Despite the fact that this is an element that is practically present only in Xiaomi and Huawei mobile , the infrared port of phones is a stranger to many people, even if it is present in the technical data sheet of your mobile phone. Today we're going to look at how we can take advantage of this sometimes forgotten feature.
Infrared technology is still widely present in the market, in fact, before the advent of Bluetooth-equipped smart device controls, all the ones we used at home worked with this technology.
Contents [show]
- Where is he located?
- How to check that it is active and working How to set it up on a Xiaomi mobile phone
- How to set it up on Huawei mobile phone
- Recover files from old mobile phones
How to add an infrared port to a smartphone?
Fortunately, if your smartphone doesn't have an infrared port, you can add one. The easiest way is to buy an IR transmitter. This is a small adapter that connects via microUSB, Type-C or even a 3.5 mm jack. All you need to do is insert the IR adapter into your mobile device and begin the synchronization process with the equipment via the infrared port.
The IR transmitter will completely replace the IR port. The owner of the adapter will not experience any problems connecting to external devices. To do this, you need to download a special application that turns your smartphone into a remote control.
On some gadgets from Xiaomi, Huawei and Honor, manufacturers disable the IR port by default. Because of this, owners think that the smartphone does not have this technology. One way to check for an infrared port is to look at the gadget's specifications. Next, you need to go to settings and open the tools section. Here you need to find the function of the virtual or digital control panel. If it is disabled, enable this option, after which the infrared port will be activated.
Another way to activate the infrared port is to download the Smart Controller app. It helps set up control of equipment via other wireless technologies - Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Source
What applications does this technology have?
Well, today it is Xiaomi and Huawei mobile phones that have such universal connectivity. Thanks to this, it is possible to interact with the phone through this type of connection, which uses infrared rays to send orders to the device.
To be able to use infrared, you need an application that is compatible with them and that can manipulate them to send the necessary combinations of these rays so that the devices can interpret what we want to do. Although each of the mobile device manufacturers has their own application, as you have seen with Xiaomi and Huawei, for device management many of them that we find in the Play Store are more comprehensive, giving us support for more devices. But there are other alternatives to using your cell phone's infrared port.
Recover files from old mobile phones
Basic mobile phones from twenty years ago, the classic Nokia for example, had an infrared sensor. It was a primitive way to wirelessly transfer files between different phones.
Hence, you can use this technology to be able to recover photos and other documents from these basic phones if your new mobile phone can receive these contents. Of course, this is a very slow transfer method.
Control your TV
With this infrared technology we can control the TV, at least its basic functions, such as changing the channel, adjusting the volume , or turning it on and off. Without a doubt, this is the most common method of using the phone's infrared port.
Air conditioner
This connectivity also allows us to control the air conditioner, which in some cases can save us from an unbearable night. Typically these infrared controls usually have a limited lifespan, but thanks to these ports on the mobile phone we can control the temperature at which they operate, the speed of the fan or the movement of its blades.
For stereo
It is also possible to adjust the volume of our audio equipment, especially traditional mini-circuits and compatible Hi-Fi equipment. With this we can switch between different sound sources , control playback, volume, and turn the device on and off.
Explore features on older devices
If in doubt, this is the great advantage of this port, the ability to give new life to devices that we could no longer use because their remote controls did not work.
When collecting configuration data from online databases that are usually updated regularly, you'll be hard-pressed not to find a configuration mode for a port that's appropriate for the device you want to control, regardless of its type. As you can see, it's a bit of an enhanced connectivity experience, but in return it continues to provide a lot of fun to many users.
What is IR?
An infrared port or infrared port is a special indicator on a smartphone using the infrared range of light waves as a transmission medium. This is what is used in all TV remote controls.
Simply put, an infrared port is a simple light bulb on a remote control or smartphone that sends rays to the TV, which receives them, deciphers them and understands the command given in this way.
Some Android smartphones have an infrared port and can be used as a remote control, which is quite convenient.
What is IrDA in a smartphone?
IrDa
or
InfraRed
Data Association, that is, an infrared port is a data transfer protocol using light waves in the infrared range. ... Subsequently, popularity was lost with the advent of protocols such as BlueTooth and even Wi-Fi.
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How to determine that a smartphone has an infrared port?
It’s very strange, but most manufacturers refuse the infrared port, they say, it’s already old technology. The main manufacturers installing IR port today are Xiaomi and Huawei.
As a rule, an infrared port is present in most phone models of these companies. In general, there has been such a trend that almost all Chinese smartphones have an infrared port.
