edge
of the pulse drops sharply to start with and then falls more slowly.
This is due to the conductive characteristic of the LED and other parts of
the circuit where as the voltage drops, conduction falls off after the
voltage has dropped by about half. A 50% duty cycle gives the best
efficiency and the Pioneer receivers will work with almost any duty cycle
from 30 to 70%. Also in the scope trace to the left, you can see
that I have marked the beginning of the two consecutive pulses with the
green curser line and the scope confirms that f= 40.00kHz by marking the
beginning of each pulse.
Now
lets zoom out and look at a complete frame of the protocol pattern.
At this zoom level (10mS per division on the grid) the 40kHz carrier looks
like a solid block of white as the 40kHz pulses are so close together.
You can see that there are three main sections to the complete frame.
1. At the start there is a big block followed by a gap. This section
is called the leader.
So
here we see that the custom code is A2 for all the buttons and this
appears to be the case for all Pioneer CD player remote controls.
Laserdisc players are Custom Code A8, DVD players A3, Soundfield
processors A0, Amplifiers A5, Tuners A4, Tape Decks A1, Video Recorders AB etc. Now you would think that would be enough
right? I can just imagine the CEO of Pioneer Electronics sitting in
his big office with a wall full of stereo gear and the desk covered with
remote controls. Well apparently, 256 Custom Codes and 256 Data
Codes giving 65,536 buttons total are just not enough! While the
small and simple Pioneer CU-P0069 has just one Custom Code and one Data
Code per button, some Pioneer equipment actually use macro's of combined
NEC format remote control frames for just one button press. For
example, the 1 button on a 
Most
Pioneer equipment has a bus that can be connected from unit to unit that
is called SR, short for System Remote and is marked CONTROL IN and OUT as
shown to the left. This enables several units to be connected
together and operated from a common receiver. Not all Pioneer
equipment has this connector, like the UK market PD-F100 CD Changer or the
SP-700D Soundfield Processor for example, but most do. This is
simply a TTL +5V rail supplied by the receiving end (CONTROL IN).
The sending end (CONTROL OUT) pulls this rail down to 0V (GND) with pulses
that are the same as the NEC protocol described above except that the
pulses are unmodulated, that is there is no 40kHz carrier inside each
pulse, its just a solid period of 0V. So the pull down sequence looks
just like the red patterns shown in the Complete Frame Transmission section
above except that it is inverted where the top of the pattern (resting part)
would be +5V and the bottom (pulse part) would be 0V as shown below.
Note that
the tip pin of the CONTROL jack plug is the SR bus pin and the ground connection
between the units needs to be made with an audio ground from the LINE
IN/OUT connectors. The sleeve connection on the jack plug is used
for connecting digital audio between players that support it. From
this it can be seen that it would be quite easy to interface a computer
directly to the bus although as I mentioned above, as not all Pioneer
equipment has this connector and other manufacturers all have their own
scheme (or nothing at all),
