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I've installed TV remote controller 5.5 from www.pdawin.com but cannot get any of the built in settings ie. SONY TV to controll my equipment. I cannot get the XDA2 to respond to the softwares learn function either. Can anyone please help?
I had this exact same issue. I gave up after 20 minutes. If anyone has any tips on using as a remote, I would also be very interested to know.
well i cant say for xda2 but i had it running on xda1 and the Infrared transmitter is WEAK! the tv would only react if the xda1 were as close as 30cm from the reciever of the tv
so unless the Infrared t ransceiver is much more powerfull then the one in xda1 then even if you find a remote program it's next to useless with such a short range
unless you build something like this
http://www.pdawin.com/irtranceiver.html
I had TV remote working on my previous Dell Axim X5. The IR transmitter was weak too, think it had to be within a metre or so from memory.
I've tried the XDA2 only inches away from the IR sensor on the TV and it still doesn't work, either it is really low powered? or there is a fault somewhere?
This is probably a hardware limitation.
It's possible that the used infrared led's aren't emitting in the standard consumer electronics spectrum.
If this is the case, the XDA II can't be used for remote control applications, unless you replace the IR transmitter (which means opening the case and voiding warranty).
It wont work due to the fact that the Xda II does not have a consumer standard IrDA module on it. A severe limitation of the Xda II as well I feel. A bit of a step backward from the Xda I too.
Grrr. I didnt want it anyway.
its not a hardware problem.... its a software problem...
RichMercer said:
It wont work due to the fact that the Xda II does not have a consumer standard IrDA module on it. A severe limitation of the Xda II as well I feel. A bit of a step backward from the Xda I too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, XDA2 can not be used for remote control applications!
I wonder why anybody would want to turn this beautiful cutting edge piece of technology into a remote control when a very comprehensive learning remote can be had for about £5.
cruisin-thru said:
I wonder why anybody would want to turn this beautiful cutting edge piece of technology into a remote control when a very comprehensive learning remote can be had for about £5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've often asked myself the same question I do see people with PDA's creating the odd havoc in TV shops n department stores switching the channels etc.
Really have not wanted to control my TV, aircon or anything else with my XDA II .
I wonder why anybody would want to turn this beautiful cutting edge piece of technology into a remote control when a very comprehensive learning remote can be had for about £5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i suppose many people say the same thing with a search replace of remote to phone when they see how much more we pay to get a pda and cellphone in one
Even fully compliant IrDA components are only rated for a transmit distance of 1 meter. Consumer remote controls are much brighter.
Yes and since the cheapest usable tv remote controller with a more powerfull beam can be bought for around 5 dollar... why didn´t they put these ir leds in the mda xda ii?? max difference 1 dollar in large quantities?
With all these remotes laying around on the table (about 8 of them) tv remote on the pocketpc would be very usefull. Learning mode, program what you need or get them from the database on internet. Also the possibility to program macro´s so you press one button to play and watch dvd and power on 5.1 surround system.....
How can the ir leds be tweaked?
michiel
Yes and since the cheapest usable tv remote controller with a more powerfull beam can be bought for around 5 dollar... why didn´t they put these ir leds in the mda xda ii?? max difference 1 dollar in large quantities?
With all these remotes laying around on the table (about 8 of them) tv remote on the pocketpc would be very usefull. Learning mode, program what you need or get them from the database on internet. Also the possibility to program macro´s so you press one button to play and watch dvd and power on 5.1 surround system.....
How can the ir leds be tweaked?
michiel
Yes and since the cheapest usable tv remote controller with a more powerfull beam can be bought for around 5 dollar... why didn´t they put these ir leds in the mda xda ii?? max difference 1 dollar in large quantities?
With all these remotes laying around on the table (about 8 of them) tv remote on the pocketpc would be very usefull. Learning mode, program what you need or get them from the database on internet. Also the possibility to program macro´s so you press one button to play and watch dvd and power on 5.1 surround system.....
How can the ir leds be tweaked?
michiel
the only useful app that ive ever found for any pda to control a pice of equpiment was one for a palm that i had,
the software was called mini-disk titler ,
you just filled in the track names on the screen then tapped on title. the pda then sent the sequence of button presses to title the disk in about 20 seconds , much quicker than faffing with all the menus on the player
ian
well the very brigth remote leds may not be able to transmit data as far as the ir in the xda
about extenders for the ir
http://www.pdawin.com/irtranceiver.html
http://www.homeautomationnet.com/Shopping/remote-control-accessories.asp
http://www.smarthome.com/8220A.html
Does this device have consumer Infrared so as to be used as a tv remote control?