It is very easy to check the presence of an infrared port. It looks like a red light on the top end of the smartphone. Something like this:
You can also go to the characteristics of your mobile device and see if it has an infrared port for controlling household appliances.
What equipment can be controlled?
Unfortunately, mobile phone manufacturers provide a “cut version” of the infrared port to reduce its size. Therefore, it is only possible to send an infrared beam, but not to receive it.
It turns out that the IR port can be used to control home appliances. But there is one important condition: the remote control with which you control the equipment must be supported by a special application on your smartphone. Thus, purely theoretically, it is possible to control any equipment, but in practice, control requires the support of a remote control. To find out if this remote control is in the database of a special application, you just need to try to find the brand of your equipment and try to establish contact, which is discussed below in the article.
The smartphone can be used to control the following types of equipment:
IR receiver for smartphone
Looking for a universal remote?
But are all models too expensive? Have you ever wondered if it is possible to control equipment directly from your smartphone? Want to combine multiple remotes into one? And use a smartphone to control all the equipment in the house? Now it's possible! Our online store is pleased to present you a small and unique device! Universal TV remote for smartphone! A smartphone IR transmitter is a small device that plugs into the headphone port of your smartphone. A powerful IR transmitter is installed inside the device, which will provide a range of up to 3 meters.
How to find out if my mobile phone has an infrared port
Free Yourself Infrared used to be an element highly valued by mobile users, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find manufacturers who use this sensor in their devices. Do you know if you have it on your mobile phone?
How to find out if your smartphone has an infrared sensor is quite simple. If you have an iPhone, too bad. Apple does not include these types of sensors in its phones. If you have an Android mobile, this will depend on the make and model of your phone.
This is how you can find out if you are lucky or not:
Option 1: Look at your mobile phone
The infrared sensor is usually placed on the edges of the phone. It appears as a black or slightly rectangular plastic circle that appears to emit a series of red reflections when moved.
Option 2: Examine the phone's hardware.
If you have access to the Google Games Store, you can install this application, which gives you access to all the information about the components installed on your smartphone. Just look for the "Peripheral Connectivity" tab, where there will be an infrared section and it will show whether the phone is compatible or not.
Smartphones with built-in IR transmitter
There are quite a few models of phones with a transmitter, but, unfortunately, not all devices have it (but even this is not a problem). As a rule, smartphones running Android have an infrared port (Apple gadgets definitely don’t have them). To determine its presence or absence, just look at the top of the phone case. The IR port looks like a small round/oval/square/rectangular hole in black or dark red. For example, like this:
If your phone has a built-in IR blaster, skip the next part of the article.
What to do if your phone does not have an IR transmitter?
The absence of an infrared port in the design of the phone itself is not a reason to think that it won’t be able to control your TV. An IR transmitter can always be purchased and installed in any smartphone model. Moreover, it costs a penny (from 50-100 rubles). We are talking about the following devices:
As you can see, external infrared transmitters are connected to the phone into the same port as the headphones (Jack 3.5mm). The principle of their operation is simple. The smartphone generates an audio signal of a certain frequency, which is sent to the input of the IR transmitter, and then the latter is transformed into an IR signal and transmitted to the TV (however, this can be an air conditioner or other equipment controlled by a remote control).
Such devices are commonly used in Android devices. Special IR transmitters have been created for Apple gadgets that are inserted into the Lightning port (at least in those iPhone models that do not have a standard Jack 3.5mm audio port). They look like this:
But, like all equipment produced for iPhones, IR transmitters are quite expensive. Specifically, the devices shown in the image above (products of the Fancyphl company) had a cost of 1,350 rubles at the time of writing. But, most likely, you can find cheaper IR transmitters for iPhone in some Chinese online store.
Alternatively, you can try connecting a cheap infrared transmitter to your iPhone using a special “Lightning to Jack 3.5mm” adapter, but this is unlikely to seem convenient to anyone.
Applications for IR transmitter
The infrared transmitter built into or connected to a smartphone requires a special application to operate. It can also be built into the phone at the factory (only in the case of devices with a built-in IR transmitter). If there is no such application, you can always download it from the Google Play Store (Android) or App Store (iPhone).
There are quite a lot of applications for IR transmitters. Some of them are highly specialized (for example, they can control only TVs of a certain brand), others are universal (can be used to control many different devices). Often, to find the right application for a particular TV model, you have to experiment. The thing is that different IR transmitters can generate control signals in different ways - after all, this is not really standardized by anyone.
Below are examples of some popular applications.
