The iRX 2.2 ...where atoms meet bits

...[back]

Robert D. Poor
MIT Media Laboratory
January, 1999

Corrections/Additions: Ari Y. Benbasat -- Feb. 2001

The need for "Digital Glue"

At the MIT Media Lab, we constantly explore new metaphors for interconnecting the physical world and the digital realm. We monitor heart rates for affective computing, display the latest stock quotes for individuals, create new sensors for electronic tags, and build LEGO toys that respond to voice commands. Each of these activities binds some physical process or action to a corresponding digital expression.

To simplify this process of binding "atoms" to "bits," the Personal Information Architecture group has created a simple interface device named the "iRX 2.2." The iRX is a circuit card measuring 1.25" × 3" with an RS-232 serial port, a visible LED, an infrared LED, and an infrared detector. At the heart of the board is the PIC16F84A, a nifty little microcontroller made by Microchip Technologies, Inc. The PIC16F84A features thirteen general I/O ports, instruction cycle times of 200 nSec. and an efficient RISC-like instruction set. The iRX 2.1 uses five of the PIC's I/O ports; the remaining eight ports are available for user applications. The total cost of the iRX 2.1 is under $20 US when built in modest quantities.

About this Document

This document is written primarily for anyone who wants to create an interface using the iRX 2.2. It is also useful for anyone who wants to understand the process of developing applications for microcontrollers in general, and for Microchip PIC processors in particular.

Here's what you'll find in this document:

Section 1 offers some ideas of the kinds of interfaces you could build using the iRX 2.2 and gives an overview of the development process.
Section 2 gives a guided tour of the iRX 2.2 board, and includes the board layout, the schematic, and a detailed description of each major component on the board.
Section 3 tells you everything you'll need to know to build your own iRX 2.2 board, including a detailed Bill of Materials for the board and fabrication hints.
Section 4 details the process of designing and programming the iRX 2.2 board.
Section 5 offers some debugging techniques and programming tips.
Appendix A contains a panoply of related WEB links.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges help, support and inspiration from the following people. Fred Martin, Brian Silverman and members of Mitch Resnick's Epistemology and Learning Group introduced me to PIC chips and IR emitters and detectors. The design of the iRX 2.1 owes much to the Interface Cricket, one of the many members of the Cricket family designed by Fred and others.

Pushpinder Singh and the MIT Robotics and Electronic Cooperative kept things moving through the formative stage of the iRX board. Push volunteered many of his hours to teach our group about PICs and his design for a PIC-based "chord keyboard" helped shape the physical design of the first iRX boards.

Randy Sargent provided me with lots of software tools (PIC simulator, Gerber to Postscript converter), code examples, and general inspiration.

Encouragement and help from past and present members of the Personal Information Architecture group--especially from professor Mike Hawley, colleagues Maria Redin, Steve Gray, Manish Tuteja and John Underkoffler--has made this a fun project.

The first iRX boards were built in April of 1996. Since that time, hundreds of iRX boards have been built and put into various forms of service. Some iRX boards found their way to the top of Mount Everest, others have been stuffed inside plush toys, glued under ping-pong tables, suspended from florescent lights, and one was even concealed in an office chair as part of a "digital whoopee cushion." The author would like to thank everyone, both at the Media Lab and beyond, who has contributed to the success of the iRX project.

`1.0`

Overview

What you get out of the iRX 2.2 depends on what you put into it. It's unlikely that there will be any "pre-canned" configurations that exactly suits your needs--you will generally need to add custom hardware on the board and create a PIC program specifically for your application. But that's the fun part of the process!

To give you a taste of what's possible with a PIC and iRX board, here are some projects that people have created using the iRX 2.2 (or should have created):

A serial "TV Remote" interface. The iRX board can be programmed to convert between serial data and the "Sony IR" remote protocol, allowing your computer to control your stereo system, and allowing you to control your computer with a TV Remote control.
An autonomous weather station. The PIC measures temperature (via a thermistor), windspeed (counting pulses on a tachometer), and direction (via digital shaft encoder) and transmits the data over a wireless link to a host system.
An Ultrasonic Ranging device (see Microchip application note AN597). The PIC is sufficiently fast to generate outgoing pulses and measure the results accurately.
A MIDI <=> Serial interface converter. The PIC can be programmed to behave as a dual UART with baud rate conversion with buffering. The addition of a photo-isolator would make a complete interface.

Overview of the Development Process

This section briefly describes the steps you'll need to take to create your very own iRX application.

