cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/36021551

As a zero waste OCD nutter, I end up with a lot of TV and radio devices pulled from dumpsters and 2nd-hand markets. The remote controls (RCs) are almost always missing. For many devices, the whole fucking device becomes totally unusable without the RC. Which is probably why many devices end up in the trash -- because the remote was lost or chewed up by a dog.

Apparently humans have not evolved to be smart enough to create an open standard mandating that all appliances with remote controls have a published manual containing the IR signal specs for every function to then enable the signals to be reproduced.

Palm pilots (somewhat viable)

In the 1990s, Palm pilots had integrated infrared sensors w/LED. There was a very useful third-party app enabling physical remote controls to be copied. You could design your own button layout and have a tab for every RC. Of course the problem is that you needed the original RC as a source to copy.

Smartphones (nope)

Smartphones are worse than Palm pilots. IR sensors are RARE. There are IR dongles that can be attached to a smartphone (either USB or headphone jack). It’s a bit redicious if you have to have a dongle hanging off the edge of your phone wherever you go. The phone would not likely slide into an arm strap w/the dongle. So you wouldn’t carry it around, which means you have to keep track of it. It’s something else that can get lost (manufacturers and sellers love that feature).

Universal RCs (nope)

Like OEM remotes, these have a fixed set of buttons. But of course they have to try to guess what buttons will be needed. They include a database of hundreds of signal sets, but you are likely fucked if the device is an obscure or rebranded no name generic. I have radios that have the branding of the grocery store that sold them, FFS. No chance that would be in these preset DBs. I also have 4 different models of the same radio brand, and the RCs are incompatible w/each other same brand device (WTF).

The collective solution

Lobby for policy to force an open standard and then mandate the use of it.

The quazi individual solution (using smartphones)

1. Derive a list of smartphones with built-in IR sensors and LEDs.
2. Port a FOSS distro of some kind to all those phones.
3. Code 2 FOSS apps, one for linux distros and one for f-droid for AOS forks. Or make one app that’s ported to both.

The app should be able to record existing OEM RCs. And in the absence of the OEM RC, it should be able to sync to an open data crowd-sourced DB (which means it should also be able to export datasets to the project).

The quazi individual solution (using dumbphones)

A lot of Sony Ericsson feature phones have IR sensors and an LED for the purpose of syncing the contacts, SMSs, etc. The FOSS Gammu app exploits this. If an app could be pushed to those phones it would basically repurpose otherwise wasted dumbphones to help salvage otherwise wasted RC-less appliances.

I appreciate this write-up - you've done a good job of identifying the problem and I'd very much support the policy solution you've come up with. The electronics section of the swap shop I help with has a filing cabinet full of ziplocks of old remote controls that come in (tested with a camera to see if the IR light comes on, and sorted by brand). It's a kinda brute-force solution dependant on having a bunch of space and a steady flow of ewaste but we've been able to pair a lot of TVs with their missing remotes (and hand remotes out to people who need a replacement). I think it's one of those things that becomes somewhat practical at the community scale. If a city of hundreds of thousands has a filing cabinet of old remotes that's not that bad. If I have a filing cabinet of old remotes I'm a hoarder. It still doesn't really answer the weird one-offs and no-nanes very well, though we've had a couple one-in-a-million matchups

Edit: I'd also favor requiring the device have some way to do every feature without the remote.

A city that accummulates a massive collection like that could hire someone to record the signals of all those remotes and enter as much data as possible. Then the stash could help salvage appliances that would become e-waste worldwide, as opposed to just those in that city.

There are RCs like this with no name, no model, no part number.. just totally unidentified (should be illegal):

So ideally the DB would also store pics of them.

We're an all-volunteer operation with basically no budget but recording that stuff could be doable eventually, if we had somewhere to send the info. Is there an IR receiver or something we'd need? Right now we're a bit too busy just sorting ewaste, testing devices, and scrubbing the grunge off them.

Is there an IR receiver or something we’d need?

Woah, I’m glad you asked. I have an Iguana USB IR transceiver which runs on FOSS.

It has an IR sensor which can record remote control signals. But the project has quit! No idea if there is a competitor, but given their rationale (slow sales) I guess not. Wow... that sucks. I wonder if they just had bad marketing. Instead of targetting people like me who use the device to control a decreasingly popular MythTV rig, they could have targetted governments and NGOs with an interest in e-waste salvage operations. I just cloned their repo and fetched their last software release since the days are numbered.

We've already got an ewaste pc set up for checking mice and keyboards and printers, I'll see if I can find one of these on eBay. At the very least it'll probably be useful to me.

Is there a project to send these codes to if we start recording them?

I don’t know. I might have to try to track one down since I currently have devices I cannot control easily.