More Information about the RemotePi Board

 

"The details are not the details. They make the product."  -  Charles Eames

  

What is it ?

The RemotePi Board is an intelligent infrared remote controlled power switch add-on board for all current Raspberry Pi models.
The board is mainly intended to remote control and power off/on a media center system or game emulator, i.e LibreELEC, OpenELEC, OSMC, XBian, RasPlex, Raspbian, Volumio, RetroPie, Recalbox ... although it can be used with any Raspberry Pi operating system.
It solves two problems at the same time :

  1. Enabling an infrared remote to navigate the menus of your media center, 100% compatible with standard simple GPIO IR receiver.
  2. Letting you switch the power of the Raspberry Pi on and off (safe shutdown) with almost any TV/DVD/Mediacenter/Universal/etc. remote or the pushbutton.
You do not even have to buy an additional remote !

What is the difference between the versions and variants of the RemotePi Board ?

There are two versions with two variants each of the RemotePi Board currently available :

  • RemotePi Board for Pi 4 perfectly fits on the newer Raspberry Pi 4 Model B :
    The RemotePi Board for Pi 4 is available as variants with integrated IR receiver and LED or external IR receiver and LED connected by a cable. The variant with the integrated IR receiver and LED is recommended for most users as it is easiest to install and use. The variant with the external IR receiver and LED connected by a cable is useful, if you would like to use a non-transparent case or you would like to mount the Raspberry Pi and RemotePi Board out of line of sight. In this case, you only need to make sure the extended IR receiver and LED are visible for the users.

  • RemotePi Board for Pi 3 B and B+ perfectly fits on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and Pi 3 Model B+ :

    Please note that RemotePi Board for Pi 3 and Pi 3 B+ is only available as variant with integrated IR receiver and LED .The variant with external IR receiver and LED has been discontinued. Please consider using the external IR and LED variant of the RemotePi Board for Pi 4 instead, more information can be found on the RemotePi Board Compatibility Matrix page.

The board piggybacks on top of the Raspberry Pi and should fit into most cases (after some case modifications). You can as well purchase acrylic cases specifically designed for the RemotePi Boards on this site.

The RemotePi Board Compatibility Matrix page has some more information about which version of the RemotePi Board works with which Raspberry Pi Model.


How does it work ?

Instead of feeding the power directly into the RPi, the power is connected to the RemotePi Board. The board contains a microcontroller managing the power line to the RPi, which is switched on and off according to the command received by an infrared remote control (or by the pushbutton on top of the board). When switching off the power to the RaspberryPi, the power is not immediately cut off, but the RPi is first notified via a signal on the GPIO port. A script running in the background is picking up the signal and is initiating a clean shutdown of the operating system to avoid data corruption. After a successful shutdown the RemotePi Board then completely cuts off the power to the RaspberryPi, reducing the power consumption to less than 10 mA standby current.
The type and button of the infrared remote control you want to use to switch the power of the Raspberry Pi is ‘learned’ by the microcontroller software. For this, you enter a learning mode, then point your existing remote control towards the infrared receiver on the board and then press the button you would like to use in the future to power cycle your RPi. This process can be repeated anytime to use a different remote or button. The learned button is stored in flash memory on the RemotePi Board, it is retained, even when you disconnect power from the RemotePi Board.
You can use two different buttons on the remote control, one for power-on and another one for power-off. Almost any existing infrared remote control will work (i.e. your existing Blu-Ray, DvD, TV, etc. remote).

In addition to controlling power, the RemotePi Board forwards any received infrared signal to the Raspberry Pi, so this can be used to remote control the media center as well (using LIRC ). The popular XBMC/Kodi based media center distributions all have built-in support for LIRC.


Watch the video to learn more...


Use the RemotePi Board ...

  • With any old spare remote control that you may already have but do not use anymore.
  • With an existing remote control that you use, for example, your Blu-Ray remote. Then use an unused button on the remote (for example a karaoke or recording button) as the RPi power cycle button. In this case if the Blu-Ray player is off you use it for the RPi, when you switch off the RPi, you use it for your Blu-Ray player.
  • With an existing media center remote control that you may already own and use for your RPi mediacenter installation.
  • With a Logitech Harmony or other universal remotes.
  • With a new replacement remote that you can purchase from this site.

Advantages

  • Make your media center setup more user-friendly for technically less advanced members of your family.
  • Power saving ! Although the RPi does not draw a lot of power it is always desirable to switch off devices when they are not in use, especially when it is not used every day. The RemotePi board reduces the standby current to less than 10 mA needed for the microcontroller and the infrared receiver.
  • No wearing out of the RPI micro USB socket due to constant plug in / unplug.
  • Clean safe RPi OS shutdowns, this avoids sd card corruption.
  • Regular rebooting of the RPi to clear memory leaks and do automatic updates.
  • Does not occupy a USB port.
  • 100% compatible with the simple GPIO IR receiver. If you have this set up, you can replace the IR receiver with the RemotePi Board and re-use your configuration without changes.
  • Very easy to install, fully assembled, no soldering required.
  • Piggybacks on the Raspberry Pi, no loose cables (for the variants with internal IR receiver and LED).
  • Raspberry Pi does not have to be modified in any way.
  • Protect your investment, the firmware of the RemotePi Board is user-upgradable ! New features and improvements can be added by upgrading to the newest firmware.
  • New with firmware 2.0 : The RemotePi Board is customizable !  If you do not like the brightness of the power-on LED, change it ! Set a power-on timer, if you want to automatically power on your Raspberry Pi after a predefined time ! There are many more options to customize your RemotePi Board, see the configuration tool page for details. 

