Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with RemoteControl

If only my RC cars had that sort of range

ydant — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:09:20 -0800

For the past few years I've been trying to remember the name of a movie I saw as a kid. The only scene I remember involved a group of kids trapped and hanging inside a net and one of the kids using his remote control helicopter to chop down the net. Nobody I've asked has remembered it, and I'm getting tired of the memory surfacing at odd times (like right now, while staring at code) and bugging me.

I'm pretty sure it's a movie most of us my age (late 20s) saw growing up on TV. If I remember correctly, the helicopter had to travel a decent distance to get to the net and I was pretty incredulous that it could manage that without the "pilot" seeing what he was doing. I think the kids were inside a cave or tunnel.

At this point I'm afraid I've made up too many details of the movie in trying to remember what it is. I'm almost positive about the net and the remote control helicopter.

Please help me put this to rest!

No TV Party Tonight

BitterOldPunk — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:46:21 -0800

My TV remote control has ceased functioning. In order to reset it, I tried the most logical solution: unplugging the TV and plugging it back in. Well, that made things worse. Now when I turn the TV on, I get a message stating that the TV is "updating the GuidePlus blah blah blah press 'cancel' to exit". Well, I can't, because there's no 'cancel' button on the TV itself and the remote doesn't work. Then the TV turns itself off. Turn it back on, same deal.

And now the "input" button on the TV doesn't seem to respond, so I can't watch DVDs or play games on my Xbox360.

So here's my question(s):

Will replacing the remote fix these problems? I found one online, but they want more than a hundred bucks for the damn thing. I don't want to buy something that won't fix my problem, especially if it's a hundred-dollar something.

Is there a way to reset the TV to the original factory setting without using the remote? I can't find any controls that would allow me to do so.

Relevant info: Mitsubishi TV, remote control model #290P080-B10, no owner's manual. The TV is huge, ancient (it has a picture tube! How quaint!), and still has a great picture. It's so big that it will take more than two people to move it, so replacing it is an option that is very low on my list due to hassle and cost. Yes, I tried replacing the batteries in the remote control. I tried yelling. I tried begging. My next plan is to weep uncontrollably while propitiating the Gods of Television with animal sacrifices.

Help me build an R/C Tricycle

pkphy39 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:33:19 -0800

R/C Filter: How to build a remote-controlled tricycle? I was watching Sesame Street with my daughter the other day when a short sequence showing Elmo riding around a park on a tricycle was shown. I thought it would be a super-cool idea to turn that into a project for myself (like I don't have enough already!) to entertain my daughter.

The only problem is, the last time I remote-controlled anything other than a TV was as a young teen building R/C kit-cars (servos and all). I'm not afraid of technology, am a software developer and very comfortable wrenching on bikes, so I see this as a stretch project but one I can definitely accomplish (given healthy amounts of trial and error along the way).

But I have no idea where to start. I found this but my fu has failed me when looking for a similar DIY project. And yes, if indeed nothing else quite like this exists out there, I intend on sharing my process via Instructables or the like.

I imagine the biggest challenge would be to find a motor that powers the rear wheels effectively, and a servo with enough power to turn the steertube/fork.

Not looking for a "how-to", but more like "where to start looking" and "what I would do..." kind of suggestions to kick this off.

Thanks, askMeFi!

How to use my laptop as a TV remote?

JDHarper — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:43:59 -0800

Is there an easy way to use my laptop's IR port to control my TV? I'm using a Fujitsu T4215 laptop running Windows Vista Business Edition, which has an infrared port on the back of it. I would like to be able to use this to remotely control my TV and my DVD player, but I can't find anything that isn't horribly complicated looking.

I know they made similar software for Palm Pilots (e.g. OmniRemote) where you could have the Palm "learn" the signals from your remote control. Surely someone's made the PC equivalent?

(Searches of previous threads indiate that there wasn't much around 3 years ago. Responding to a potential reply right off the bat: The IR signal is strong enough to reach the TV from my couch, as it will occasionally turn on the stereo next to the TV, seemingly at random.)

