TV-B-Gone can double as a camera remote control

[Christopher] found a way to get a bit more mileage out of his TV-B-Gone kit. The little device is intended to turn off every television in range with the push of a button. But at its core it’s really just a microcontroller connected to some infrared LEDs. Instead of sending codes to shut of televisions, you can rewrite the firmware to send a camera remote shutter release code.

It doesn’t take too much to pull this off. You need a way to flash new firmware to the device, and you need to know the new code timing that you want to send. Since the firmware is open source it’s easy enough to make code changes, and there are several easy methods of flashing AVR devices (like the tiny85 used here), including using an Arduino as an ISP.

But [Christopher] did more than just add the Nikon code for his camera. He realized that there’s a jumper to select between European or American television codes. Since he wasn’t using the foreign option, he replace that pin header with a switch that selects between normal TV-B-Gone operation and camera shutter release modes. Nice.

9 thoughts on “TV-B-Gone can double as a camera remote control

  1. Great work! I have an Arduino sketch and a little shieldlet I use when I need a camera remote, but this is much slicker. And I suspect the TV-B-gone has greater range than what I hacked together.

      1. Fiber optic? You’re overthinking the problem.

        Centralized control (“home automation”) stuff has included little IR emitters for eons. They’re just a little infrared LED in a small plastic package, attached to the device in question with adhesive, and with a wire pigtail heading off to whatever manner of control/extension system.

        They’re commonly used as part of a simple repeater system to relay IR commands to equipment located in another room, in a closet, or in a cabinet with an opaque door.

        Far more complicated arrangements are possible using gear from companies like Crestron, or any number of open-source projects (such as the LIRC stuff for Linux), though even Windows Media Center knows how to grok the concept.

        Such IR emitters are commonly available in a few different forms, some of which do purposefully block ambient IR, and some of which purposefully allow it to pass through. They’re typically very inexpensive.

  2. A while ago, I was thinking of building a TV-B-Gone variant that would transmit all known service menu codes. I own a few older TVs with missing or broken remote controls, and in most cases, the service menu can only be accessed using the original remote control. I don’t like replacing a perfectly good TV because you can’t re-tune it because of the missing remote.

    However, I couldn’t find any list of service menu codes online. Does anybody know of such a list?

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