NEC Protocol
To my knowledge the protocol I describe here was developed by
NEC. I've seen very similar protocol descriptions on the internet,
and there the protocol is called Japanese Format.
I do admit that I don't know exactly who developed it. What I do
know is that it is used in my late VCR produced by Sanyo and was
marketed under the name of Fisher. NEC manufactured the remote
control IC.
This description was taken from the VCR's service manual. Those
were the days, when service manuals were fulled with useful
information!
Features
8 bit address and 8 bit command length
Address and command are transmitted twice for reliability
Pulse distance modulation
Carrier frequency of 38kHz
Bit time of 1.125ms or 2.25ms
Modulation
The NEC protocol uses pulse distance encoding
of the bits. Each pulse is a 560µs long 38kHz carrier burst (about
21 cycles). A logical "1" takes 2.25ms to transmit, while a logical
"0" is only half of that, being 1.125ms. The recommended carrier
duty-cycle is 1/4 or 1/3.
Protocol
The picture above shows a typical pulse train of the NEC
protocol. With this protocol the LSB is transmitted first. In this
case Address $59 and Command $16 is transmitted. A message is
started by a 9ms AGC burst, which was used to set the gain of the
earlier IR receivers. This AGC burst is then followed by a 4.5ms
space, which is then followed by the Address and Command. Address
and Command are transmitted twice. The second time all bits are
inverted and can be used for verification of the received message.
The total transmission time is constant be