I need a specific type of VNC client

omnipotentq — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:13:13 -0800

I need to find a (preferably) open-source/free VNC client that meets a specific requirement of mine. I run an IT business and I'm rapidly taking on remote clients. I used PCAnywhere for some of them (who are willing to pay for a license) but for those who aren't willing to pay, I'd love to have a VNC solution that's cheap and easy.

I've used (and still use, occasionally) RealVNC Free, but that doesn't meet my main requirement, which is:

I want the user to be able to "request" help from me with the VNC client, and everything will be automatically taken care of connection-wise, so that I don't have to reconfigure port forwarding on routers and install dynamic DNS software type stuff on their end.

So, a chain of events might be as follows: User has a problem. User calls me, describes problem, I tell them I'll take care of it remotely. I tell them to launch the VNC program (either after downloading it or it's already been installed), then either through them typing in a code or pressing a few buttons, it connects to the viewer/client on my end (I don't mind configuring router stuff on my end; I just don't want to repeatedly do it for customers) and then I'm able to connect and control their computer.

Something free/open-source would be great, otherwise, I suppose I'll have to just invest in something proprietary. Also, if it's something they can just download whenever they need to and run the exe, I'm fine with that, too.

Does anyone know of anything like this, or is there something similar that I could modify easily? I can program, just not very much, but I'd be willing to learn some in order to get this.

Thanks in advance!

Shed some (infrared) light on my mac

ChrisR — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:08:55 -0800

Other than the apple remote, what universal remote controls can be used with a Mac Mini (Intel) and, ideally, XBMC for the mac? I'd like this not to require the current XBMC hack (nifty though it is) that maps multiple presses to the functions of the remote.

How can I close a specific browser window under linux

yetanother — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:19:53 -0800

Can I control a browser from an application under linux. My application has an option to run as an http server, and kick off a browser that points to itself using (for example) /usr/bin/mozilla.
I want to add a quit button to the generated html, which tells the application to quit serving, then closes the browser, window, or tab that was created.
Obviously I dont want to quit any other windows or tabs if the user is doing something else at the time.
Stopping the server is no problem, but I'm hitting a roadblock closing down the browser side. Javascript wont let me close the current window, and I cant find any command line options to mozilla that let me do what I want.
Is there something I'm missing, or a better approach to the problem?

RC flyers and Robopets, which ones?

orthogonality — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:34:48 -0800

I want a buying guide to RC toys. I've bought several Air Hogs RC fliers. Recently, I bought a Flytech Bladestar, a helicopter-like flier with some (not-so-excellent) autonomous collision-avoidance

Now I want more.

Three part question:

Part One: the second Air Hogs Heli I got I just can't trim. I trim and trim, and it just turns whatever direction it wants. There seems to be a vibration in the rotor shaft.

I bought the thing because of the three-way control (altitude, yaw, and forward-back) How can I get this thing trimmed correctly, so I can control more than just the altitude?

I can weight it, but where? How do I diagnose and correct the lack of trim?

Part two: what other RC flyers can I get? I'm willing to spend up to $200 per flyer, but only if it's not something I'm going to immediately break. They nice thing about the Air Hogs is that they're light enough to minimize crash damage, decently rugged, and what damage they do incur doesn't make them unflyable. And the planes have amazing battery time and quick recharge times. Not so much the Helis.

And they're cheap, so I'm not stressing about "oh crap, what if I brake it."

So for me, a good flyer is: cheap, rugged, all easy to fly, and above all damage-resistant. Indoor is better than outoor. I'm doing this for fun, not to become an rc gearhead, so it needs to fly out of the box, just add batteries, minimal prep other than trimming.

Something that actually requires skill, concentration, or manual dexterity is not a good bet for me.

Part three: I like the autonomous flight (in theory -- in practice it's a bit meh) of the Flytech Bladestar. So now I want an autonomous and rc controllable 'pet", like the Pleo or WooWee RoboWhatever series.

A plus to RoboWhatever is that (I've read) they're programmable and designed to be hackable.