Ready...

The first step is to make sure you have all the materials at hand. You'll need both some hardware and some software:

Acquire one or more iRX 2.2 boards. Section 3 gives you information on how to fabricate the iRX 2.2 PC boards, where to purchase the required components, and how to assemble your own boards.
Acquire a PIC C compiler. At $100 per license, the PCM compiler from Custom Computing Software (CCS) is an excellent bargain. Any code examples in this document presume the use of the PCM compiler.
Obtain a PIC programmer. The PICSTART Plus programmer from Microchip is available from DigiKey and is upgraded regularly to support the newest PIC chips. Examples in this document presume that you're using a PICSTART plus.
Obtain a copy of MPLAB. MPLAB is an integrated development environment from Microchip. It includes a text editor, assembler, simulator, and (most importantly) the drivers for the PICSTART Plus PIC programmer. Best of all, you can download it from the WEB free of charge.

Set...

It's unlikely that there's any pre-canned firmware for the PIC and iRX 2.1 that will do exactly what you want. Usually, you'll need to write a program for the PIC (or perhaps modify an existing one). In many cases, you'll also be adding components or wires to the iRX 2.1 board.

Don't be shy; the iRX was designed to be modified!

Understand the fundamentals of the PIC architecture. Appendix A has pointers to the Microchip site, where you can find detailed data sheets on the PIC16F84.
Find related firmware. Perhaps someone has already created something similar to what you need. There are three rich sources of firmware: the Microchip Application Notes (but those are written in assembly), the PCM C Compiler example directories, and the iRX 2.2 firmware directory. Consult these resources first; it can save you lots of time.
Decide on what modifications, if any, you must make to your iRX board.Section 4 details the features and differences of the various I/O pins available.

Go...

Creating and downloading code for the PIC is a five step process, described in the picture and in the text below.

[img: foo.c->CCS PCM->foo.hex->MPLAB->PICSTART Plus->PIC->iRX] Figure 1: The development process

Write your program using your favorite text editor or the editor included in Microchip's MPLAB. Generally, you'll write your program in C. In exceptional cases, you may write your program in assembly code.
Compile your program. Normally, you'll use the MPLAB environment to invoke the CCS PCM compiler. PCM will compile your C code into a .hex file. If you've written assembly code, MPLAB will assemble your .asm file into a .hex file.
Program a PIC16F84A by downloading the .hex file (using MPLAB) to the PIC programmer.
Run your application. Insert the PIC into an iRX board, power it up, and watch it run. If it runs, hooray! If it doesn't run, go to the next step.
(Oops.) Debug your application. Section 4 offers tips and techniques for debugging.


`2.0`	Guided Tour of the iRX 2.2 This section describes the layout and schematic of the iRX 2.2. It will show you where each component is located, and describes what each component does. Figure 2 shows the layout of the components on the iRX 2.2 board, Figure 3 is the schematic for the board. 2.1 Layout of the iRX 2.2

