I made this Arduino project that allows to turn ON and OFF LEDs using a cheap IR remote control as a preparation for the next big step: disassemble my girlfriend’s chinese LED lamp and replace its ...

The part list consists of one Arduino, two resistors, and one IR emitter. That’s right, an emitter. When an LED (IR or otherwise) is reverse biased it can act as a light sensor.

Now, though, it shouldn’t be hard to control the RGB LED strips through an Arduino, a computer, or even an Android/iOS device with a small IR LED plugged into the headphone jack.