Re: [iPAQ] Universal Remote

I've used the ipaq to build an interesting remote control. Here's my setup:

ipaq #1
single pcmcia sleeve
802.11 wireless card

ipaq #2
dual pcmcia sleeve
802.11 wireless card
ide->pcmcia adpapter
30gb laptop hard drive

ipaq #2 is permanetly installed in my car with a 250 watt power
inverter. I have 176 full albums encoded at 320 kbps compression on the
system. The sound is absolutly fantastic. I control ipaq #2 with ipaq
#1. I wrote all the software in java (except the mp3 decoder - I used
the xaudio library) and it works great. I've been using it for about 6
months with no problems.

The awesome thing about this is that I can scp new albums out to my car
when I need to. I also have a copy of all my albums on an old 200mhz pc
in my home next to the stereo. So I can use ipaq #1 to control my home
stereo as well.

This setup has totally obsoleted my mini-disc player (both home and in
car) as well as my cd changers (both home and car). Not to mention my
stereo remote control and CDs themselves. I can adjust volume and
change albums/songs/etc... with the ipaq. I can be in the garage,
bedroom, kitchen, etc... and can control the stereo. IMO this is vastly
superior to IR.

I also have an 80gb desktop drive that I have succesfully swapped out
for the 30 gb laptop drive and it works fine. I'm in the process of
using sorbathane to build a cushion for the drive. Once its done I will
have the potential to store 1000+ albums in my car.

A friend has recomended I get a video capture card and use the ipaq to
control it. This would give me tv/cable remote control as well. The
way I see it - anything you can control through your computer can be
control by the wireless ipaq. So yes, I think the ipaq would make a
great universal remote control.

I plan on releasing the software to sourceforge soon if anyone is
interested.

--Mark

Warren Ponder wrote:

