I am a level C4 quadriplegic and use a box called a Envicom 10 (Environmental Control Unit) It is used to control electrical appliances, such as a fan or a lamp etc, by use of a single puff switch. It has a row of red lights along the front, with each light representing each appliance, plugged into the back. A tube plugs into a puff switch also on the front panel, the other end of the tube leads over to my bed, so when I am in bed, I can puff into the tube. When I puff once, the first red light flashes on for a few seconds then goes off, then the next light, then the next and so on. There are ten lights and after the last light flashers, it goes back to the first light and it cycles through the lights about 20 times then stops. So I can make the lights cycle by one puff and then I puff when one of the lights is on and that appliance comes on or off. So for example, if I wanted to turn one the reading lamp, I would puff once, the lights move, then when the light gets to the reading lamp, I puff and it comes on. On the back of the unit, there is about 5 places to plug in appliances. Also on the back there are also places to plug in two bared wires, these are simple on/off relays for controlling things like triggering alarms, call buzzers etc. I think they are low voltage relays.
I would like to control my air conditioner, but to turn on the air conditioner, I need to use the Remote Control which came with the aircon. So if I could wire the Envicom unit relay to the on/off button on my remote, I could control my aircon by puffing into the air tube in bed. Is there a gadget which has a relay input and a IR transmitter? I hope this hasn't confused people, but I'm wanting to find a solution. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, thanks in advance.