retro-fitting remote/IR receiver on an older Xenarc

imprezive one · 08-13-2005, 07:57 PM

This thread is for people who bought Xenarc screens before a remote was a standard feature on them (e.g., myself) and want to know if it's possible to retro-fit remote capabilities to their screen.

The answer is simply, YES, it is very possible to do. I went as far as contacting Xenarc themselves and seeing if I could buy just the receiver and remote. They gave me the run around and nothing ever came of it but this was probably because at the time, the remote was a really new feature and it wasn't in mass production yet or even being advertised. You may have better luck now trying to purchase the two components from Xenarc directly.

I was fortunate enough to find someone on this forum that was selling just their IR eye and remote so I snatched them up for $20 shipped. I just now plugged the IR receiver into the appropriate open 3 prong plug on my Xenarc's board (see pic below for location) and it works like a charm. Every function works perfectly.

I guess Xenarc designed this capability into all of their screens from the beginning but didn't implement it until they had sold a good number of screens.

One word of caution, I read in another thread that someone disconnected the IR receiver on their board and then plugged it back in while the screen was on and it shorted something out. So as a precautionary measure, if you do decide to retro-fit it do not unplug/plug the receiver in while the screen is on!

In order to get the receiver off of a later model Xenarc that came with it, you will need to unplug the harness and then un-pin the 3 pins from the plug. You have to do this because there is a hole that the receiver cord runs through that harness will not fit through. After you pull the pins through the hole you can re-plug the pins into the harness/plug. They will snap in and secure themselves. Here are pics.

Receiver alone & REMOTE (can you say ugly-*** colors!?!):

RECEIVER on the board, see what I mean by the hole being too small for the harness/plug:

DO NOT CUT THE WIRE like it says in the pic, do like I said above to get it off the board. The only hard part about this whole thing is sourcing the necessary parts. Anyways, just wanted to let everyone know that this is completely possible! Have fun!

RoyN · 08-14-2005, 06:09 PM

PLEASE resize thos pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 800x600 MAX!!!! (I'm running 1500x1400 res and it looks crap! scrollbars all over cant read text, yada yada)

resize as per forum rules and to make reading easier please

Cheekz185 · 08-14-2005, 06:58 PM

Hey does any1 know if you can buy the IR Receiver from Xenarc and use the receiver as a receiver for Girder? I wanna substitute the IRMan for something smaller? If possible what would i do to connect it to the comp?

imprezive one · 08-14-2005, 09:31 PM

resized for your viewing pleasure (sorry!)

RoyN · 08-14-2005, 09:41 PM

that looks nicer

Cheekz, this is nothing to do with a computer IR... it would require heavy modding... just buy a IR reciever for the computer, that would be better (I'm sorry I'm unfamiliar with the IRMan, dunno if that is already it)... I suppose different devices have different sizes...

Scouse Monkey · 08-15-2005, 09:09 AM

So one would presume you could do the lilliput mod and connect the IR header to your Pc serial port. Then create a nice little OSD application to mimic the buttons on the remote.....any takers?

imprezive one · 10-14-2005, 02:36 AM

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the lilliput mod, but I like the idea of being able to control the monitor's functions from the computer. Anything that integrates control back to the cpu is a good thing in my eyes. I'll do a search for the lilliput mod.