ZaZa Remote
A free application for Android and iOS smartphones that allows you to control a huge number of models of all kinds of household and commercial appliances - TVs, air conditioners, DVD/Blueray players and even fans with water heaters. Regarding television receivers, ZaZa Remote provides the ability to select a brand and model - there are hundreds of them, including old ones:
Managing the application itself is easy. You just need to find the desired brand of TV in the list provided, and after watching the advertisement (you can turn it off for money), the program will download the control codes:
Is iPhone SE 2 still coming out? New data has been leaked - it will not please you
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In further
On September 26th, HackDay #32 started in Penza. We decided to take part and implement an IR transceiver for JACK 3.5. The main requirement for our device was compactness and non-use of power sources. We began our work by intercepting the control panel signal and studying its oscillogram. To receive the signal, we used a regular IR diode: To analyze the signal, we used the Audacity program:
The received signal is extremely clean. The diode works as a demodulator and we do not know at what carrier frequency the signal is transmitted. To solve this problem, we downloaded an example of the signal that needs to be sent to a Samsung TV from the resource remote.rtfms.com and began researching it using the same program. The stereo signal is amplitude modulated to a sawtooth signal with a frequency of 20 kHz, inverted for each channel. Presumably this was done due to the fact that JACK can stably generate a signal with a frequency of no more than 20 kHz and its own diode is connected to each channel. The signal is inverted so that the IR diodes are triggered on different edges. Having changed the previously captured signal using this algorithm and making a transmitter specifically for this algorithm, we began testing.
Here the ground is not used, the diodes are connected differently to the left and right channels. The circuit worked, but we were not happy with the presence of 2 diodes. We decided to connect our receiver to this track, it also controlled the device. Consequently, their track is redundant and we left only one channel. This solution only works on PCs and some smartphones from a distance of no more than a couple of meters. I really didn’t want to use an additional power source, but there was nowhere to go. To amplify the signal, we used a simple transistor switch.
The circuit has lost the ability to receive a signal. In the future, the circuit can be improved; we switched the receiver and transmitter. For testing we used a BBK DVD player and a Tricolor JS 7300 receiver. Our receiver is capable of controlling these devices from a distance of about 15 meters (as long as the corridor was enough). At the project demonstration, we wanted to control the ViewSonic PJD 5132 projector from a smartphone. It’s good that we decided to check the functionality in advance - nothing really worked. The projector perceived our control signals only if we brought the transmitter close, which was problematic, since it was hanging from the ceiling. We decided to “play around” with carrier frequencies. When the frequency changed, our test devices began to work similarly to a projector, therefore, it is impossible to superimpose an information signal on the same carrier. After much effort, we found the frequency and the demonstration did not fail. There was no time to create an application for a smartphone that automatically modulates the read signal. We recorded ready-made audio tracks into the phone and styled the Activity similar to the control panel. In the near future we will complete it and place it on Google Play in the public domain. Its main feature will be training in device commands and the ability to create a personal remote control. 308139.2k 308 Sources used:
- https://m.iguides.ru/main/diy/kak_sdelat_iz_smartfona_universalnyy_pult_distantsionnogo_upravleniya/
- https://usamodelkina.ru/6688-delaem-universalnyy-pult-distancionnogo-upravleniya-iz-smartfona.html
- https://setphone.ru/stati/ik-port-v-smartfonax-dlya-chego-on-nuzhen-i-kak-im-polzovatsya/
- https://4pda.ru/2016/08/21/318523/
- https://m.habr.com/post/238491/
Smart TV control via smartphone
In the case of modern “smart” TVs - Smart TV - you don’t have to think long about control from a tablet or smartphone. TV equipment manufacturers themselves took care of this by developing their own remote control applications for all mobile platforms (Android, iOS and Windows Mobile). The same applies to set-top boxes (for example, Android TV), which turn a regular TV into a “smart” one.
Remote control according to the scheme proposed by TV equipment manufacturers is only possible if both the TV and the control device (smartphone/tablet) are connected to the same local network via a router. The TV receiver itself can be connected to the router via a wired connection (i.e., local cable), but the phone/tablet can only be connected via a Wi-Fi connection (and it is impossible to do otherwise). Thus, to implement the control scheme, you cannot do without using a Wi-Fi router.
Connection setup
Let's say you purchased a wireless router. The first thing you need to do is connect both your TV and smartphone to it. It is not necessary that the router has an Internet connection configured. To solve our specific problem - controlling TV equipment from a phone - the Internet is not required.
