Onkyo-RI

Control Onkyo devices is possible among others through Remote Interactive port. This port is normally used for direct communication between two Onkyo devices (ex. receiver and CD player). But why not turn on the receiver automatically when you start your own player?

Connection

To connect to the RI port is used 3.5mm mono jack. Tip is for data signal and sleeve is ground (GND). Data are sent via TTL logic. So it is easy to connect RI device to 5V MCU (Arduino). Just connect data signal to some output pin and connect GND between each other. In case of stereo jack, connect tip to DATA, sleeve and ring to GND.

Protocol

Protocol description could be found at:

• http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/onkyo/Remote_Interactive

or with grafical representation at:

• http://fredboboss.free.fr/articles/onkyo_ri.php .

Protocol is pretty simple for implementation. In one message is transfered 12 bit code. This code represents action for target device. Most significant bit is send first.

Library

There are two Onkyo-RI library:

• blocking - send() method blocks other program execution until whole command is sent. It takes up to 61 ms.
• non-blocking - send() method only start command sending. The execution is handled by processing() function. This function must be called periodically with maximum 1 ms period. Function return bool value about sending status (true - data is being sent, false - nothing to sent/sending is done). Before the command is completely sent other functions can be executed. Library use internaly Arduino micros() function, so no other timer is not blocked.

RI codes

At mentioned sites are also listed codes for Onkyo devices. Unfortunnately none of the codes is not valid for my receiver TX-8020. To determine the valid codes I wrote a simple loop for Arduino (more below) that goes through the whole 12bit code range (0x0-0xFFF). Results are listed below commands.

TX-8020 receiver

Codes are valid for TX-8020 receiver. With a high probability it will work with other Onkyo receivers.

TX-SR304 receiver

Thanks to lonejeeper

TX-SR313 receiver

Thanks to wongcz

TX-SR333 receiver

Thanks to ogrady

TX-SR600 receiver

Thanks to kelvinlaw

TX-SR603 receiver

Thanks to jimtng

TX-SR606 receiver

A-803 receiver

A-9050 receiver

Thanks to Aaron G

Notes on volume

Volume control codes shown in the table are sent by the receiver out of its RI ports when adjusting the volume using a remote control (they can be found using an oscilloscope). However, the receiver will not react to these codes when they are sent from an external device, effectively making impossible to control its volume through RI signals.

Test program

Program is located in repo folder Onkyo_test. It serves for check all codes (0x0 - 0xFFF) on target device in 500ms interval. For data line pin 10 is used as default.

Actual checked code is sent as ASCII through serial port and can be displayed in terminal. For serial port 9600b/s is set. Using terminal test program can be stopped, reset or user defined code could be used.

Terminal commands:

• p - pause/run command sending
• r - reset loop (program start from 0)
• hexadecimal number - number in hexadecimal format represents code that user want to test on target device. From this code automatical procedure will continue.