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Modular Remote System

Snap-together audio-video remote bits
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First, you buy a TV, and it comes with a remote. All the usual buttons and such. Then you go and buy a DVD player. But instead of a whole new remote control, it only comes with a part of a remote with just the extra bits that a DVD player needs. You remove a plastic cover from the bottom of the main (TV) remote and snap on the DVD remote bit. Then you can snap a VCR bit to the bottom of the DVD bit, and so on.

The proper codes are programmed into the individual component bits, so you never have to program as on a universal remote. And you have only one device to work with, but each part of that device is custom-designed for your components.
kevindimie, Sep 21 2003

IR RC API http://www.halfbake.../idea/IR_20RC_20API
A better solution. Let the device program the remote. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       [my note: deleted 2 interesting but irrelevant annos. sorry kbecker :( ]
kevindimie, Sep 21 2003
  

       [fog]: The idea is that only the main remote bit has a transmitter, and the batteries would be stored there, too; the other bits would run off of those batteries. They wouldn't take much extra power. Maybe they wouldn't take any extra power.
kevindimie, Sep 21 2003
  

       So eventually you end up with a remote 2 feet long and 1 foot across? And you have to disassemble/reassemble it every time you replace a device? How do you know which part belongs to which device? What if you need a mess of buttons that aren't available on the base remote?
phoenix, Sep 21 2003
  

       Who said anything about 2 feet long? My TV remote is about 5 inches long. Add to that 3/4" for the extra buttons you need for a VCR, another 3/4" for the extra buttons you need for a DVD player.
kevindimie, Sep 21 2003
  

       ... and the one you need for the amp, and the one for the computer you use exclusively to play digital media over the LAN....   

       Get a nice, expensive, universal remote with support for things like macros.   

       And interesting but irrelevant is what this site should be about, shirley?
yamahito, Sep 21 2003
  

       Your point is well taken. Too many devices, and it will get too big. But I meant for this idea to specifically avoid macros. The 99% of the population that doesn't consist of engineers and total geeks either don't know what macros are, or hate them.

As far as deleting your and [kbecker]'s annos, I felt very bad about doing it, because it was an interesting thread, and I don't like deleting people's annos, and it's generally a bad policy to delete annos. But they weren't about this idea, and I wanted to see what people had to say about the merits of it.
kevindimie, Sep 21 2003
  

       It's not a crime to delete annos on your ideas (with the possible exception of mfds) - just a shame sometimes. But, hey, it's your thread.
yamahito, Sep 21 2003
  

       I like it. It reminds me of those toy cars i'd buy when i was a child, "Conectables". I don't know what macros are so this would be idea would be great for me.
Mind_Boggle, Sep 22 2003
  
      
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