What is the cheapest IR trasmitter solution?

[Ron]

Just get any DC 9V adapter to hook up to the SlinkE. I think it doesn't even come with an adapter in Europe,.. but that has to be confirmed.

-Ron

[Ron]

Wow! Very cool little device. I never saw that one! Maybe someone wants to try their luck at programming this baby.

[Ron]

Not me :cry:

[SteveV]

Bob,

Welcome to the Girder forum. Your motherboard probably has IrDA support for PC to peripheral communication. The major draw back to IrDA is it's very limited range which makes it mostly unsuitable for "remote control" operation.

IMO, the best IR send and receive solution is the Slink-e (http://www.nirvis.com/slink-e.htm) by Nirvis. It's a bit expensive ($249) but if you have, or are thinking of getting a Sony CD MegaChanger the Slink-e can support up to 12 changers. Using 400 disk changers this gives you up to 4800 disk capacity--approximately 4600 more than my existing collection :wink:. Also, if you have any Sony equipment Slink-e fully supports Sony's Control-S protocol making direct control of Sony stuff possible.

Anyway, the Slink-e allows you to send and receive IR signals from virtually any remote. Ron has created a great plugin so Girder support is not an issue. The Slink-e uses Xantech compatable emitters, receivers, keypads, etc and will support up to 8 different IR zones making whole house IR distribution possible. All IR codes are stored on the PC so you're not limited to a maximum number of IR codes you can use.

I've been using the Slink-e with Girder for a month or so and truly couldn't be happier.

Other IR sending options include the RedRat2 (http://www.dodgies.demon.co.uk/) ($120) which I considered prior to the Slink-e. The deal breaker for me was that it only supports 1 channel of IR out--so if IR distribution is a goal I don't think the RedRat2 is up to the task.

Hope this helps -- Steve

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SteveV on 2001-06-15 19:43 ]</font>

[SteveV]

Bob,

You could try building the CIR (http://www.ziplabel.com/cir/index.html). I put one together 3 or 4 months ago for apprx $15 in parts including a project box and wall xformer. It worked but not very reliably. It's a parallel port device and the software is pretty crude. I was able to get Girder to control it via command line but don't get your hopes up too much. Also, one more thing about RedRat2: it only has one self-contained IR emmiter and no means of plugging in more. If you need to control more than one piece of equipment you'll need to:

1.) Use it as an "IR Blaster" and hope you can locate it in an area that has clear line-of-sight to all of your equipment.
2.) Use it in conjunction with a Xantech IR Repeater, Connecting Block, and additional emitters
3.) Hack it and add additional emitters.

mikethemagic,

I don't know of any vendors outside of the US but you can buy the Slink-e directly from Nirvis (https://www.nirvis.com/orderform.htm). Be aware that international shipping costs are quite high however. You may want to ask them if they can ship it via U.S Postal Mail Priority Service. This is very inexpensive and generally takes one week to ten days. Duty is an other matter all together :sad:. Also, as Ron pointed out, Nirvis does not include a wall transformer for international shipments so you'll have to pick one up locally. Specs are 9 VDC @ 600mA.

Regards -- Steve

[SteveV]

Very cool indeed! It looks like this device could be put together in a couple of hours for $20 or so. There's also some pic code to handle the problematic RC5 toggling codes which should make Philips owners pretty happy. And if you're using Girder with a Pronto, RC5 codes are very small and easy to work with.

Now, who's gonna be the first to build one?

-- Steve

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SteveV on 2001-06-24 14:55 ]</font>

[jediperry]

I had a look arround the net a while ago for a home made solution, but only found a few plans for projects. They seem to get as far as gathering transmitter & reciever circuits and some info on ir signals then stop.
The circuitry is relativly simple and could mostly be done with a PIC, the challenge is to write some decent code that can process any ir sequence that is required to be learned, and be able to reproduce it.

