IrDA and what it is not for
It is very common to think that the 'infrared port' of your PC can be used together with an infrared remote control. Afterall, both use infrared light, right? Unfortunately, that's not true. It is not useful for remote control.
The problem is that such port follows a standard called IrDA. This standard has little in common with the one used in a regular remote control handset. Whereas in IrDA data is sent directly by means of short length light pulses, in a remote control the information is modulated with light bursts at a carrier frequency of several kiloHertzs.
If the above isn't enough, IrDA uses a bunch of protocol layers that allow the creation and maintenance of the bidirectional data link between devices. On the other hand, a remote control sends a specific sequence of bits representing a command, therefore the receiver only needs to decide what action corresponds to that command.
At this point, there are different paths to take depending on what we are looking for:
Option 1: Add an IrDA port to the computer
To add an IrDA port to the computer you need an IrDA adapter or as some call it, infrared adapter. With such a device we could communicate with another computer, a PDA, a cell phone, etc. One of the easiest way to get one is by going to eBay and search for 'IrDA'. Nowadays the typical adapter connects through a USB port.
Option 2: Transfer data between an electronic circuit and the PC via IrDA
To establish a data link between an electronic circuit and the PC/PDA you need a combination of hardware and software usually called IrDA interface.
The hardware part is easy to achieve by means of the IrDA transceivers available today, since they include all the infrared emission and reception stuff. Vishay, Zilog and Sharp are some of the manufacturers of these type of devices.
It gets more complicated with the software part: a full implementation of the IrDA stack is not a mere trifle. Fortunately, there are integrated circuits like the Microchip MCP21x0. To facilitate their use, PCRC offers a ready to use IrDA interface module based on that chip.
To know more
It could be helpful to take a look at the sites below related with IrDA: