The "Do-it-Yourself" Remote Control for Android Devices
The DIYRemote project allows you to design your own custom remote control interface for TV, Home theater, and any other devices that use an infrared remote control. You design your remote interface as a web page using standard HTML/CSS/Javascript, then open your web page in the DIYRemote app. When your webpage is loaded inside the DIYRemote app, it will have access to a Javascript function transmit() which will transmit hex codes on the device’s IR (Infrared) Emitter.
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Upload your webpage to the internet
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Load your webpage using the DIYRemote App
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Convert your device into a single-purpose device by pinning the DIY app. That way the remote is always open.
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Get an IR extender to control multiple devices at once
The bad news is that not all phones and tablets have an IR emitter. The good news is that many older devices do include this feature, and can be obtained for cheap off of Craigslist, E-Bay, or Facebook Marketplace.
I’m not aware of any definitive lists of devices that have this feature, but it is common enough that I was able to just do a search on Craigslist for "Android phone", or "Samsung phone", etc.. with max price $75, and for each candidate, I just did a Google search for "Phone Model IR Blaster". Generally the first result will be someone asking if that model has an IR blaster.
E.g. I purchased a "Samsung Galaxy S5" off of E-Bay for 60CAD, which does have an IR emitter. Doing a search on Google for "Samsung S5 IR Blaster" gave me my answer in the first result.
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Note
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The DIYRemote app requires Android 4 or higher, so it will work on very old hardware. |
Download DIYRemote.apk.
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Note
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You’ll need to allow installation from untrusted sources. |
The best resource that I have found for finding the codes for your devices is using the IRDB website, which describes itself as:
One of the largest crowd-sourced, manufacturer-independent databases of infrared remote control codes on the web, and aspiring to become the most comprehensive and most accurate one
You can browse this site and test the codes right inside the DIYRemote app.
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Open the DIYRemote App on your device
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Press the "Settings" button in the lower left corner, then click "Find Codes"
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Select the brand of the device you want to control, and press the "Get IR Codes" button
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Look through the list of results and see if there is one that looks "The Most" promising. Press the "Get Codes" button corresponding to your choice.
NoteYou might have to try a few different code sets before you find the right one. 
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You’ll see 5 tabs: "Protocol Information", "Pronto Hex", "UEI Hex", "Raw", and "Widget". The most useful tabs here are "Pronto Hex" (which shows you the HEX codes to use for your
transmit()call), and "Widget", which allows you to test the codes directly inside the DIYRemote app.
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Click on the "Widget" tab, then test out buttons until you find one that your device responds to. If you find a button that works, make note of its name, then go to the "Pronto Hex" tab to get its Hex code. If you don’t find any buttons that work, then go back to the list of devices, and proceed down the list until you find one that works.
Creating your remote control design is as simple as building a web page. There are no special requirements this web page, except, that you will need to trigger the transmit() function to trigger an IR code. Here is a bare-bones remote control that just turns on and off a Sony Television.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First DIY Remote</h1>
<p>This works for my Sony Television!!</p>
<button onclick="transmit('0000 0068 0000 000D 0060 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 03F0')">
Power On
</button>
<button onclick="transmit('0000 0068 0000 000D 0060 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0408')">
Power Off
</button>
</body>
</html>
</body>
</html>|
Note
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We call the transmit() function with the HEX codes we obtained from the Getting Codes Step.
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After uploading this to your web server, you can open the DIYRemote app, press the "Settings" button in the lower left, and enter the URL to the webpage. Then press Go. Then you should be able to use your remote control.