[Gary] had an RF triggered light switch kicking around, and wanted to find a way to control his lights using a home theater remote. The switch, which he bought from RadioShack years ago, came with a simple remote that uses two buttons to toggle the lights on and off. While you might think that switching from RF to IR control would be a step backwards, [Gary] really just wanted to consolidate remotes more than anything else.
He designed a circuit board specifically for interacting with the remote half of his RF controller. It sports a PIC16F628A micro controller, which is tasked with processing IR commands from his home theater remote and triggering the lights when requested.
The code he developed for the project is relatively simple, but very useful all the same. When his board is powered on, it stores the first IR code it receives, then retains it as long as it stays powered on. This lets [Gary] use any button on his remote to turn the lights on and off, without any IR codes permanently defined in software.
As you can see in the video below, the modified switch works just as intended, saving [Gary] from having to walk all the way to the light switch when it’s time to fire up a movie.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Q5vuHbI_4&feature=player_embedded&w=470]
Awesome! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now, Thanks!
Cool build! I have the same setup, I set it up with this unit http://www.ebay.com/itm/360291534901?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
Its the cheapest system I’ve found and it works, cool re purposing of existing parts though.
This is pretty cool, now all you need is a machine to fetch the remote when it’s out of reach.
Aren’t there IR lightswitches for around 60 dollars?
They actually have programmable ones for around $5…
wheres the fun in that though.. ? of course i could have bought a light switch.. hell i even spent $60 on 134 PIC16F628A’a for future hacks.
cheers,