About three years ago I designed a unit using an IR remote.  At the
time I used an NEC chip (UPD1620) in the remote.  Worked like a champ.
Recently NEC has made the part obsolete without a suggested alternative.

I have found an SGS Thomson part, M3004AB1, which looks like a candidate
although the encoding is different and the receiver software will have
to be changed.

It would be nice to have some choices here but SGS-T is the only one
so far.

These parts typically include a keyboard scanner, some sort of encoder,
a modulator (usually around 40 kHz) and the IRLED driver.

I suspect that since most of the remotes are made off-shore that few, if
any, parts of this type are imported.  To make things even more
difficult, the volume on this project is relatively low - buy quantities
in the 25 - 50 piece range.

I could roll my own but wheel-reinventing is Plan B.

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.


Sorry for the slightly off-topic nature.  At present the received signal
is decoded by a Z8 but this would be changed to a PIC in any redesign
so there is a _remote_ relevance.  (Bad pun)

--
Bob Fehrenbach    Wauwatosa, WI     bfehrenb@execpc.com