Board Thread:Questions and answers/@comment-30049823-20190909232421/@comment-30049823-20191108223400

Update: Random remotes for car mp3 players (like the one included with my Raspberry Pi IR sensor module) or TVs or VCRs aren't going to "accidentally" have the right frequency of signal to trigger the Disk Shot base, because anything even remotely (no pun intended) modern has a sophisticated digital signal with a "start paying attention" header and then some on-and-offs of varying duration to tell it which button was pressed, with long gaps between each repeated group of bits.

I picked up an HTC One M8 cellphone ($30 used) that has a built-in IR transmitter (works WAY better than the headphone-jack thing stuck in my old Samsung; effective range in FEET instead of INCHES), AND as an added bonus, it has a built-in IR sensor that can be used to "learn" from remotes, too.

So this HTC phone with the irplus app installed, besides being way cheaper than a Logitech Harmony and totally "hackable" by importing custom XML markup to define the UI's appearance and behavior, can be configured to "show" the digital signal that it's transmitting when you press a button.

And it's been able to "learn" from every modern remote I've pointed at it... but doesn't react to whatever a Wowwee laser-tag gun transmits. (not sure if it's the nature of the signal or the fact that it's going thru a lens for a precisely-aimed "beam", and I'm simply missing the target when I shoot my phone with it. [Sidetrack: Where did I put that dang thrift-store infrared grenade??])

So, still optimistic that this will tell me what a Disk Shot remote sends, which I can then share with the world, who can then build or program their own replacements for all the missing original remotes. #fingerscrossed #waitingbythemailboxlikeaneagerpuppy =D