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IR Remotes with Letter Keys?

Posted by Cliff on from the tired-of-numerics dept.

desau asks: "In the never ending quest to build a better MP3 player for my car, I've decided that I would like to be able to punch in letters via my IR remote. The only problem is that I can't find an IR remote with letters. I'm distinctly trying to stay away from the number pads with letters overloaded (such as phone pads) as they prove to difficult while driving. Also, it needs to work with the IRDA standard and work with LIRC. Anyone out there know where to look?"

2 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. All those old WebTV keyboards on ebay by nesthigh · · Score: 3, Informative

    please save them from the landfill..

  2. Hrmph by GoRK · · Score: 5, Informative

    First let me say you are a stupid stupid motherfucker if you try to use this bastard while driving. Plenty of people get in wrecks just trying to change the radio station.

    Secondly, you are a dumbass for thinking that IRDA has anything to do with remote controls. Remote controls generally adhere to a standard called CIR (Consumer IR) which is much much different. IRDA ports found in devices such as laptops and palm pilots can, to some degree, transmit and receive CIR through much software trickery, but the range is very limited and the results are poor. There is, to my knowledge, only a very small number of manufacturers that have implemented remotes that use IRDA (Pace is one, and lots of people get pissed off because their universal remotes won't talk to IRDA stuff). Anyway, if you'd read a damn thing about LIRC you'd know that you (in most cases) have to build a special receiver to get the CIR signals.

    Finally, im going to answer your (lame) question since you can't seem to use google. First, there are IR keyboards. I'm betting that you know this, and they are too large for your application (one handed button pushing while driving like a fuck.) Anyway, for a one button remote with an alphabet on it you could just pick up most any programmable LED sign. I have quite a few signs with IR remotes that contain an entire alphabet, punctuation, and many other great function keys. I'd bet that 99% of these function with CIR equipment, and I know for a fact that the remote that comes with the BetaBrite (a dumbed down version of the other sign products made by Adaptive) uses the same IR carrier and code format of the remotes that come with Creative products such as their computer speakers and sound cards. If you have a LiveDrive IR or an AudigyDrive, you can point the BetaBrite remote at it and get remote data out of /dev/midi.

    Tons o fun.

    ~GoRK