Beolink Passive IR eye

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Anyway, it worked fine as a sensor (light coming on with IR transmission), and the mute button worked. However, despite the Timer light going on/off, I could not get it to initiate when the BC9500 was programmed with a timer event.  So it looks like the timer does not work with just the three wire connections in this setup.

OK, so now we know that the timer function is not enabled via the IR data, at least on the Beolink active. However on the MCL 2 the 2 extra wires are only connected to each other, so no connection to the microcomputer in the MCL 2 that talks with the master besides the IR data connection.

Must be a test for another time.

The mute function on the MCL sensor must be somehow part of the IR signals since it also working on the Beolink Active and Passive. Funny that they not implemented that in the ML sensors, but that could be a design choise as to not overcomplicate the controls on the IR sensos

Guy wrote:

Madskp wrote: Apropos Beolink Active I just got a good deal on three of the including IR sensors and some ML cable and not related adapter cables.

A very useful acquisition and I look forward to more experiments including with the PC input!

Yes, I have already tested two of the for functionality including making an adapter for sound input on the PC connector. I would wish however that a servicemanual for the 1636 was available. But maybe it will be in the new library

[Guy]

The PC socket can also be used as a line-out (fixed volume).

The pins were listed back here: https://archivedforum.beoworld.org/forums/p/15997/261799.aspx

[Guy]

@madskp. Any chance you could check whether the Active’s PL output will turn a connected Passive on/off?  This could be useful if wanting a local ‘PC’ input in a room with passive speakers.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

@madskp. Any chance you could check whether the Active’s PL output will turn a connected Passive on/off? This could be useful if wanting a local ‘PC’ input in a room with passive speakers.

yes, of course I can do a test on that. Will come back with the result

[Guy]

Guy wrote:

A further thought about the ‘three wire’ MCL sensor timer button: I suppose I could test using my BV10-32 as the source, but I am never quite sure about timer setups when initiated from the TV. Might be worth a try while I have the cables out, but not today.

I was about to test this but realised that (unlike my old BV6-26) my BV10-32 does not have a programmable timer function! It just has a ‘Sleep Timer’ and a ‘Play Timer’ – the latter giving the ability to respond to a timer set elsewhere in an ML system.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

@madskp. Any chance you could check whether the Active’s PL output will turn a connected Passive on/off?  This could be useful if wanting a local ‘PC’ input in a room with passive speakers.

Just did a test of this. Setup 1611 converter as Audiomaster – ML – Beolink Active – powerlink – Beolink Passive – speaker cable -Passive speaker

An adapter cable from the PC input of the BL active PC connector to a minijack conencted to my iphone as input. BL active in opt. 6.

Selecting PC on BEO4, and sound going through to the passive speaker.

Also tried with the inputs on the 1611 with the same result.

So yes this is a possible solution, although it would be more simple if the beolink passive had an input.

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

although it would be more simple if the beolink passive had an input.

And that lead my to another thought. Can the powerlink input in the Beolink passive be used while it is connected to Masterlink. So I made this setup:

1611 converter as Audiomaster – ML – Beolink passive – speaker cable -Passive speaker

And connected the PL output of an MCL2AV to the PL input on the BL passive.

MCL2AV in option 1.5 with iphone as input on the tape connector.

No response from the BL passive when activating the MCL2AV. Disconnecting ML from the PL passive and then it works, but the IR eye seems to be disable apart from the red LED.

[Guy]

Thanks for testing the Active Passive combination – useful info to store away for the future.

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

No response from the BL passive when activating the MCL2AV. Disconnecting ML from the PL passive and then it works, but the IR eye seems to be disable apart from the red LED.

Looking at the Passive’s circuit diagram, there’s an ML-sense (ML pin 12) that triggers IC305 to switch from PL to ML. As discussed before, it’s a pity we don’t have the BL Active’s (1636) circuit diagram to compare.

[Madskp]

This may be drifting a little away from the passive, but still relevant for the use of the IR eyes.

As observed in another thread the datalink conenctions are shared between the AUX and speakerlink connectors at least in a BM5500.

On the The MCL2A IR data from the IR eye is connected directly to the datalink connection

 

This made me think, can the IR eye be used connected directly to the datalink pin 6 on the BM5500 AUX connector. So I made a little 7 pin DIN connector with data and ground from the MCL IR eye connected to pin 6 and 2 and a wire to a set of headphones connected to pin 1, 4 and 2. 5V power from a bench supply connected ground and +5V wires of the IR eye.

