Remote Control for Your PC: With a home-made infrared receiver （2）

Published:2011/8/1 0:47:00 Author:Li xiao na From:SeekIC

By Harry Baggen

How to build an IR Receiver by Alessio Sangalli [1] provides extensive explanations and clear photographs, allowing even beginners to assemble their own IR receiver without too much of an effort. Alessio’s design is simple by any standard, consisting of an ER receive module, a voltage regulator and three passive components.



Similar designs, also rich in illustrations and with detailed descriptions may be found on the Heat-seekerz website [2]. The author, Tom de Keninck, sets a standard how an electronic construction can be described on web pages. The photographs Tom shows us, in combination with a step-by-step approach and the assumption that the reader knows virtually nothing all contribute to the excellent reproducibility of the circuit.

The Infrared PC Remote Control — Info page [3] aims a bit wider. Here, we found several receivers discussed — designs with and without microcontrollers. The site also discusses the necessary software and proposes some ready to go solutions. We also found a download link to the shareware program ’PC Remote Control’.

A receiver circuit based on a PIC12C508/509 is discussed at the UIR page [4]. The author shows how the circuit may be built from standard components as well as SMDs (surface mount devices).

The Universal Remote Control Receiver [5] is a project built around a PIC16F84. According to the description, it is suitable for nearly all commercially available remote controls. Both the microcontroller hex code and the PC layout are available to everyone wishing to build this design. The designer also offers the associated software, DRCS (Dalton Remote Control Software), to ran on your PC.

A similar circuit based on the previous design is called the Universal IR-receiver for serial interface [6] and may be found on the web pages of the electronics faculty at the University of Ulm, Germany.

Besides hardware (a remote control transmitter and a matching receiver) you’ll also need software to detect and process the serial data, as well as convert it to commands the PC can understand. A universal program that looks after these tasks is called LIRC (Linux Infrared Remote Control) [7]. A Windows version of the program is available from the WinLIRC homepage [8].

Girder [9] is also a well-known Windows automation tool (shareware) capable of recognizing and employing lots of remote control signaling formats for linking to Windows programs and PC hardware. The sheer popularity of this program has resulted in many exotic IR formats now being supported thanks to the contributions of active users. If you don’t believe us, just take a look at the list of available plug-ins!

IRAssistant [10], which comes free of charge for private use, also allows mouse movement to be mimicked using the remote control, as well as launch and control programs, ran macros, all from the comfy chair.

Finally, we should mention uICE [11] by MediaTexX. This shareware is also rich in features when it comes to driving hardware and software. The program is marked by an Office-like user interface, offering an on-screen menu and on-screen display looking very much like the ones you see on modern TV sets.

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