[HN Gopher] Hijacking infrared to make a dumb device smart
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Hijacking infrared to make a dumb device smart
Author : kennedn
Score : 175 points
Date : 2022-12-01 13:18 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (kennedn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (kennedn.com)
| gh02t wrote:
| The ESP32 has a built in infrared decoder/encoder, I wonder if
| you could just skip the intended IR LED that it's supposed to
| drive and just wire it directly to the receiver pins on the
| target device with an appropriate resistor. That's the same thing
| going on here except using the PIO (which was cool to see
| explained and makes me want to play with the 2040W) and I have an
| air purifier I kinda want to smarten up...
| [deleted]
| Larrikin wrote:
| I've had thoughts of a project for making my TV smart but never
| got started on it.
|
| I think developing a ML vision model for detecting commercials
| during sporting events or detecting YouTube ads and when the skip
| ads button appears would be a fun and not too complicated
| project.
|
| But connecting it to hardware with an infrared remote seemed
| significantly harder and this project confirms my worry.
|
| It might still be possible in software with a software Roku
| remote, I briefly looked into what it takes to write apps on
| there and was able to control my Roku over WiFi. But would be
| nice to not have to depend on it.
| beepscore wrote:
| Neat project! I used Python Dejavu to recognize audio from a
| library of known commercials. A more general commercial
| detector via a ML model would be great!
|
| When a commercial is detected, the program sends a http request
| to a local server running on a Raspberry Pi. The Pi has an
| infrared remote control transmitter, and uses LIRC to send
| commands to a Polk sound bar.
|
| https://beepscore.com/website/2019/04/21/automatically-detec...
| _joel wrote:
| There's already tooling to do this, back when MythTV in 2005ish
| (iirc).
|
| Also, this for Youtube. It's enabled on StreamNextTube and
| works a charm https://sponsor.ajay.app/
| jiayo wrote:
| MythTV commercial skipping was absolutely magical. I
| understand at a high level how they did it; there are lots of
| obvious heuristics you can use for this (black detection,
| silence detection, observing the CBS logo/bug going away,
| etc.) I also find it fascinating that this was never
| described as "AI" back in the day; today it would 100% be.
| 4m1r wrote:
| There are many bars available which have remote control
| learning.... e.g Yamaha YAS-306. Its just 2-3 mins job and you
| dont have to do these hacks. I have one from early 2000s which
| works perfect.y
| OJFord wrote:
| This article is about replacing the IR remote control with an
| HTTP interface.
|
| Are there any bars available on the market that can learn how
| to pick up such wireless transmissions and respond to their
| requests?
| acomjean wrote:
| I think this was a comment on the fact that many stereo
| components were sold with remote receivers but no remotes.
|
| I have memories a bunch of in the late 80s going to our
| electronics store so my brother could program our new
| programmable remote so we use it could use it with our cd
| player.. so sneaky we were.
|
| This article is well more sophisticated.
| Raidion wrote:
| Not crapping on this project because it's hella awesome, but
| a more scalable solution (which might not be worth it at all)
| would be to make a HTTP interface to a remote control, then
| have the remote control beam IR signals at whatever. This
| would mean that for any new device you add, you just have to
| pair the remote instead of wiring up another Pi to it.
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| What a superb article.
|
| I clicked expecting something about learning/repeating IR
| codes... but no, this is a level above!
| Gordonjcp wrote:
| > It does have a problem however, the TV tends to hit resonance
| frequency very often with its built-in speakers, causing the body
| of the unit to vibrate something awful and produce some ear
| wrenching sounds as a result.
|
| "Gosh that sounds like our LG"
|
| <looks at pics>
|
| "Of course it's a fucking LG."
| korse wrote:
| Really nice write up!
|
| I've done something very similar with infrared controlled Hexbug
| battle bot toys.
|
| It was a pretty interesting exercise but in the end cutting a few
| traces and sending commands directly from a piggyback micro-
| controller to the motor drivers was much more responsive (and
| allowed for differential steering and braking).
|
| This article is sick because now I feel like the approach wasn't
| a complete waste of time. Thanks!
| chime wrote:
| Using Pico to get state from LED lights is ingenious. Mad props!
| If you just want to control infrared devices and set their state
| without first reading their state (like any standard IR remote),
| looking into BroadLink RM4 Mini. Works with almost everything
| I've thrown at it.
| duiker101 wrote:
| Amazing article! The next step is to create an automation script
| to navigate the menus and selecting the content you want!
|
| Also, thanks to this article I learned of wokwi which is
| amazing!!
| bitwize wrote:
| grug love dumb devices. not only understandable by grug brain,
| simple design help trap complexity demon. when it come to devices
| around home -- tv, thermostat, etc. -- complexity demon only make
| things worse. plus hide more insidious demons, like spyware
| demon, etc.
| NotYourLawyer wrote:
| Good post. Honestly though, I'm more interested in making smart
| devices dumb. Rip out their Wi-Fi hardware etc.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| For the most part, don't connect to Wi-Fi and use hdmi in. If
| you're one of the lucky few with a tv that will wardrive your
| neighborhood looking for open networks, find the Wi-Fi chip and
| pull it off.
| netsharc wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25275350
| jdboyd wrote:
| I find it easier to start with a dumb device. However as that
| increasingly looks not so possible for TVs, I'd love to see
| somebody document the process for what you propose.
| bil7 wrote:
| you can still find some dumb displays if you search for
| "monitors" rather than "tvs".
| rancor wrote:
| Wal-Mart's Sceptre brand still sells a wide range of dumb
| TVs. Not super great performers, but also not expensive by
| any means.
| ragingroosevelt wrote:
| I'd been thinking of trying something similar (but with much less
| experience) for my Dikon heatpump rather than paying the $300 /
| indoor unit cost for the official iot solution. I wonder if
| someone has already done this for the Daikon, too.
| Arrath wrote:
| I'd never seen these circuit/code/breadboard emulator/visualizer
| widgets, those are very cool and help illustrate the article
| along with the code snippets, love it.
| blockarchitech wrote:
| That's actually really cool. I have a polk soundbar, which
| already does have a IR remote, but it doesn't actually do
| anything...
| beepscore wrote:
| I made a local server running on a Raspberry Pi. The Pi has an
| infrared remote control transmitter, and uses LIRC to send
| commands to a Polk sound bar.
|
| https://beepscore.com/website/2019/02/05/network-enabled-ras...
| celowsky wrote:
| I did something similar. It seems a bit easier to set up
| honestly.
| dopamean wrote:
| I find posts like this inspirational. The explanation makes me
| feel like I could have done this despite lacking a lot of
| knowledge about the hardware. Thanks for sharing!
| stuaxo wrote:
| So the remote was outputting something to the RGB LED every time
| you press a button ... why did they do that ?
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