Just a quickie. Recently had a requirement for a mini-VGA screen to switch itself on (from standby) and navigate to a specific channel. Initially, we tried short-circuiting the power-on switch to essentially trip the switch. However, fiddly circuits and clumsy soldering irons left this option as a no-go. We then decided to check out the ability to emulate what the screen's remote control could do, e.g. Power-On on the screen and select the appropriate channel.
Anyhoo, we ordered a few different devices for InfraRed communication (IR) - but the one that sticks in my mind is the RedRat - A USB IR Device with a fantastic SDK with loads of .NET/C# examples. Admittedly some of the samples didn't work as the device name was incorrect (Note: use the code below to obtain the first device name - the original incorrect name was EZUsb-0, but once identified it turned out to be RedRat3-0). Within 10 minutes of working that out - we could successfully record signals from the remote device and then bastardise another sample to output the recorded signals to get our device to work properly.
Dim devices() As String = RedRat.RedRat3.USB.RedRat3USBImpl.FindRedRat3s
If devices.Length > 0 Then
MessageBox.Show("First RedRat Identifier found: " & devices(0))
Else
MessageBox.Show("No RedRats")
End If
And for some more good fun, I recorded most of the Office's TV IR Remote Control Signals and will have some fun at lunchtime inadvertently switching channels :-).
A nice piece of kit at a reasonable price especially if you've got far too much time on your hands and want to control all your AV devices in your house via IR.
BTW - I tried recording Car Alarms but no luck - apparently they are encrypted *somehow*. Not that I'm into stealing cars of course...