Remotes which learn

[Windmill]

Anyone knowlegeable about these? I'm looking for something with which I could select which device I want to control, presumably chosen from a menu displayed on an LCD screen or whatever, and then perform all the usual functions for that device.

I believe some remotes have a built-in selection of remotes whose codes they can emulate, but I'd prefer something more flexible. It'd probably need to have a touch screen to show different functions for different devices.

Or could something like an Android phone have an IR transmitter/receiver plugged into it so that it could act as a remote? I have a vague idea I've heard of something of the kind.

[Andrew Gabriel]

It's over 10 years ago since I looked at such products, but there were "4 in 1" type remotes which could record and playback the data stream from the original equipment remote, providing you still had it and it was working. (I think they might also have had codes for some common remotes preloaded.)

[Bob Eager]

Probably the most flexible ones are the Logotech ones - they vary in price, up to about £200!

The Logitech harmony 650 is about £50, and can control 8 devices. I have the 600 (earlier model) and that can control pretty well anything I threw at it. And it can learn functions from an old remote.

[tabbypurr]

tried a cheap one once. It looked for a change on screen, and picked a corresponding preloaded code set.

The remote that controlled the most devices I've ever had was a bamboo stick. That was when tvs etc weren't remote controlled.

NT

[alan_m]

I have a couple of Harmony remote controls. They allow the control of up to 6 different devices. There is a web interface where you can download the codes for hundreds of popular boxes. They also have the ability to learn the codes from an existing remote - put the harmony remote into programming mode (for a single button at a time) and point it at remote it has to learn from. There is a LCD screen where you can allocate your own button functionality.

These remotes allow flexibility on how I use my under TV equipment. For instance volume control is via an AV amp so the volume button for the TV and set-top boxes have been reallocated codes for the AV map.

The remote also allows sequence switching. Swapping between set-top boxes or to a DVD player is a single button press. The remote handles switching off one box and switching on another as well as swapping audio sources on the AV amp and swapping video sources on the TV.

[Mike Barnes]

I toyed with sequence switching in the distant past but there's one problem that would occur again and again, and that's the button whose effect depends on the current state of the system.

For instance on my current TV remote there's an AV button that either (1) switches from TV to AV, or (2) switches from one AV source to the next one. The effect depends on whether the current mode is TV or AV. There's no button that says unambiguously "switch to AV", or "Select AV2", so no possibility of constructing a sequence containing that action.

I'd like to think there's a solution to that problem but I can't think what it might be. It seems that there's every incentive for manufacturers to reduce the number of buttons on the remote by sharing functions, and no incentive for them to make it learning-remote-friendly.

[Andy]

There might be a solution to that problem. Some (many) TVs will have an input button which scrolls between inputs as you described. This could be just between AV or TV, or between HDMI1, HDMI2, Scart, DTV etc.

Just because the remote doesn't have discrete button for each input on the TV doesn't mean to say that the TV can't use them. Many of these are documented and are already in Logitech's database.

If they aren't already available it may be possible to work out what they are. I successfully did this for a Logik (Curry's) TV using a Logitech remote. Once I'd found the codes Logitech programmed them in for me. I assume they then add them to their database for future use. Lots of info here

and my thread on their forum - There's even some diy in there making an optical coupler!

[stuart noble]

I use a wheelbarrow

[Windmill]

Sorry for the v. long delay; couldn't get on with my search until other vital stuff got done.

That had been my approach until recently!

[Windmill]

That was what I vaguely thought I remembered from some random reading. I finally had time & energy to pursue things further and knowing a bit more was able to find some examples of the type you describe.

[Windmill]

Thanks; that told me what to look for. Maybe the 600 is better in some way than the 650 (prices higher) ?

[Windmill]

Sounds like you have a very high-end setup. I'll see if a 650 will do that sort of thing (not going to spend more on a remote than the TV cost!). Somewhere it said you needed Windows to access the code database; I'm hoping that isn't really the case or that Wine could be used as a Windows replacement. If not, maybe a Raspberry Pi could be used as a temporary Windows device. ISTR that usoft have decided to jump on the Pi bandwagon, no doubt hoping to entice the unwary into their deadly embrace (I'm an old DEC and now Linux advocate so not unbiased :-)

[Windmill]

Might be just as much the result of despair when they find that a minority of users are either too drunk or too technically illiterate to handle more than five buttons.

[Windmill]

Tried to look on that site, but it's one of the sites which doesn't like it if you try to access from what they consider the 'wrong' place. I need to try harder to see how best to access it.

[Windmill]

Useful if you want to dig. Maybe not so useful if you want to diy !

[Brian-Gaff]

And who remembers the ultrasonic channel changer. A tuning fork in a box with a spring pinger to poke it into sound. The snag of course that if you dropped a set of keys on the floor in the room the channels wout go haywire. Brian

[DerbyBorn]

"Brian-Gaff" wrote in news:mpliof$8b0$ [e-mail]:

I wonder if a museum has one?

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Windmill escribió:

VMS, OSF/1 or Digital UNIX?

[Windmill]

Much older than that! PDP10s (KA, KI, KL) Though I later had some exposure to VAXes.

And even a bit on a PDP1, believe it or not. AECL had one alongside a KA10.