	Figure 2: Layout of the iRX 2.2 board Note that this layout is slightly out of date and needs to be corrected. The microprocessor is a PIC16F84A, the resonator is 20 MHz, and the RC low pass on the voltage source of the IR receiver is not shown. 2.2 Schematic of the iRX 2.2 Figure 3: Schematic of the iRX 2.2 board 2.3 Component Description 2.3.1 J1: DC Power Jack The DC power jack is a standard 20 mm barrel connector. You can plug a 9V "wall wart" power supply into it (center pin positive), or you can wire a plug onto a 9V battery cable and power the iRX 2.1 from a standard 9V battery. The regulator on the board is fairly forgiving, and the circuit will probably work if you provide anything between 7 volts and 15 volts DC. 2.3.2 J2: Serial I/O Jack The serial I/O jack, J4, is a telephone-style RJ-11 "modular jack". Figure 4 shows how you can use a standard telephone cable and an RJ11 to DB9F adaptor to connect the iRX to the serial port on a computer. Figure 4: Serial I/O port and cable Look carefully at the order of the connections on J4 compared to the order on the RJ11 to DB9F connector -- they're the same! Why doesn't this end up connecting the iRX serial output directly to the computer's serial output (rather than to the input)? This is because a standard telephone cable has a "twist" in it, so the connections are mirrored from one end to the other. If you follow the connection from TxD on the iRX side, you'll see it connects to RxD on the host computer side. The "twist" in the telephone cable also makes it possible to hook two iRX boards together directly without creating a special "null modem" cable. In some cases, it's possible to steal enough power from the host computer's DTR and RTS modem control lines to power the PIC and run the iRX board without a battery or external power supply. To take advantage of this, you must use a 6-pin modular cable and connect the DTR and RTS lines as indicated by the gray lines in Figure 4. But there are several caveats. First, not all computers have enough drive in their serial ports to drive all PIC boards. Secondly, the controlling application on the host computer must hold DTR and RTS high. Your mileage may vary. 2.3.3 J4: PIC I/O Ports J4 on the circuit board isn't really a connector, it's just a row of ten holes that provide access to power, ground, and the PIC's I/O ports. You can solder a "SIP socket" into these ten holes if you want a simple means to temporarily connect wires and components to your iRX board. The layout of J4 appears as follows (and is also printed on the circuit board). A description of the characteristics of each I/O is in Section 4. Figure 5: J4: I/O Ports 2.3.4 J5, J6: Ground and Power To the left of the prototype area on the circuit board are two columns of holes. All of the holes in the left column are connected to +5 volts, all the holes in the right column are connected to ground. Figure 6: J5, J6: Power and Ground 2.3.5 D1, D2, D3: Power Collecting Diodes D1, D2, and D3 are three Schottky diodes (1N5817). D1 connects to J1 (the DC input jack), D2 and D3 connect to the serial port, and can be driven from modem control lines from your computer's serial port. The diodes serve two purposes. First, they protect the circiut: if you connect the DC supply backwards, nothing bad will happen. Second, these diodes serve as a "power or" circuit: you can supply a voltage through the DC jack OR through the serial connector; the iRX board will get the power wherever it can. 2.3.6 U1: 78L05 voltage regulator The voltage regulator on the iRX board is a garden variety +5V linear regulator. Depending on the exact model, it will accept voltages as low as 6.5 volts and as high as 15 volts and produce a clean +5 volts for the devices on the iRX board. 2.3.7 U2: MAX233 RS232 Level Converter The MAXIM MAX233 chip converts between "TTL levels" (0 to +5 volts) of the PIC and "RS232 levels" (+9 to -9 volts) of the serial line. The magic of the MAXIM chip is that it does this conversion with a single +5 V supply; oscillators and charge pumps internal to the chip generate the required + and - 9 volts. The price of this magic is in power consumption: the MAX233 consumes about 5mA whether or not serial data is being sent or received. If your application doesn't require serial I/O and you're concerned about power consumption, simply omit this chip when you're building the board. 2.3.8 U3: PIC16F84A The PIC is the heart of the board. It's a programmable microcontroller with 1K words of program memory and 68 bytes of general purpose RAM. It has 13 general purpose I/O ports. On the iRX board, five of these ports are dedicated (Serial In, Serial Out, Infrared Receive, Infrared LED, RED LED). You can use the remaining eight ports for anything you wish. 2.3.9 U4: Sharp IS1U20 IrDA receiver The Sharp IS1U20 is an IrDA-compliant infrared receiver. When it detects IR, it outputs a low signal. You can write code for the PIC to decode IrDA signals (such as sent by laptops and PDAs) or many other IR communication protocols. 2.3.10 L1: Infrared LED The infrared LED cited in the bill of materials has a wavelength of 940 nM and a 40 degree dispersion pattern. You can use an IR LED with a narrower pattern (e.g. 20 degrees) for applications that need a longer range. As an aside, note that the IrDA specifications calls for a wavelength of 850 to 900 nM. DigiKey doesn't carry any infrared LED emitters in that range, and the 940 nM LED we use seems to work passably well. 2.3.11 L2: RED LED The Red LED is any garden variety LED. It's typically used simply as a status indicator (e.g. flash upon startup), so it doesn't even need to be red. 2.3.12 Y1: 20MHz Ceramic Resonator A ceramic resonator is like a crystal oscillator, only it's slightly less accurate and considerably less expensive. This particular part has the built-in capacitors required to make it oscillate properly. Resonators with other frequencies are available, but 20MHz was chosen since it's the maximum specified frequency for the PIC16F84A.

`3.0`

Building an iRX 2.2

This section details the process of building complete iRX 2.2 boards from scratch:

Fabricate the iRX PC boards
Purchase the components
Solder the components onto the PC board

3.1 Fabricate the iRX PC Boards

Since you can't simply go to Radio Shack and purchase an iRX 2.2 (yet), you'll have to have the Printed Circuit (PC) Boards fabricated by a PC Board fabrication shop. Be warned: a shop will charge almost as much to make one printed circuit board as to make 100. When possible, pool your orders to make as many iRX boards as possible at once.