The hardware

The RemotePi Board board contains a polyfuse (for the RemotePi Board for Pi 3B+ and B) and a transient voltage suppression diode (TVS), similar to the power supply circuit of the RPi itself, to protect against over-current and over-voltage.
An electronic high-side switch (low RDS-on MOSFET) is used to feed the power to the RPi via the GPIO connector. The board hardware uses a circuit to "soft-start" the power to avoid voltage spikes when powering the Pi on. 
The infrared receivers used ( original Vishay TSOP38238 and TSOP 4838 ) have a long range (rated typ. 45 meters / 49 yards from the datasheet).
During standby, the power (+5 V) is completely cut off from the RaspberryPi. The power consumption of the RemotePi Board during standby is then less than 10 mA.

Every single board is fully tested before it is shipped.

Which infrared remotes work with the board ?

The board uses the excellent IRMP library (in German language) for the detection of infrared remote commands. IRMP decodes the signal and identifies which brand / protocol / variant is used, it does not just record and play back the raw data stream from the IR receiver. This results in a perfectly reliable IR command recognition of a learned command because the software can cope with slight timing variations of the infrared signal.

About 90% of the commonly used remotes should work with the RemotePi Board :

  • LOGITECH HARMONY and other universal remotes (these remotes can be configured for one of the supported IR protocols below. If you can still choose the device you configure on the Harmony we recommend choosing a Philips DVD Player or a Microsoft MCE remote for your Raspberry Pi media center, these use the RC5/RC6 IR protocol. For detailed instruction how to use the RemotePi Board with Logitech Harmony remotes see here)
  • SIRCS (Sony)
  • NEC, NEC16, NEC42 (NEC, APPLE, Pioneer, JVC, Toshiba, most No Name brands)
  • SAMSUNG
  • MATSUSHITA
  • KASEIKYO (Panasonic, Technics, Denon and other Japanese brands, which are members of the ‘Japan's Association for Electric Home Application’)
  • DENON (DENON, Sharp)
  • RC5, RC6 & RC6A (Philips and other European brands)
  • JVC
  • IR60 (SDA2008) (many European brands)
  • GRUNDIG
  • RECS80 (SAA3004) (Philips, Nokia, Thomson, Nordmende, Telefunken, Saba)
  • RECS80EXT (SAA3008) (Philips, Nokia, Thomson, Nordmende, Telefunken, Saba)
If you have a DVD/Blu-Ray/TV remote from the above brands, or a No-Name brand, it will most certainly work. Another good indication is, if your remote already works with your RPi media center using LIRC, then it will most certainly work with the board as well.
If you want to be absolutely sure you can order a low-cost replacement remote control from us, which has been tested and confirmed to work with the RemotePi Board.

Some of the remotes we have tested that work with the RemotePi Board

IR Remotes tested with the RemotePi Board, a remote controlled power switch add-on board for the Raspberry Pi

Which Infrared remotes do NOT work with the board ?

Remote controls for Bose, Kathrein, Nubert, Bang & Olufsen, Siemens Gigaset, Nikon, Lego, Thomson, Ruwido will not work, these protocols are supported by the IRMP library, but have been disabled due to program space limitations of the microcontroller.


Requirements

In order to use the RemotePi Board you need...
  • For the RemotePi Board for Pi 3 and Pi 3 B+ : A Raspberry Pi 3.Model B or Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
  • For the RemotePi Board for Pi 4 : A Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.
    For details on which RemotePi Board works with which Raspberry Pi please refer to the RemotePi Board Compatibility Matrix page.
  • The RemotePi Board was designed for the Raspberry Pi, but it has been successfully made to work with the Odroid C2 as well. There are some modifications necessary though as the RemotePi Board does not physically fit on top of the Odroid, you can find the full instructions in the Odroid forum here.
  • An existing good quality RPi power supply with the standard micro USB plug for the RemotePi Board for Pi 3B and Pi 3B+, and a power supply with a USB-C connector for the RemotePi Board for Pi 4. We strongly recommend the original Raspberry Pi power supplies. You can as well solder power cables for +5V and GND directly to the pads provided on the PCB of the RemotePi Board.
  • An existing infrared remote control (or order one from our site).
  • You will need a bit of skill to create your own lircd.conf file, if you use your existing remote and want to control the media center with it (if you use your remote only to power the RPi on and off then this is not necessary. If you order our remote we supply the lircd.conf file, so you do not need to create it by yourself. For using a Logitech Harmony remote see here) This file tells the OS how to understand the keys on your remote and it is different for every IR remote model.
  • As the board covers the DSI (Display Serial Interface) connector of the RPi, this connector cannot be used when the board is connected. The RemotePi Boards cover only part of the GPIO connector of the Raspberry Pi, so the unoccupied part can still be used for other hardware extensions.
  • Either no case or a modified case, preferably transparent (for the dual-color LED and the IR receiver). 
    You can as well order a closed clear acrylic case or an open acrylic case (clear or black color) for the RemotePi Board for Pi3, Pi 2 and B+ from our site, which were designed to host the RemotePi Board and, therefore, require no modifications. For the RemotePi Board for Pi 4 we also offer a case with a built-in fan for better cooling.
  • An OS that can be shut down by a GPIO signal. Currently, we provide shutdown scripts for LibreELEC, OpenELEC, OSMC, XBian, RasPlex, Raspbian and others (please see the support pages), we will add more in the future. You can still use other currently unsupported OSs with the RemotePi Board, but will have to adapt the shutdown script.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please Contact Us

 

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This page was last updated 5-Mar-2020