Well, the remote needs to be powered for the added circuitry to work, so I'm sure it powers the remote as well, as it was added so that if put in a permanent location, it did not fail due to dead batteries.

I've seen this remote and I can say to you that the power supply is for the remote it self. You choose, battery or power supply. You can not have both.

Exactly!

I guessed as much, but just wanted to make sure.

I requested the power supply option not only because I knew that batteries would only last 1-2 months and it would be an inconvenience, but because I also knew that something with batteries that ran out could never be used in the custom installation world, especially installed in the back of a rack.

I am keen to follow where both solutions go. Well done to you both for sddressing an issue which has bugged the hell out of me since I got my PS3!

To everyone,

After a week of great visibility at remotecentral.com my mailbox [email protected] is turning RED, just today I got one email each 30 minutes.

Please understand that I can’t reply to all of you immediately.

I managed the risk in my Rev 1 by doing a not so big investment in parts and equipment. Not true for my time though. The way it was done it takes roughly ONE hour of work to realize it. I can’t produce in this condition and you’ll understand that the Rev 1 is not viable for this main reason. If you do the math, for the entire requests I got today even if I work 24H/7D I won’t be able to meet the demand.

This week I picked up few individuals and offered them the Rev 1. This will give me some feedbacks on the remote, the documentation, and the usability with various IR remotes. Daniel Tonks from RemoteCentral also published CCF for Pronto.

So the Rev 2 is now in design phase. I’ll do my best to keep the part cost as low as possible and still have a professional implementation. The Rev 2 requires more parts so the part cost becomes more important. But where I gain, is the ability to move that to large production if demands are there. I'll do another post for the ETA.

The BIG question everyone is asking, what would be the cost of it? I’ll do my best to not exceed 40$. Next it will be the volume that will drive down the price. Volume == lower parts and manufacturing cost.

No it won’t be at 20$ like a few have suggest. At 20$ its like if I was paying you to own my device :)

The dimensions of the box I’m planning to use in the Rev 2 are 3.9” x 0.82” x 2.14” (100mm x 21mm x 54mm), a relatively small box. And no, I can’t go smaller; Sony circuit is ruling this. This light and sturdy box will also helps drive down the shipping cost (vs Rev 1).

The Rev 2 is also a Do-It-Yourself product. You’ll have to buy the Sony remote, remove the Sony circuit, and finally integrate that in my box, a totally solderless job done in 10 minutes. I’ll provide full explanation on how to do it. Again, it’s the volume that justifies this. To sustain this week demands the BestBuy close to me would be out of stock in a snap, briefly good for them, but not for me.

The Rev 2 will not use batteries. The general consensus is that the external power supply makes more sense because it’s a box that you’ll forget (even though you had dreamed of it for long time).

Another frequent question I had, while I’m at it, why not implements a true homegrown BlueTooth/IR device. Simple, I don’t have over 15K$ to invest on this and moreover I’m sure Sony will never make the encryption keys of their BlueTooth available to others.

I hope I’ll reach everyone that have emailed me at [email protected] with this post.

Regards,
Ben

Well I have a question, how about IP->bluetooth? I have a wireless router running linux (ASUS WL700ge) and the router has 2 USB ports. Would it be possible to connect a bluetooth usb dongle and make a program that receives IP commands and converts them to the bluetooth PS3 commands?

I haven't try but I doubt. Probably for the same reason why Ricavision VAVE100 is still not working. Anyone interested in checking that?

Well, I was one of the lucky ones to get one of the REV1 devices, which arrived on Tuesday.
Let me just say, the quality of Ben's work is excellent. The finish of the remote is great, it looks professional and in 90% of installs this would be hidden anyway.

I'm using the IR4PS3 with a Pronto 7500 via an RFX6500 RF station, and after using Daniel's PCF (Thanks very much for that!!) and integrating it, by time the modified remote arrived, i literally just plugged it in and was working out of the box.

After an initial play, I ran through Ben's setup instructions and used the Custom1 codeset, and programmed the IR4PS3 to only accept "POWERON" code as an instruction to power on (normally any button press will turn the unit on). The logic in Ben's unit handled this beautifully so I now effectively have discrete on and off (albeit via more macro like logic in Ben's "POWEROFF" code)

Like Daniel said in his great review, response time is indistinguishable from from the original Bluetooth, even with the extra magic taking place, and I too was unable to trip the IR4PS3 up despite punching repeated fast commands.

Overall, I can not thank Ben enough for his hardwork and ingenuity not to mention the great support he has provided for it. I honestly cannot recommend the IR4PS3 highly enough...

No IR4PS3 Rev 1 assembly for tonight,

Ben and "The Others" will listen to Lost Season Premier on ABC :)

Ben AKA "The Others"

Gee - great

Ive emailed Ben twice without any response.

I'd even appreciate a "Go F yourself scumbag. Make your own F'ing remote."

oex,

I'm sorry if I haven't not personnally replied to you.

To remind everyone once again. Since Daniel's article I received emails, yes. But at the rate of 2 per hours / 24 on 24 / 7 on 7. So after 11 days I got 525 emails. Many of have them request for multiple remotes (dozens/email). So over all I got in 11 days over 700 requests.

I can't do: reply to everyone, assemble Rev 1 to everyone, and finally work on the design of Rev 2 to simplify the assembly.

I read all emails though. All of them. And yes I'm doing some discrimination. I select people close to me, I mean not too far from me. You can't launch production of a device if you don't do sufficient Beta testing before. By selecting individuals very close to me, if a problem arise, it will be easier for me to respond to the issue.

By the may, I made a joke. I did assembled 2 remotes yesterday night.

One last thing, this is not my full time job, ... yet.


Regards,
Ben

sierra055's location is listed as "The Land Down Under". I didn't realize Australia was "close" to Montreal.

:-)

I knew as soon as I heard about this project what you were going to do. I have taken the bluetooth remote apart before and knew that it was possible. I have done this on other lighting and fan control rf remotes before. Good luck and there are companies standing by that will produce this device for you if you order enough numbers and it sounds like there is a lot of interest in the project so I am not sure what the limit is on cost per unit. You should consider some kind of patent if what you are doing is not frownded upon by Sony. I'm sure if they knew what us CI's are willing to go through, they might decide to make a different remote.

Good luck and get some sleep.