3.1.1 Choose a PC Board Fabrication shop

There are many companies that will fabricate PC boards directly from machine-readable design files. See Appendix A for a short list of places that have been recommended.

3.1.2 Send the PC Board design files

The design files for the iRX 2.2 can be found in the design files directory. For PC Board fabrication, the most important file is irx2_2.zip, a single ZIP file that contains all the files a PC Board Fabrication shop will need to make the boards:

File name	Description
irx2_2.gtl	Gerber format: Top ("component") side traces
irx2_2.gbl	Gerber format, Bottom ("solder") side traces
irx2_2.gts	Gerber format, Top side solder mask
irx2_2.gbs	Gerber format, Bottom side solder mask
irx2_2.gto	Gerber format: Top side silk screen
irx2_2.gko	Gerber format, Board outline
irx2_2.txt	NC drill file
irx2_2.drr	"Drill report" (indicates drill sizes) for NC drill file

Contents of irx2_1pc.zip

For most fabrication shops, all you need to do is send them the ZIP file and a README.TXT file. The README.TXT tells the fabrication shop the particulars of your order - usually just the names of the files and what format/layer they are (as above). Normally, you'll send the files via e-mail or by uploading them on a modem line.

In a week or two, you should receive your boards. In the meantime, you can purchase the components.

3.2 Purchasing the components

All of the components, with the exception of the infrared detector and the printed circuit board itself, are available from Digi-Key, a mail-order electronics part supplier. While Digi-Key is not always the cheapest, they have a large selection, take telephone credit card orders, and will get you your parts the next day via FedEx. If you have more time than money on your hands, you may be able to shop around and get a better price on some of the parts shown here.

The following lists detail the parts require to build 100 iRX 2.2 boards. The first list specifies components that go on the circuit board. The second list shows ancillary components that are generally useful for complete iRX projects, but are not always required.

When possible, I've shown Digi-Key's part numbers and prices (as of February 2001).

A more detailed list of parts and alternatives are spelled out in this iRX 2.1 Bill of Materials Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel format).

ref	description	Digi-Key #	quan	price/100	ext price	comment
C1, C2	Cap, 22uF 16V Electrolytic	P814	200	$13.33	$26.66	Any cap >= 10uF and >=16V
C3, C4	Cap, .1uF 20V Ceramic	1210PHCT	100	$8.29	$8.29	Any cap >.1 uF and >10V
D1-D3	1N5817 Schottky Diode	1N5817CT	300	$21.60	$64.80	Only need 1 diode if serial is omitted
J1	DC Jack	CP-002A	100	$25.40	$25.40
J2	AMP RJ12 Jack, Low-Profile	A9031	100	$65.96	$65.96
L1	Infrared LED	160-1061	100	$20.00	$20.00	Substitute visible LED (e.g. green) if IR not used.
L2	Red LED	160-1078	100	$7.80	$7.80	Just about any LED will suffice
R1,R2,R4	Resistor, 100 Ohm, 1/8W, 5%	100QBK	300	$1.95	$5.85
R3	Resistor, 10K Ohm, 1/8W, 5%	10KQBK	100	$1.95	$1.95
U1	Voltage Regulator (5V)	ZR78L05C	100	$48.60	$48.60	provides 200 mA, see below for substitutes
U2	MAX233 RS232 Transceiver	MAX233CPP	100	$360.00	$360.00	Omit if serial I/O not needed.
U3	18 pin DIP socket	AE7218	100	$66.57	$66.57
U3	Microchip PIC16F84A, 20MHz	PIC16F84A-20/P	100	$359.00	$359.00	Can substitute other 18pin PICs, e.g. PIC16C71
Y1	Resonator, 20 MHz, w/caps	X909	100	$54.00	$54.00
U4	Sharp IS1U20 IR Receiver	--na--	100	$220.00	$220.00	Currently deprecated
	Printed Circuit Board	--na--	100	$350.00	$350.00	See WEB site for suppliers

