Using a PC as a Remote Control?

Dave2 Wickham asks: "I am interested in using one of my PCs as a remote control. The most likely candidate for this would be my laptop - which runs Windows XP (flame on, but I don't want to make any major changes in my last year of school). It has a standard IR port built in - nothing fancy. If there is, for some reason, no option for this, then is there any way for me to use my Live! Drive with LIRC on my Linux machine?" For those interested, Ask Slashdot handled the converse of this issue, in an article on controlling PCs with IR remotes.

Comments

Re:IRDA vs IR

[renehollan]

A parallel port (or even using the control line from a serial port) and an IR led will work, though you'll have to bit bang it, and may need external power for amplification (or steal it from a USB port, he he).

Alternately, Xantech makes RS232 to IR converters which are designed to translate a character code sent over an RS232 line (i.e. your computer's serial port) to an IR signal which can be broadcast. However, the unit is quite large, and definitely requires an external power supply.

Since you apparently didn't even bother to do a rudimentary Google search for "RS232 to IR", or you would know this already, doing that is left as an excercize.

Nope.

[cybermace5]

There is one major reason this will not work: power.

The IRDA port is not meant to blast IR energy across a room and bounce it off the walls. TV remotes are.

Your best bet is to build a serial port IR transmitter, such as described here.

IRDA is only meant to work over distances of a couple feet. It is too tricky to get the IRDA port to match standard IR remote frequencies anyway.

Re:Why?

[mnmn]

You dont ask that question in geek circles. Why is always an afterthought, when youve made your creation and need to make money off it. Same applies to good scientists.

People have beowulfed PDAs, emulated IA-64 on 386s and created VPNs in VPNs with no WHY in sight.

The easy way to do it

[miyako]

although there are many other, more technical solutions, may requiring some sort of external power supply, there is a much simplier way to do this.
first you have to get duct tape, a foot or so should do, although as with all things duct tape the more the better
next get a universal remote and find a good, non-intrusive spot on the laptop. make sure you have batteries in the remote and it is programmed for your TV/VCR/DVD Player/etc. Place the remote firmly against the laptop and apply duct tape*.

*note you may need to cut the duct tape into thinner strips to avoid covering any buttons on the remote*