TV time dependent channel lock using a PIC.

I'm a senior prefect (Student head of school) at the academy I attend and the previous week we had a discussion about the use of a new TV that was installed into the 6th form common room. This issue was that students were watching non-educational shows when they had free lessons and this didn't go down well with the school governors. They're happy to have free use of it at Break and Lunch time but not when they have free lessons that they should be studying in.

I was thinking of coding a PIC with a Real Time Clock IC like a DS1307 that will detect any IR input from the reciever and when it does, it automatically knocks it back to a news channel that we've set by imitating the digital signal of the remote. But then at a break or lunch time it stops that channel lock and is free to use.

Can you see any issues with this? Anything info that would help?

where would you place the device? Perhaps the students could interrupt its line of sight?

Its very possible... Receiver picks up the remote action if its between the times allocated... send the signal on... if not send a pre encoded signal... the little module would have to be fitted over the existing receiver as to block it from the remote..

I guess I'm a little old fashioned but,
How about a little discipline and self-control from the students.

I'm not putting down your idea but it's a band-aid to a simple problem that technology won't fix.

PICMICRO said:

where would you place the device? Perhaps the students could interrupt its line of sight?

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I was thinking more WITHIN the TV itself. Connected to the IR reciever so it interprets the signal there and sends out a different one depending on what the time is. If it receives a set of signals that tell it to go to the "comedy" channel then it'll check the time and if it's a lesson then it wont change. However if it's lunch then it will send that same signal pattern out of the output and the TV can do the rest.

nsaspook said:

I guess I'm a little old fashioned but,
How about a little discipline and self-control from the students.

I'm not putting down your idea but it's a band-aid to a simple problem that technology won't fix.

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Haha, sadly not all students are up for that. Life would be a lot easier in my role as pupil voice if they were. -.-' ^_^

Why not a simple digital timer on the mains lead to the TV. so it can only be used at certain times?.

Nigel Goodwin said:

Why not a simple digital timer on the mains lead to the TV. so it can only be used at certain times?.

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The governors still want it to show news in lesson in case someone has a free lesson and doesn't want to study, but they still want them to be in a school environment as it's lesson time.

I reckon the project is perfectly do-able, but would take a lot of effort, and if you are not familiar with PICs, domestic IR remotes and RTC already, then you have a lot of learning to do.

What make of TV is it? If it is a Sony, then the IR protocol is simple, and the protocol is well documented and understood.

What view do the governors have on you taking the new TV apart? I would worry about breaking the TV with all of that messing about.

Hope you have plenty of spare time.

What languages, PIC compilers PIC chips and programming hardware do you have available. I have MikroC code for PIC18f45k22 that does a lot of what you want, but it is of no use if you do not have MikroC Compiler.

EDIT: Why not just run a CCTV feed through to the principal's office, so he/she can monitor all forms of misbehaviour?

Many set-top boxes, and presumably TVs hav some kind of "Parental Lock" to prevent children watching channels with "Adult Content" (ie porn and general rumpy pumpy).

Could the parental lock be configured to do what is required here in the hallowed 6th form common room?

JimB

Or you could jsut use a small servo that moves some plate over the sensor of the tv, much simpler to do than scanning and producing the remote IR codes and doesn´t involve hacking the tv itself.

I cannot help but think that this thread falls into the following category:

https://www.projectcartoon.com/cartoon/2

Unfortunately so do many others seen on here.

JimB

kubeek said:

Or you could jsut use a small servo that moves some plate over the sensor of the tv, much simpler to do than scanning and producing the remote IR codes and doesn´t involve hacking the tv itself.

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Because students would never be able to bend the plate up and use the remote.