Turn Any IR Remote Control to a Wireless Control ON/OFF Switch

While building a Toastmaster timer, I needed a switch to act as a Start/Stop switch. I first built it with a long flexible coax cable, but as time went on, it turned out to be impracticable: it could be too long and people could trip on it. So I was looking for a circuit to remotely control the timer without wire, and it almost has to be cheap and built from readily available household components. Let's see what do I have around my house which can function as a wireless device. Eureka! a bunch of  old and abandoned IR remote controls.
The idea is very simple: the IR remote control sends out a stream of 10 bits, and the simplest way so far to convert this stream to a simple pulse is using an One shot circuit to generate a simple pulse when any remote button is pushed.

Very short: 2 IC and 4 passive elements.

555 (8 pin)
TSOP1838 (Vishay IR receiver 38Khz)
Caps: 10uF, 1uF, 0.1uF
Resistors: 18K

Schematic and a remote control

Blue trace: actual IR code
Yellow trace: output of the 555: single pulse