Please recommend the best of the RoboWhatever series, or another autonomous and rc controllable "robopet". By best, I mean capability per dollar, and by capability, I mean both realistic autonomous "behaviors" and programmability.

Or is the Pleo worth the three to six times greater cost than teh Robowhatever series? Or do I want something else? (Not a Lego Mondstorms, I have one of those.)

To sum up: how do I fix an untrimmable Reflex Heli, what other rc flyers are rugged and easy to fly, and what autonomous robo pet is the best deal for my money? Thanks!

I wanted to meet interesting people from an old and distinguished culture... and videotape them.

HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:36:26 -0800

My brother will be going to Iraq eventually. He'd like to film his "war diaries" with a helmet-mounted video camera. He'd like to be able to start and stop recording with a simple remote of some sort. What are his options? Perhaps this is obvious, but sturdiness and long battery life are also priorities followed by recording length. Thanks.

Keyboard shortcuts to control monitor brightness in Mac OS X

kenneth — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:28:52 -0800

How might one go about creating a shortcut to controlling monitor brightness with a Mac Powerbook running Tiger (this problem also existed in 10.3) for a Keyspan remote? Simple, right, push the monitor brightness key on the keyboard. Yes, that works -- but I'd like to be able to control the LCD screen's brightness on my Keyspan remote control. One way to do that would be to create a keyboard shortcut in that software to do that. But while the brightness keys are shared with the function keys, there's no way in the Keyspan software to affect the function keys' alternate uses (volume, brightness, Dashboard, etc.) Volume has other work arounds, does anyone know of something similar for the screen brightness?

Remote Control Dragonfly?

alms — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:59:21 -0800

Are these remote control dragonflies as cool as they look? I'm thinking of getting one for my father-in-law for his 60th birthday. He's an engineer, handy type person. If they really work as billed, I think he'd love it. But if they don't really work, I'd just as soon not spend $40 on a disappointment.

Where's my remote?

Rock Steady — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:00:18 -0800

Where's my remote? If you can't tell me that, does there exist a universal remote with a cordless phone-like paging feature? I know about the Loc8tor (extraneous "t" if you ask me), but it's a bit spendy ($100 for the base package). Every cordless phone I've owned has had this essential feature (push a button on the base, and the phone rings/beeps until you find it), but I've never seen a remote with it built in.

Is there any universal remote control out there with add/delete channel buttons?

redhotchips — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:23:59 -0800

Is there any universal remote control out there with add/delete channel buttons? We own an older television set (about 10 years) to which the original remote control was lost. The original was rather bulky and included most of the tv's functions as buttons on the remote as opposed to in the tv's menu like all sets made today. (This tv's menu is short and fairly useless.) That being said, we are unable to add/delete channels and have been manually entering each one in to change. I found the original remote for sale but it's $50 and I'd rather not pay it. Is there any universal remote that has those buttons or is there a way to access those features of the tv (some sort of button combination cheat)? Thanks all for your help.

Replacement Remote for NEC MT1000 Projector

blue_beetle — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:26:00 -0800

Replacement remote-control for NEC MT1000 projector? I recently acquired an NEC MT1000 video/LCD projector without a remote-control. I'd like to find a remote to control the volume (and possibly power), however OEM replacements are around $160 (even on eBay), and programable remotes are $100+. How can I make this work on a reduced budget? I can't find applicable remote-control codes for existing universal remotes, and have been unsuccessful with trying a code search on a TiVO remote. Any help you could give would be appreciated!

PVR power on by remote?

toomanyplugs — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:07:37 -0800

Can a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 remote (or any other remote) power on a PC natively? I'm building a simple PVR, but I can't figure out if the "standard" remotes will actually power on the PC. This seems like a simple enough thing to do, but I can't find mention of the functionality anywhere. Is it just that common that nobody needs to mention it? Power on from standby or hibernate would be ok, too.

I've found the UIRT2 here, which has Wake-on-LAN support, but would building this be redundant if I already have the WinTV PVR 150? I have the non-MCE kit, but it comes with the remote, the IR receiver beanbag, and an IR blaster.

