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]

[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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