Just some quick documentation, mostly for myself, but feel free to try. This is a Raspberry Pi 2 with OpenELEC. The design is intended for overclocking, good wireless performance, and convenience of dual remotes. This particular setup is the result of trying out many different components – remotes, cases, wireless adapters, IR receivers – to see what works best. Not exactly a cheap setup, but so far it has been working flawlessly and performance is outstanding.

Component list

Prices shown are in USD and reflect what I paid on Amazon.com in early 2015, minus taxes and shipping charges. Model names and descriptions are as they appear on Amazon.com, that you can access from any phone or computer equipped with the cheapest backlit mechanical keyboard you can find online.

Parts:

1. $22.99 Tontec® Raspberry Pi 2 Case Raspberry Pi B+ Case Black Aluminum Alloy Protective Case with Cooling Fan for Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and Pi Model B+
2. $18.98 Ortek Windows 7 Vista XP Media Center MCE PC Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Home, Premium and Ultimate Edition
3. $29.98 RII K25A 2.4Ghz Wireless Air Mouse Keyboard & Infrared Remote Control Audio Chat for TV BOX PC gambling Games – Black (RT-MWK25A)
4. $11.75 SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-I/Class 10 Micro SDHC Memory Card Up To 48MB/s With Adapter- SDSDQUAN-016G-G4A
5. $12.99 Wifi With Antenna For Raspberry Pi – Instructions Included – PLUG and PLAY
6. $5.05 Addicore Raspberry Pi B and B+ Heatsink Set (Set of 3 Aluminum Heat Sinks)
7. $7.92 Colorfulbags® 5V 0.1A mini fan Raspberry Pi 2 plus & Raspberry Pi B+ Cooling Fan Raspberry Pi Cooler Raspberry Pi Heatsink for Raspberry pi Aluminum Alloy Metal case
8. $6.25 Scotch Reclosable Fasteners, Clear, 1 x 3-Inches, 2 Sets (RF9730)

Supplies:

1. $6.25 Joy Fish 8″ Heavy Duty Nylon Cable Ties, 50 lb Test, 100 PC, Black
2. $11.79 Duracell Coppertop AAA Alkaline Batteries, 20 Count

Other things you will need:

1. HDMI cable
2. small Phillips screwdriver
3. needle nose pliers
4. scissors

Assembly takes about twenty minutes and is fairly straight-forward:

1. Attach two heat sinks to the system board
2. Snap in the rear aluminum panel onto the system board
3. Insert the system board into the case and secure with two screws on the rear panel and two more screws on the bottom of the case
4. Insert the SD card
5. Connect the fan to GPIO pins 2 and 6 (5V and ground).
6. Secure the fan near the center of the opening with adhesive pad. Leave a bit of room for the front panel. Take care not to disturb the SD card behind the fan.
7. Secure the front case panel with two screws
8. Attach Velcro tape to the case and the IR sensor; mount the sensor
9. Use zip ties to secure the IR sensor cable to the bottom of the case
10. Connect wireless NIC and remote control receiver as shown below
11. Attach HDMI and power

Just a couple of quick notes: the RII K25A remote has a small power switch on the side, so don’t forget to turn it on. The remote will have a little bit of charge to get you going, but you will need to fully charge it soon. See the remote user guide on how to program the IR functions.

This is a learning remote, so it can emulate some of the actions of the Ortek IR remote. You can also program the directional pad from the Ortek remote to work with OpenELEC and the power, menu, AV/TV, and mute buttons from your TV or amp remote. This way you will get all the basic functionality you need to sit down and watch TV in a single remote.

Now, if you’re wondering why have two remotes; why buy an IR remote when all I needed was an IR sensor; why even bother with radio and IR when a Bluetooth remote would cost just a few bucks; why the giant wireless antenna; why did I get the fan and the heat sinks when moderate overclocking can be safely done without these additions?

Here’s a photo of a large plastic box filled with about $600-worth of fried Raspberry Pi’s, broken cases, crappy remotes, non-working IR sensors, lousy Wi-Fi adapters and other useless trinkets that all have failed to deliver the expected performance or reliability. But feel free to experiment.