IR Remote Thoughts

[Guest Alex_le_brit]

So I was on the developpers forum, and saw yet another person asking for a TV remote and yet another answer saying it could never be done, and I got to thinking laterally a bit.

OK so the existing IR port wont support this, but what about an add-on port? So then I thought, how could this be done, and realised that the headphone socket would be perfect.

A headset works by converting sound into electricity, and vice-versa. An IR send receive unit works the same way, but converting to and from light. So a plug in send/receive unit, could connect in just the same way as a headset.

Then you could teach your phone the signals, by setting it to "record", and pushing the buttons on your existing remote. Once done you could then "playback" the signals, and control the TV.

Admitedly you'd have an annoying thing sticking out of the side of your phone, which of course you wouldn't have when you wanted it, and anyway

WHY NOT JUST USE THE REMOTE YOU GOT WITH THE TV?

but it'd be doable. ;)

I suppose if you could be bothered, and were good with your soldering iron, you could remove the existing IR unit replace it with a more powerful one, and parallel wire it into you headphone socket, mind you then everytime you used the headset you'd also be beaming your conversation out in IR.

[Guest Skeese]

if anyones used the casio cmd-40 tv wristwatch that has a learn function. if that can be incorporated in a similar way to mobile phone with the same kind of IR system with the additional software for the learn function. i think you could do it.

[Guest chucky.egg]

Somebody suggested that sort of setup a while back, and apparently there is one for PPC (not sure if it's commercially available, but there are DIY instructions etc)

[Guest Skeese]

damn i thought i was the inventor

[Guest PayableOnDeath]

A headset works by converting sound into electricity, and vice-versa. An IR send receive unit works the same way, but converting to and from light. So a plug in send/receive unit, could connect in just the same way as a headset.

Then you could teach your phone the signals, by setting it to "record", and pushing the buttons on your existing remote. Once done you could then "playback" the signals, and control the TV.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

erm cant see how that would work :|

[Guest lekus]

For playback of IR signals, you could use the handsfree/headphone socket, yes. There is source code on the net that shows how to do such a thing. Whether you want a little IR thing poking out of your smartphone though is a matter of preference (I wouldn't ;) ).

I'm not sure you could learn IR remote codes, as there is no way to record/sample from the handsfree/headphone socket (yet?).

You could find out the remote signals before-hand though and then just enter them by hand into your Smartphone. A IR receiver attached to the headphone socket of a PC works well for this, along with some PC oscilloscope software (audio recorder/editor software does the job too).

Edited April 30, 2005 by lekus

[Guest Alex_le_brit]

For playback of IR signals, you could use the handsfree/headphone socket, yes. There is source code on the net that shows how to do such a thing. Whether you want a little IR thing poking out of your smartphone though is a matter of preference (I wouldn't ;) ).

I'm not sure you could learn IR remote codes, as there is no way to record/sample from the handsfree/headphone socket (yet?).

You could find out the remote signals before-hand though and then just enter them by hand into your Smartphone. A IR receiver attached to the headphone socket of a PC works well for this, along with some PC oscilloscope software (audio recorder/editor software does the job too).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not certain I would want something either, but I can see it'd be easy enough to record, you could just use the normal voice notes function. Then it'd be a case of writing software that would play back a specific "noise" depending on keypress