Bill of Materials for iRX PC Board

description	Digi-Key #	quan	price/100	ext price	Comment
9V DC adaptor ("wall wart")	T402	100	$351.92	$351.92	Omit if you use battery
2.1 mm DC Plug	CP-004A	100	$43.00	$43.00	Omit if you use wall wart
9V battery cable	BS6I-HD	100	$28.00	$28.00	Omit if you use wall wart
9V battery	P145	108	$139.86	$139.86	Omit if you use wall wart
RJ11 cable, 7'	H1663-07	100	$188.73	$188.73	6 position, 6 conductor (includes modem control)
RJ11 to DB9F serial adaptor	046-0003	100	$288.75	$288.75	Modular to DB9 connector
Voltage Regulator (5V)	LM2931Z-5.0	100	$30.00	$30.00	Low-Dropout, Substitute for U1
78L05 voltage regulator	LM78L05ACZ	100	$16.50	$16.50	or NJM78L05A, substitute for U1

Auxiliary Components for the iRX

3.3 Soldering the components onto the PC board

Soldering the components onto the iRX board isn't difficult. Assuming you've already had basic experience with soldering, here are some hints:

The only components that don't care which way they're inserted are the resistors (R1, R2, R3, R4), the ceramic capacitors (C3, C4), and the ceramic resonator (Y1). For all others, use the silk screen printed on the board as a guide. Note that for each LED and electrolytic capacitor, the longer wire goes in the hole marked with a '+'.

To keep components from falling out while you're soldering others (since you have to flip the board over to solder the leads) work from the "shortest" to the "tallest" components in the following order:

Resistors (R1, R2, R3, R4), the ceramic capacitors (C3, C4), the diodes (D1, D2, D3), the power and ground test points (TP1, TP2).
The LEDs (L1, L2), the 18 pin DIP socket (U3) the MAX233 chip (U2), the voltage regulator (U1) and IR detector (U4).
The ceramic resonator (Y1), the DC Jack (J1).
Electolytic capacitors (C1, C2) and the RJ11 Jack (J2).

The test leads TP1 and TP2 are simply little wire loops, but they're useful when it comes time to debug the board since they give you a handy place to connect oscilliscope probes. To make the wire loops, take two pieces of leftover lead wire clipped from a resistor or capacitor, bend them in the jaws of needle nose pliers to form a .1" rectangular loops. They should look something like this when you're done:

[image of test points]

In the picture above, notice how the Red LED faces "up" and the infrared LED's leads are bent so it faces "forward." This way, the infrared LED "speaks" in the same direction that the infrared receiver "listens".

Be careful not to overheat the sensitive components during soldering, especially the voltage regulator (U1), the IR detector (U4), and the MAX233 (U2).

`4.0`

Developing an Application

The steps towards creating your PIC application are straightforward and have been outlined in Section 2. In this section, we jump into the details.

4.1 Not all I/O Ports are created Equal

The PIC16F84 has thirteen ports: RA0 - RA4 and RB0 - RB7. Of these, the iRX 2.2 "reserves" RB0 - RB3 and RB5 for serial and optical inputs and outputs. (Note: you can still use RB0,RB2 and RB4 if you're willing to give up optical inputs and outputs) Some ports have particular traits that may make them more or less suited for your particular application. The following table summarizes the differences; for the full scoop, consult the Microchip data sheets.

Except as noted, all ports support TTL levels and are bi-directional under program control.

Table 3. Summary of I/O ports on PIC16F84
Port	Reserved For	Traits
RA0	(available)
RA1	(available)
RA2	(available)
RA3	(available)
RA4	(available)	Schmitt Trigger input, Open collector output (needs 5K resistor to Vcc to use as an output), can be programmed to be input to TMR0 clock
RB0	IR In	can be programmed for external interrupt (INTF)
RB1	Serial Out
RB2	Red LED Out
RB3	IR LED Out
RB4	(available)	can be programmed for interrupt on change (RBIF)
RB5	Serial In	can be programmed for interrupt on change (RBIF)
RB6	(available)	can be programmed for interrupt on change (RBIF)
RB7	(available)	can be programmed for interrupt on change (RBIF)

The iRX 2.2 board leaves Port A entirely untouched. This was a conscious decision, making it possible to substitute other 18-pin PIC chips, such as the PIC16C71. The PIC16C71 isn't an EEPROM device, but it does have a four-channel A/D converter.

4.2 C versus Assembly code

Whenever possible, program in C instead of in assembly language. You'll find the development and maintenance of firmware programs to be much faster and easier. However, there are some times when you may still need to program in assembly:

Time critical applications, where you must be able to account for every cycle. In general, you can't rely on what code the C compiler will generate nor what run-time support code will be run in the course of execution.
Code critical applications. The C compiler can't assume much about the state of ports and registers, so it generates some extra code in the name of saving and restoring state.

