Disabling Infrared Remote Control / preventing from operating more than one box? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: dicky96
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2017, 12:55:58 pm
content: Hi guysThis is a big problem in pubs bars and clubs here (I live and work in a major tourist area)A lot of bars will have several IPTV or satellite receivers of the same type - some only have two or three but I have seen as many as 8 or 9 boxes in other venuesSo of course they have a problem when changing channels or other settings, you have to take extreme care only to affect the box you want to. The current methods to get around this seem to include:..holding your hand around the business end of the remote and placing it directly against the box you want to operate..placing boxes at the opposite ends of the bar (but even this sometimes does not help due to IR remotes reflecting off glass etc and makes the AV wiring a nightmare)..placing cardboard boxes, beer mats or bar towels around the boxes and exposing the one you want to operate (bar towels are not a *good* idea to wrap around your electronics on a sub tropical island!!..swearing a lot then trying to change back the channel on the box(es) you just inadvertently changedI do know on one type of satellite receiver used here I can actually pair the box with one remote from the setup menu but this is not the case for the two most common types of IPTV (Mag) and satellite boxes used hereOK so obviously I want to find a better solution (and earn a few quid)My first thought is to use a micro push button switch and a latching FET circuit to switch the 3.3V power to the IRC sensor in the box. The advantages of this appear to be that the pcb is very small (and inexpensive) it can be mounted directly onto the push button switch fitted to the front panel and only requires one track cut and three wires to the device PCB. The same circuit also debounces the switch. I can also place an LED suspended from he PCB directly behind the existing power LED so to the operator the power LED changes colour when the IRC is enabled. By default IRC is disabled unless the operator presses the button on that box, then press and hold to disable it after changing channels.My second thought was very similar but instead of switching the IRC receiver power I could feed the logic output of the IRC receiver via an AND gate and use the other gate input to enable or disable the IRC signal - very similar latching circuit mounted to the push button and also the same LED indicator. That would require one track cut and four wires to the main PCBEither of these mods could be easily fitted to boxes on site with a basic tool kit. One hole to drill, one track to cut and 3/4 wires to solder.Most of these boxes are out of warranty or tend to get thrown away and replaced even if they fail in warranty so that isn't really an issue.So those were my ideasBut then I came to thinking maybe some gurus on here can come up with a more elegant solution to this problem? As long as it is cheap and quick/easy to implement there could be a better way?CheersRich

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2017, 01:42:18 pm
content: Locate the IR window and glue a piece of black felt over it by the top edge only so you have to flap it up and hold it to use the remote.The switched solution is only worth it if you have all the receivers next to each other, so you can have a single rotary selector switch. The easiest way of doing this without having to hack boxes is to mask the IR windows with foil tape over black tape with a hole cut in the middle and stick the IR LED of a wired remote control extender over the hole in the tape. Use an ordinary rotary switch to connect the remote extender receiver to one of the N IR LEDs on the N boxes. The IR LEDs should have solid black back shells so no light can leak in round them.

author: drussell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2017, 03:16:34 pm
content: Yeah, just physically block the IR windows with little flaps so you have to physically uncover it to operate that particular box.Alternately, if the boxes have IR inputs on the back, you can put the external remote receivers in an array of pieces of 2" ABS pipe so you have to stick the end of the remote into the correct pipe to run that particular box.Either of these methods work great.

author: ironmonkey
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2017, 05:04:49 pm
content: The next time use a proffesional digital signage tv/display instead of a regular one. In that ones you can disable/enable IR or buttons by network (or rs232) and other niceties more

author: ironmonkey
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2017, 05:06:53 pm
content: Quote from: ironmonkey on August 25, 2017, 05:04:49 pmSorry for autorreply: also centralize your receivers and if the distances are long use HDbaseT instead of regular HDMIEnviado desde mi MotoG3 mediante Tapatalk

author: ratio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2017, 07:31:11 pm
content: I think I'd get a little short piece of black poly tubing, or something similar (heat shrink tubing maybe?), the same ID as the OD of the IR LED on the remote. Then you'd have a very directional setup, but could still use the remote from behind the bar or out on the floor, without having to walk up to each receiver. Maybe treat the receivers the same way, but then you'd have to be standing in the right place to do it.

author: dicky96
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2017, 05:31:35 pm
content: Thanks for the replies. It took me a little while to picture what Ian M was describing with the IR LEDs and rotary switch but now I understand what you meanInterresting, for an electronics forum, that all the other replies are mechanical methods.

author: pelud
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 12:52:48 am
content: I would go with an ESP8266 based board like one the WeMos D1 mini clones, along with a simple IR transmitter taped over the sensor on the box. You can then use an IR LED with the current really low (i.e. <5mA) so you can drive it directly from one of the I/O pins using a suitable sized resistor.This way you can set it using a web browser or something so that you can use a phone, or even the manager can do it from his computer in the back office.The software is a bit more tricky, but there are lots of tutorials on Instrutables for it. This is the part that not everybody can (or at least has the patience to) do, so you can probably charge quite a bit to a business for something that is tailored specifically for their needs.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 04:25:51 am
content: The one i have seen used in an South Australia pub was gluing 2 inches of pvc pipe to the front of the remote, with a black felt ring at the top. Essentially reducing the beam spread to about 0.3m.

author: firehopper
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 01:07:33 pm
content: some tivo's use a bluetooth remote instead of ir..

author: Kalvin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 01:21:38 pm
content: Make IR bridge using the cheap RF modules. Probably you will need a small microcontroller like attiny85/attiny84 or similar. The RF modules can be configured for different channels. Better yet, scramble the detected IR burst data so that it is not valid IR burst unless the transmitter and the receiver are paired ie. using the same scramble code. Should be pretty straightforward if the RF modules has sufficient bandwidth to send the detected & scrambled IR data.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 01:48:36 pm
content: Another one: Raspberry PI Zero W+LIRC. Probably use a couple of 74HCT238 chips to do 1:16 demuxing to select one of N LEDs to drive via some ULN2308 chips, and also to do 5V level conversion.https://www.hackster.io/austin-stanton/creating-a-raspberry-pi-universal-remote-with-lirc-2fd581https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/piui-control-your-pi-with-your-phone/