How to: Build your own Gyration Media Center remote
posted Oct 8th 2008 12:18pm by Joey Celisfiled under: classic hacks, home entertainment hacks, how-to
Movea has just released a version of Gyration’s wireless remote control for Windows Media Center computers. Other than the wireless mouse controls that the remote offers, one nice feature of the remote is the ability to control Windows Media Player (WMP) while your display is off.
The remote interacts with WMP, by downloading data to be displayed using it’s built in LCD screen. From here you can view songs by album or artist and even access your playlist. Prices for the remote range from $179.99 to $229.99 with an included keyboard.
After a little searching we found that Gyration had made a similar version of the remote for Dell that was packaged with the Dell XPS M2010 Based on this and a thread by [BENZONATE] on AVS Forum we put together our own remote using the following parts:
- Dell M2010 Premium Remote
- Dell RH515 wireless card
- Dell Thomson driver (EXE)
- USB Cable
We found our bare remote on eBay for $19.99. When we asked [Greg] at Gyration for some help on this project he explained to us that the M2010 remote will only bind (RF Connect) with the Dell RF module due to the way Dell has chosen to write its drivers; the remote will not work with any of their standard RF receivers. If you do buy the remote on eBay be aware that the remote will only work with the RH515 card.
While finding the remote was easy, trying to locate the RH515 was another story. After searching online and calling Dell’s business support staff we were able to locate and purchase the RH515 card for $10.99 including shipping on Dell’s outlet site.
Once we received our board we began to strip the wires on the included connector and paired it with our USB cable using the following:
- Red/Green to Black
- Yellow to Green
- White to White
- Black to Red
We wrapped the exposed wires in electrical tape, and then installed the Thomson driver on our computer. After plugging the board into an open USB slot, Windows quickly recognized the card and following the M2010 remote’s instruction for pairing the devices gave us a working gyration remote.
The remote’s basic Media Center functions work like any other remote, the gyration feature allows us to control the cursor as well as perform left and right clicks from the comfort of our couch. The best part is: the remote gives us the ability to select our music using the built in LCD screen.
We did experience some lag while scrolling down the list of songs, but this could have been due to our excessive button smashing. Other than the delay, the remote itself has performed great and all for less than the cost of the Movea remote.
wow… I might just have to grab this, it’s cheap enough… it would be great at parties considering it’s RF I can control it from another room… sweet!
Posted at 12:58 pm on Oct 8th, 2008 by twistedsymphony