JasjarMan said:
Does this device have consumer Infrared so as to be used as a tv remote control?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a thread somewere on this. From memory it was not practical due to the very short range of the infra red beam. (could be quite wrong but less than 1 metre??)
Mike
that is pretty useless,
why put IR in a device that has such a minute range. sometimes HTC should just remove some features and make the device more compact.
jasjamming said:
that is pretty useless,
why put IR in a device that has such a minute range. sometimes HTC should just remove some features and make the device more compact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe it wasnt a question of removing features and making it more compact (im sure you arent going to save much by removing IR) but maybe it was more a question of "we have all this tiny extra space that we cant rid of, lets cram some more in it"
jasjamming said:
that is pretty useless,
why put IR in a device that has such a minute range. sometimes HTC should just remove some features and make the device more compact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I guess if you can get your devices close to each other it's ok otherwise a bit limiting.
Mike
The fact that the infrared port is on the bottom would make using it as a remote rather akward.
b.d
Not really because there is software that when you launch the app everything turns upside down automatically. I had the ipaq 4700 and I used the remote control that way. Worked really well despite being at the bottom. I could swear I read somewhere this thing does have the consumer infrared but I can not find it. Has anyone tried loading an app and see what range it has? If not can someone please try it, I will get my 8525 soon but would love to know asap.
Thanks.
Baelrun said:
The fact that the infrared port is on the bottom would make using it as a remote rather akward.
b.d
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't bother to try. I installed Novii Remote and it works when i'm about 3-5ft (1-1.5meter) away from the TV.
has anyone tried an app called TV-remote version 5.x. it says it imprves range but I question how it will actually do that.
They didnt put the IR there to control a TV and I doubt the creators of the HTC could care less whether they extended the range of the IR. They intended it to be able to beam to another device such as another PDA or printer. It works quite nicely for those purposes.
IR is pretty much outdated these days with RF wireless communications such as bluetooth, zigbee, ultra-wideband.
If a device has IR it most likely wont be used for the original purpose it was built (in my case and view) - instead to explore novelty applications.
No doubt, as you said, that it works quite nicely for IR data transmission from device to device, but the technology is obselete.
IR is useful
I used to think IR was obsolete. However recently I have had a numbeer of occassions when I have been very happy to still have it.
Have you tried going to a trade fair or other venue with a large number of BT devices. Try searching for the particualr device you want to transfer information to. it can take some time to find the device you want.
Now compare how quickly you can do the same exercise over infared.
TB
good point....
There's another possible hardware hack lurking here: replace the IR LED with a more powerful component. I've been mulling over this one a bit...
Sleuth255 said:
There's another possible hardware hack lurking here: replace the IR LED with a more powerful component. I've been mulling over this one a bit...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
replacing the IR led may work.. but is the voltage there to drive a more powerful IR led?
that's exactly what I'm mulling over...
I'm thinking of comparing parts to the LED that's in an 8125 (much better range) then pull specs on both to see what the differences are.
Sleuth255 said:
that's exactly what I'm mulling over...
I'm thinking of comparing parts to the LED that's in an 8125 (much better range) then pull specs on both to see what the differences are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had horrible range on my wizard, i had to be no more than 3 feet from any device to get the IR remote to use..
Hi,
Have a Kaiser on the way and want to have an external GPS antenna and an external phone antenna ready to go when it gets here.
But I can't find anywhere what types of antenna sockets the Kaiser has for these two antennas?
Does anyone know???
Thanks.
Great forum, by the way!
As far as i can see it only has a socket for a GPS antenna so i assume this would probably act as both although not sure
you can get the official antenna from expansys
http://www.expansys.com/htc/p_htc_item.aspx?i=151025
I can confirm spooki37 says, from what I can tell, there is only one port. It is located the rubber GPS stamp that is on the back of the device. eBay has them shipping to the US for about $15 - $20 non-oem from China.
When I remove the battery cover, it sure looks like there are two jacks. I too thought the other must be for external Cellular antenna.
So does anyone know what the 2nd port is used for?
Whatever you do dont use the second port because it will damage your phone. I plugged an external antenna into my original phone and when I removed it the phone had no signal at all. The only way to get any signal was to use an external antenna after that.
That second port is an antenna port but htc doesnt support any antenna for it and is supposed to be used for debugging purposes only.
I use an external antenna all the time with mine... (TyTN II / Kaiser) works ok.. not great, but gets me one more bar, and seems to hold the signal better in a low signal area.
I use this adapter:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=441
with one of their antennas.
I don't have any problems with signal after I disconnect it, but i'm pretty careful with connect/disconnect, and I cradle it while connected. I bet a little torque would probably damage the connection which would probably damage the internal antenna connection as well.
