[mythtv-users] IR power on for frontend

[Frank Phillips]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 10:01 AM, Ronald Frazier <ron at ronfrazier.net> wrote:

> On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Ginsu Squirrel
> <ginsu.squirrel at gmail.com> wrote:
> > This might not be useful for most people.  But I took a 3-pin IR
> > receiver and a micrcontroller and wrote code for the microcontroller
> > that detected the power button and then it's tied into the power supply
> > of the computer and turns it on when it detects the power button.  And
> > it draws it's power from the 5V usb standby.
>
> Do you have any more info about that? I'd love something like that.
> I've thought about doing exactly that many times, but I don't know
> enough about electronics to make it. Can you customize what button it
> responds to? I've been trying to get remote power-on working forever
> but can't. The imon device in my case only responds to a specific IR
> code. I purchased a USB-UIRT at one point, and it was programmable as
> to which button it responded to, but it didn't want to let the system
> sleep properly. I purchased another device, but it wouldn't respond in
> sleep mode. Thus I've given up on the idea.
>
> What do you need to program it? I've got an old serial port Microchip
> PIC programmer from the 90s, but that's it.
>
> --
> Ron Frazier
>

If you can read a schematic and solder, then you could build this:
http://fanshop.ocinside.de/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?id=&view=1&grpnr=1&subgrpnr=4&grplevel=2&lang=en

It does exactly what Ginsu describes, and comes preprogrammed. There is a
jumper to teach it the wake code from your remote. You splice into the wires
running between the motherboard and power button, which it uses to switch
the computer on and off when it receives your power code.

I built it and salvaged a 5-terminal connector to connect it to the onboard
usb header. I also went to a hobby shop and got a tiny 2-wire power
connector for RC cars and use it in the power button splice so the device
can be pulled out of the case when needed. I also used a wire to
remote-mount the IR eye away from its board and onto the front case panel.
The enclosure for the device is a 3x2x1" hobby box from Radio Shack, which
fits perfectly into a 3.5" drive bay.

It uses the lirc_igorplugusb kernel module, which doesn't have
suspend/resume support, but that would probably just take a few lines of
code. The device only supports RC5 remote codes. I am using a Hauppauge grey
remote with it, but will eventually program its codes into a programmable
remote as necessary.

You can get as fancy as you want with connectors, but you should at least
have some heat shrink and hot glue. I recommend getting a bottle of liquid
electrical tape if you are going to need to insulate small wires from each
other, although hot glue can work too.
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