Is this possible?

[simes303]

Hello. I thought it would be fun to modify my TV Be Gone so that it automatically turned on every ten minutes or so. Then I could hide it in a new container (I thought maybe a mobile phone shell) on the table in the pub and not arouse suspicion.

Can anyone help me out with a simple timing circuit, and show me how to wire it up?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Si.

[mike31416]

Hi Si,

You could modify the firmware to do this. At the end of main, the cpu is put into sleep mode. Instead you could just delay for the desired amount of time and then go back to the top and re-execute the main code. Or you could create and interrupt that wakes the cpu after the desired time period (10 min) and re-execute main (saves power). You will also need a way to cancel the timer so you save your batteries or you could just remove them.

You don't need no stinking hardware

Mike

[simes303]

That sounds complicated. Is it?

Cheers. Si.

[mike31416]

Not if you are familiar with C and the AVR development environment. If hardware is your thing, then a timer toggling the reset line would also work.

Looking at the 1.2 version of the code I see there is a variable called Loop at the top of main(). By default it is set to zero. If you set it to one then it will loop forever (till you pull the batteries). You would need to put a call to delay before while (Loop == 1) to only loop every ten minutes.

Mike

[simes303]

I have no idea what you mean so I guess I'm not going to be able to modify the programming!

Can you point me towards a suitable timing circuit? Thanks for your help.

Cheers, Si.

[mike31416]

Hi Si,

My hardware skills are a bit rusty, perhaps someone else has a hardware method.

Sorry,
Mike

[solder_guy]

search for 555 timer circuits .. and use a small relay to activate the TVBG.

[simes303]

OK thank you. Si.

[tronixstuff]

Hello. I thought it would be fun to modify my TV Be Gone so that it automatically turned on every ten minutes or so. Then I could hide it in a new container (I thought maybe a mobile phone shell) on the table in the pub and not arouse suspicion.

Can anyone help me out with a simple timing circuit, and show me how to wire it up?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Si.

I wrote a bit of a rough review and tutorial on how 555 timers work, http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... ion-timer/ You could build an astable timer and have fun with that.
If I'm too late, how did you go with it?