From Newsgroup: comp.misc
On 19/01/2026 08:29, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:
Hardware hacker wants to make an alternative remote control for his
smart TV that would be more intuitive for his toddler child to use
than a conventional interactive remote interface.
So what does he do? Build it out of an ancient, 1990s-technology
floppy drive. Basic idea is that each floppy disk represents a
different stream; user inserts disk into drive, TV starts playing that stream.
Initially he thought of faking it, with simulated floppy rCLdisksrCY with RFID chips on them that the rCLdriverCY would detect. Then he figured that the actual tactile experience of putting a real working disk into a
real working drive would be far more effective. So he stores a config
file on each disk that contains information about the stream to be
played (plus associated display artwork), that software can read from
the drive.
Since there is only a small amount of data to be read off each disk,
the drive can work quite nicely off battery power. So it becomes a
real remote control as in one that is remote, not connected to the TV
by any wire. Albeit one that is not very easy to pick up, but never
mind ...
<https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/microcontrollers-projects/floppy-disk-drive-converted-into-smart-tv-remote-for-kids-devs-toddler-inserts-vividly-labeled-floppies-to-watch-his-favorite-shows>
This sent me down a rabbit hole of seeing how much and how easy it is to
get floppy disk drives and disks these days. I had no idea they were
still so readily available! Though looks like only the 3.5s are still
desired. Could be a fun backup option for my .md files I use for my
writing...
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