Use your TV remote to send SMS to any mobile

Very often while watching TV, we find it important to send message regarding any TV show or any news update. But as mobile is away from your approach and you are only having TV remote in your hand, you avoid sending it because of our lazy nature.

Well, now we don’t have to keep avoiding sending messages to our beloved one while watching TV because we can make our TV remote itself to send SMS to friend’s mobile. Idea is somewhat funky…But it’s possible.

Here is how we can do it.

Requirements:

• TV remote
• Arduino board Lego kit (as it has got inbuild open source library to access TV remote).
• LCD to displayed written message while typing
• GSM module (which actually sends your message to your beloved one’s mobile.

Showed above is the flow of algorithm.

I have used SONY remote to send messages. Because SONY/ PHILIPS remote library for RC5 encoding is available on net on this link: . Attach IRRemote library in arduino code.

IMP Note: We have to make receiving IR sensor circuit to receive RC5 encoded message from remote. Basically RC5 is encoder standard i.e. remote converts the data into RC5 format and sends it through IR transmitter. Now if we connect IR sensor with Arduino and decode that RC5 encoded stream then we can actually get the data sent by remote. You can use any remote for your convenience but keep it in mind that open source library should be available for that remote.

Now Arduino has pin 1 allocated for digital Serial Tx. So once we have received the data from remote, we can interpret that commands into AT serial commands of GSM module which are listed on this link and send it serially though pin1 of Arduino to GSM module. But to convert Tx pin1 to RS232 serial port we need to make a circuit which is in this link.

Now your remote is ready to work as sms sender. I have written an Arduino code to decode RC5 coded data and send it serially from TX pin of Arduino. If anyone interested to work on it I can send you arduino code for that.

Hope you have enjoyed reading it. For any queries drop me a mail and leave comment with your feedback.

Thanks for visiting blog. Keep looking lots of new ideas are waiting for your review. :)

Wireless Mobile Charging is Possible

Well, yeah that's true... Charging your mobile without any wired charger..!! It's possible. Let us see how?

Well, we know, mobiles are using electromagnetic waves for wireless communication. Now what if we use the same electromagnetic waves (EM waves) to CHARGE our mobile? This is possible, it's tough but possible.

Here is the idea:

Ambient EM waves are always roaming around us 24x7. So if we somehow manage to capture those EM waves then they can be used to charge the battery of mobile or any other device.

Now how to capture EM waves? It can be captured by following components.

• Antenna (with vast bandwidth and extremely high gain) 
• Impedance matching circuit (to match impedance between Antenna and Coax cable)
• RF(AC) to DC convertor: (To convert High frequency RF signals to DC signal for charging)
• DC to DC convertor (to amplify the voltage of RF signals)
• Charging circuit (circuit used to charge battery)
• Battery (this component should supposed to be charged)

Figure 1: Block Diagram of Wireless Mobile Charger

Now, hope this block diagram has made clear picture in your mind. Now the key challenge in this is to fabricate an antenna which can capture sufficient amount of power to charge (mobile) battery.

I have tried creating such antenna but unfortunately it was not manufactured up to the mark. But if you really are interested in jumping into this project I can give guidance for fabrication. Basically an antenna should have

• Wide range of bandwidth (ideally 10 Hz to 100 GHz), which is difficult. But if one can cover large of the industrial range of bandwidth than also antenna can gather enough power to light an LED or so. (I had covered GSM (900 MHz) and ISM (2.4 GHz) band).
• Extremely high gain for desired range of EM waves.
• Compact size (challenge)

 Figure 2: Fabricated Folded Shorted Patch antenna

Shown in above figure-2 is Fabricated Folded Shorted Patch antenna, which has S11 (return loss) as shown in below figure.

Figure-3 S11 (return loss) parameter

 

The software used to simulate the return loss and other parameters is either "CST microwave Studio" or "HFSS".

Once the antenna is simulated using above mentioned software and fabricated you have to go to the next step i.e. to match your antenna with coaxial cable. That can be done by putting BALUN. Next we have to convert this RF signal to DC signal because Battery can only be charged with DC power supply. For that we can use multi stage voltage doubler. 6-stage voltage doubler as an example is shown below. Results of this voltage doubler were estimated through multisim simulator software.

Figure 4: 6 Stage Voltage Doubler design in multiSIM

Now, DC to DC convertor is used to stabilize the DC output and give desired gain in terms of voltage.

Note: Here if we increase the voltage using voltage doubler, its current gets reduced. Because power to the input of voltage doubler should be >= output of the voltage doubler (energy conservation). 

At last mobile charging circuitry and battery itself to charge the mobile.

I hope this post has given some information about wireless mobile charging. In fact Mobile Company Nokia is also doing research in this field and it's also expecting some positive results after some years. Let us see whether they can implement it or this is just an idea.

Catch you later..Till then stay tuned and keep on visiting this blog, because lots of new innovative ideas are going to be posted over here. For more information regarding this project you can drop me at my email ID.