Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[aseiden]

Hi folks,

I'd like to build a dedicated MP3 jukebox for my dad, who has some motor handicaps that make it difficult for him to operate computers via keyboards & mice.  And most standard remote controls have buttons that are too small and too close together.  What I'd like to do is build a custom remote box with buttons and knobs that will be sized and laid out in a manner that makes it easy for him to use.

What's the easiest & best way for me to do this?  The engineering considerations are:

1) Should I use IR, RF, or a hardwired control?  IR seems like the cheapest and most common, though it would be nice not to have to worry about line-of-sight issues from the remote to the receiver.

2)  On the transmitter side, what's the easiest way to hook up my custom buttons & knobs to transmit IR (or RF, or serial) commands?  

3)  There are several different IR receivers out there, are any of them particularly recommended?

4)  I'd like to provide a knob with detents to select between various music genres. I could generate a command every time the knob is changed, but the problem then becomes that if the knob gets moved while the system is off, the computer will think it's at one setting when it's really at another.

Any other thoughts or insights about this project would be much appreciated!


I've also got some software-side questions--I'd like to build a custom interface--but I figure that's a different thread.


Thanks in advance!
Alex

[Bill Kearney]

Always consider that a keyboard is nothing but on-off switches.  You could always chop up the guts of something like a wireless USB keyboard and adapt it to better suit his needs.  

There are wireless numeric keypads that could likewise be used with macro software like girder.

There are a number of RF remotes out there but I don't recall seeing many that were geared toward those with limited abilities.  IR can be used in many different places if you add an IR repeated network like something from Xantech.

[Mastiff]

I didn't see this one until now, but I've got the solution: Get a cheap USB game-pad, get yourself Girder (www.promixis.com) and use the Gamepad plug-in. Then you solder cables to the pins on the controller (normally you have a multi-pin IC that's a lot easier to solder cables to than the actual contact points for the buttons). Finally go to Radio Shack or whatever and buy the buttons you want to use (the choice is all yours). Using those buttons to make contact between ground and the action pins will give you the events that Girder picks up and sends to MC. It's by far the best way to do such a project. I have done two of those with cheap ass Logitech gamepads.

[aseiden]

Thanks to both of you for the advice!  I'll let you know how things go.

cheers,
A.