Suggestion: IR from Headphone Jack

[makryger]

We are in a bit of a weird transition where more and more signals are being transmitted digitally, and yet we are still stuck with a lot of legacy products that use IR. In my case, I use an RF remote, but the same applies for people who use iphone/android/WP7 remotes over IP. The thing is, its quite possible that we no longer need the IR receiver portion of our setups- except due to legacy products, we still may need IR Blasters. (To control TV, STBs, amps, etc.) So right now I've got this clunky HP IR TRansceiver that sits behind my tv, doing nothing but telling my AV Receiver to turn on and off.

So, in an effort to remove one more external peripheral from our setup, it would seem quite logical to just stick your IR Blaster cable into a headphone jack behind your HTPC. Who uses those analog audio sources now anyways? So I was wondering if anyone has more hardware/driver experience who would be interested in turning an analog 3.5mm jack into an IR Blaster?

[richard1980]

I'm not sure about turning the headphone jack for your sound card into an IR blaster (I'm certain that would require lots of destruction), but couldn't you just mount an IR blaster connector to a PCI bracket or the case? Then just locate the guts of the IR blaster inside the case. Basically you end up with a port on your computer where you plug in your blaster cable.

[STC]

I think there are plenty of serial to IR utilities, but you would need to make or buy a transiever. Do you have a com port header on your mobo?

[makryger]

Both excellent ideas, the only problem is that they both are hardware based mods... you'd think that hijacking an audio port could be done with just drivers. Although I suppose a serial to IR blaster option would be easiest, if I bought a 3.5mm jack component to play with

[STC]

Actually I have a spare MS usb Ir receiver and emitter if you want it? Just pay for ship?

[STC]

Second thoughts, it probably wouldn't help you to turn off your amp.

[STC]

How does your transition from RF to IR for the HP transiever work? Can your remote also do IR?

[makryger]

My RF remote has its own separate dongle.

In short, I'd like to see an internal IR Blaster, with a jack to just plug in an emitter. I figured that the headphone jack has the same form factor, so you'd think sending the right 1's and 0's out of it would save the need for getting all new hardware. Upon further research, unfortunately, "Sound card won't give enough current. On top of that most sound cards have 48KHz maximum sampling rate, which means the highest frequency it can output is 24KHz. Typical IR equipement uses 36-40KHz -- way off." Oh well!

[richard1980]

I figured that the headphone jack has the same form factor, so you'd think sending the right 1's and 0's out of it

It might be the same physical form factor, but unless that headphone jacks is digital, you aren't going to be sending any 1's and 0's out of it. I don't know what you've got over there, but I suspect that's just a standard analog headphone jack.

[NizZ8]

I think I saw this kind of hardware for an iPhone awhile back for ~20$ or so. Not sure if that helps .