Although my Phd is in Electrotechnics, I’m mostly a Software Engineer. Trying to put things straight, I’ve picked up a personal project with a bit more hardware :)
The idea is to build something resembling this or this without leaving my pocket empty, and in the time between build something with my bare-hands.
So today I set things in motion by visiting InMotion in it’s office in Oporto where I met Filipe Valpereiro. There I picked up an Arduino Duemilanove and an Ethernet Shield to go with. Tomorrow I hope to drop by the local electronics shop to pickup a photodiode and an IR LED. That should account for all the hardware I need in this project.
After that I will need to learn a bit about the IR encodings used by the remote controllers in the household (TV + Home Theater + STB). Luckily I’ve an oscilloscope lying around from the days my father did real electronics, which should come in hand to debug everything.
As soon as I get something working I’ll post it here.