CONSTRUCTION

Remotely Programmable
RTC-Interfaced Microcontroller
for Multiple Device Control
RAJA GOPAL AKELLA pressed at the remote control. This bit ally to the same type of coding with-
is used to identify whether the button out any disturbance, i.e., one among

T
his project based on Atmel is really pressed or whether an obstacle the 64 devices can be identified
AT89C52 and Dallas real-time- came in between the IR path of the uniquely. Addresses of some of the
clock (RTC) chip DS12887 can remote and the IR receiver. remotes are shown in Table III.
be used to control and remotely pro- The five bits (A4 through A0) im- The six bits (C5 through C0) im-
gram the switching operation of 24 mediately following the toggle bit are mediately following the five address
electrically operated devices. The de- used to identify the device (see Table bits are the control/command bits.
vices can be switched on/off at pre- III). So, a maximum of 32 devices can Therefore a maximum of 64 commands
cise times repeatedly every day, every be identified to and respond individu- can be equipped in an RC5-type re-
month. The microcontroller can be mote. Some of the command codes
programmed for device control using (decimal equivalents), as used in this
PARTS LIST
a normal Philips TV remote control. project, are shown in Table IV.
Semiconductors:
IC1 - AT89C52 microcontroller When any of the command/con-
RC5 coding IC2 - 74LS573 octal D-type trol buttons on the remote is pressed,
Since the circuit makes use of Philips latch the coded signal is received by the
IC3 - DS12887 real-time clock
TV remote for device-switching time IC4 - 74LS138 decoder
IR receiver-demodulator TSOP1738.
parameters, you need to know the fun- IC5 - 7400 NAND gate The output of the IR demodulator
damentals of the coding format used IC6 - 82C55 programmable circuit is normally high, but when
in these IR remotes. peripheral interface any of the buttons in the remote is
IC7- IC9 - ULN2803 high current
The Philips IR format makes use octal Darlington array pressed, a stream of low-going de-
of RC5 code, which is also known as IC10 - 7805 5V regulator modulated pulses will appear at its
‘bi-phase coding.’ In RC5-coded sig- IRX1 - TSOP1738 IR receiver output. These pulses are fed to the
module
nals (Fig. 2), each bit has a uniform external active-low interrupt input
BR1 - 1A bridge rectifier
duration. A transition in the middle of T1 - BC547 npn transistor pin (INT/0) of 89C52. On receipt of
the time interval assigned to each bit Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon): the first low-going pulse, the moni-
encodes its logical value (‘0’ or ‘1’). A R1, R6-R29 - 4.7-kilo-ohm tor program of 89C52 will get inter-
high-to-low transition assigns the bit R2, R3 - 10-kilo-ohm rupted and jump to the location
R4 - 100-ohm
a logic value of ‘0,’ and a low-to-high R5 - 1-kilo-ohm ‘0003H,’ where the execution is redi-
transition assigns the bit a logic value VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm preset rected to ‘receive’ sub-routine of the
of ‘1.’ We need additional transitions VR2 - 1-kilo-ohm preset program. The outputs from the sub-
at the beginning of each bit if a stream Capacitors: routine are:
C1, C2 - 33pF ceramic disk
of equal bits is sent. However, there is C3 - 10μF, 16V electrolytic 1. Toggle bit, which toggles (either
no need of additional transitions if the C4-C8, C11 - 100nF ceramic disk ‘0’ or ‘1’) each time the button in a
next bit has a different logic value. C9 - 1μF, 16V electrolytic remote is pressed.
Table II shows how all the com- capacitor 2. Address byte, whose value is
C10 - 1000μF, 35V electrolytic
mands of an RC5 remote control are capacitor zero for a normal Philips-type TV re-
encoded. Miscellaneous: mote control (see Table III).
The first two bits are ‘start’ bits, X1 - 230V AC primary to 15V, 3. Control byte, which has a unique
which are used to adjust and 500mA secondary value for each button in the remote
transformer
synchronise the receiver. These bits are RL1-RL24 - 12V, 200-ohm, 1C/O control (see Table IV).
used to calculate and analyse the bit relay
length of the other bits. S1 - Push-to-on switch The hardware
- 16×2 LCD module
The third bit is a ‘toggle’ bit, which Microcontroller AT89C52 is interfaced
XTAL - 11.09 MHz crystal
is toggled every time a button is to DS12887 (RTC), a 16x2 LCD mod-

