[Swansea Hackspace] Minimal and bespoke TV remote control

Mon Jun 22 18:42:13 BST 2015

Richard, anything is possible if you can pay me enough ;-)

Em

On 22 June 2015 at 15:42, Richard Morgan <richard.morgan at avocation.co.uk>
wrote:

> Hi Gerrit,
> Yep I can certainly relate to that image and the inspiration.
>
> It's so hard when you get a phone call from a frustrated family member
> only hours after you've been at her house and trying to verbally explain to
> an octogenarian how to make a simple sequence of keypresses on two remote
> controls is awfully hard - especially after 10 mins of dialogue you realise
> she's holding the spare cordless phone and not the TV remote at all!!
>
> Good luck with this worthwhile project.
>
> Richard
>
> P.S. I've also considered setting up an IR blaster transmitter in her
> house and an IR receiver in my house so that I could point the remote at
> the IR received in my house and have it transmit the signal to her house
> over the internet to the IR blaster there that would send the IR signal to
> her TV/Skybox....no idea if it's possible.
>
> On 22 June 2015 at 14:51, Gerrit Niezen <gerrit.niezen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi there,
>>
>> Thanks for all the feedback!
>>
>> Justin:
>> - I saw an e-ink keyboard concept last week - still not sure if it’s
>> vapourware or not:
>> http://www.solidsmack.com/design/new-sonder-e-ink-keyboard-changes-hot-keys-as-you-change-digital-tools/ If
>> I could get hold of the buttons they’re using for that keyboard it would be
>> pretty cool!
>> - What button sets would you need?
>> - I haven’t heard of HDMI-CEC before, googled it and realised that it’s
>> because I don’t have a “smart” TV and because every manufacturer has a
>> different name for it (EasyLink, SimpLink, Aquos Link, Bravia Sync etc.
>> etc.)
>>
>> Ceri: I should’ve mentioned in my original post that I don’t want to use
>> a touch screen, as I prefer physical buttons that can be pressed without
>> having to look at the screen and give some haptic feedback so that you know
>> when you pressed them.
>>
>> Richard: Images like this one were the inspiration for this project:
>>
>>
>>
>> On 20 Jun 2015, at 13:36, Justin Mitchell <justin at discordia.org.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>> A touch sensitive layer with an eink display would be great, it would
>> only consume power when changing the layout, and you'd get complete freedom
>> of what buttons you had.
>>
>> As for me a useful universal remote would need quite diverse button sets,
>> as fit example the surround amp has quite different controls to the sky box.
>>
>> Much of the need for such a remote has been killed by the HDMI-CEC
>> standards, but there still a few devices that don't behave
>>
>> On 20 Jun 2015 12:41 pm, Ceri Clatworthy <ceri.clatworthy at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> What about using the touchscreen from Nintendo DS. .or simmla. ..
>> No actual buttons a glossy picture underneath. . Over acrilic. .. So you
>> can still have illumination. ..  siluett cutout (laser)
>> Bit more code for touch screen.  But only 4 I/O.
>>
>> Although does affect shape
>>
>> On 20 Jun 2015 12:32, "Ceri Clatworthy" <ceri.clatworthy at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> If you had a recent android phone.
>> Then  there is an app to be a tv video dvd remote control. ...
>>
>> Did I mention I like android [image: 😊]
>>
>> On 19 Jun 2015 22:22, "Richard Morgan" <richard.morgan at avocation.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> A family member is elderly and struggles with the need to use the TV
>> REMOTE to change the source and then the SKY REMOTE to manage the channels
>> - having a single remote covering all her needs would be great.
>>
>> I would be interested in using this.
>>
>> Thanks Gerrit
>>
>> On Fri, 19 Jun 2015 at 17:07 Emyr Morris <em at preseli.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> great project! Love it
>>
>> On 19 June 2015 at 16:58, Gerrit Niezen <gerrit.niezen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> The problem
>> I have three different remote controls that I use to control my TV, Tivo
>> and NowTV, and I only use a few buttons on each one of these remotes. What
>> I would like is a minimal, customisable remote control that can replace the
>> other three for most tasks.
>>
>> Existing solutions
>> Universal remotes are cheap but mostly crap and have too many buttons.
>> The Logitech Harmony remotes seem the easiest to use, but they're in the
>> £100 range and still have a lot of buttons.
>>
>> My suggested solution
>> An open-source hardware remote where you can customise the buttons
>> depending on your needs, for example by milling your own based on a button
>> template. The remote should be easy to program, by pointing existing
>> remotes at infrared receiver on the custom remote.
>>
>> Possible improvements
>> - LEDs inside buttons that light up when they can be used (that is,
>> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161666687066). For example, if I'm in TV mode,
>> the "back" button isn't going to work, but the up/down buttons should light
>> up so that I can change channels.
>> - Using bamboo for the enclosure - a piece of 50cm-wide bamboo can be
>> halved to make a semi-circular shape that fits in your hand.
>>
>> What I've done so far
>> - Got the infrared diode and receiver working on an Arduino
>> - Recorded infrared signals from my three different remotes and
>> successfully sent them again
>> - Cut some bamboo to see if the shape will work
>> - Drew some crude pictures of what it will look like (attached)
>>
>> Next steps
>> - Is anyone at Swansea Hackspace interested in helping me develop this
>> further?
>> - Would anyone be interested in buying one of these if we make more than
>> one?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Gerrit
>>
>>
>> 
>> 
>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Kind regards,
>
> Richard
>
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>

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