Trying to build wireless remote for speakers with wired remote

[n64man120]

I have a pair of I-Trigue 3300 speakers, which work great for a low-end pair. As you can see in the image below, they come with a wired remote control. I broke it down and did a bit of reverse engineering, and it's as simple as it gets. The dial is a variable resistor, few other resistors in the remote, and then pins back to the cable. I'm presuming that the speakers adjust volume based on the resistance of two pins.

In a living room, a wired remote is very inconvenient, so I'm looking to design a wireless solution. The wired remote adjusts bass, but for my wireless design, adjusting the volume only is sufficient.

So here is my current thought process, I'm hoping you guys may be able to think of an easier way to go about this:
IR Reciever -> Signal Decoder -> Digital Non-Volatile Pot -> Cabling

I don't have any specific IC chips in mind, I'm trying to avoid it being overkill. Is this design feasible without needing some MCU chip with custom code loaded in?

Thanks all
Eric

 

[Mohonri]

I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would do exactly what you're thinking, which means that yes, you're probably going to need some sort of microcontroller to receive the signals, decode them, and control the digital pot.

Another option (if it works for your situation) is to use an IR receiver hooked up to a PC's serial port (using WinLIRC or similar), and write a small program that will control signal lines on a parallel port. Cable from the parallel port to the digital pot, etc.

 

[MjrStryker]

You could have a digital counter going to the digital pot and use two separate wireless signals, one to count up and one to count down. That's about the simplest I can think of for this application.

You could even get a very small cheap radio control car and pull the motor out of the circuit, then use that line as your wireless control to activate the "add one" and "subtract one" circuit that controls the digital pot's resistance. You'd need a power source of course, but that might be obtainable through the speaker's power brick.

 

[Mohonri]

You could also attach that motor so that it turns the knobs directly!

Another idea: extend the wires, and run it under the carpet and come out by the sofa. Not ideal, but if that's where you sit most of the time, it might be sufficient.

 

[MjrStryker]

You could also attach that motor so that it turns the knobs directly!

You would have to gear it down quite a bit otherwise a little tap of the controller would send the volume to max. Lol. Maybe the steering servo would be sufficient, but it would have to be a medium sized car motor. I doubt the itty bitty ones like what I was referring to would have the power to turn a potentiometer knob.