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CMYK
CONSTRUCTION

ule and an 8255 programmable periph- as shown in Fig. 1. The interfacing cir- various peripheral devices is shown in
eral interface (PPI). The address-decod- cuitry for the external electrical appli- Table I.
ing circuitry comprises NAND gates ances comprises Darlington array IC In 89C52 (IC1), port P0 is used for
74LS00 and 3-to-8 line decoder 74LS138 ULN2803. The addressing range of outputing multiplexed address (lower

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CMYK
CONSTRUCTION
TABLE II
RC5 Coding Format
S S T A4 A3 A2 A1 A0 C5 C4 C3 C2 C1 C0

8-bit) and data. The address is latched ranges 000H-0FFH, 100H-1FF and 200-
into 74LS573 (IC2) octal latch and RTC 2FF for RTC, LCD module and PPI
DS12887 (IC3) chip, respectively.
with the help of Quad NAND gate 7400 (IC5) in
ALE (address conjunction with read and write sig-
latch-enable) out- nals from IC1 and chip-select signal
put from pin 30 of from pin 14 of IC4 is used for select-
IC1. ing the LCD module both during read
Only two ad- and write cycles of IC1.
dress lines from PPI chip 8255 is configured with
IC2 (A0 and A1) port A, port B and port C as output
have been used ports for controlling up to 24 electrical
for addressing the appliances via relays RL1 through
four registers of RL24. Relays are energised through
8255 PPI (IC6) in high-current octal Darlington arrays

conjunction with the chip- inside ULN2803 (IC7 through IC9) in

TABLE I select signal at pin 6 (from accordance with programmed data
I/O Address Range of IC4) and read/write signals stored in the non-volatile RAM (NV
Peripheral Devices from IC1. Higher-address RAM) of RTC chip DS12887. There is
bits from port P2 of IC1 (A8, no need of connecting external free-
Address range Used address range Device name
A9 and A10 from output wheeling diodes across relays as
0000 00FF 0000 to 007F DS12887 (RTC chip) pins P2.0, P2.1 and P2.2) are inbuilt diodes are provided in
0100 01FF 0100 LCD Module (16×2) used for generating the chip- ULN2803 ICs.
0200 02FF 0200 to 0203 8255 (PPI) select signals from 74LS138 All the 24 devices/electrical appli-
Note. Please refer device datasheets for more details. (IC4) covering address ances are considered as 24 bits (three

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CMYK
CONSTRUCTION
The relay-switching
TABLE III
TABLE V data that is output
Remote Address Codes Memory Map of DS12887 from ports A, B and C
Address Device/Equipment of the PPI is stored as
Decimal Memory Location Data description Pointer
0 TV1 consecutive bits at
0 0000 Seconds Memory used
1 TV2 00EH, 00FH and 010H
by Clock
2 Videotext locations of the RAM.
1 0001 Seconds Alarm
3 Expansion for TV1 and TV2 2 0002 Minutes The relay/device pro-
4 Laser video player 3 0003 Minutes Alarm gramming timing data
5 VCR1 4 0004 Hours is stored at five con-
6 VCR2 5 0005 Hours Alarm secutive locations for
7 Reserved 6 0006 Day of the Week each device. This data
(Sun=1) includes month, date,
8 Sat1
7 0007 Date of the month hour and minute in
27-31 Reserved 8 0008 Month first four bytes, while
9 0009 Year
the fifth byte contains
10 000A Register A
TABLE IV 5-bit address of the de-
11 000B Register B
Remote Command Codes 12 000C Register C
vice with MSB indicat-
13 000D Register D ing ‘on’/‘off’ status of
Button Command Function (as used)
14 000E Data on Port A 24 bits treated the device. Bits 6 and 7
0–9 0–9 Number keys as 24 devices of this byte are ‘don’t
‘--’ 10 10+ 15 000F Data on Port B care’ bits. Address lo-
‘sfx’ 36 20+ 16 0010 Data on Port C cations 123 through 126
Mute 13 Delete task 17 0011 Month Prog 1 data are used for storing the
AC 34 Clear prog memory 18 0012 Date 4-byte long password.
PWR 12 Change password 19 0013 Hour Thus only 106 locations
Timer 38 Change time 20 0014 Minute
are available for stor-
21 0015 Device # (MSB
Search 30 Chk existing tasks ing the 5-byte long de-
indicates ON/OFF)
CH+ 32 See next task 22 0016 Month Prog 2 data vice data and as such
CH- 33 See before task 23 0017 Date the program for a
RCL 15 Turn on/off LCD 24 0018 Hour maximum of only 21
back light 25 0019 Minute devices out of 24 de-
PP 14 Enter new task 26 001A Device # (MSB vices can be stored.
Store 41 Enable/disable indicates ON/OFF) The remaining three
child lock ….. ….. ….. ….. devices can be
….. ….. ….. ….. switched on/off
….. ….. ….. …..
bytes at locations 200H, 201H and through remote key
….. ….. ….. …..
202H) of the three ports (ports A, B operation as explained
….. ….. ….. …..
and C) of 8255. The LCD is used for below.
112 0070 Month Prog 20 data
displaying real time (year, month, date, 113 0071 Date Bit P1.1 output of
day and time in 24-hour mode) ob- 114 0072 Hour IC1 is fed to transistor
tained from RTC DS12887 as also some 115 0073 Minute BC547 (T1) through R5.
other information during time setting, 116 0074 Device # (MSB Transistor T1 acts like
device programming, searching (de- indicates ON/OFF) a switch for LCD back-
vice-switching programmed data), 117 0075 Month Prog 21 data light. So you can
password entry, etc, as described later. 118 0076 Date switch the backlight of
RTC DS12887 is clock-cum-calen- 119 0077 Hour LCD ‘on’/‘off’ just by
120 0078 Minute
dar chip with 128 NV RAM (14 bytes setting/resetting the
121 0079 Device # (MSB
used for its control registers and 114 P1.1 bit of 89C52.
indicates ON/OFF)
bytes as general-purpose RAM). It has 122 007A Mem. Location Power supply (Fig.
an inbuilt lithium battery and can re- not used Nil 3). While most of the
tain stored data for over ten years in 123 007B * Used to store circuit requires regu-
the absence of external power. the Password lated 5V for its opera-
Memory map of DS12887 is shown 124 007C * tion, the relays and
in Table V. Data stored in location 125 007D * Darlington drivers IC7
07FH (decimal 127) indicates the ad- 126 007E * through IC9
127 007F Pointer value
dress of the last RAM location used. (ULN2803) are oper-

