While this may not always be the most needed extra for a PC, it is still cool to create nevertheless. IR for your PC, thanks to the good folks at Engadget.

For today’s how-to we spent some time rummaging around in our parts box to build a serial IR remote interface for our PC. We took a few pieces from various designs to come up our own, built specifically to work with WinLirc or LIRC; it can transmit and recieve IR signals, just imagine the possibilities.

It’ll probably work with other software packages, but may require some small modifications.
For today’s how-to you’ll need:

* IR(Infrared) LED (RS 276-142)
* IR Receiver module (RS 276-640)
* 4.7uf and 100-220uf capacitors
* 47ohm and 4.7k resistors
* Sub-D 9 pin Female Connector
* NPN Transistor (cheapies from RS are fine)
* PC Board
* Sacrificial USB Cable
* Tools, hookup wire, solder, etc.

Everything can be picked up at RadioShack or your favorite electronics supplier. We dressed ours up a bit, but you can succeed with just these parts. We hear that the RadioShack IR receiver we used has been known to produce flaky data, but ours worked fine…. Source: Engadget

Tags: ir remote control, software packages, usb cable, radioshack