Setting the IR eye to option 1, and covering the BM5500’s IR eye full control is possible.

 

[Madskp]

One more note to this test. The mute button on the MCL IR eye will also activate the BM5500 and set it in standby.

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

Setting the IR eye to option 1, and covering the BM5500’s IR eye full control is possible.

That’s very interesting. It maybe worth trying the MCL sensor connected directly to pin 6 of your Beocord 3500, or even a turntable!

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Madskp wrote:

Setting the IR eye to option 1, and covering the BM5500’s IR eye full control is possible.

That’s very interesting. It maybe worth trying the MCL sensor connected directly to pin 6 of your Beocord 3500, or even a turntable!

yes that might be interesting to see if that works. Might also try the AAL connector on the BLC 1611 and see if an audio or video master on ML can be activated

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

Guy wrote:

Madskp wrote:

Setting the IR eye to option 1, and covering the BM5500’s IR eye full control is possible.

That’s very interesting. It maybe worth trying the MCL sensor connected directly to pin 6 of your Beocord 3500, or even a turntable!

yes that might be interesting to see if that works. Might also try the AAL connector on the BLC 1611 and see if an audio or video master on ML can be activated

Tried testing today with the IR eye connected to BC3500, BG2000 and BCL 1611 with the datalink pin moved to pin 7 for the BC3500.

The result for all 3 test’s are no response at all. Tried different option settings, all audio and video commands + play, stop, fw, rw. But to avail.

It makes sense that it worked for the BM5500 as the data wire would be connected to the same spot in a setup with a MCL2A. A possible use case for this setup could be as an extra IR eye in large or L shaped rooms.

[Madskp]

Apropos IR eye’s there is an LCS 7000 for sale on Ebay with a round IR eye only with timer and mute button. A little to expensive for my taste though

[Gspaltenhorn]

Madskp wrote:

So I made a little 7 pin DIN connector with data and ground from the MCL IR eye connected to pin 6 and 2 and a wire to a set of headphones connected to pin 1, 4 and 2. 5V power from a bench supply connected ground and +5V wires of the IR eye.

Setting the IR eye to option 1, and covering the BM5500’s IR eye full control is possible.

I´m currently trying to reproduce this. But i can´t achieve full control. Here is my Setup:

• Beolab 8000 connected to Beolab 2 connected to Power Link 1
• MCL Sensor – data (White) connected to BM6500 TV/Aux – Datalink
• MCL Sensor – ground connected to BM6500 Aux – ground
• MCL Sensor – 5V connected to external powersupply
• MCL Sensor in option 1 (Standby – while keeping the timer button on MCL Sensor depressed, press “AV” button on Beolink 1000)
• BM6500 in option 1 (Standby – press “sound”, “1”, “store”)

With this Setup I´m able to start up the BM6500 via my Beolink 1000 remote. The correct source is also selected. But unfortunately the speakers stay muted and cannot be umuted by neither the “mute” button on the Beolink nor the “mute” button on the MCL Sensor.

I guess some options are not set correctly… However, I don’t really understand the combinations of all the options yet. Therefore, I would appreciate any help!!

[Madskp]

Hello. First of this was just some random testing of IR eye’s i different environments, and I might not have thought all scenarios through.

Also there are some differences internally in the BM5500 and BM6500 around the data signal in the AUX connection, so it might not work the same as it did with my BM5500 (It is unfortnuatly dead now and given to another person so can’t redo the test of it)

lordgspaltenhorn wrote:

With this Setup I´m able to start up the BM6500 via my Beolink 1000 remote. The correct source is also selected. But unfortunately the speakers stay muted and cannot be umuted by neither the “mute” button on the Beolink nor the “mute” button on the MCL Sensor.

Thinking a little more about it in this situation  the sensor is connected the same way as if it was in a link room. That means that it will only active the sound for the speaker 2 connections and the speaker 1 and powerlink will stay muted. I didn’t have any speakers connected for my test so didn’t notice that.

However you should still be able to active the powerlink speakers via the BM6500 internal IR eye?

 

This leads me to asking what you are trying to achieve here? Is it because you wan’t better coverage in a large room, or is the internal IR sensor not working?

There was a kit available with an external IR sensor for the BM6500 as mentioned earlier in this thread https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beolink-passive-ir-eye/page/2/#post-19496 . I might be hard to find one know though.

 

 

 

[Gspaltenhorn]

Hello, Thanks for the quick reply!

