Remote IRDA control

[sparta.rising]

OK I've got it to receive data. I've got UICE to work, but the signature length is too short so it reads some buttons as the same. With PC Remote Control, the keyboard and mouse works, but the volume and window commands dont. Can I get any advice?

[GomJabbar]

But I have run into this problem, when I press a key on the remote some of the keys are recognized incorrectly by PC Remote Control, and other keys are read differently each time I press them.

I was never able to get over this limitation. Perhaps a different remote control would work better, but I tried several. I am back to using my Cyberlink remote control with the IR receiver dongle. Good luck.

[turbolium]

Is it possible that my remote (Pioneer) sends encrypted signal as i get same set of numbers pressing different buttons ???

Increasing speeds manage from 9600 to 56000 kinda helped but instead pressing same button 2ce gives different output !!! and only sometimes i manage to get to the function i want

any way solving this or should i look for another remote??? since i watch everything through computer i dont have to many useful remotes laying around (((

[dr. zoidberg]

it may depend on how long you hold it down

[SeanHayward]

I've had success with PC Remote Control, but I am wondering now is there any other products that are free (non-shareware)? I've played around with winLIRC, but have had very limited results.

Or, of course, is there a way to get more out of PC Remote Control?...if you get my drift :p

Also for those playing around with winLIRC I have found lowering the speed to 56000, receiver type RX and transmitter to TX to work the best. But that may depend on the remote.

Finally I am going to play around with the OCX ActiveX control in Visual Basic to see if I can make some progress there.

[dr. zoidberg]

I don't think there exists any free software that is easy to use and works. for shareware, ive had the most success with uice. it seems to recognize commands with the most consistency

[mhca]

Anybody here who knows if the IR receiver/tranceiver for Lego Mindstorms (serial port connected) can be used for IR receival?

I would really like to use it with my workstation if possible.

I searched google and found some comments on this. http://groups.google.dk/group/rec.toys. ... bb488e8e3c

It doesn't seem to me like it supports anything. But as I see some of you "hacking" the drivers for the thinkpad IR port I thought that it might also was possible to do something similar with the Lego receiver.

[jbraddoc]

Since I have a habit of pulling up 2 year old threads, I thought I'd ask in here, just to keep the info all together.

Is there a way to convert the IRDA to an com port under Vista?

[netzspannung]

I know nothing about Vista, sorry... but I have found this:

http://www.sphinx-soft.com/IrRC/using.html

a util that claims to work directly with the irda port with no modifications needed. It installs and runs on my t42, can detect my remote control signal (green progress bar shows), BUT it was unable to train any buttons succesfully. The training never ends correctly.

You might download it and have a try... maybe my remote itself is flaky.. please report if you get it to work

[McSummation]

I installed the Sphinx software on my T41 that's running XP Pro SP3. Although it sees the remote control when I press a button (during the training phase), it did not successfully train. I tried every remote control in the house multiple times, different buttons, and got the same results from all of them. These are for: VCR, DVD player, DVR. Just for the heck of it, I tried my Digital Converter box, too.

[Radioguy]

I wish IR were still offered on ThinkPads. It may be more marginal in application now, but still quite useful. Still preferable, even, in some instances.

Ironically, I have yet to use my T61's firewire (mainly due to all my devices being 6-pin firewire-400), but I would have already used the IR receiver had it been there instead. It's not the (now) incredibly slow transfer rates of IR, but the line-of-sight control access that is the main selling point, not to mention current and legacy support for PDAs and medical devices like Glucometers. Yes, I know controlling multimedia applications in business can be accomplished via BT now, but there remain some security advantages to IrDA. ThinkPads, despite our love of them as personal computers are destined mainly for business use, and in that environment, they have an increased chance of being victimized. Packet-sniffing is possible on BT and certainly wi-fi, and syncing or use of BT keyboards could be be compromised. IR, can be the preferable choice in those instances.

For myself, and family, multimedia control would probably be a primary use, and one Lenovo wouldn't cater to, but there remain business applications to this day where IrDA has its place. It should remain an option, at least on CTO models.

[incu]

Worked for me!
I reduced the speed of my generic comport until I got distinguishable signals from my remote. ( till 1200 bits/sec)
You can control this via the serial watcher prog e.g.
Then I tampered with the PC Remote Controlhttp://www.pcremotecontrol.com/faq/faq.htm proggies recognition settings until it worked acceptable.

The Reception is rather bad: I can send from about 1 meter max.

Greetings.