I am young and in touch with tech stuff, so using a PDA in place of a more expensive touchscreen remote seems right up my alley.

I know I can get an Axim X3 for around a c-note on ebay (and it's highly recommended), but I'm wondering if there are any cheaper PDAs out there on the new/used market that have decent IR (I won't be more than 10 feet away) and can run something like totalremote.

Thanks for taking the time to answer a newb question, you don't know how much it's appreciated.

BTW, I own a 2 or 3 year old Zaurus. Weak IR as far as I can tell, and the only remote software was pretty bad. But, if anybody has any suggestions on how to make it work... I'm ALL ears.

This message was edited by MidKnight on 10/27/04 11:21 ET.

If you want to know about Total Remote experiences, I can tell you the only two PPCs on the market you can use for IrDA transmission are the latter Axims (post X5, NOT THE X5!) and virtually all Toshibas, favoring the e310/330/740. Considering all three of those Tosh's are discontinued you MIGHT find them for cheap. Honestly, I think if I were a savvy tech dude making a home theater remote out of a PPC, I'd get an Axim X30 or X50 with WiFi (just in case I want to surf the web while watching TV). Skip the WiFi if you don't need network access.


Zaurus is Linux, isn't it? I know FOR CERTAIN we had an ex-employee with a Zaurus, and he was able to take preconfigured audio files generated by Total Remote and play them back on the Zaurus. I vaguely recall we were able to control the TR lab's Sony DVD player from 65 feet, which was the limit of the hallway we were in. IF I am recalling correctly it would seem a truly driven programmer could cruft up something that worked using a Total Remote audio transmitter module.


--Don

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to chase down an option for the Zaurus while I keep my eye on the other PDAs you mentioned.

Again, I appreciate your response.