> the ir sender would
> not have enough power to be used as a remote control
>
> What I have learned from www.remotecentral.com is that there a few apps
> for WinCe. Unfortunately I have no desire to go that route. They also
> are saying that the iPaq has better IR than palm or HP. Approx 3 meters.
> That could work fine for me. I do recall when I had CE on the ipaq that
> I was impress with the distance I was able to sync with.
>
> I am using mpg123 on the MP3 player I build. I am using it because it
> will pull a play list from an http server. So the Mp3 player mounts via
> NFS a shared dir in my home office where the central media server is. I
> wrote a one line shell script that kicks off a play list via an http
> server and plays the mp3s via the mounted drive. Now I just have to
> create a web based interface to run it all so I can connect and
> disconnect via the ipaq and dillio and wireless. I need the process to
> keep running on the mp3 player after I disconnect. So, the mp3 player is
> almost taken care of. I should also be able to use the same box to run
> home movies on the HDTV.
>
> I just can't change the channels yet.
>
> As Microsoft heats up the connected home race I am sure they will be
> leveraging CE as the Universal Remote. I am just trying to do it all on
> Unix based systems.
>
> If my TV was web based I would be set :)
>
> As dillio comes along it will be even better. Currently I am managing
> all my devices beside my Qube with the iPaq..
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Warren
>
> ipaq-request@handhelds.org wrote:
>
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>>Today's Topics:
>>
>> 1. Re: Universal Remote (Bill Warner)
>> 2. Re: Universal Remote (Matthew Robinson)
>> 3. Universal Remote (Ron F)
>> 4. Re: Universal Remote (
>>James MacLean)
>> 5. RE: Universal Remote (Noel J. Bergman)
>> 6. Re: Universal Remote (Tom)
>> 7. RE: UWM -- the unnamed window manager (Brian Schott)
>> 8. Re: UWM -- the unnamed window manager (Jim Gettys)
>> 9. Re: UWM -- the unnamed window manager (Keith Packard)
>> 10. Re: Re: H3150 problems with boot (Dave Neuer)
>> 11. Buttonry (Lars Goldschlager)
>> 12. Re: UWM -- the unnamed window manager (Jim Gettys)
>> 13. Re: UWM -- the unnamed window manager (Benjamin Long)
>> 14. Re: Universal Remote (Christoph Bartelmus)
>>
>>--__--__--
>>
>>Message: 1
>>Subject: Re: [iPAQ] Universal Remote
>>From: Bill Warner <wwarner@direct-alliance.com>
>>To: ipaq@handhelds.org
>>Date: 04 Jan 2002 15:45:50 -0700
>>
>>
>>--=-MEbdm9zulzl2lrUp5Ot2
>>Content-Type: text/plain
>>Content-Transfer-Encodin
>>g: quoted-printable
>>
>>from what I remember hearing on the list was that the ir sender would
>>not have enough power to be used as a remote control. One suggestin I
>>thought of was to have a remote recive that could be plugged into an mp3
>>player and then controlled with a universal remote.
>>
>>Bill W
>>
>>On Fri, 2002-01-04 at 12:23, Warren Ponder wrote:
>>
>>>I must say congrats to all the work people have done so far on the ipaq=20
>>>efforts. I have been out of the loop for almost a year.
>>>=20
>>>I have a question though. Does any one know of anyone that is working on
>>>=20
>>>a universal remote app for linux/ipaq? I built a mp3 player and tied it=20
>>>into my entertainment system and am controlling it with my
>>>linux/ipaq. I would love to be able to change the channels on the tv.
>>>=20
>>>Thanks,
>>>=20
>>>Warren
>>>=20
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>iPAQ mailing list
>>>iPAQ@handhelds.org
>>>http://handhelds.org/mailman/listinfo/ipaq
>>>irc://irc.openprojects.net #ipaq
>>>
>>--=20
>>Bill Warner
>>Unix/Linux Admin.
>>Direct Alliance Corporation
>>
>>Company required stuff:
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>>Contents are Direct Alliance Corporation Confidential
>>
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>>--__--__--
>>
>>Message: 2
>>From: "Matthew Robinson"
>><matt@zensunni.org>
>>To: <ipaq@handhelds.org>
>>Subject: Re: [iPAQ] Universal Remote
>>Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 23:32:28 -0000
>>
>>From: "Bill Warner" <wwarner@direct-alliance.com> on Friday, January 04,
>>2002 10:45 PM
>>
>>>from what I remember hearing on the list was that the ir sender would
>>>not have enough power to be used as a remote control. One suggestin I
>>>thought of was to have a remote recive that could be plugged into an mp3
>>>player and then controlled with a universal remote.
>>>
>>
>>There is a remote control application like this for the WinCE on the iPAQ so
>>I don't see why it shouldn't be possible under Linux. I haven't used the
>>WinCE program but you can find it at http://www.pdawin.com
>>
>>Hope this helps,
>>
>>Matt
>>
>>>On Fri, 2002-01-04 at 12:23, Warren Ponder wrote:
>>>
>>>>I must say congrats to all the work people have done so far on the ipaq
>>>>efforts. I have been out of the loop for almost a year.
>>>>
>>>>I have a question though. Does any one know of anyone that is working on
>>>>
>>>>a universal remote app for linux/ipaq? I built a mp3 player and tied it
>>>>into my entertainment system and am controlling it with my
>>>>linux/ipaq. I would love to be able to change the channels on the tv.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>
>>>>Warren
>>>>
>>
>>--
>>s&&!msfQ!&&s&$&utvK&&s&(Q)&\1!sfiupoB&&s&^&reverse Ibdlfs&e&s&^&#
>>&&s&$&#!uojsq&&s&(.)&chr(ord($1)-1)&ge&s&(.*)&reverse $1&see
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>--__--__--
>>
>>Message: 3
>>Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 15:41:47 -0800 (PST)
>>From: Ron F <newbdev@yahoo.com>
>>To: ipaq@handhelds.org
>>Subject: [iPAQ] Universal Remote
>>
>>I believe the lirc and lirc-modules .ipk's and pymote
>>provide this functionality, though, for the life of
>>me, I can't figure out how to make it work. If anyone
>>gets it to work, could you post the sequence of module
>>loads(irda,irtty,ircomm-tty, lirc_sir) and combination
>>of irattach, lircd, lircmd, and pymote.py command
>>invocations
>> to get it working. That would really be
>>helpful.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
>>>I have a question though. Does any one know of anyone
>>>that is working on
>>>a universal remote app for linux/ipaq? I built a mp3
>>>player and tied it
>>>into my entertainment system and am controlling it
>>>with my
>>>linux/ipaq. I would love to be able to change the
>>>channels on the tv.
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>
>>>Warren
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>__________________________________________________
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>>Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
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>>--__--__--
>>
>>Message: 4
>>Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 19:50:11 -0400 (AST)
>>From: James MacLean <macleajb@EDnet.NS.CA>
>>To: Warren Ponder <warren.ponder@sun.com>
>>cc: <ipaq@handhelds.org>
>>Subject: Re: [iPAQ] Universal Remote
>>
>>I see lirc_sir.o which is called "Linux Consumer IR Driver (LIRC) for
>>iPAQ" in the kernel, but has the same module name I think as "Linux
>>Infrared Remote Control". Either way, I wonder if http://www.lirc.org/
>>would port ok or has been ported as it works fine on my LapTop :). I'd
>>give it a go but our iPAQ is with someone else this weekend :(.
>>
>>JES
>>
>>On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Warren Ponder wrote:
>>
>>>I have a question though. Does any one know of anyone that is working on
>>>a universal remote app for linux/ipaq? I built a mp3 player and tied it
>>>into my entertainment system and am controlling it with my
>>>linux/ipaq. I would love to be able to change the channels on the tv.
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>Warren
>>>
>>
>
Received on Tue Jan 8 00:48:16 2002