Madskp wrote:

Thinking a little more about it in this situation the sensor is connected the same way as if it was in a link room. That means that it will only active the sound for the speaker 2 connections and the speaker 1 and powerlink will stay muted. I didn’t have any speakers connected for my test so didn’t notice that.

This makes sense. The MCL Concept is designed to specifically do this. And checking the PCB shows the “white” Datalink line from the MCL Sensor is actually wired through to the Beomaster. Accordingly, it makes no difference where the MCL Sensor is connected to, but probably the command itself is distinguishing if Power Link 1 is unmuted.

However you should still be able to active the powerlink speakers via the BM6500 internal IR eye?

Correct. This is all working as expected. For the test I just taped over the internal IR eye.

This leads me to asking what you are trying to achieve here? Is it because you wan’t better coverage in a large room, or is the internal IR sensor not working?

I actually don´t need the additional MCL Sensor in my day to day use. I´m using it to identify commands from the Datalink protocol. I know about the Datalink manual and I´m already able to send and receive signals. The commands from the MCL Sensor allow me to start up the BM6500, but only into the muted state.
I hoped this could be solved by setting the correct Sensor and BM options. As mentioned above, maybe it´s part of the actual Datalink command. Unfortunately, I have not found a comprehensive documentation of the actual commands yet.

There was a kit available with an external IR sensor for the BM6500 as mentioned earlier in this thread https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beolink-passive-ir-eye/page/2/#post-19496 . I might be hard to find one know though.

I was wondering if this is actually an external IR sensor, or if it is providing Datalink commands. But a brief look at the BM7000 schematic suggests that it actually is providing IR commands.

[Madskp]

lordgspaltenhorn wrote:

I hoped this could be solved by setting the correct Sensor and BM options. As mentioned above, maybe it´s part of the actual Datalink command. Unfortunately, I have not found a comprehensive documentation of the actual commands yet.

I don’t think the option settings should make any difference as they only tell the Beomaster if it only recieves audio commands (option 1) or both audio and video commands (option 2).

lordgspaltenhorn wrote:

I actually don´t need the additional MCL Sensor in my day to day use. I´m using it to identify commands from the Datalink protocol. I know about the Datalink manual and I´m already able to send and receive signals

As for the datalink part there are currently 2 members working on projects where they are using datalink if you are not aware of it. They might be helpfull with insights:

B3OHACK3R: https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/masterlink-usb-adapter/

and

PILATOMIC: https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beotooth-5500-a-datalink-bluetooth-receiver/

Also there is this project on GITHUB:

https://github.com/toresbe/datalink

lordgspaltenhorn wrote:

There was a kit available with an external IR sensor for the BM6500 as mentioned earlier in this thread https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beolink-passive-ir-eye/page/2/#post-19496 . I might be hard to find one know though.

I was wondering if this is actually an external IR sensor, or if it is providing Datalink commands. But a brief look at the BM7000 schematic suggests that it actually is providing IR commands.

Yeah but it is somehow compatible with other products as mentined by GUY in this post https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beolink-passive-ir-eye/page/2/#post-19614

 

[Gspaltenhorn]

Madskp wrote:

lordgspaltenhorn wrote: I hoped this could be solved by setting the correct Sensor and BM options. As mentioned above, maybe it´s part of the actual Datalink command. Unfortunately, I have not found a comprehensive documentation of the actual commands yet. I don’t think the option settings should make any difference as they only tell the Beomaster if it only recieves audio commands (option 1) or both audio and video commands (option 2).

I was leaning in that direction after reading this post from B3OHACK3R:
https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/universal-link-adapter/page/4/#post-25565
But perhaps I misunderstood.

Madskp wrote:

As for the datalink part there are currently 2 members working on projects where they are using datalink if you are not aware of it. They might be helpfull with insights: B3OHACK3R: https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/masterlink-usb-adapter/ and PILATOMIC: https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beotooth-5500-a-datalink-bluetooth-receiver/ Also there is this project on GITHUB: https://github.com/toresbe/datalink

Thank you for the hints! The Github Project is the foundation of my code. Unfortunately it´s also missing a documentation of Datalink commands used for Beomaster control.
Now that holidays are over, my next step is gettin in touch with the two users/threads you mentioned. Maybe the solution is not that distant anymore!!

Madskp wrote:

Yeah but it is somehow compatible with other products as mentined by GUY in this post https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/beolink-passive-ir-eye/page/2/#post-19614

I guess this makes sense! Considering the Beolink 1000 remote (1980s) being compatible with modern products like Essence mk.2 and Beosound Core (See this video from Steve:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW_V4ad4gYU)

[Author]

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