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CMYK
CONSTRUCTION

(Figs 1 and 3) is shown in Fig. 4 and its

component layout in Fig. 5. The con-
nections for relays are to be extended
from the 16-pin FRC connectors on the
PCB. Each connector is meant for ex-
tending connections to eight relays.
The author’s prototype is shown
in Fig. 6.

Remote key operations

Refer Table IV for details of
remote buttons/keys. The functions of
these keys follow:
Keys ‘0’ through ‘9’, ‘--’ and ‘sfx’.
Used to switch on/off the 24 devices
manually. Each time you press any of
these buttons, the status of the corre-
sponding device will toggle, i.e., its
output will be the complement of the
previous state.
Button ‘--’ is used as ‘10+’ button.
When it is pressed, the system waits
ated with unregulated 12V DC sup- directly fed to all the relays and for around three seconds before the
ply. A step-down transformer rated at ULN2803 ICs. The same output is used next button (which should be between
15V AC secondary voltage at 500 mA for regulation by 7805 (IC10). The ‘0’ and ‘9’ to determine the device be-
is used to supply 12V unregulated and ripple in the regulator output is fil- tween ‘10’ and ‘19’) is pressed. Simi-
5V regulated power to the circuit. The tered by capacitor C11. larly, ‘sfx’ is used as ‘20+’ key. The
secondary output is rectified by 1A An actual-size, single-side PCB for button following the ‘sfx’ button
rated bridge rectifier BR1 and the remotely-programmable RTC-inter- should be between ‘0’ and ‘3’ (as the
smoothed by 1000μF, 35V capacitor faced microcontroller for multiple de- project supports only 24 electrical ap-
C10. The output from the capacitor is vice control and power supply circuits pliances numbering ‘0’ through ‘23’).

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CMYK
CONSTRUCTION
ing the program memory empty:
Example $MOD52
Program memory in DS12887 ORG 00H
JMP MAIN
Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 … … Task ‘n–1’ Task ‘n’ ORG 20H
When Task 2 is deleted, the whole memory is refreshed as: MAIN: MOV DPTR, #000AH
MOVX A, @DPTR
Task 1 Task 3 … … Task ‘n–1’ replaces Task ‘n’ replaces Empty ANL A, #0A0H
task ‘n–2’ task ‘n–1’ MOVX @DPTR, A
MOV DPTR, #007FH
MOV A, #0011H
RCL. Turns the LCD backlight flash on the LCD. MOVX @DPTR, A

