How To: Get a built-in Mac Mini IR Receiver to work properly!

[SQueeZe]

OK, so I perhaps got you to read my little How-To under slightly false pretenses, but hopefully I won't have completely wasted your time. This is my attempt to put a 100% MS compatible IR Receiver completely inside the Mini, without damaging/modding the Mini at all.

You will need.
Hauppauge Media Centre Remote Control Kit
Soldering Iron
Some cabling (I used some IDE ribbon, but you can use the USB cable)
The usual stuff for opening a Mac Mini
an old credit card.
USB plug
side-cutters

And this stuff is optional but will make your life easier:
De-solder pump
multi-meter
glue of some description
a basic ability to solder
a nearby hospital in case of appendicitis.

Read on for details....

As I am sure many of you will agree, the Mac Mini, especially the new 9400-based ones, make excellent HTPC's. They are quiet, powerful, use little power, and are small enough to be put pretty much anywhere.

In my case I have one under the TV. But one thing that has always annoyed me is the stupid (yet very reliable and actually excellent) Microsoft receiver sitting on the top of my nice little mac mini. It has always annoyed me that that the Mac mini has one built in, yet you can't really use it properly.

I used to have a big silverstone case, and in that instance there was enough room to put the regular MS receiver inside the case with a bit of tweaking. Obviously with the Mac Mini, space is at a premium, so this just isn't going to work.

So after some investigation on these forums I discovered (thanks John) the Hauppauge Media Centre Remote Control Kit - Model 335. This promises to be 100% compatible with MS one and I found it on ebay for AU$35 including delivery. Not really interested in the remote, as the MS is an excellent product (the Hauppauge one feels very cheap and flimsy in comparison).

The receiver I, er, received didn't actually look like the reviews on the website, or actually what it looked like in the ebay picture. It was in fact better because it was slightly smaller. Anyway, here it is with a soon-to-expire reciprocal medicare card for size comparison (don't throw this away, we will need it at least twice before the end of this How-To)

I tested that it worked with VMC before doing anything else. It is indeed 100% compatible, including the multi-tap for the alpha keys.

So first step is to take the innards out of the receiver. Under label on the back there is a single screw. Undo it and remove the case, pull the USB cable off and you will be left with this:

IR receiver is the black thing on the left, LED is on the right.

De-solder both, and remove the metal cage that encases the IR. Get some IDE cable (or whatever you decide to use) about 10 cm long. You will need a 2-strand and a 3-strand. Solder the LED and IR onto the end of the IDE and the other end back onto the circuit board. Easy peasy.

You need to do a similar thing with the USB cable (about 20cm). That small USB plug that plugs into the circuit board actually fits through one the vents at the back of the Mini (although you do have to make a very very small mod). There are many options here as to how you can do this bit, but I will tell you what I did and you can make your own mind up. Although I wanted a very neat solution, the pins in the plug were too small for me to desolder, so I had to splice it onto some more IDE cable, until I ended up with the following.

I did try using the existing USB cable, but there were various issues with the cable being to thick, and those big blocks at the end of each cable causing problems. If you have another USB cable without those (which I discovered after I finished) then you might be able to use that

Anyway, when you are done, check for shorts (the two black cables should short when plugged in as they are both ground).

Now time to pop the Mini case. My preferred method involves the little plastic tool I got to replace an iPod battery, two cards and a fish slice.

The idea is to gradually make the gap big enough to slip the fish-slice in which opens the case in one go. A bit like this:

Once you have both credit cards in, getting the fish slice in is easy and you can pop the case without damaging it.

At this point I needed the Medicare card one more time. A small bout of appendicitis, was fixed by a quick visit to St Vincents in East Melbourne. One laparoscopic appendectomy later and I was left without an appendix and a bruised, swollen stomach.

Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with this How-To, and I strongly recommend you miss out this step if you get the choice. ;-)

So, where were we? Ok, so you have popped the case. and you have something a bit like this:

That's the current IR receiver on the right. Unscrew it and pop it off.

You now need to make a very very small mod to your case, I didn't want to do this, but it is so small I wasn't so bothered. Remove the DVD/Hard drive and rest of the upper assembly (see elsewhere on how to do this), and you will see the vents at the rear of the case. There is a thin metal strip cutting each of the vent holes in half which means that they are not big enough to get the USB cable and plug through.

Get some side cutters and snip one as neatly as possible. DO ONE OF THE MIDDLE ONES. Not the far left one as shown here:

If you do one of the far left or right ones, it makes it difficult to get the upper assembly back on properly!

Once you have done this, the small USB plug that plugs into the receiver circuit board should just fit through the vent. Push it most of the way through and then carefully put the upper assembly back on. The IDE cable should be thin enough to pass through a little slot in the casing and end up looking a but like this:

Now get the circuit board and put it in the case. It should fit nicely just under the edge of the DVD drive like this:

You can see that I have taped it into place with a bit of black insulating tape.

Now you need to attach the IR receiver in exactly the right place as the window in the case is very small. Do the following (sorry no pictures):

Take a look at the existing IR receiver that you unscrewed earlier. It is mounted on a tiny circuit board with 3 holes: One for the screw and two mounting holes. Get an old credit card (don't use a Medicare card, you might need it) and cut it to exactly the same size. Mark the holes from the existing board and then drill or melt some holes in the same place. Then glue your new IR receiver onto it, and screw it back to the same place. You can just about make this out in the above picture.

Finally, I put the LED right at the bottom of the case pointing out of one of the vent holes. You can just about see it shining off whatever the Mini is sitting on. It's not super bright, but I never really paid much attention to it anyway. I secured it into place using a glue gun (haven't used one of these since woodwork at 14. They are pretty rubbish)

Once you are done and tested, put it all back together, and hopefully it should look like this:

Done!

Some notes and thoughts:
This mod is slightly obsessive. It should only be attempted by people who are bothered by a small black box on to of their Mac Mini.

Ok, so it isn't completely internal. You could, I suppose, solder it to one of the internal USB ports, but if your warranty wasn't gone before, it would be then.

The reception of the receiver has been reduced slightly, but is still very usable.

If you really don't want to mod your case, you could thread the IDE cable (but not the USB plug) through the Kingston lock hole, and then solder directly onto the receiver circuit board. It would mean that it is completely reversible, but if you wanted to take it out, you would have to desolder it.

Public health care is better in Australia than in the UK.