Universal Remote for CE/HA? (openmoko)

Jed jedi.theone at gmail.com
Tue Oct 6 18:51:00 CEST 2009


>>> Psion 5, 5mx, Ericsson mc218. Slow cpu, limited memory, monochrome and old 
>>> kernel, but excellent battery life on a pair of AAs. Probably not the form 
>>> factor you're after though.
 >>
>> Interesting idea thanks, perhaps a tad too old though as you say.
>> I'd prefer a form-factor closer to a standard remote but with an LCD, 
>> ideally touch-screen but not imperative.
>>
>>> Neuros OSD - for a low power consumption ethernet to IR gateway
>>> and standard def media player. Again probably not what you're
>>> after.
 >>
>> Yeah really looking for hand-held device but thanks!
> 
> My own initial idea was, of course, to just find a handheld device
> with inbuilt IR functionality, but then not only did I see that there
> was the issue of finding something with `inbuilt IR' functionality at
> all, but that the meaning of "IR" actually varied (computing devices
> support IRDA; TVs and other such devices use different protocols, and
> it appeared that an IRDA device may not be able to support any of the
> non-IRDA protocols). Also, prior to the FreeRunner, I found it
> difficult to justify to myself the idea spending $500 or more on a
> more functionally-limited device like an iPaq or something that would
> probably just end up being a $500+ TV remote control.
> 
> But then I got an OSD and realised that it came with a IR dongle and
> that I could use it as a gateway, which made the problem easier.
> 
> One of the interesting things about the IR functionality of the OSD,
> though, is that it doesn't appear to be built-in to the OSD per
> se--the IR transmitter is a small device that just connects to the
> OSD's serial port.
> 
> I believe that there are universal `consumer electronics'-type IR
> transceivers (UIRT) currently on the market that function as USB
> devices, and some of them are even quite cheap--in the worst case,
> this might be a less-invasive option: to simply plug one of these into
> a FreeRunner's USB port.

Nah if I can't find something that has Consumer_IR integrated I'll just
persevere with my X50V. If it turns out to be too limited longer-term
for other reasons, then I'll just start excluding IR as a prerequisite
for any replacement.

I'll still have the IR bridge functionality built into my controller PC
& that's all that really matters in the end.

I haven't decided on the exact IR transceiver yet, but it'll be from one
of the these three vendors: Iguana, IRTrans, CommandIR. The others have
been ruled out.

I'm thinking the IR bridge functionality would be best built into my
pre-existing HTPC. Bridging for other protocols will prolly be done by a
2nd controller PC (the primary HA controller), which will be a VM on my
native VMM server.

Cheers,
Jed




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