Can you make a remote out of a controller? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Sublime
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 02:11:16 am
content: Is it possible I can make a controller, with the Left Analog Joystick being the change channel (up+down), the Right Analog Joystick being the volume buttons (up+down), or making the D-Pad do both (up+down = channel, left+right = volume), and the start button being the menu? Is this a possibility? If so, can anybody lead me in the right direction to figure out how to start something like this?

author: ElectricGuy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 02:14:56 am
content: Quote from: Sublime on July 13, 2015, 02:11:16 amAre you talking about a IR remote for a TV? Yes, its possible.

author: Sublime
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 02:24:23 am
content: Quote from: ElectricGuy on July 13, 2015, 02:14:56 amYes, I am.

author: ElectricGuy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 02:36:19 am
content: Quote from: Sublime on July 13, 2015, 02:24:23 amSo, you have to teardown the joystick to reverse engineer the buttons that you want to use. That is easy.Then you will need to kown what is the IR protocol of the TV that you want to control.After that, you will need to interface the joystick buttons with a microcontroller connected to an IR Led so it can send the commands that ou want.I don0t know if you have knowledge how to program an MCU, but i woul sugest you to start with arduino, because it has allready libraries to do this kind of things.

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 02:48:53 am
content: Have a look at this,https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ir-communicationAn Arduino clone is cheap but you will need some other stuff as well.http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Pro-Mini-atmega328-Board-5V-16M-Replace-ATmega128-Arduino-Compatible-Nano-/131278764259?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e90d2f8e3

author: Sublime
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 03:55:25 am
content: Quote from: ElectricGuy on July 13, 2015, 02:36:19 amHow difficult of a challenge would this be for someone relatively new to this?

author: Muxr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 05:45:14 am
content: I actually don't understand your question fully. You want to repurpose your game controller to control your TV? Are you intending to open the controller and hot wire it? Or do you want to make a man in the middle type box that intercepts signals from the controller and blasts the appropriate IR codes to the TV? Is the game console controller supposed to function like before while having this new capability? What type of controller is it?As far as learning curve for something like this, it depends, some people pick it up fairly quickly and for others it might take some time to learn the fundamentals. Depends on your background. Knowing programming can give you a leg up, or knowing basic electronics. But since there seem to be a decent number of libraries and modules already available it may not be too bad.It's hard to tell because we don't know if the existing libraries already handle the IR protocol you're trying to reverse engineer. Also if you get stuck you might need an Oscilloscope and a Logic Analyser to inspect your signals. There are learning curves to all of this. And you might have to invest into some test equipment and tools.It's definitely beyond the scope of a first project I would say. But you might get lucky.Good thing is, it's cheap to try it out. Arduino clones can be had for a less than $10.. and the modules are just as cheap. Get an Arduino, get your feet wet, make a few simple Arduino projects, LED blinker and so on and then see if you have what it takes to try out the IR stuff.Dave did a video on IR reverse engeneeiring while back, so here is a little taste of what might be required:

author: Sublime
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 06:13:39 am
content: Quote from: Muxr on July 13, 2015, 05:45:14 amThanks a bunch, I do plan on investing more, with time that will come though. Only so much I can do at once unfortunately.As for the question - basically I want to get this game controller to function as a typical remote. I had an old remote laying around and I thought it'd be a fun project to mess around with something just for the fun of it (also for the experience!)! So I basically just want to turn this ordinary game controller, in this case, a Playstation 3 controller, to a TV remote I must also note that I have Dish TV, and in order for this to do any good, would I not have to get that IR protocol instead of my TV?

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 06:27:07 am
content: Have a look at the sparkfun article, it explains how to copy and send signals using an Arduino and includes code examples and hardware. It will be a bit of a learning curve for a novice but a very good intro to electronics. It's simple and lives in the real world.https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ir-communicationWith little effort you could program one button to power up the tv, switch to your fav channel, turn on your surround sound and adjust the volume.

author: Muxr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2015, 03:35:00 pm
content: Quote from: Sublime on July 13, 2015, 06:13:39 amSo if you're able to modify the controller internally then it should be much easier. Whichever receiver you want to send the IR codes too is the one you need to target with reverse engineering its codes. But I doubt you're using the dish controller for volume control. Usually the volume control is either on the TV or on your audio system. So you might have to target multiple devices to fully control your entertainment stack.