Brisk4t’s “Tossed The TV — Kept The Remote” (TTVKTR) is an open-source firmware project for Raspberry Pi RP2040 USB boards that aims to reduce electronics waste by converting old IR remote controls into presentation clickers.Most Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards with USB ports should work, but the project highlights the Waveshare RP2040-Zero combined with a standard 38 kHz infrared receiver due to its small size and low price ($4-5). The project also relies on the built-in RGB LED for layer color feedback.That’s about it for the hardware. It just required some basic soldering of the IR receiver to GPIO 28 (OUT), 5V or 3.3V, and GND pins. Nothing too hard. The WS2812 RGB LED is already connected to GPIO 16. I tried to look for RP2040 USB boards with a built-in IR receiver, but I could not find any.Waveshare RP2040-Zero pinout diagram (top)
The firmware receives IR codes from a standard 38 kHz receiver and translates them to USB HID reports based on a JSON configuration stored on the device’s filesystem. But users don’t need to edit the JSON themselves, since a browser-based config tool communicates over Web Serial to let users map buttons, learn IR codes, and arrange layouts in a way similar to VIA or QMK for mechanical keyboards and macropads. It’s what differentiates TTVKTR firmware from other similar attempts such as Adafruit pIRkey and CH32V003-USB-IR-Receiver, which require some manual coding for each remote.TossedTheTVKeptTheRemote web UI
