So I have an old tablet that I want to do something cool with. I was thinking making it into a universal remote control would be an interesting project. In order to do this I would have to either make or buy hardware to transmit an IR signal and also have the software to control the tv, cable etc. Any help on how to build the circuit or where to buy would be appreciated. Also any additional ideas for what to do with the tablet would be appreciated.
Also there are no 9 pin serial ports. All of the ideas I have found elsewhere utilize those and I don't really want to buy a converter.
Full Version: Making a tablet into a universal remote control
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/...1-reviewed.html
This might help, although when I was looking for one a year ago, I found they were discontinued and nobody had one on ebay.
The thing is, it's a great product for it's simplicity. It's an IR reciever/transmitter which plugs into a headphone jack on any device that can produce sound, like a laptop, iPod, etc, and when you play sound out through it, it converts that sound to an infrared signal. Of course the opposite is true. Plug it into the mic port in your laptop and "record" what your TV remote's button pushes "sound like" when converted from IR to audio, and you can record and reuse any IR signals you want. I'm sure you could use this to make your device.
This might help, although when I was looking for one a year ago, I found they were discontinued and nobody had one on ebay.
The thing is, it's a great product for it's simplicity. It's an IR reciever/transmitter which plugs into a headphone jack on any device that can produce sound, like a laptop, iPod, etc, and when you play sound out through it, it converts that sound to an infrared signal. Of course the opposite is true. Plug it into the mic port in your laptop and "record" what your TV remote's button pushes "sound like" when converted from IR to audio, and you can record and reuse any IR signals you want. I'm sure you could use this to make your device.
It might sound odd, but you may want to look at getting a Slingbox. It works through the internet ... meaning you tablet would tell the slingbox what you want to watch, and it handles changing the channels, etc, via IR control. Of course its intended purpose is to send that signal back out to the tablet, but you can just watch it on the TV I suppose. Not sure if it works that way, but probably worth investigating.
QUOTE (chrissilich @ Jun 25 2009, 09:41 PM) 
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/...1-reviewed.html
This might help, although when I was looking for one a year ago, I found they were discontinued and nobody had one on ebay.
This might help, although when I was looking for one a year ago, I found they were discontinued and nobody had one on ebay.
This is what I'm looking for. I'll try to look more into finding one. Thanks.
And I actually have a slingbox. While it is awesome, it is not really what I need for this. I understand that the slingbox can change the cable through the IR blaster which is controlled by the computer, but it's more than I need for this particular project. Thanks for the idea though.
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