xAP RedRat Connector :: IR control via xAP

[Stuart Booth <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

A brand new applet from me that I've been working on over the past few
days.

At the recent UKHA2004 show Chris Dodge of RedRat Ltd said hello and
was kind enough to send out a sample RedRat unit for some xAP
development.

http://www.redrat.co.uk/

For those that don't know it, the RedRat3 is a USB based infrared
remote control input and output device for your computer. Main
features include:

* USB powered - no external power supply required.
* Two different IR detectors:
o Long range for control of your PC by remote.
o Short range for accurate IR signal "learning" from your own
remotes.
* High powered IR output - range greater than 10m.
* Supports IrDa-like IR signal output (Telewest and some NTL cable set-top
boxes in the UK)

The new xAP RedRat Connector application connects any RedRats on the
system onto the xAP network. This means that any xAP applications and
devices can receive IR signals. Additionally IR signals can be
transmitted simply by sending a suitably targetted xAP message. You
can even send Pronto/CCF IR commands too!

<http://www.xapframework.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=45>

It's currently only available in a GUI form at the above URL, but
simple console and Windows Service versions will be along tomorrow
when I wrap them up.

I'll write up some documentation tomorrow evening and include some
pictures along the way, but for the time being, fire it up and
associate a RR IR signal database with any RRs on your system. You can
do this easily in the Properties form for the RR Connector. Just set
the "Device Database" field (in the "RedRat
Configuration" option) to
the signal database XML file you'll have created with the RR Signal DB
Utility. Hopefully that'll make sense to those of you who already have
RedRat's.

Lastly, I just thought I'd add that the RedRat SDK is a delight to
use. I had played with the RR s/w and written v0.1 of this app to send
and receive IR commands from/to xAP messages within a couple of hours
of receiving the unit from Chris. Brilliant.

More details on this to come another time. Bugs, queries, comments,
requests to the usual place (right here!),

S
--
Stuart Booth <stuart@xxxxxxx>
xAPFramework.NET - a xAP software development framework for .NET

http://www.xapautomation.org/ 
     http://www.xapframework.net/