infrared... is this possible?

mirko_3 · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 605 Location: Birreria

Ok, here's the deal:
I wanted to steal the remote control from my tv and use it for my computer... this shouldn't be a problem, I understand that's lirc's main use.
Thing is, an infrared port costs quite a bit (about 40 euros

) so I asked my friends a bit, and found that one of them had these wireless headphones which use an infrared connection to receive data; problem (at least I think it's a problem): the base (I don't know what to call it, anyway, the thing that sends data to the headphones) has a jack like the ones that you plug into your sound card...
so, is it hopeless? or can I somehow use my remote control anyway?
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tredman2 · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:32 pm Post subject: InfraRed

mirko_3,

Checkout LIRC. They have alot of home grown infrared projects for Linux. Some of the software is even in the portage tree (app-misc/lirc, dev-python/pylirc and media-plugins/xmms-lirc), but the hardware pointers are on the web site.

Tim
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mirko_3 · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 605 Location: Birreria

yeah, I know about lirc, but the question was - is it possible to send/receive signals through my sound card, as that's where I would have to connect the infrared device...
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nevynxxx · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 1:33 pm Post subject:

genneth · Apprentice Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 152 Location: UK

nevynxxx · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:13 pm Post subject:

Logically the reciever should just send out what it recieves as is, so there shouldn't even be modulation, just an exact[1] copy of the original output from the headphones/tv remote. Hooking the wires upto a serial port and watching that rather than the sound card would be a better bet I would think. Try it and see, a multimeter/scope on the led terminals on the remote, and on the output from the reciever (or better the signal you get fom the serial port, or both) should tell you if I'm right. Your looking for a matching signal.
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mirko_3 · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 605 Location: Birreria

philips sbc hc042 is the brand and model of the base, and google turned up two useless pages of results; as for hooking it up to the serial port, I'll look into it later, I have to study now... I hope a soldering iron doesn't cost too much

as for programming, I only know what I read a couple years ago in my 'Sams Teach Yourself: C++ in 24 hours' - good book, but nothing practical, I don't know what libraries have what I need, ecc.
So I guess that's somewhat ruled out... (not totally, If I find a good tutorial somewhere... also postponed until I've finished studying)

thanks[/quote]
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Useful Idiot · Guru Joined: 30 Aug 2002 Posts: 329 Location: Finland

Are you perhaps looking for something like this? At the end there are some instructions on how to setup your software. Both lirc and portaudio are in portage but if you emerge them you might have to do some hacking.
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mirko_3 · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 605 Location: Birreria

hey, that seems to be exactly it...
now I patched the kernel, have a /dev/lirc/lirc0 file, can start the lirc daemon, and fount a config file. Only I can seem to get no i/o

I compiled lirc with the --with-driver=audio option.

I tried using irrecord --force and pushing buttons on my remote, but I get nothing.. the receiver is plugged into my sound card; must I define which jack? there seemed to be no reference to it on the link...

also, no hacking to be done for emerging them except defining --with-driver=audio in lirc's ebuild...
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mirko_3 · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 605 Location: Birreria

update:
could it be that the device I'm trying to use as receiver is only capable of sending infrared signals?
I've plugged it into the line in slot, tried unmuting the relevant controls in alsamixer, and pressing some buttons on the remote. nothing
I've plugged it into the mic slot, unmuted the relevant controls, pressed the buttons, nothing. Only thing is, after unmuting the mic, if I move the jack in the sound card slot, I hear some noise in the speakers (like when you move the speaker's jack). this doesn't happen with the line in, so I'm sticking with this one.
I'm not even using lirc yet - I figured that I first had to get some noise on my speakers with the remote control, then start lirc to decode signals...
...help?

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nevynxxx · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:23 pm Post subject:

Ohhhh thats a transmitter isn't it........emmm....audio being a one way thing, I'd say your right and there isn't a reciever in there. There would be 1 on the headphones though. It seems a little strange to use ir for headphones though, are you sure it doesn't use radio? having wireless headphones that need line of sight to the reciever seems a lot strange to me.
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mirko_3 · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 605 Location: Birreria

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3065090417&category=3274

check it out, it's infrared...
so I guess this thing is useless...

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