>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.


The cheapest solution to this problem is to buy preassembled universal remotes.
Our local department stores will run specials on these things for less than $10
each.  I cannot build anything for $10 each in the quantities you are quoting.
In several past projects we bought these universal remotes, reverse engineered
one of the manufacturer's encoding schemes, and supplied the remote with our
product.  While not the best solution, it is by far the most cost effective.
Just the plastic case pricing alone will kill you when trying to build your own
remote.

Good Luck.

----- Steve