We will not consider setting up a smartphone to connect to Wi-Fi - everyone already knows this. But to establish a connection between Smart TV and a wireless router, you will have to delve into the TV settings. Let's consider the connection using the example of Samsung TV equipment, and specifically R-series TVs:
Open the settings menu on the TV and go to the “General” tab:
Next, go to the “Network” section.
Go to the “Open network settings” subsection.
Here you will be asked to select one of two connection types - “Wireless” and “Cable”. If the TV is connected to the router via a wired connection, select the second option. If you select the “Wireless” connection type, an additional settings page will open on which you will need to select the name of the wireless network.
After this, you will need to enter the password for the Wi-Fi network (if it is, of course, set in the router settings):
After a few seconds, the TV will be connected to the Wi-Fi router, which it will report.
Using a similar scheme, any “smart” TV equipment is connected to Wi-Fi, be it a TV or a Smart TV set-top box. The only differences are in the location of the network connection settings in the TV receiver menu.
How to make your phone a remote control for home appliances?
In order to turn your smartphone into a remote control for any device in the house, be it a TV or an air conditioner, you need to perform a couple of simple steps, namely:
Step 1 - Download the Mi Remote app to send an infrared signal
As already mentioned, to control household appliances from an Android phone, we need a special application. In this article we will use a proprietary application from Xiaomi - Mi Remote. But you can use any other. They are all very similar in their functionality and if you figure out how to use the Mi Remote, you will understand how the others work.
You can download the application from the official application store from Google called Play Market (or Google Play) completely free of charge.
QR Code
Mi Remote controller – for TV, STB, AC and more
Developer: Xiaomi Inc.
Price: Free
The application is distributed without paid subscriptions and without advertising, because it is the official software for owners of MIUI firmware in smartphones from Xiaomi. But anyone can install it, even if you have a device from another manufacturer and do not have an infrared port.
Step 2 - Setting up Mi Remote
After the first launch of the program, we need to add our first remote control. To do this, click the “Add” button or the plus sign at the top right:
Next you need to select the type of equipment. From the available list we can choose TV, Mi Box, Mi TV, air conditioner, fan, set-top box, AV receiver, DVD player, projector, set-top box and camera.
Please note that in some similar applications this item may be slightly different. For example, there may be a “Tuners” item, but “DVD player” will not be there, and so on. Therefore, if you don’t have the equipment you need, just download a similar application. Some of them will be indicated at the end of the article.
Then, when we have chosen the type of equipment, we look for the brand. There are a lot of brands, so we recommend using the search. If suddenly you have very few brands, then simply connect to a high-speed Wi-Fi network and they will download from the cloud themselves.
The last step in setting up is checking the functionality. The system will prompt you to press a button, pointing the infrared port of your smartphone towards the equipment. If the equipment receives the signal and performs the appropriate action, it means that you have chosen everything correctly and now you can fully use your smartphone to control home appliances.
In case of malfunction, you can either choose another brand or try other button options. Often not all buttons on the remote will work, so we recommend experimenting a little. Also try to change the brand, since the remote control labeled in the application as this brand is not always suitable for a particular device. For example, remote controls from Weston and Walson are suitable for an old West TV. Strange, but they both work.
Step 3 – use the Mi Remote app
After successful setup, you can start using the application.
To open the remote control menu, just launch this application and select the appropriate technology that you previously set as default in the application. On the main screen you can add an endless number of types and brands of equipment.
Controlling is as easy as shelling pears:
- Power button. Turns equipment on and off. In this case, TV.
- Configuration change button. With its help, you can change the control style: by clicking or swiping.
- The main working part of the remote control. Here are the main buttons like switching channels, changing the volume, and so on. It is this area that can be used as swipes if you change the setting in button 2. Instead of pressing up, you will swipe up, instead of pressing down, you will swipe down, and so on.
The application supports working with several remote controls at once. You can add an infinite number of different remotes and give them all any names.
To proceed to selecting the required remote control or create a new one, go to the main screen of the Mi Remote application. To do this, either simply re-enter the application, or click on the “Back” arrow at the top right. You will be taken to the main screen. It's extremely simple. At the top right there is a plus sign, already familiar to us from the first time we added a remote control, it makes it possible to add a new remote control.
All remote controls are located in the form of a convenient list with name and type. You can easily find the remote control, open it, go back to the main screen and select another remote control. Also, for more convenient switching, you can call up the side menu on the right and switch to the desired remote control.
To remove the remote control, open it, then click on the three dots at the top right and select “Delete”. Unfortunately, you cannot delete several remote controls at once.
