IR Blaster

[Buy_The_Tie]

I have been a dyed-in-the-wool OTA TV person (read, I'm too cheap to buy cable or satellite service).  Some time ago I purchased my Panasonic DVR / DVD Recorder.  In the box was an IR Blaster used to control a cable box.

I thought "What the heck am I going to use this for?" and promptly mis-placed it.  It is probably *somewhere* in my house, but for the life of me I cannot find it.

Now with the transition to digital TV, my Panasonic will supposedly control DTVPal and still allow me to use my TV Guide On-Screen.

Here's my question...  What's all inside of an "IR Blaster"?  If it is only an IR LED, I can connect one of those and build my own.

Does anybody have an extra IR Blaster they would be willing to part with?  Does anybody know where you could buy one?

Thanks.

[Buy_The_Tie]

Well,

After a little bit of fidgeting around, I figured out that in the case of my Panasonic DVR, the IR Blaster is nothing more than a single IR light emitting diode.

I stole an IR LED from an old remote I had laying around, connected it,  then built a bracket out of a clear piece of Lexan to hold it out in front of the DTV Pal converter box.

It works well.

I connected the tip of the 1/8" plug to the anode (+) and the ring of the 1/8" plug to the cathode (-).

Now, all I need to do is get the DTVPal to convert the digital TVGOS signal into an analog TVGOS signal that my Panasonic DVR can read.