Overview

For Fullscreen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtFbPD3PEWY&t=1s

This tutorial will show you how to use the infrared service with the Quantum system.

What is the Infrared Service?

The infrared service is a collection of IR codes that can be utilized with it’s corresponding service object in the app builder to send specific codes out of an IR emitter in order to control countless IR devices like TVs, media centers, ac units and much more. With the Quantum Platform instead of having to scour the internet for specific IR codes that many manufacturers neglect to release to the public or spend the money on IR hex code reader the service stores IR codes from a variety of sources including irdb, one of the largest crowdsource manufacturer independent databases of infrared remote control codes on the web.

Build the Circuits

We will start by connecting a simple IR emitter to one Builder Base and a push button to another.

The used IR emitter comes with our Component Kit. As you can see it has a emitter on top that is connected to a pcb with a 10k resistor and three pin headers. One for the signal, one for five volts and one ground pin.

Pair the Builder Base

From the home screen of your Q-Server go to Clients on the left side. Click on the “Unpaired” tab.

Connect the Builder Bases, which are connected to the button and the IR emitter, to your Q-Server. If you don’t know which client is connected to which hardware, simply click on the three dots below ‘Action' and then click on 'Identify’. The Builder Base should blink double green.

Now again click on the three dots below ‘Action’ of the right Client and click on “Edit”.

Name your client and also set a Location, where the client is used then it is easier for you to determine which client is which later on. Then hit “Save”.

Build the Firmware Files

Head to the Firmware tab of your Q-Server and click on “+ Create New” to start a new firmware file.

Give it a name so you remember your files. We named it “IR Emitter”. Once you finished that we can add hardware to our firmware file. Simply click on the IR Emitter firmware and then on “+ Add Hardware”.

You can now search for the ir emitter by typing in the search bar or scrolling down until you find it.

We named it accordingly to the firmware “IR Emitter”. After naming click “Add Hardware”. Next select the drop down menu for it.

Now we have to edit the hardware. For the driver we choose the “IR Emitter” since we are using a IR emitter and for the pin we are choosing “GP0”. If you connected your IR emitter to a different pin then you have to choose that one.

After that click on the three dots and hit “Upload”. Select the Client that is connected to the IR emitter hardware and then upload the firmware.

Once the firmware file is uploading we are going to create another firmware file for the Client that is connected to the push button. We named it “Pushbutton”

Now we add a button hardware to the firmware file like we did before with the IR emitter hardware.

Once you added the hardware we are going to edit it. For the Driver select “GPIO”, the connected pin is “GP0”, debounce to “Enabled” and since one corner of the button is connected to 3.3V of the Builder Base we are using a “Input Pull Down” circuit.