In all of my PIC programming experience, I've never had the need to write the entire program in assembly. I've always found it better to write the bulk of my code in C and to use the #asm construct where required.

The moral: think three times before you decide you need to write in assembly code!

4.3 PIC C Compilers

We use PCM, a C compiler by Custom Computer Services. For $99 for a single license or $50/user for a site license, it's a good deal. Contact and purchasing info can be found in Appendix A.

4.4 PIC Assemblers

We use MPASM, the free PIC assembler from Microchip. It's a DOS-only application, but has proven to be robust and reliable. Randy Sargent also has a free Unix-based PIC assembler named picasm. See Appendix A for where to find them.

4.5 PIC Simulators

A PIC simulator lets you step through your program, set breakpoints, examine registers; all those things you can't do with a real chip. I've used the simulator built into MPLAB with good results.

Randy Sargent has written picsim, a PIC simulator that runs under Unix. Consult Appendix A for where to find them.

4.6 Burning your program into the PIC

Though there are many PIC programmers available, we've settled on the PICSTART Plus programmer from Microchip. You can purchase it via Digi-Key (Universities should ask for the educational discount), and Microchip is good about providing upgrades for the programmer as they introduce new chips.

The easiest way to download your program into the PIC is through the PICSTART Plus menus found in MPLAB.

`5.0`

Debugging Tips & Techniques

Following is a random collection of tips, techniques, art and lore. Your mileage may vary. Press down while turning. Void where prohibited.

5.1 First principles

When you write your program, you should always make the Red LED flash briefly upon startup, just to indicate that the chip is alive and running.

So assume you've written your program, compiled and loaded the code, and powered up your iRX. And the LED doesn't flash. Now what?

Are you getting power? Measure with an oscilliscope between the V+ test point and GND test point. You should see a clean +5 volts. If not, make sure that the PIC is inserted correctly: the "dimple" (indicating pin 1) should be pointing towards 10K resistor at the "top" of the board.
Is the PIC's oscillator running? Look between ground and pin 15 on the PIC using a 10x oscilliscope probe. (The impedance of a 1x probe is sufficiently small to kill the oscillations.) If you don't see a 20MHz waveform, did you remember to configure the programming fuses for an "HS" oscillator type"?

5.2 Debugging

Program all unused I/O pins to be outputs. This way, you can set the state of a particular I/O pin to be TRUE when you enter a routine and FALSE when you leave it. At the very least, this practice, along with an oscilloscope, can give you confirmation that a particular piece of code is being executed.
Make the board do something visible or audible at startup. In the case of the iRX 2.0, consider turning on the Red LED for a good 500 mSec or longer after completing the initialization sequence and before starting the main program. This can save you lots of time in the heat of battle.
If you're using the RTCC to generate regular interrupts, set an unused output pin to TRUE when entering the interrupts routine and FALSE when leaving it. Monitor the pin with an oscilliscope: the distance between pulses tells you the rate at which you're getting interrupts and the width of the pulses tells you the percentage time you're spending in the interrupts. Are you getting interrupts at the rate you expect? Does the duration of the interrupt exceed the desired interrupt period?

5.3 Programming Tips

Putting the PIC into SLEEP mode reduces its current draw from a nominal 5 mA down to about 5 uA. You can wake from a sleep either from a Watch Dog Timer interrupt or from an external interrupt (ports RB0 or RB4-7). This savings is especially significant if you're running the iRX 2.2 off a battery. Note, however, that the MAXIM chip draws a significant amount of current, regardless of load.

The iRX 2.2 ...where atoms meet bits

The need for "Digital Glue"

About this Document

Acknowledgements

1.0

Overview

Overview of the Development Process

Ready...

Set...

Go...

2.0

Guided Tour of the iRX 2.2

2.1 Layout of the iRX 2.2

2.2 Schematic of the iRX 2.2

2.3 Component Description

2.3.1 J1: DC Power Jack

2.3.2 J2: Serial I/O Jack

2.3.3 J4: PIC I/O Ports

2.3.4 J5, J6: Ground and Power

2.3.5 D1, D2, D3: Power Collecting Diodes

2.3.6 U1: 78L05 voltage regulator

2.3.7 U2: MAX233 RS232 Level Converter

2.3.8 U3: PIC16F84A

2.3.9 U4: Sharp IS1U20 IrDA receiver

2.3.10 L1: Infrared LED

2.3.11 L2: RED LED

2.3.12 Y1: 20MHz Ceramic Resonator

3.0