Pandora As A Universal Remote

[tyicepaws]

Just had an idea since blue tooth adapter are resonable cheap
was wondering if you could use the pandora and it's bluetooth to connect and
send comands, watcha think?

 

[Prometheus]

I'm not too sure what you'd need a Bluetooth adapter for, here - could you explain, please? (The Pandora has built-in Bluetooth, so I'm a bit puzzled. )

As far as using this for a universal remote, wouldn't that require an infra-red device, rather than a Bluetooth one?

 

[stustaff]

I'm not too sure what you'd need a Bluetooth adapter for, here - could you explain, please? (The Pandora has built-in Bluetooth, so I'm a bit puzzled. )

As far as using this for a universal remote, wouldn't that require an infra-red device, rather than a Bluetooth one?

yeh its interesting plan but no infra red is difficult, however PS3 uses bluetooth for its remotes as can the xbox and I can control my media center remotely using the wifi network. and a VNC client

 

[tyicepaws]

Meaning anything with blue tooth or a USB slot could receive commands from the pandora

 

[multiplex]

Provided it's willing to listen, at least. I'm thinking of writing a small Python script for my phone so I can take pictures, send and read messages etc. via Bluetooth.

 

[stustaff]

Provided it's willing to listen, at least. I'm thinking of writing a small Python script for my phone so I can take pictures, send and read messages etc. via Bluetooth.

whats the advantage of bluetooth?why not connect via wifi? isnt that quicker?

 

[God Ginrai]

Provided it's willing to listen, at least. I'm thinking of writing a small Python script for my phone so I can take pictures, send and read messages etc. via Bluetooth.

whats the advantage of bluetooth?why not connect via wifi? isnt that quicker?

Bluetooth is more stable, IIRC.

-God Ginrai

 

[multiplex]

Provided it's willing to listen, at least. I'm thinking of writing a small Python script for my phone so I can take pictures, send and read messages etc. via Bluetooth.

whats the advantage of bluetooth?why not connect via wifi? isnt that quicker?

Mostly to save power, though it should be easy enough to support both.

 

[SomeGuy99]

IRshell for the PSP was pretty cool if you had a 1000 model with an infra-red port. I used it to control XBMC on my Xbox!

You could probably do the same for say, a PS3 bluetooth remote?

I'd quite like the reverse too (control Pandora from a bluetooth remote).

 

[second exodous]

How many threads have this exact same name: 'Pandora as a universal remote'?

I looked before but couldn't find a USB IR dongle. I have a few USB IR receivers from Logitech mice, but wouldn't you need the opposite? It would be cool, no doubt about it, to be able to control every box I have. I don't think any boxes plugged into my computer right now are bluetooth.

 

[paulguy]

You could probably attach one to one of the GPIO pins on the ext port. Not sure if it'd provide enough power or the right voltage to drive the IR LED, to keep it small, or if you'd need some kind of external amp/battery pack, though. Can you pull power from the ext port? That'd probably allow you to keep it small if you design it right.

From there, you can probably use lirc or something and write a driver for that to send out to your device.

 

[Zotty]

Some of you might find this an interesting addition to your Pandora

http://dangerousprototypes.com/category/infrared-toy/

 

[second exodous]

Some of you might find this an interesting addition to your Pandora

http://dangerousprototypes.com/category/infrared-toy/

Eh, that thing is huge. I remember someone was making a box that you controlled through bluetooth and it sent the IR signals to your boxes. I'm sure it was made for the iphone since it didn't have an IR sensor that smart phone sometimes have. This would be a much better option anyway since no matter where you are in the room you could control that box with bluetooth(much more reliable than IR) and have the box situated so the IR works perfectly. That is what I would go with if a IR dongle about the size of this isn't made:

As you can see that is a receiver so that wouldn't work, need something to send the IR signal.

Edit: Ah, Arduino to the rescue! If someone could attach a IR Arduino module to that board so the Pandora could send bluetooth signals to that and then that could send IR signals to your boxes then that would be what I was thinking about. It's possible that it has been done with Arduino(which means cheaper than a commercial project!) but google is not turning up anything.

Edit Edit: Wow, 150 bucks is a little steep, maybe a commercial box that does what I described would be cheaper. . .

 

[Zotty]

Yeah, it's not as tiny as you'd like, but since no alternative has been presented, I figured it's better than nothing.

BT is a nice way to do this, it's just too bad the BT stack is a bit of a pita. Otherwise you could make some BT2IR box tailored to your needs quite easily.

edit:
Oh that board would offer some nice options.

 

[Zotty]

What if the cost would be around 40 euro in hardware and some spare time for developing software? I think I can whip something up, but it would be custom designed hardware (fully BT v2.0+EDR, serial port profile), some firmware for a MCU and a software app running on the Pandora.

 

[trooper]

Quite a few on this page alone.

http://www.usbgear.com/usb-infrared.html

Trooper

 

[Zotty]

And where on that page are standalone (e.g. no computer) BT to IR adapters?

As I understand it the idea is to connect from the Pandora via BT to an adapter that can be placed outside the line of sight, which then translates the commands to IR codes your AV/whatever equipment understands.

 

[trooper]

And where on that page are standalone (e.g. no computer) BT to IR adapters?

As I understand it the idea is to connect from the Pandora via BT to an adapter that can be placed outside the line of sight, which then translates the commands to IR codes your AV/whatever equipment understands.

???

As i understood it, The request was to control Audio, Video, Home entertainment equipment from the Pandora, ie. Universal Remote.
As most commercial, Shop bought home entertainment equipment are controlled via infrared remote control, Very few are controlled via
blue-tooth. Except maybe Xbox 360, PS3 or home built media centres.

As the Pandora does not have IRda built-in as standard, Those adaptors i linked to add that ability to the Pandora, Which could then
be used via some controlling software, Allow the Pandora to be used as a Universal Remote.

Trooper

 

[Polossatik]

Some software that might be ported:

For an Ir remote see http://irreco.garage.maemo.org/ https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=289

or this http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/bluemaemo/ , this will make from an maemo device a BT HID (keyboard/mouse) device, so you can control a media pc system that has BT.

 

[Zotty]

@Trooper
After reading the original request again, it seems my interpretation was flawed. So I stand corrected!

Still this has given me some good ideas for a new project