Turn your phone into an universal remote control

[takashiro]

Joshua found a way to turn any (*) phone into a remote control... even if it does NOT have infrared!

PHP Code:

http://jumpjack.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/turn-your-phone-into-an-unive rsal-remote-control/ 


I'd like to see if this method is compatible with other phones/devices than mine.
I tested it with a Nokia 6680, which can successfully control a SKY decoder, a Synudyne TV, a DTT receiver, a Funai VCR and an LG DVD recorder.

Joshua also wrote a couple of programs which easy-up the process.

DOWNLOAD my programs

PHP Code:

http://www.planetmobile.it/jumpjack/LedRem/LedRem.zip 


Download SOX (required)
<a href="http://sox.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank" class="postlink">

PHP Code:

http://sox.sourceforge.net 


(unpack all programs in same folder)

Quick instructions:
1 - connect an IR transmitting LED (**) to microphone input of your PC
2 - start an audio recording in Audacity program (mono, 16 bit, 44100 Hz)
3 - press a button on your remote while facing the LED (really close to the LED); a less-than-a-second press will be enough;
4 - stop recording
5 - save ONE of the multiple pulses as a WAV file (select it and choose menu File->export selection as WAV)

6 - Launch RAW2LIRC to process just saved WAV file

7 - Launch LIRC2LEDREM to process the LIRC.conf file just created by WAV2LIRC (***)

8 - Copy the resulting WAV file to your phone, and play it after connecting to phone headset port an IR LED in place of one of the headset speakers.

9 - Play the wav file to control your device!

Please let me know about your results!

I'm also planning to write a python program which allows using such a phone to be remotely-controlled by SMS to properly switch one an HDD video recorder to record favourite TV programs.


(*) Phone must support stereo headsets
(**) It should be possible to connect directly the LED of a standard remote control, even without dismountung the LED from the remote itself, but just connecting it to microphone input.
(***) You can also use a ready-made LIRC file,

he has tested everything so please test it and let us know

This short tutorial shows how to turn almost any cellphone into an universal IR remote control.

Requirements:

- a cellphone with stereo audio output (audio left , audio right , ground) or symmetrical audio output (audio+, audio-)

- 2 IR leds

- a wired headset compatible with the phone

- a PC with audio card

- an audio recording software on PC

- an audio editing software for PC or an audio sinthesyzer software for PC

This project does not depend on O.S. used: you just need ANY computer capable of recording audio and create audio files from scratch. Linux, Windows, MacOSX or whatelse makes NO difference.

Please look at this post to know how to:
- build an IR receiver for the PC
- sample a remote control
- (create a WAV file using Audacity program) (not strictly needed: this article describe an alternate method).

Once you sampled all needed buttons of your remote, it’s just a matter of building a proper WAV file for each one of them. If you don’t want to use Audacity to do it manually, you can use SOX program: it creates pieces of “raw” audio file, which joined together build up the final WAV file.

Here you find example scripts (for DOS/Windows environment) which build a WAV file based on binary description of the remote signal. You have to setup the unizeri.bat file to have it matching the sampled signal. Then call create.bat specifying as parameter the “creator file” (unizeri-raw, or unizeri-tv,… ), the final WAV file (testbutton) and the number of additional times you want the command is repeated (at least ONE occurrence will be alway created):

create unizeri-raw testbutton 4

(no extensions required for filenames) (NOTE: script must be run inside SOX folder).

This will result in a tesbutton.wav file which, played on a phone (or on PC, or on any audio capable device), equipped with audio-to-IR converter, to control your device.

The audio-to-IR converter:

It is just a couple of LEDs connected in oppopsite ways to “audio output left” and “audio output right” (for normal phones) or to “audio+” and “ground” (for phones with symetrical audio output like nokia 6680). In symetricl ouptu, Left- and Right- must be connected together (see below).

Audio-to-IR converter:



Connections for nokia 6680: