Date: Thu, 27 Jun 96 21:14 +0100 From: U.Hornstein@t-online.de (Hornstein) Subject: TCD-D8 Remote Control on a PC Hi DAT-heads, These days I built a remote control for the Sony DAT TCD-D8. It requires an electrical interface and the famous SIRCS.EXE program from Heiko Purnhagen. It has been a great experience to see the D8 being operated from the PC keyboard. The main advantage is the ability to edit and renumber the start IDs without the Sony Remote controls. THANK YOU, Heiko, for your great program SIRCS.EXE. Before buying the necessary materials for the interface I thought it would be better to have no electrical connection between the D8 and the computer. Therefore I designed an interface with an optical coupler. It works flawlessly and I propose to use it instead of Heikos "simple interface". To have all necessary data available in this mail, I include some details from Heikos posting. Serial Interface Connector ========================== D25 D9 in/out signal 1 - - FG Frame Ground 2 3 O TD Transmit Data 3 2 I RD Receive Data 4 7 O RTS Request to Send 5 8 I CTS Clear to Send 6 6 I DSR Data Set Ready 7 5 - SG Signal Ground 8 1 I DCD Data Carrier Detected 20 4 O DTR Data Terminal Ready 22 9 I RI Ring Indicator +3V..+12V = active = space = 0 -3V..-12V = inactive = mark = 1 The TCD-D7/D8 7-pin connector ============================== PIN FUNCTION 1 transmit (SPDIF out, CMOS levels provided) 2 +4V/+5V regulated 3 dig/ana (connect to ground for "dig in") 4 POWTRG (unregulated power ???) 5 receive (SPDIF in, CMOS levels required) 6 ground 7 "sircs" (Serial Infrared Remote Control) shield ground PINOUT (as seen from outside the D7) 1 2 3 4 +---------+ | o o o o | | o o o / +-------- 5 6 7 NOTES: - I suppose the D3 to have the same pinout on its 7-pin connector. - While runnig from the mains (without batteries), I measured +4.2V at pin 2 and +5.2V at pin 4. - Pin 1 (tx) has full CMOS level (0V / 4.2V). - Both inputs (pin 5 and pin 7) are internally pulled down to 0V. Both inputs have a input resistance above 20 kOhm. - There is a kind of random digital pulse pattern (min. pulse length 10 ms) on pin 3 (with a source resistance of about 500 Ohm). You have to connect pin 3 to ground with a resistor of less than 50 kOhm to get "dig in" instead of "ana in". Optically Insulated Interface from PC COMxx to Sony TCD-D8 7-pin connector ========================================================================== D8 connector +-----------o # 2 +4V/+5V | | R 10 kOhm R PC serial (D25) | 470 Ohm | RTS (pin 4) o---RRR------+ +-----------o # 7 sircs pin1| |pin5 | | A -> C K -> E | | | | SG (pin 7) o------------+ +-----------o # 6 ground pin2 pin4 CNY17 or similar PINOUT of CNY 17 (optical coupler): +-----_-----+ 1 -| A B |- 6 2 -| K C |- 5 3 -| (nc) E |- 4 +-----------+ LED photo- transistor current transfer ratio: I_C/I_D = 0.2 .. 0.5 BE aware that this circuit is inverting, which means, you must operate Heikos SIRCS.EXE in the "Transmit active high" mode. Mechanical setup of the interface ================================= was easy and fast (1 hour): I got a plasic housing 4.5cm x 5.5cm x 1.5cm, intended to hold two D25 jacks on two opposite ends. One D25 jack is inserted for the serial cable from the PC, the other side I filled with a epoxy plate, trimmed to size, as the "front" of the housing. As a provisional D8 connector I used 0.5mm copper wire with shaped ends. Eventually I will build later a connector like Heiko has done it. Side view: plastic housing | | V +--------------------------+ | | | | 3x wire | RR CNY17 +---------@|---------------> to D8 connector +-> | ===PCB=======+= | | | | <-- epoxy plate | +--------------------------+ | D25 jack @ = knot in cable as pull-protection The housing has enough space to hold a small PCB for the circuit above. The space is sufficient to hold Heikos digital coax i/o S/P-DIF circuit as well. Two RCA-jacks for digital in/out and a digital/analog switch will also fit onto the epoxy plate. So I ended up with a neat small box containing SIRCS interface coaxial S/P-DIF input coaxial S/P-DIF output. Mnemonic Key Layout for TCD-D8 ============================== In order to make the operation of the D8 from the PC-keyboard a little smoother, I wished to have mnemonic keys for the often used functions. So I rearranged them, which actually took longer than building the interface! I omitted some obscure functions, the use of which are unknown to me. Here is a printout of the SIRCS.EXE screen with the new layout: filename ? tcdd8.sny device = Sony DAT TCD-D8 V1.0 uHornstein 26.06.1996 62 keys loaded number of message transmissions (typ. 3) (0=quit) ? 2 0:0 1:1 2:2 3:3 4:4 5:5 6:6 7:7 8:8 9:9 a:pAuse b:Back (rew) c:Cue,fast wh play d:ams- (Down) e: f:FFwd g: h: i: j: k: l:Light (on/off) m:record Mute n: o: p:Play q:clear r:Record s:Stop t: u:ams+ (Up) v:reView,fast whil w: x: y: z: A:A-time B:Back+play C:Counter D:vol- (Down) E:Erase start-id F: G: H: I:clk/date present J:clk/date recorde K:clK/date toggle L: M: N:reNumber O:Open P: Q:counter reset R:Record-start S:Scan ams+/ams- T: U:vol+ (Up) V: W:Write start-id X:auto-id on/off Y:toggle cntr mode Z:remain cntr mode to quit Easy launch of SIRCS.EXE ======================== I found the use of a DOS keyboard stuffing program like fake.com very helpful in operating Heikos SIRCS.EXE. It can be found in any BBS. My batch reads: rem by uHornstein Don 20.06.1996 fake "1" 13 "0" 13 "1" 13 "7" 13 "tcdd8.sny" 13 "2" 13 rem com rxAct txAct file name #repeats sircs Running this batch, I get immediately the D8 remote control keyboard layout on my PC screen. Be sure to change the "1" representing "COM 1" to the COM # that you are using for the SIRCS interface. Disclaimer ========== Everyone is welcome to build a remote control him-/herself in the same or other manner. Of course, all usual disclaimers apply - you have to build and operate such a DIY remote control completely at your own risc! No guarantee whatsoever! Details about the remote control signal format used by Sony, a list of remote control messages that are understood by the D7/D8, as well as further information (or to download the software SIRCS.EXE), can be found at "http://www.fet.uni-hannover.de/purnhage/dat/dat.html". Eventually, Victor Yiu will also include these things in his D7/D8 Resource Guide on "http://www.psl-online.com/member/vyiu/d7.html". Happy DATing Greetings from Freiburg, Germany June 26, 1996 Ulrich Hornstein, u.hornstein@t-online.de