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Home / Other I-Appliances / Virgin Webplayer IR cable? Are there any sources of IR cable?

IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile I have an under-the-cabinet WP with a custom built pull-down drawer for the keyboard. Often I just need to use the function keys. In this case I could keep the keyboard in its drawer if I could route the signal from the keyboard to the WP using IR cable. Does anyone know of an inexpensive source of appropriate IR cable? Thanks, --Romanoff 08-18-2002 17:33:39

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile Maybe you could just un solder the infrared thingy on the the keyboard or the webplayer, add a longer wire to it, and solder it back on... 08-18-2002 18:29:33

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile Thanks, zmoz, but I'm trying to keep the webplayer as "Virgin" as possible. It was a struggle to remove two cams from the screen hinge in order to increase its range of motion. Another problem is that I do remove the keyboard from the drawer when I want to type. Changing the location of the IR receiver would make this more difficult. -- Romanoff 08-19-2002 16:27:08

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) zerodrum Profile How about running a length of fibre optic cable from the base of the keyboard drawer to just in front of the webplayer. Seems to me that this would be an elegant and non invasive solution. Both the keyboard and WP would not need any modification, and the keyboard could be used as normal when not in the drawer. Otherwise, use a learning remote control. 08-20-2002 00:28:43

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) rykenden Profile don't know if it'll work with the keyboard, but you can try a USB IrDA Adapter... I've see them go for ~$10 to ~$30 on ebay. or perhaps an IR repeater/extender like those for stereo systems... Powermid/Leapfrog/Recoton make some. 08-20-2002 21:09:03

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile Zerodrum: Exactly. That's why I want the cable. A learning remote control might also work. Thanks, rykenden: One USB port is free (the other is being used for a flash drive.) I'll check out the USB IRda option and repeaters. -- Romanoff 08-21-2002 18:49:10

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile After searching around I have concluded that neither repeaters nor IRda are appropriate. Repeaters are really meant for traversing relatively large distances. It seems silly to plug in two separate appliances (transmitter and receiver) to cover a distance of about three feet. The cost is also on the high side. IRda probably won't work because IR keyboards generally aren't IRda compliant: they don't have to be because they produce both the transmitter and the receiver. 3M produces light fiber which is, as they proudly announce, opaque to IR. This obviously renders it useless. I'll report back if I learn anything. 08-28-2002 17:07:13

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile Maybe you could try a seperate USB keyboard...or even a usb wireless keyboard 08-28-2002 17:10:37

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile Once I realized that the manufacturer of the keyboard, Sejin, probably makes other wireless keyboards the problem simplified considerably. The Sejin website reports that most of their wireless keyboards use the same communication protocols. It also alludes to the existence of a USB IR receiver, but doesn't offer it for sale. I wrote to Sejin at sales@sejin.com and heard back from Stefan Winer, the GM for Sejin America. He informed me that KSI sells a USB wireless IR receiver called the AC-IRU1. The price is about $20. I ordered it and after some fumbling, was able to get Win98 to install it using PNP. In order to do this I had to give Win98 access to BASE5.CAB, PRECOPY2.CAB and CATALOG3.CAB. My only problem now is aligning the IR receiver properly. If both the built-in receiver and the USB receiver "see" the keyboard, I get double-typing lliikkee tthhiiss. 09-26-2002 19:04:57

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) zmoz Profile Try putting a peice of black electrical tape over the IR receiver in the webplayer. 09-26-2002 22:12:50

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile I don't think that would look good. It should be possible to position the IR receiver properly. I have another problem, though. The USB drivers got screwed up. I'd like to force win98 to forget everything it knows about the receiver and start from scratch, but if I delete the device in the hardware manager and reboot it goes back to the same bad config. 09-28-2002 10:03:49

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) drleephd Profile since some people might not have access to fiber-optic cable, I gave it a test and it seemed to work more-or-less. I didn't take the webplayer or keyboard apart though, If you mounted the cable ends internally, you might get better results. Another Idea would be to extend the LED in the keyboard, or add a second LED to the keyboard. If you have a video camera, you can test a infra-red LED to make sure it's hooked up right. (most camcorders can see infra-red, but some have an IR filter and have to be in night-shot mode to see it. If you have an old remote control, you should be able to cannibalize the LED. (test the remote first with a video camera to make sure it works first ). - Just solder some wire into the LED contacts on the keyboard and run it to some kind of 2-pin connector. bnc or rca would be fine. then get a bnc or rca cable, add another connector (bnc or rca) to the webplayer. Maybe on the back or through the plastic on the side of the webplayer. Solder a cable internally inside the webplayer between the newly added connector to an the cannibalized LED placed internally near the IR receiver of the webplayer. Optionally, You might find a 5v source in the webplayer and run it back to the keyboard. (using a different connector with more pins for the whole project. DB9 or PS2 might be a good connector. Add a resistor inside the kb and drop the voltage down to 3v. and connect the voltage to the battery hookups. this way you won't run down the batteries in the kb when using it hooked up to the webplayer. Just make sure you don't run this powered cable with batteries in your wp keyboard. (obviously.) the 6 volts total would probably fry the keyboard. I have not tried any of this, but it all should work in theory. 10-08-2002 01:51:03

RE:IR cable? (modified 0 times) romanoff Profile Drlee: what is the "it" that you tested? Adding a second LED to the keyboard won't help: it isn't the distance, it's the angle. The other things you mention seem to boil down to turning the IR keyboard into a cord keyboard. The AC-IRU1 works, but inconsistently. For reasons I don't understand when the WP is rebooted the AC-IRU1 is no longer recognized. MS chalks up this problem to old drivers (unlikely, none are needed) or an old BIOS (could be). Particularly frustrating is the fact that the AC unit works perfectly in DOS or Windows Safe mode if USB legacy is enabled in the BIOS, but the unit continues to fail in Windows virtual mode. I've noticed that when the unit isn't recognized at bootup I can "remind" windows by reaching around the back and removing and re-inserting the USB plug once or twice. This is really inelegant, but since I rarely reboot the machine (esp. since I've moved to 128 Mb of RAM) it will do. I also finally gave in and followed zmoz's suggestion, masking part of the AC unit with a small piece of black electrical tape. 10-12-2002 08:02:45

RE:IR cable? (modified 1 times) mscdex Profile | Email You could just go into "system" in the control panel in Windows, and for the built-in IR driver, just disable it in the hardware profile or something similar... 05-03-2003 16:46:42

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