Week Five

Friday, May 2, 2014

11:09 AM

This week was heavy into reading technical documents on converting an HDMI signal to readable data via PCB board.  Examples of block diagrams demonstrating just that were found on Texas Instruments' website, and are displayed below.

Layout of TMDS Lines Routed on the Bottom Layer

Layout of non-TMDS Lines 

In addition, we looked at the necessary HDMI male plugs needed to actually add the HDMI connector to the board, and found one, as well as a diagram of the piece in a separate PDF with information necessary such as size, resistances, withstanding voltage, and operating temperature.  That PDF combined with the above diagram allows for a fairly comprehensive outline of how and where to connect the male plug to the board.

Along with the circuit information, we also found a new technology for wireless by looking at the teardown of an Alienware gaming computer with wireless HDMI streaming.  The chip used is called the Sibeam SB9220 and has a bandwidth of 4Gbps which is a bit smaller than the IO Gear bandwidth but still does the same job, and as it is a chip as opposed to an entire transceiver, it is more fitted toward the ideal technology that could be used for a wireless HDMI device.  Unfortunately, after discussing the chip with Professor Taskin, we came to learn that adding a chip like that to a PCB board was way too complicated for freshman, as well as many of our other approaches to creating a prototype for our device.

SiBeam SB 9220 Chipset

Instead, our goals for this project ended up changing, and after discussing it with Professor Taskin as well as senior undergraduate Scott Lerner, we came up with a plan to purchase, code and utilize an Arduino kit to substitute for the PCB board that we can't make due to our limited knowledge and resources.  At this point we are trying to gain as much knowledge about wireless HDMI's and other wireless components to best determine the most realistic goal for our final physical product. With this said, we discussed with Professor Taskin about experimenting with an HDMI cable that he found in his house, and looking for AV to either HDMI or DVI to see how the transmitter receiver that we purchased works.