BTW, I don't actually have anything assembled yet, I'm trying to figure out what to budget for.

I'm feeling more than remotely frustrated....

orange swan — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 13:08:10 -0800

Please be my virtual boyfriend and help me get my TV remote control working properly. It's a universal remote that looks just like this one. I generally don't have any problems with it but this one: I can't get the TV to switch into DVD mode. Once I press the "DVD" button the DVD player turns on and off and responds to commands from the remote and the TV ceases to respond to any commands, but the asinine TV program on channel three just keeps playing. I've had this problem before, and after madly hitting the buttons in frustration and at random I did get it working, but I have no idea what I did that worked. I've tried programming in all the codes supplied in the manual for my DVD player without any improvement. Please help.

Stuck in the dark ages!

dieguido — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 19:06:40 -0800

I cant program my universal remote I have this Motorola DCT2500 cable box through adelphia but i no longer have the remote control. I have this Panasonic remote control, model #EUR7603Z10. My problem is i cant find a remote code to program the box into my panasonic remote. please can anyone bring me out of the dark ages?

How to get started as a delta wing RC plane geek...?

unclemonty — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 07:29:04 -0800

I'm looking to get into flying remote control planes. I like the look of delta wing aircraft like this one but I don't necessarily want a toy. Can anyone suggest what I should start with, and what I should aim to graduate to as I get my flying wings?

Using my mobile as a bluetooth remote on XP Professional

TheDonF — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 07:46:33 -0800

I'd like to use my mobile as a bluetooth remote control at work but can't install any software I have to give presentations at work and like to move about a bit when doing them. Rather than have to dash back to the PC to advance the PowerPoint presentation, it would be cool to use my phone (K750i) as a bluetooth remote. Because of standard company IT lock-down, I can't install any software my machine. We run XP Professional. Is there any way I can do this, perhaps just by plugging in a dongle?

iPod remote with max. range?

verylargecorp — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 08:02:09 -0800

I'm looking for an ipod remote control with the greatest range. I'm trying to control an ipod on the other side of a wall in the back of a movie theatre- -about 100 feet or so. (Video iPod- -does that impact my choices?) Thank!

Using laptop IR to control TV

punishinglemur — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 13:47:01 -0800

How can I use the IR port on my Windows XP laptop to control my television?

how does the Harmony 680 remote connect to a PC?

scarabic — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:51:50 -0800

The Logitech Harmony 680 is looking like a good way for me to control my Media Center Edition PC plus projector/audio receiver. However, its specs do not list a USB infrared receiver. It says it's good for controlling MCE PCs, but I can't figure out how it connects. I do not already have a remote hooked up to this MCE PC. Probably a dumb question, but... help!

Can I use my laptop as a remote control?

borkencode — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 21:25:25 -0800

My IBM T42 has an infrared port on the front, and I've tried finding software that will allow me to control my tv with it. Does anything exist that will let me do this?

What's a decent remote control car a for 10 year-old?

majick — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 08:09:52 -0800

A friend would like assistance purchasing a remote control car for a child turning 10. Durability, longevity, and quality are paramount, but it has to be something preassembled, not a kit. Can you help her? She's sick and tired of cheap cars that fall apart after a few crashes, but the kid won't get much help in maintaining the car or effecting repairs, so it's got to be some kind of all-in-one that doesn't need much beyond some juice. Cost isn't the primary factor here, but quality is. So far her research has turned up the HPI Dash, but I can't vouch for it. I don't know a thing about RC cars, so we turn to you for help. What should she get?

Can you use a PDA (Visor) as a remote control?

jessamyn — Sat, 13 Dec 2003 08:54:51 -0800

Using a PDA as a remote control -- I'm a bit of a bum and the one thing I don't like about watching DVDs on my iBook is having to get up and mess with the thing to start/stop/pause the movie. I have heard you can use a PDA [I have an old good-for-nothing Visor] as a remote control, but I'd like some more info before I invest [if necessary] in software. Has anyone done this? What did you use? Did it work okay?