Its on my list of things I may get round to doing some day, but that doesn't really help. :smile:

Mike

[jediperry]

Wow, thanks Richard, this is just what I have been looking for. As I have nothing to do at the moment, I shall build one as soon as I can get to maplin and buy a 10MHz crystal.

Mike

[bart]

The RedRat2 has two emitters inside it, I have unsoldered one and taken it to another room, upstairs, on the end of about 15m of cable, it works fine (it is taped to the underside of the HiFi poining directly at the receiver through a cooling slot) The other emitter in the RedRat2 still works 100% reliably to control my satellite receiver downstairs
Bart

[mikethemagic]

Anyone know where to buy the Slink-e in Europe?

Alternatively someone successfully replaced the 110V power supply?

[bpearse]

I want to be able to have Girder control my other IR components. I saw on another thread that this can be done, but it was not clear what is the cheapest route. Any help? My motherboard (ASUS CUSL2-C) has an IR connector on it. Can that be used somehow?? I am not adverse to a little soldering!

Bob

[bpearse]

Steve,

Thanks for the leads. I was aware of Slink-e, but I was looking for a more basic solution. I already have an IRman to receive IR signals. I was just looking for a simple repeater to get those signals to other devices. RedHat2 looks interesting, but again I was hoping there was a simpler (less costly) solution. I thought perhaps someone had created a simple schematic that one could assemble for $10 or so for a cheap transmitter. I guess $120 for the Redhat2 is as cheap is it comes?

Bob

[Bates]

Thanks for the pointer to the info. I too am planning on making something like this someday. I'll probably not require it to be driven by the port as far as power goes however and bump up the transmitter output to make SURE it gets seen by all the AV equipment that needs to see it. Nothing worse than having marginal IR power. Will probably make it a bit more omnidirectional in that respect (i.e. multiple transmitters).

Yes, everyone please relate your success and or failures with these things so that we all can learn from them.

Jim

[oe1k]

I'm just new, but I found this very cool solution: the Universal Infrared Transceiver (UIR) at http://people.a2000.nl/rwvgesse/Uirt.htm
He has good documentation on how to make it, and you don't even have to program the microcontroller seperately because it is programmed "in-line" (just take off a jumper and send the code to the com port).
It's UIR compatible, but also can receive codes.
I hope it is directly supported by Girder by the time I need one (right now I don't have much else to bother controlling).


_________________
-Richard L. Owens

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: oe1k on 2001-06-24 00:36 ]</font>

[oe1k]

Glad my searching has helped. Keep us informed on how well it works and what support you can get going. (I'll probably build one eventually).

[kev]

Aplogies for resurecting a topic over a year old but as it's relevent to this topic i decided to add a reply as opposed to creating a new topic.

There is a chepo IR Transmitter avalible from JTC new media (www.jtcnm.com) Website currently under redevlopment, linked to the archive at archive.org (http://web.archive.org/web/20020205031714/http://www.jtcnm.com/site.asp?section_id=9&page_id=1)

It's designed for use with the Digiguide EPG and is therefor a command line driven programme.

I've no idea if anyone has got it working with Girder but it only costs £25.00 so is a lot cheaper than RedRat (inc UK P&P and PP3 battery)

From the JTC New Media Website :


Computer controlled Infrared remote control.

Features:

Learns your original remote controls
Operates Sky digital and ITV digital boxes
Hifi, TV and VCR controls
Schedule recordings
Command line interface
Compatible with Digiguide
2.5m Cable
Software on disk

BTW it also works with some ntl:digital cable boxes (those with ondemand on 200, but not with Telewest or ntl boxes with ondemand on channel 0)
It doesn't work with those boxes as they use the IRDA protocol, as opposed to the IR Protocol.

[ccclapp]

There's also some pic code to handle the problematic RC5 toggling codes which should make Philips owners pretty happy.
-- Steve

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SteveV on 2001-06-24 14:55 ]</font>

Steve

I am trying to overcome the problem of dual IR codes comming from RC5 codes with a Pronto. This post indicates there may be a solution to this problem. Could you please explain more :)

Thanks

--Caleb