Adding remote control volume to old amplifier.

[staylong]

Found the site doing a Google search. Just need to know if this is possible.

I have an old amplifier that does not have any remote control. I wondered if it would be possible to do something that will alow me to at least control the volume remotely.

Any ideas.

Thanx.

 

[Cliff_J]

This would be a project so be prepared to learn a lot or find easier ways to do things.

Easiest way would be to emulate what even Audio Research does for their $800 remote control option on their preamp. Attach a small DC motor to the volume control with a small belt (or an o-ring) and make the small DC motor turn the control like your hand would. You could get the motor from a small toy of some type. You might need to gear it down some (more pulley's and o-rings) so it spins slower, but easier. Step 1 done.

Then buy something simple like this IC and remote and sensor:
http://www.rentron.com/remote_control/IR-D14.htm

That's a little more than $25 and for the conveinence and all-in-one-place shopping a good price. Now wire up the circuit and you can press buttons on the remote and make LEDs light up. Step 2 done.

Now you need to drive the motor forward and backward. Search google and learn how an h-bridge circuit works. Here's the first link I found, seems pretty good:
http://www.robotroom.com/HBridge.html

And once you get that done, you're remote controlling. You might spend half as much a picking up a used receiver on ebay but what fun is that and you wouldn't learn as much doing it.

Then get fancy and program a PIC microcontroller to do everything for version 2.

Cliff