So you remove the battery cover and plug that antenna into the smaller of the two ports? Ive damaged 2 phones trying external antennas and so have others. This one is a htc titan http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/ppc-6800-xv6800/96140-phone-signal-horrible.html and theres more reports like this one.
Ren13B said:
So you remove the battery cover and plug that antenna into the smaller of the two ports? .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually just pull my battery cover off, carefully seat the antenna into the port on the left, and then cradle the the thing.
I've done this with this phone, a moto blackjack, and at least two other moto phones in the past, and never had an issue. Again, though... I've pretty much ALWAYS immobilized the phone while it's got the antenna jack plugged in. I actually try to do the same when USB is in too... the boards inside these tiny devices are too thin and the amount of torque you can apply accidentally is quite high... best to be safe... but I get intermittent signal where I use it most frequently, so I accept the risk.
Thanks!
KarlFlick said:
I use an external antenna all the time with mine... (TyTN II / Kaiser) works ok.. not great, but gets me one more bar, and seems to hold the signal better in a low signal area.
I use this adapter:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=441
with one of their antennas.
I don't have any problems with signal after I disconnect it, but i'm pretty careful with connect/disconnect, and I cradle it while connected. I bet a little torque would probably damage the connection which would probably damage the internal antenna connection as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly the answer I needed - thanks heaps!
So obviously it takes the some patch lead as the Tytn. In that case I'll just get a Tytn patch lead off ebay and hope for the best.
The owner's manual I found for the Tytn says you can use the antenna plug, so they obviously thought it was safe then, but maybe hid it on this model because of a few reported breakages. I'm going to use mine only occasionally and in a cradle, so I hope I'll be OK if I'm very careful. Maybe I'll never end up using it given the risk...
Another option would be one of those universal antenna leads. They clip on the back of the phone and work by an induction coil. Their performance is very variable - mine works OK (+1 bar) on a friend's phone, but seems to make no difference on my phone.
I want to add this as well: plugging in an external antenna can damage your phone. I have plugged a wilson antenna into my 8925 and now my reception is extremely poor... I am not sure of the cause, or how to fix it.. just hope to help people avoid this.
We have the 8925 here at our office and have found that the port on the right side is for GPS only. The left port is for cellular reception.
We have not damaged the phone that we have here and have had the 8925 for about 6 months.
There are a few issues with using external antennas:
First of all, the connector must be properly sized for the phone.
With some device/connector combinations it is normal for the connector to appear to not be fully seated. If you try to force the connector on further you can do permanent damage to the phone.
In the phone there is a tiny mechanical switch that gets tripped when you plug the external antenna in. This physically disconnects the internal antenna and connects the phone's radio to the antenna port. Sometimes this switch gets stuck in the port position, so you get poor performance when you disconnect the external antenna. This is especially common with CDMA Motorola V3 models.
-Jay
any body uses a wifi external antenna????
How hard is it to fix this "switch"? I have a kaiser that will only work with an external antenna after using one. Port isnt damaged as far as I can tell and ive never had problems with external antennas with other phones.
Jay2TheRescue said:
There are a few issues with using external antennas:
First of all, the connector must be properly sized for the phone.
With some device/connector combinations it is normal for the connector to appear to not be fully seated. If you try to force the connector on further you can do permanent damage to the phone.
In the phone there is a tiny mechanical switch that gets tripped when you plug the external antenna in. This physically disconnects the internal antenna and connects the phone's radio to the antenna port. Sometimes this switch gets stuck in the port position, so you get poor performance when you disconnect the external antenna. This is especially common with CDMA Motorola V3 models.
-Jay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DaMilky said:
How hard is it to fix this "switch"? I have a kaiser that will only work with an external antenna after using one. Port isnt damaged as far as I can tell and ive never had problems with external antennas with other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never actually had this happen to any of my phones, so I don't know how hard it is to fix. If the external antenna was forced onto the connector you may have to send the phone in for service to have the port replaced. The only other thing I can think of is to put a small amount of contact cleaner on the port itself, the gently work it in with the external antenna connector. This may loosen the switch and let it return to the internal antenna position if this is your problem. In all likelihood I'd say that a warranty exchange is probably your best bet.
-Jay
has anyone notised a 3rd port? its between the camera and the speaker and slightly higer than the other 2 I bet that ones for wifi at 1st glance I thought it was a screw.
I don't understand why the port were designed in the first place when things seem to be such a useless purpose ...etc
comes with INTERNAL GPS ... so why the need for EXTERNAL ??? and if you do need to use it ... it is delicate and chances are, you're screwed and damage it !!
so why bother designed it ?? <scratching head> !!!
External antennae that are properly sized for the operational wavelength will always have higher effective gain than any built-on antenna that is capable of fitting on a typical handheld device.
