Turn old school project into an IR blaster for raspberry pi

So as the title says I was following this tutorial : http://www.theghostbit.com/2015/06/home-automation-with-raspberry-pi-ifttt.html I want to control my TV and receiver from my pi using LIRC.

I don't want to use a bread board if I can avoid it, I would have purchased this retired product: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/10732

Then I remembered I had something similar from college, would it be possible to modify this board to work like the kit in the instructions?

I'm also planing to carry out this project on the same pi at a later date: http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2013/01/Using-Raspberry-Pi-to-control-an-electrical-outlet

Help finding a suitable radio transmitter would be greatly appreciated, possibly will use this: http://www.dx.com/p/rf-wireless-remote-control-ac-power-socket-ac-220v-500w-27126
Unless there are better / cheaper alternatives. :cool:

ozmo

*Sounds straightforward - led and resistor, should be lots tutorials

eg. http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Universal-Remote/

*Keep the board you made rather than hack it - looks nice.

* If you can get it really close to the tv, like sticking it over the tv sensor like that IR blaster you mentioned does - you may need just an IR led and a resistor. To go any distance you will need a transistor to get the full power to the led.

*Those Radio link boards are really cheap and easy to get - I bought 5 pairs for 10 euros from china (banggood.com or amazon.co.uk). 6 week wait is only problem.
I only get a short distance - about 4 or 5 meters before it gets unreliable. I see reports of some people getting much less - so buy a few and pick the best of the bunch.

*I'm more of a fan of using arduino for projects that dont need internet connectivity, sound or usb ports - much easier to program and reliable than raspbery pi - cheaper too at from €2.50 each for the nano clones. Might be worth looking into.

good luck with the projects, sound great...

ozmo

ozmo wrote: »

*Sounds straightforward - led and resistor, should be lots tutorials

eg. http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Universal-Remote/

*Keep the board you made rather than hack it - looks nice.

* If you can get it really close to the tv, like sticking it over the tv sensor like that IR blaster you mentioned does - you may need just an IR led and a resistor. To go any distance you will need a transistor to get the full power to the led.

*Those Radio link boards are really cheap and easy to get - I bought 5 pairs for 10 euros from china (banggood.com or amazon.co.uk). 6 week wait is only problem.
I only get a short distance - about 4 or 5 meters before it gets unreliable. I see reports of some people getting much less - so buy a few and pick the best of the bunch.

*I'm more of a fan of using arduino for projects that dont need internet connectivity, sound or usb ports - much easier to program and reliable than raspbery pi - cheaper too at from €2.50 each for the nano clones. Might be worth looking into.

good luck with the projects, sound great...

I hooked it all up with a transistor form the old board, I haven't used a resistor, but instead have two LED's in series taking 3.3 volts from the pi board.

The whole idea of this is so I control the deceives in my room remotely, so the pi fits my needs, I have no experience with arduino either(although I plan to get some for future projects)

Everything works great except switching the TV on from an off state, seems the distance is too great for only this function, maybe a higher rated transistor would solve this?

ozmo

You need at least 200ohm resistor - its to reduce the current drawn rather than change the voltage- it could burn out the raspberry pi otherwise.
Yes look at the circuit in the link i posted for adding a transistor- it will allow more current to get to the led- more current will give you more distance.
You can see the brightness of the led by looking at it through an android mobile phone on camera(not iphone it has filters) or any digital camera or webcam.

ozmo

ozmo wrote: »

You need at least 200ohm resistor - its to reduce the current drawn rather than change the voltage- it could burn out the raspberry pi otherwise.
Yes look at the circuit in the link I posted for adding a transistor- it will allow more current to get to the led- more current will give you more distance.
You can see the brightness of the led by looking at it through an android mobile phone on camera(not iphone it has filters) or any digital camera or webcam.

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't realize I was putting the pi at risk :eek:

I have a transistor in the circuit already, but I cant get any info on it "c547c w71" so I'm not sure it's up to the task, I pulled it from the old board.

Yeah I know the old phone trick, I've used for trouble shooting old remotes

ZENER

It's either 2SC547c or BC547c. I'd go with BC.

The LEDs drop about 2VDC @ 20mA approx, use 2 in parallel to increase range. Use at least 47uF of decoupling close to the circuit.

Ken