Make an Infrared Remote Control for PC

A friend of mine came yesterday to me asking if I can do something for him to control WinAmp via a Remote Control. After some searching I found a very simple to build IR receiver using the serial port on LIRC official page so I started to gather the components from our local electronics shop. It costed me around 1.5$ so it was also cheap enough .
The schematic is









and the components are as follows :

• IC1 = 78L05, 5V regulator
• IC2 = TSOP1738 , IR receiver
• D1 = 1N4148
• C1 = 4.7uF
• R1 = 4.7K
• one male or female (depends on your configuration/cables) serial (DB9,RS232) connector

I choosed to put all components on air and in the serial connector’s box (photos below).
The pinouts of the 9-pins connector are :

• 1 = DCD (Carrier Detect)
• 2 = RXD (Receive Data)
• 3 = TXD (Transmit Data)
• 4 = DTR (Data Terminal Ready)
• 5 = GND (Ground)
• 6 = DSR (Data Set Ready)
• 7 = RTS (Request To Send)
• 8 = CTS (Clear To Send)
• 9 = RI (Ring Indicator)

TSOP1738 pinouts

the starting materials

during construction

inside the box

the final product

the remote controls I use

For the software part you can use :

• Girder – free trial, can be buyed for about 40$
• WinLirc if you are on Windows and Lirc if you are on an UNIX platform -freeware
• WinAmp Plugin for WinLirc
• BSPlayer – a very good video player, it have a built-in support for WinLirc

(Edited) As a remote control you can use almost all universal remote controls (you must know its working code for the TSOP1738, for the one from the attached picture the code is 081) and most of the domestic (videorecorder, tv …) remote controls. To see if one is working open WinLirc, press Reconfigure and then Raw Codes. If when you press a button on your remote control you see lots of numbers there then it means it is working.

(Edited) To add a status LED to your receiver, just make the schematic below (I tested it last week and it went ok). The disadvantage of this is that you’ll need a battery so it can run ok.

http://stuff.nekhbet.ro/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/diy_in_receiver_status_led6.gif

Just click the image to see it larger