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Infrared not working on XDA2 for TV remote controller

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.
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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

Quick question for Cingular 8525

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?
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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..

[Req] HTC HD2 tv remote controller

Hello everybody,
I saw that there was for the wm5 and some lower version that there was a remote controller tool for tv. With info that it only works on HP devices but that was a few years ago.
Does someone know if it is possible or that there is a tv remote controller application for the HD2? It will be really cool to have all those nice functions.
Greets
Tim

Wouldn't that rely on infra-red? Which a lot of modern phones no longer feature because, frankly, it's useless?

Yes- current devices have dropped I/R because no-one uses it anymore, so TV remote applications won't work.
Not that they were ever any good anyway

coddeest said:
Hello everybody,
I saw that there was for the wm5 and some lower version that there was a remote controller tool for tv. With info that it only works on HP devices but that was a few years ago.
Does someone know if it is possible or that there is a tv remote controller application for the HD2? It will be really cool to have all those nice functions.
Greets
Tim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some new tv's LED have bluetooth and i reckon it is just a matter of time they do a remote control. hang on....

NeilM said:
Yes- current devices have dropped I/R because no-one uses it anymore, so TV remote applications won't work.
Not that they were ever any good anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are wrong, you have never know how useful it was when I had the Dell Axim, Novii Remote was one of my must have app, it was a huge disappointment most of the modern devices dropped the infra red. With such app, you can customize almost anything you want with any electronics with remote control.

precsmo said:
you are wrong, you have never know how useful it was when I had the Dell Axim, Novii Remote was one of my must have app, it was a huge disappointment most of the modern devices dropped the infra red. With such app, you can customize almost anything you want with any electronics with remote control.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe, but thats one application and a tiny handful of users. With the advent of bluetooth, the low-range, line-of-sight-only IR was rendered useless. Most people use it for file transfer or hands-frees now and tbh not having to have the device in line-of-sight is a godsend. Gdayhtc might be onto something with TVs switching to bluetooth. IR in home devices is pretty much a dead technology.

[Q] Android Universal remote

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/

Android and IR Remote Control

Hey all,
I am interested in the idea of using my phone to control my home theatre equipment. The ability to control any IR equipment with your phone would be a very neat feature and a nice selling point, especially as Google has made clear their intentions to enter the home automation field. However at present it seems very hard to do this with Android.
I know that a solution is to use an IR transmitter connected to the 3.5mm headphone jack. The leader in this market seems to be a company called ThinkFlood who have a product called RedEye Mini. Here's an explanation of how it works...
http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye-mini/#how-does-it-work
Unfortunately for us Android users the software is in beta testing and the RedEye Mini hardware is not compatible yet.
I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on this project and whether it can be achieved yet by any other means?
Also does anyone know whether native support of IR hardware has been considered for Android. Seeing as this technology could very easily be built into phones it seems like a smart move for Google with their home automation drive and all.
I am interested to hear your thoughts and solutions.
Thanks

The concept of home automation would be improved if IR were not used at all. Line of sight comms is very limiting. On the plus side of course it means there are fewer radio waves flying round my house and frying my brain!

I agree 100%. I need to keep all the brain cells I can
Unfortunately though most home theatre equipment still relies of IR and I believe it will for a few more years. Google should jump on IR if they are serious about home automation.

if you use XBMC than there is an nice app to control it and many more.

Controlling the PC is easy as apps can communicate with it via my home network. The problem I have is using my phone to communicate with other equipment such as my TV and AV receiver. For these the only way I can think of controlling them is via IR.

edcoppen, as far as I know you have 2 options for IR on Android:
1/ - Already available DIY solutions -
You can check the Androlirc application (that would be me!)
And a friend of the project has developed a enhanced Audio2IR module that is called Irdroid (mine was just a proof of concept)
You'll have to be (or get) familiar with LIRC to go down that path.
2/ - Anounced and "soon to be available" IR equipped Android devices -
Touchsquid
Conspin Andi One
That a lot of link dropping for a first post, I hope xdadevelopers will let me submit that... (Submit...) Yeah, that's what I thought, you'll just have to look for web sites by yourself then.
Anyway I think we're gonna get some action in the IR/Tablet world soon... Until we get rid of that 30 years old, one way tech (on the plus side, it "owns" 100% of the market and the battery autonomy for a traditional remote control has to be measured in years... that's close to an infinity in the Android world)!

Quite interesting that there will be IR equipped mobile devices any more. I thought the technology would die out. I actually still carry my Nokia N73 with me and from time to time change the channel on the TV in the pub. Great fun!!!

Yeah, I had a nokia 7650 ten years ago with an IR transmitter/receiver and used to have so much fun changing channels in my sports bar. I reckon the technology has less interest nowadays as we move further into the digital age. The best and easiest way to automate your home theatre and stereo systems is to connect them to a pc and control everything from your phone. there are tons of apps in the market that allow you to do this. I have tried a few and am currently using three I find the best: Unified remote (specifically for their spotify remote, which now a days is my stereo system, but they have tons of other remotes and works great over LAN), phonemypc (for me one of the best vnc apps in the market) and remote desktop client, a great RDP app. Whatever you can connect to your pc (with the right hardware/firmware you can even connect all the appliances in your home, even your lights and air-conditioned, to a main server) you can control from your phone, either through LAN - using your home network - or even away from home using the internet (WAN). IR is an obsolete technology in the digital age.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

StreetGuru said:
Whatever you can connect to your pc (with the right hardware/firmware you can even connect all the appliances in your home, even your lights and air-conditioned, to a main server) you can control from your phone, either through LAN - using your home network - or even away from home using the internet (WAN). IR is an obsolete technology in the digital age.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont agree that it is a dead technology... yet! Most AV devices in the home still rely on it and unless i'm mistaken cannot be connected via the PC. Take for example my Samsung TV or my Harman Kardon AVR. I really want to be able to control these from my phone and cant find a viable solution. I have all the apps you mentioned and none of them help me here. You say via the right hardware/firmware can help... but what hardware would you use to connect the two devices I named to a PC, and how mush does it cost?
If an IR transmitter could be built into a watch 10 years ago I see no reason why it coultn't easily be added to a mobile phone. I know its personal preference but I would see it as a strong selling point.

IR hardware range too weak
My older HTC Windows phone had IR support, I had hoped to install AV remote sw on it. Found out the hard way that the IR range on many phones that had the hardware was only a few feet. It was intended as a bidirectional business card sharing type of thing before bluetooth took over. I'm thinking bluetooth is why most phones don't even have the IR hardware built in anymore.
I'm currently looking for a T-Mobile Froyo phone that has IR with sufficient range for AV remote use, any experts out there?
I don't want to depend on any dongles plugged in to the phone, but I would consider an external wireless box that had the IR command set and transmitter and a wireless way to communicate with the phone, preferably bluetooth so I don't have to turn on the wifi radio every time I use it.
i have a new enough Sammy tv to use DLNA etc, but that means turning on the wifi.