‘on’/‘off.’ If the memory is not full, a new MOV

MOV
A,
DPTR,
#00H
#007BH
PWR. Used to change the 4-digit device program is accepted by display- MOVX @DPTR, A
password (initial value ‘0000’). When ing a message in the first line of the INC DPTR
MOVX @DPTR, A
you press this button, the system will LCD as ‘Mn Dt Hr:Mn Dv S’ and a INC DPTR
ask for the existing password. If the blinking cursor will appear on the sec- MOVX @DPTR, A

correct password is entered, it will ask ond line to take the data. ‘Mn’ indi- INC
MOVX
DPTR
@DPTR, A
for the new password. If a wrong pass- cates ‘month’ (‘01’ to ‘12’), ‘Dt’ indi- JMP $
word is entered, ‘invalid’ message will cates ‘date’ (‘01’ to ‘31’), ‘Hr’ indicates END
flash on the LCD. ‘hours’ (‘00’ to ‘23’), ‘Mn’ indicates Before getting started, you need to
Note that the password can be any ‘minutes’ (‘00’ to ‘59’), ‘Dv’ indicates make this program run for the first
4-digit value, which need not be the ‘device number’ (‘00’ to ‘23’) and ‘S’ time after all the components and ICs
numbers from ‘0000’ to ‘9999.’ Other stands for ‘programmed status’ (‘1’ for are inserted into the circuit. That is, to
buttons representing various codes are ‘on’ or ‘0’ for ‘off’). Enter the desired make DS12887 work, burn the pro-
also accepted. data in this format, which will get gram shown above in microcontroller
Timer. Used to change the real stored in the NV RAM of the RTC. If 89C52, put the programmed
time. As the circuit operations depend month (Mn) is entered as ‘00,’ the same microcontroller in the circuit, switch
on the real (set) time, changing the task will repeat every month on the on the circuit for five seconds and then
same is password-protected. A valid same date and time. If date (Dt) is en- turn it off. By doing so, the internal
4-digit password will let you tered as ‘00,’ the same task will repeat oscillator of DS12887 starts oscillating
change/set the time. When you every day on the same time. and IC DS12887 is now ready for use.
press ‘timer’ button, the top row Search. Shows the existing device Now, remove 89C52 from the circuit
on the LCD defines the format programs that are stored in the memory and load into it the main program to
‘Hr:Mn:ScWkDyMnYr.’ You need to starting from location 011H onwards make the circuit work with all the fea-
enter the valid data as follows: one by one. Each time, you need to tures. (For more details on DS12887
Hr: 00 to 23 (24-hour mode) press CH+/CH- button to move for- RTC, refer to the datasheets.)
Mn: 00 to 59 minutes ward/backward. In this mode, you may The monitor program in 89C52 gets
Sc: 00 to 59 seconds delete the displayed device program the relevant time data (time, date, day,
Wk: 01 to 07 (01 is Sunday) data entry simply by pressing ‘Mute’ year, etc) from DS12887 RTC and dis-
Dy: 01 to 31 dates button. Then the program that is resid- plays it on the LCD. The data is also
Mn: 01 to 12 (01 is January) ing next to this task moves to the loca- compared against the user-entered
Yr: 00 to 99 (year) tion of the deleted task and the whole data (programmed timing data for
Any value out of the range will not memory is refreshed. multiple devices), which had been
be accepted and message ‘invalid See the example shown above for stored in the NV RAM of DS12887.
value’ will be displayed on the LCD. clarity. The pointer value in memory When the timing data that was stored
Store. Enables/disables the child location 007FH of DS12887 changes in the NV RAM equals the real-time
lock function. You can lock the remote accordingly. data fetched from the DS12887, it sets/
keypad by enabling the child lock. AC. Deletes the entire programmed resets the MSB of the fifth byte of the
When you press this button, the sys- data in one stroke. So use this key very stored program for that device.
tem will prompt the message ‘Lock?’ cautiously. The main software program
or ‘UnLock?’ depending on the present ‘proj.asm’ for the project is given in
status of the child lock. If ‘1’ is pressed, RTC initialisation the EFY-CD of this month. Before
the child lock feature is enabled/dis- When DS12887 is shipped from the fac- burning the code for main program
abled. Any button other than ‘1’ will tory, the oscillator is in disabled state. ‘proj.asm’ into AT89C52, erase the
be treated as zero. The following program will make initialisation program ‘rtcint.asm’ that
PP. Takes you to programming of DS12887 work and also reset the pass- is programmed initially into it.
a task. word to ‘0000’ and make the program EFY note. The software and data
If the NV RAM is full in DS12887, pointer to point to the location 0011H, files required for the project are in-
the message ‘prog memory full’ will i.e., it clears the existing tasks by mak- cluded in this month’s EFY-CD.

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