Nigel Feltham wrote:
N_Cook wrote:

I'll offer one that I would like the IR control codes for:

Singing Machines SMG-301 Karaoke box - 3CD elderly device belonging to
our village hall. Seems to be obsolete, but kit itself still works OK.
The remote unfortunately does not exist any more...

It is known to be incompatible with generic IR controllers and a
selection of randomly chosen CD controllers. The original controller has
vanished so no chance of repairing it.

If anyone would be kind enough to specify the control code sequences it
sends for each of the keys I could easily program a PIC to send them.
Thanks. Just the numbers and play buttons would do...

Thanks for any enlightenment.

Regards,
Martin Brown

The only suggestion I have is go into Google/images and try and find
another make+model that looks like a rebadged version of your one, then
hunt for a replacement on that make and model

If you can find a lookalike make/model on google images then it's worth
looking on www.remotecentral.com to see if anyone has made a config file
for the philips pronto touchscreen remotes for that device and on the site
for the company that makes the 'oneforall' brand remotes (www.ezremote.com)
to see if there's a setup code for your device on a recent model of their
universal remotes.

If either of these sites has a downloadable config with your device
supported then the raw codes can be exctracted from the config without
needing access to the correct universal remote and maybe allow you to
create that pic based remote (or maybe find someone to loan you the correct
remote for the config or one that can already operate your CD player and
let you copy all keys into a cheap learning remote).

If the original unit still existed that would be handy. I might yet be
able to find someone locally with an SMG-301 and clone the controller.

Unfortunately remotes are complex devices - there are at least 20 different
protocols used (philips have 2, NEC have at least 2, Toshiba have a couple,
Sony have another couple, etc, all with multibit device number and button
codes making it almost impossible to guess correct code to send, and an
unknown brand chinese player could have used any one of them) so emulating
one with a PIC chip isn't as easy as you would expect.

I thought that might be a problem. I wonder why SMG made their remote
deliberately incompatible with generic universal remote controls?
(it even says this in the manual which I have now found - unhelpful)

Thanks everyone for the various suggestions. I haven't been able to find
a codebase for the SMG-301 but I have found some new places to look!

Regards,
Martin Brown