Brads Electronic Projects Forum

TV B Gone is basically a small board that is programmed to act like a TV remote to turn off about 250 TV's. Some people think it is evil to turn off someone else's tv but I just plan to use it at home or at parties where I have permission to turn off their TV or my TV.

I built this kit to show people the power of microcontrollers. It does work and you can't see the IR Leds blink. There is one small green LED on the board and you can't see it blink in daylight. It blinks but it is very faint.
If anyone wants to build this kit, you can get it from Adafruit Industries. I turned off a Panasonic TV. I was able to turn off an LG TV twice but I don't know if it is on the list or not because it doesn't work all the time so I might try getting a new IC for this unit.

I have some tips for making the instructions better. When there are multiple parts, care must be taken not to grab the wrong ones because the instructions don't add an extra step to differentiate the parts. You want the resistor with the red stripe first I got off easy because I happened to solder the right one the first time. The other tip I have is to leave room on the capacitor's leads when you solder so that you can bend it flat to the circuit board. The instruction to bend the capacitor to the board was after I soldered so I can't reduce its size.

Must be sending out a whole lot of data!

LG TV's must be high on the list because I have to wait for the TV B Gone to turn off our TV. I waited and thought "It must not be doing anything" and then our TV turned off. It turns the Panasonic TV off quick because the code must be first on the list or something. It works.

After building it, I realized how easy it is to assemble them. It is not that hard.

I'm now looking for a circuit board vice.

You can find out some more info on SIRC protocol here.
http://www.sbprojects.com/knowledge/ir/sirc.php

bitfogav wrote:You can find out some more info on SIRC protocol here.
http://www.sbprojects.com/knowledge/ir/sirc.php

Thank you.

I was hoping to have an LCD soldered to a pin header by now and to be able to show everyone.

I do have to first learn how to get started and program some of my microcontrollers for the first time.

Well you know where to come if you have questions