One Shot IR Helper is a great beginner project

Sometimes you need a small utility device to do a very simple job, and do it well. This unique infrared assistant from [Gregory Sanders] is exactly that.

[Gregory] had a TV that didn't support auto-on when powering on. It's frustrating when you like to leave devices off when not in use to save standby power. So, there had to be a way to send a wake-up signal to the display when its multi-monitor setup was powered on.

A simple circuit associated with a Pi Pico has been commissioned. The Pico flashes an IR LED, sending the code required to tell the TCL-branded TV to turn on. [Gregory] discovered the codes by using an Arduino to read the output of the TV remote with an IR sensor. The catch here is that the code is written in MicroPython, using the IR libraries by [Peter Hinch].

Now when [Gregory] turns on his rig, the IR emitter will trigger the TV to turn on. It's a little frustrating that the autostart feature isn't available from the factory, but whatever, now everything works as it should. If you want to do this in reverse, consider building a TV-B-Gone or a silencer for boomboxes used by dancing grannies!