Yes, you can build your own muter. I built one in a button, but the form factor is not the biggest part of the project.

This project uses the picAxe microcontroller chip because it has built in Infrared Remote Control codes for Sony TV`s. I have a Sony. I simply put the already built-in functions in the picAxe to work.

I was careful about current drain. I could have made the Infrared light more powerful and increased the range, but I`m usually sitting by the fireplace on a rainy winter night when on comes a commercial!

The commercials are hyper modulated, there is no dynamic range and the result is like listening to an orchestra of square-waves. And those "Gotta Have One Now" pitches is terrible enough at any sound level. But definitely offensive to your auditory circuits.

This is a pretty simple project, a handful of resistors, a switch, a battery, couple of caps, and the engine that drives it all the picAxe 08m...

Why did I use a circular pc board? I had a bunch of them a friend gave me and told me to use one of them on a project sometime just to free myself from a design rut. No other special reason.

The schematic is pretty simple really:

The heart of the whole thing is the software. There is software built-in to the picAxe chip that provide the codes. It`s this built-in idea that let my easily put together a little picAxe Basic program that fires the IR LED to tell the TV to mute.

First the built-in code.

From the manufacturer`s documentation:

infraout 1, 20 ` Sony TV, mute command

That`s it... Aside from handling the button press using an interrupt (just one way to do it), that`s about it.

Oh the TV remote control people send the command multiple times - so I do that too. All in software that looks like this (see the infraout command)

`------------------------------------------------------
` ------- Wearable TV Volume "Muter" -----------
`------------------------------------------------------
` Prototype
`
` Created by: Jim Huffman
` Rev 0.1.0 October 27, 2008
` Rev 0.1.4 October 31, 2008 ..)^--^( ... Happy Halloween!
`
` Current Rev:
`
` First Rev loops to mute, that`s it...
` 2nd Rev Looped over a clicking switch...
` 3rd Rev Click causes interrupt, which causes mute
` 4th Rev 0.1.4
`-------------------------------------------------------


`-------------------------------------------------------
` Directives
`
` Select and initialize chipset
#picaxe 08m ` Only the M part offers INFRAOUT

` System resources 08m pinouts and layouts
symbol io0 = 0 `(leg 7) Connects to IR Output thru a 2N3904 Driver
symbol IRsignal = 1 `(leg 6) Connects to TAP switch to make it go bump!
symbol indicator = 2 `(leg 5) Connects to the "energized it!" light
`( leg 1 Vdd, leg 8 = Vss, leg 2 = Serial In, legs 3 and 4 = unused )


`-------------------------------------------------------
` Vars
` register allocations
symbol delayCount = w1



`-------------------------------------------------------
` Initialize System Wide Values
init:
DISABLEBOD ` make it tolerant to low voltage VCC
setfreq m4 ‘ setfreq to 4MHz
delayCount = 45 ` some delay
pause delayCount ` let things settle a bit, then put `er in play
setint %00000000,%00000010 ` Pin 1 IRsignal, Activate On Zero


`-------------------------------------------------------
`--------------- Main Loop -----------------------------
`-------------------------------------------------------
` Main Routine
main:
pause 50000 ` no worries... interrupt works even in pause
goto main ` loop endlessly

` loops around here all the time, Xcept when the button is smashed


`--------------------------------------------------------
`---------------- Sub Routines --------------------------
`--------------------------------------------------------
` TV Sound Control
muteIR:
` mute the volume IR signal
for b0 = 1 to 10
infraout 1, 20 ` Sony TV, mute command
pause delayCount
next b0
return




`--------------------------------------------------------
`-------------------------------------------------------
` Interrupt Handler
interrupt:
` Operator clicks MUTE button
high indicator
gosub muteIR
pause 500 ` so you can see the light
low indicator

` set up the interrupt then return
setint %00000000,%00000010 ` Ready for next interrupt
return