📺 Control your PC using an Arduino and an IR remote — turn your old TV into a DIY smart TV!

Note: I did this fun DIY project while I was still a newbie, so it's far from perfect, but it works!

At the end of this tutorial. You'll be able to remotely control a PC using an IR-remote. I used it to build a kind of smart TV by linking a PC to an old TV. You can easily perform actions such as opening Youtube or Netflix on a certain button press, or controling the mouse using the remote arrows.

For this tutorial, you'll only need:

• An Arduino, for example a UNO or NANO, whichever one will work
• A generic IR receiver, like this one
• A PC with Python installed
• Any IR-remote you can find at home

The first step will be to decode your IR-remote. For this, we'll use IRremote arduino library.

It supports almost any kind of protocols: Denon / Sharp, JVC, LG / LG2, NEC / Onkyo / Apple, Panasonic / Kaseikyo, RC5, RC6, Samsung, Sony, (Pronto), BangOlufsen, BoseWave, Lego, Whynter, FAST, MagiQuest, Universal Pulse Distance and Pulse Width.

1. Connect the IR-receiver to to the Arduino. Follow your IR-module documentation for the pinout, but most of generic modules are cabled like mine:

   

   • DATA/OUT to pin 11 of Arduino
   • GND to GND pin of Arduino
   • VCC with 5V pin of Arduino

2. Upload ir-decoder.ino to your Arduino and run the serial monitor.

3. Take your remote and press the buttons, it will print an hexadecimal code for each button pressed.

4. Note down the code corresponding to each button.

Now that you have your hexa codes, you'll be able to send the associated commands to the PC using the serial port. To do so, you can use ir-receiver.ino and map your hexadecimal codes with their assiociated commands!

Note: For the msg string, you can enter whaterver you want as long as it is in lane with what is inside ir-execute-cmd.py.

This is the final step! Here, we use a Python script that receive commands from the serial port and execute actions on the PC using PyAutoGUI library.

Make sure Python is installed on your system.

• Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv

# On windows
.venv\Scripts\activate

# On Linux/macOS
source .venv/bin/activate

• Install the dependencies:

pip install pyautogui
pip install pyserial

Fill serial_port with your actual serial port:

• On Linux: you can execute the command ls /dev/tty*. It is often /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyACM0.
• On Windows: open the Device Manager -> Ports (COM & LPT). You'll see something like "Arduino UNO (COM3).

Now, the goal is to listen to the serial port and execute actions according the the command received. You can use ir-execute-cmd.py as an example. Match the commands with the code you want to execute.

You can find the full PyAutoGUI documentation here, but here are the main features I used:

• pyautogui.press('<key>'): press the keyboard key
• pyautogui.hotkey('<key>','<key>'): press the specified hotkeys, useful for doing ALT + TAB for example
• pyautogui.moveTo(x, y, delay): move the mouse to the specified x and y in delay seconds
• pyautogui.click(): left click on the mouse
• pyautogui.scroll(i): scroll the mouse of i amount, positive = up, negative = down

Once you completed the Python file according to your needs, you can control your PC using an IR-remote!

Indeed, by pressing the remote buttons you are sending an hexadecimal code which is received by the Arduino with the help of the IR-receiver. The Arduino matches this hexadecimal code with a command that is sent to the PC via the serial port. The Python script running on the PC is listening to this serial port, and is performing actions depending on the command receiver, with the help of the pyautogui library.

That's it! Connect your PC to a TV and you now have a smart TV!