RC-5

The RC-5 protocol was developed by Philips in the late 1980s as a semi-proprietary consumer IR (infrared) remote control communication protocol for consumer electronics. However it was also adopted by most European manufacturers, as well as many US manufacturers of specialty audio and video equipment. The other main protocol used by consumer electronics manufacturers is the NEC protocol. This protocol is largely used by Japanese manufacturers and assigns each brand with its own unique header(s). Each brand is then free to create any command set it wishes. The advantage of the NEC protocol is that there cannot be any interference between remote handsets for pieces of equipment made by different manufacturers. The advantage of the RC-5 protocol is that (when properly followed) any CD handset (for example) may be used to control any brand of CD player using the RC-5 protocol.

The basics of the protocol are well known. The handset contains a keypad and a transmitter integrated circuit (IC) driving an IR LED. The command data is a Manchester coded bitstream modulating a 36 kHz carrier. (Often the carrier used is 38 kHz or 40 kHz, apparently due to misinformation about the actual protocol.) The IR signal from the transmitter is detected by a specialized IC with an integral photo-diode, and is amplified, filtered, and demodulated so that the receiving device can act upon the received command. RC-5 only provides a one-way link, with information traveling from the handset to the receiving unit.

The command comprises 14 bits:

The 36 kHz carrier frequency was chosen to render the system immune to interference from TV scan lines. Since the repetition of the 36 kHz carrier is 27.778 μs and the duty factor is 25%, the carrier pulse duration is 6.944 μs. Since the high half of each symbol (bit) of the RC-5 code word contains 32 carrier pulses, the symbol period is 64 x 27.778 μs = 1.778 ms, and the 14 symbols (bits) of a complete RC-5 code word takes 24.889 ms to transmit. The code word is repeated every 113.778 ms (4096 / 36 kHz) as long as a key remains pressed. (Again, please note that these timings are not strictly followed by all manufacturers, due to a lack of widespread distribution of accurate information on the RC-5 protocol.)

While the RC-5 protocol is well known and understood, what is not so well documented are the system number allocations and the actual RC-5 commands used for each system. The information provided below is the most complete and accurate information available at this time. It is from a printed document from Philips dated December 1992 that is unfortunately not available in electronic format (e.g., PDF), nor is an updated version available. This information is provided so that companies that wish to use the RC-5 protocol can use it properly, and avoid conflicts with other equipment that may or may not be using the correct system numbers and commands.

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