The External GPS antenna has 27 dB Gain (typical)... I cannot find specifications for the internal antenna on our Kaiser's, but I am willing to bet they are probably at best a unity antenna, maybe 3db on the good side.
That means you will recieve SIGNIFICANTLY signal strength and more satellites when you are doing anything involving GPS, and weather, antenna position, and all standard environmental factors will have significantly less effect on your GPS activities.
The same goes for an external antenna for the cellular portion. The internal radio boosts power output when it has degraded reception which means when you're in a poor reception area, you burn more battery doing the same things you typically do.
A "gain" vehicular antenna directly connected to your phone will increase battery life when using wireless connections to the cellular network, as well as provide you good reception where you would otherwise have poor to none.
Of course, if you live in an urban area, this is probably of no use to you... but in a built up area with many large buildings around, you may not have as good GPS resolution and reception as you could with an external antenna..
*
The primary reason they put these on there is moreso for diagnostic purposes probably... hook it up to a freq counter and/or spectrum analyzer and you can tell that the radio is actually putting out what frequency and it's strength as well. Without those, there's no external way to ensure transmission is occuring without possible interference.
mech_supernova said:
has anyone notised a 3rd port? its between the camera and the speaker and slightly higer than the other 2 I bet that ones for wifi at 1st glance I thought it was a screw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've examined this very closely under a bright light, and I have concluded that it is a screw with a Torx head.
OK, well i have searched for about a week now and feel either it doesnt exist or im just not looking in the right place. I'm interested in programming a universal remote for my EVO but the problem i am having is finding the hardware to make it work.
What is needed:
Wifi to RF converter OR
Bluetooth to RF converter
Does anyone have any clue where to find one? You would think that with Iphones popularity with their phone attached junk someone would have gotten smart and made one that you could just sit next to your entertainment system so that you dont have to plug in a device to your phone....
Anyways, i didnt find anything on here, not online, nor in the underground layer of electronic geeks... jk. I dont have the skills to build my own device or i would. I'm taking computer engineering so maybe someday i will.
Any help from you gods at Xda would be appreciated.
You can buy a Bluetooth to Serial port converter, like this one:
http://www.totalpda.co.uk/+/Bluetooth-Serial-RS232-Adapter.7562.html
Maybe you could then find a serial or legacy IR transmitter device to send the IR signals to your devices. I'm assuming they are IR and not RF.
You could use something like this for the IR unit:
http://www.expansys.com/actisys-ird...=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=base
So you connect both units near your equipment, Power them somehow, point the IR device towards the Equipment, Connect via Bluetooth to the Serial Port Profile and assuming you are sending the right signal for the device you should have control.
Of course because it works both ways, you could 'Read back' the signal from your remote control into your android application and store it against the event you want to fire via your GUI controls. Simples.
hmmmm yes...I think that'll work
Logicalstep
I think the easiest solution would be to write an android app to use the ir dongles that plug into the headphone Jack. There are a couple out there... most of the iPhone adapters plug into the headphone jacks, I believe. Also there was one out for winmo years ago.
Anyways, I think they just convert audio signals into ir remote signals, so the app would just need the collection of audio signals for the various ir signals needed. I bet you could get one of the iPhone ir dongle companies to help out in writing an app, cause that would mean another market to buy their hardware.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
I'm liking the first one. But not the single idea. Not. Many people I know would want to buy a single and risk losing it when you could have a stationary device sitting right there. Plus if it could be wifi connected then you could control it from anywhere.
Maybe I did not look hard enough, but I could not find a "similar" Android Universal Remote systems like the ones below for the iPhone. I'm looking for an Android UR application that allows an Android Smartphone, that has no IR, to interface to an existing IR blaster via WiFi or Blutooth to control AV components. It is possible that I miss it, so if someone can point me to one I'd appreciate it. If none is available, maybe someone can write an Android UR app that can interface with one the "existing" IR blasters that work with the iPhone. These IR blasters, as you can see below, are not that expensive.
I was impressed by how the UI is easily customizable in the iPhone app in the video for the UnityRemote... Who knows... maybe gear4 is already writing an Android app for it.
http://us.gear4.com/product/_/93/unityremote/?cid=31
http://www.slashgear.com/griffin-beacon-makes-your-iphone-4-a-universal-remote-07124546/
http://www.slashgear.com/peel-fruit-turns-iphone-into-show-suggesting-universal-remote-08118392/
The Acer Liquid E uses an IR reflection sensor to detect when it's against a surface. If you look carefully in the dark you'll notice the red light from it as it tries to detect.
I wonder if it's possible to hack the kernel to use that IR port as a TV remote or as an IRDA transceiver.
Just an odd thought. Anyone have any ideas?