Anyone know a way to hack a TV remote?

ProDarwin said:

No HDMI CEC?

Not according to the manual.  I've never seen a commercial/industrial projector that had one, but admittedly these projectors from 2010 are by far the newest technology my theater can afford.

HDMI was added to many commercial projectors for simplicity, but 90% of the commercial/large-venue installs I have seen use DVI-D or Cat6.  The main problems with HDMI are that A) cables are bloody expensive, and B) you are severely limited in distance.  Other protocols can go much farther for much less money but HDMI is, what... 50 ft?

GameboyRMH said:

Here's a somewhat less complicated but more fragile and labor-intensive way to do the same thing, you can buy learning universal remote controls such as this one which have a receiver in the bottom for copying signals from other random remotes:

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/blackweb-universal-learning-remote-control-black/6000202691246

If you can get your hands on one working original projector remote, you can pass their knowledge onto these learning universal remotes (you can map any odd functions onto unused buttons) and as long as you preserve a lineage of programmed remotes, you'll always have a remote that works. You could take one and solder long wires to it (maybe put the IR LED on a 26' long wire pair) so it can be used to control the projector from a very long distance.

Very true, but if I could get my hands on one remote, I wouldn't need any of this.  Anyone with two nickels to rub together wouldn't be caught dead with one of these dinosaurs, but I got them free as cast-offs from a science center.  Replacing them with equivalent projectors today would cost about $25,000, and I had to get approval to purchase a $25 remote that didn't work.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Yes.  Things might have changed, but at the time I tried one a couple years ago it was a shipping scam, or at least presented that way: drop-shipped from an overseas company with a US warehouse.  You buy one for $25, it shows up with a blank breadboard, then you go through 50 steps of getting an RMA with bots trying to just try and make you give up the process, then the only way you get a shipping address is if you pay for a return label through their system where they charge you $28 to ship an item back that costs $4 to ship.  After that, they'll gladly refund your $25 purchase price after 30-90 days to process your return.

Left image is from the PT-DZ570 manual. Right image is from this eBay listing.  Model N2QAYB000566.  $24.50 w/ $35 shipping - it's in Japan

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

APEowner said:

I'd take apart the projector, figure out how the switch is wired and then mount the switch remotely.   If it's an IR remote even the factory one might not work 26' off the floor..

It's a momentary microswitch on the motherboard.  Possible, but not by me.

I don't know if it's worth it but if you pay shipping to and from Albuquerque I'll do it for you.

You can turn off the projector via a web browser.

Does the projector support Wake On Lan?

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to dculberson :

Don't even get me started on the BrightSign boxes that I have to figure out... that's a whole different learning curve.

:shudder:
We had about a dozen Brightsign players at my office and I abandoned them in favor of PiSignage players. The players are cheaper and are dead simple to deploy and run with their cloud service for minimal cost. 

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Ask Panasonic for a comp on a new projector, to support local arts? You're a cunning linguist, I'm sure you can pen a comp-worthy request. Offer a "Sponsored by Panasonic" somewhere.

In reply to CJ :

Yup, and even Panasonic admits it's the wrong remote for this projector.  That remote only works with DZ570s built in about the first three months of 2010.

In reply to Honsch :

That's a good question.  I'm not sure.  I don't recall anything in the manual or the menu about it, and it has never worked like that before.

In the past it hasn't been an issue since the projector was always accessible.  I used a couple at the big theater and just lowered the pipe to turn them on, then used LAN to turn them off.  At the small theater they are usually sitting beside me in the tech booth or on the pipe above my head.  Now that it's going to be inaccessible I'm scratching my head in places I wasn't sure I had itches.

The truth is, they're crap projectors by today's standards, but free hand-me-downs are about all we can afford.  These are bright, they're 1920x1200 which is enough for big screens, and they're 7K lumens so they're bright enough.  I'd like to make these work instead of giving up just yet.

I'm actually tempted to epoxy a bellcrank on the case above the button and drop a string on a pulley, but I just know that it will pull the projector off-center every third time you pull the string and I'll be getting out the tallescope twice a week to re-aim it.

slantvaliant (Forum Supporter) said:

 

Remote button pusher(s)?

I'm going to look into these.  This might solve a truckload of problems.