Skip to main content

Turn off a PC with Arduino and an IR remote

I have the bad habit of watching or listening something from my computer before I go to sleep while already lying in bed. Often when I am on the verge of falling asleep, it is frustrating to get up and turn off the computer. Usually, I put on a timed shutdown so that when I fall asleep, the computer won't wake me up in the middle of the night. However, I wanted to have some other way which does not involve getting up from bed nor having to light up any screen (like my phone) which would interfere with the process

I thought about the problem from time to time and it was earlier this year when I bumped into an Instructables post in which somebody had made a remote controller for his PC with Arduino as a "keyboard". I thought I would do something similar to solve the shutting down problem because as it happened, I had a spare Arduino lying around

After playing around with it for a while, I found out that in my Arduino Uno was lacking HID support so it was not going to work as a keyboard with official firmware and I was not too keen to try out some custom firmware. This was not a real issue since I would not really be needing a keyboard functionality. Simply one script which is run when I push a button from an IR remote is sufficient.

I made a small python script which listens to the COM port (USB) to which the Arduino is plugged and runs the shutdown command on a set input from the serial port.

I purchased an IR receiver from my local electronics shop, put that to a breadboard and connected it to the Arduino via some jumper wires. I decided to use the remote for my speakers to send the shutdown command since I already am using that to adjust the volume but rarely use it to shut down the actual speakers.

I downloaded an IR library and installed it on the Arduino. Then all that was left was just to check what signal (translated to HEX by the library) the remote was sending when the shutdown button was pressed, write the input to the serial port and modify the python script accordingly to call shutdown -s -t 60.


The IR receiver is on the left, on the right, a thermometer


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm not a passionate developer

A family friend of mine is an airlane pilot. A dream job for most, right? As a child, I certainly thought so. Now that I can have grown-up talks with him, I have discovered a more accurate description of his profession. He says that the truth about the job is that it is boring. To me, that is not that surprising. Airplanes are cool and all, but when you are in the middle of the Atlantic sitting next to the colleague you have been talking to past five years, how stimulating can that be? When he says the job is boring, it is not a bad kind of boring. It is a very specific boring. The "boring" you would want as a passenger. Uneventful.  Yet, he loves his job. According to him, an experienced pilot is most pleased when each and every tiny thing in the flight plan - goes according to plan. Passengers in the cabin of an expert pilot sit in the comfort of not even noticing who is flying. As someone employed in a field where being boring is not exactly in high demand, this sounds pro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyon Precede:ON 7

I bought or technically leased a Canyon Precede:ON 7 (2022) electric bike last fall. This post is about my experiences with it after riding for about 2000 km this winter. The season was a bit colder than usual, and we had more snow than in years, so I properly put the bike through its paces. I've been cycling for almost 20 years. I've never owned a car nor used public transport regularly. I pedal all distances below 30km in all seasons. Besides commuting, I've mountain biked and raced BMX, and I still actively ride my road bike during the spring and summer months. I've owned a handful of bikes and kept them until their frames failed. Buying new bikes or gear has not been a major part of my hobby, and frankly, I'm quite sceptical about the benefits of updating bikes or gear frequently. I've never owned an E-bike before, but I've rented one a couple of times. The bike arrived in a hilariously large box. I suppose there's no need to worry about damage durin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Extracting object properties from an IFC file with IfcOpenShell

Besides the object geometry information, IFC files may contain properties for the IFC objects. The properties can be, for example, some predefined dimension information such as an object volume or a choice of material. Some of the properties are predefined in the IFC standards, but custom ones can be added. IFC files can be massive and resource-intensive to process, so in some cases, it helps to separate the object properties from the geometry data. IfcOpenShell  is a toolset for processing IFC files. It is written mostly in C++ but also provides a Python interface. To read an IFC file >>> ifc_file = ifcopenshell.open("model.ifc") Fetch all objects of type IfcSlab >>> slab = ifc_file.by_type("IfcSlab")[1] Get the list of properties >>> slab.IsDefinedBy (#145075=IfcRelDefinesByType('2_fok0__fAcBZmMlQcYwie',#1,$,$,(#27,#59),#145074), #145140=IfcRelDefinesByProperties('3U2LyORgXC2f_hWf6I16C1',#1,$,$,(#27,#59),#145141), #145142...
Post a Comment
Read more