Low Cost Winamp IR Controller

This project here presents the most basic form of InfraRed (IR) Data Transmission. IR beams are mostly used in Remote Controls for the TV, DVD player, Heater / Air Conditioning Control and etc. I decided to build a plain simple Winamp IR Controller to control Winamp's basic systems i.e. Volume, Play, Stop, Pause, and etc. as I am sometimes too lazy to actually walk to the PC and change the volume, tracks and other stuffs. Oh yes, my computer also happens to be my home theatre system.  So I tell myself, why not do it from afar where I can continue to read the newspapers while listening to the music. =P

This is a ye olde Hitachi VCR Remote Control together with its original circuit board inside.

I began with hunting for a suitable old no-longer-wanted remote control as shown on the picture above.

And so the quest to build the IR Controller began by firstly replacing the original circuit board with the one of my own. The board contains a PIC16F627, a 74LS32 OR Gate, a 2N3906 PNP transistors, a 78L05 regulator, 4 MHz crystal and an IR LED together with some push buttons. Due to the limited amount of space most of the wirings are done at the reverse side of the board....yes a crazy hell of a messy wiring. The new circuit board is the fitted into the old Hitachi VCR Remote Control casing, and quite surprisingly, it was almost a perfect fitting. I had to saw off the edges inside the casing abit to make alittle more space for the buttons. The IR Receiver module is connected to the Serial Port of the computer. It intercepts the signal transmitter from the IR Controller and translates it to Winamp Commands. Winamp has a Global Hotkey listing which can be used from anywhere in Windows to control Winamp. The Visual Basic programme basically generates these keyboard scancodes to access the Winamp Global Hotkeys. Before the IR Receiver can be used to control Winamp, the Global Hotkeys need to be enabled first.

The new circuit board to replace the original circuit

The new circuit board inside the Remote Control's casing from the back view.

This is the IR Receiver module. It uses the IRM-8601S Detector Module. The Data Out Pin is connected directly to the MAX232 before the DB-9 Connector.

Enable the Global Hotkeys as shown here.

The timing diagrams of the data transmission from the PIC to the IR Receiver module is shown here.

Source codes : PIC_InfraRed.zip, Winamp-IR.zip Schematics : WinampIRschem.jpg

A screenshot of the Visual Basic Programme.

Last Updated : 14th May 2006, 2.41am Eastern Time.