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[mystery solved]What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:49 am
by Saint of Killers
My soundbar remote is acting up. I can't easily turn it on and off, and when it works it's only when the remote is at very close range. (I pretty much have to be stood right next to the device.) And since last night it stopped working even then. But I can switch the TV on using it without issue, even from a distance.

I opened the remote up and the PCB and button membrane both seemed fine. Actually, wiping the PCB down eventually allowed me to turn the soundbar on again and I learned that none of the soundbar remote's other commands (bluetooth, function, etc) seem to be working either.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:55 am
by Dowbocop
Did you open the remote' s innards up before you'd checked the batteries?

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:00 am
by Saint of Killers
Yes. But only because I didn't have a replacement battery to hand. (It's the cell type.) Did I do bad?

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:48 am
by BID0
Use an alcohol cleaner to clean the board and membrane, make sure that no residue is left on the board contacts from whatever you used to clean it with before.

Change the battery, it sounds like it's flat. Easy way to check the battery is with a voltmeter if you happen to have one... otherwise your other option is buying a new battery and praying your old battery is the cause of the problem.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 9:33 am
by Victor Mildew
My car wouldn't start the other day, so I stripped it down to its core components and rebuilt it from scratch. Then I checked the battery.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 9:45 am
by Saint of Killers
:lol:

I only did that because there was no cell battery at hand!

Anyhoo! I managed to scrounge a 2025 battery off someone and that fixed it! How can the old battery have enough power to operate TV functions without issue but then not work on the soundbar? Does the soundbar require more juice?

BID0 wrote:Use an alcohol cleaner to clean the board and membrane, make sure that no residue is left on the board contacts from whatever you used to clean it with before.

Change the battery, it sounds like it's flat. Easy way to check the battery is with a voltmeter if you happen to have one... otherwise your other option is buying a new battery and praying your old battery is the cause of the problem.


Ta for the advice. Replacement remote would have only cost a tenner but I was loathed to spend it in case the fix turned out to be that much cheaper. Thank floop it was.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:36 am
by Lime
So glad you got to the bottom of this.













Awesome thread :lol:

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:45 am
by Saint of Killers
:lol:

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:47 am
by Victor Mildew
Image

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:52 am
by Saint of Killers
That doesn't even make sense.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:56 am
by Saint of Killers
I mean, this is the remote in question:

Image

Opening such a simple looking thing up and fiddling about with it made sense given the fact I didn't have a replacement cell battery, nor a voltmeter to hand.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:49 pm
by rinks
It's because of the IR frequency and pulse patterns. The soundbar and the TV will need different levels of signal, so the dying battery would have had just enough juice to properly send the TV pulse, but not enough for the soundbar.

I could go into greater technical detail, but firstly you might not get what I was talking about, and secondly you might realise that I'm making all of this up. Sounds feasible though, right?

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 7:25 am
by Saint of Killers
rinks wrote:It's because of the IR frequency and pulse patterns. The soundbar and the TV will need different levels of signal, so the dying battery would have had just enough juice to properly send the TV pulse, but not enough for the soundbar.

I could go into greater technical detail, but firstly you might not get what I was talking about, and secondly you might realise that I'm making all of this up. Sounds feasible though, right?


I was all I knew it'd be something like that!! :lol: You arsehole :wub:

Ta for at least reading the whole post.

edit: I put pulse patterns in search and something related to remote signals did crop up: https://learn.adafruit.com/ir-sensor/ir-remote-signals !

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:35 am
by BID0
Rinks is right, probably one device requires a stronger signal than the other. That'd explain why you need to be closer to one to get it working. Or maybe it's light noise in the room.

I've had it before with batteries from one remote not working in another because they're too low.

Also... you might be able to download a remote control app for these things, everything has an app these days.

Re: What's more likely at fault, the battery, the signal, or the remote itself?

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 3:43 pm
by Superfurryfox64
Try this, sink it into a mix of half water and half coke (regular NOT diet) and leave it for an hour then microwave it for 30 seconds NOT A SINGLE SECOND LONGER!

Should be fine by then, if not try tying it to a medium sized BOY dog then get a wet towel and use it to gently slap the dogs testicles.

If still no luck.... yeah get some batteries