[mythtv-users] $50 to Make My Serial IR Blaster Work

[James Crow]

On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 11:11 -0700, blake wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:27:44 -0700, Nick Morrott  
> <knowledgejunkie at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >>  I can only seem to find info on serial blasters. My blaster has a 1/8"
> >>  jack which I can't figure out
> >
> > Is it from a PVR-150 capture card? If not, where did it come from?
> 
> An MCE remote. Came with a receiver (works great) and a blaster (not so  
> much).
> 
> I find the bundling odd. If it came with a card that had an 1/8" jack, I  
> would understand. But it's not like those are standard with PCs. The  
> KWorlds seem to have 1/8" jacks on them but the Hauppauges have 1/16" (!)  
> it looks like.

(I responded to an earlier post but think it may have gotten lost due to
the volume of this list)

Blake,

  I have an older MCE receiver that has two ports for IR Blasters. I
have an IR blaster that I never tried to use from it. The blaster part
is very simple. It has only a mono (two connection) 1/8" plug that
connects to a long lead to a diode. If I test it with my multimeter it
glows like it is sending a signal. Because it is a diode it only works
when connected one way. (For mine the tip of the plug is the cathode [+]
and the majority of the plug if anode [-])

If the kworld has an ir blaster port it should work, but it could be
wired up in reverse of how the MCE blaster works. You could get a normal
led and hook it up to a 1/8" plug and try that on your kworld card. If
the LED does not light up (when attempting to send a signal) try
reversing the connections from the LED to the plug.

I had a kworld card a long time ago that had an ir receiver port. The
receiver had a 1/8" stereo plug. The IR Blaster from my MCE setup would
plug into the kworld but it would not work because one plug is two
connection (mono) and the jack is three connections (stereo) to say
nothing of the fact that a blaster is a diode and an ir receiver is a
transistor. 

Hopefully I haven't just muddied the water more.

Thanks,
James