Disc player remote range

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

My DVD recorder went wrong the other week, and I decided to get a BlueRay player secondhand which came with its original remote. Everything works ok, except the remote struggles to work straight away because I sit about 10 feet from the TV and player. The player has a drop down front and then has a thin red window over the sensor. Would removing the plate and drilling a 10mm hole in it in front of the sensor help with the signal? Are the remotes voltage sensitive? I was thinking of getting some Energiser lithium batteries which have a starting voltage of 1.7V instead of the usual 1.5V of alkalines.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Drilling a hole in the cover won’t help unless it is covered with something. Does the range improve if the cover is open?
The control is designed for standard batteries so even if higher voltage helped it would just be masking the real issue.
Do you have or can you borrow a programmable remte like an “all for one” and try that? It would determine if the remote or the player is at fault.
A faulty remote is more likely. It may be worth opening up the remote and seeing if there is any physical damage. For example some have the transmitting infrared LED just supported by the leads. Dropping these can cause the LED to move so it does not align with the “window” in the case.

Robert.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Have you put fresh batteries in the remote?

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Turn off all lights and try again.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

My TV remote failed in the week.  Batteries tested OK so I cleaned the contacts.  Switch cleaner is best, but elbow grease and spinning the battery against the contacts work too.  That fixed it.

Don’t take the red-screen off the player or drill holes in it.   The screen blocks ultra-violet and visible light that deafen the Infra-red  receiver.  Any lights in the room that might be generating IR?  See Bayzles suggestion.

Last spring I had to replace my HDR controller – only 15 years old!  The graphited rubber switch contacts were intermittent.  Dirt and grease slowly penetrates inside, and cleaning them doesn’t help much.

Dave

[Adrian R2Participant @adrianr2]

Perhaps a shroud around the receiver directed towards your chair, to reduce ambient IR and multipath effects? Sticky tape and cardboard will do to experiment, make something nicer if it works.

You can also use a phone camera directed at the LED in the remote to see whether it is shining through properly.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Multipath will not be a problem! The emitter is incoherent and the bitrate far too low for room sized reflections. Are phone cameras IR sensitive?

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I had the same problem with my TV remote sometime ago, and what I did was open it up, and cleaned the board where the buttons press onto, with a soft cloth, and also those little pads on the buttons, it’s been behaving itself since.

Regards Nick.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Turns out that a phone camera can see the IR emitter!

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

And the LED is pulsed with a 38 kHz carrier which is modulated with the data. As I said the carrier frequency is much too low for multipath in a room to cause fading, in fact it will help. A carrier is used to mitigate steady illumination effects.

[Grizzly bearParticipant @grizzlybear]

Hi,

You could motorize your chair.

I blame Black Friday, sick of it.

Good luck……….

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

When buying secondhand, condition is everything!

Keen readers of my clock thread may remember John and I worrying about LEDs losing power over time.  Shouldn’t affect an intermittently used remote, but if the designer over-amped the LED to increase range, and then the controller got stuck twixt cushion and armrest with all the buttons pressed, then the LED may have got warm.

Dave

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>We have problems with our cat curling up on the settee on top of the remote.</p>

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I put fresh batteries in the remote, and found that the window over the led lights comes off easily. The part over the leds is about equivalent to a two stop ND camera filter and the round window over the UV sensor is mauve and about 4 stops equivalent. The remote is fully functional with all buttons showing up on my smart phone camera. Things certainly work with the window removed and I will run a comparison with it replaced. As mentioned, the mauve colour is probably to filter out flourescent lighting, we have all led lighting in the house now. The player is a Samsung Blue Ray BD-P1620 and the tv is a 55 inch Toshiba

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Hi Old Mart,

You can’t compare the visible light density of the plastic to the IR transmisssion. Most plastics that are clear when undyed pass the near IR wavelengths and mast dyes do not change this significantly. I have used 4mm thick black acrylic that passes no visible light in front of IR detectors without issue. Even totally opaque material can un expectedly pass IR. For example SRPB phenolic resin and paper based printed circuit material passes IR as anyone who has tried to use it in a slotted opto sensor will tell you.
Even finishes are deceptive. When you look at things under IR light it’a another world. Dark leave look bright, some anodised aluminium surfaces that are black under visible light are highly reflective under IR. It an issue for military camoflauge. “olvie drab” paint has to be dull under visible but reflect IR to look like folliage. The paint is called “IRR” infra red reflecting.

As I said earlier trying a all for one remote will tell you if it is the remote or the player. If you are near Camberidge I acan leand you one.

Robert.

[Maurice TaylorParticipant @mauricetaylor82093]

Hi

Make a tester  using a Arduino . Enter (arduino remote control tester ) in Google . Try the one on arduino project hub. This puts button codes on screen. I made one a few years ago

Hope this helps.

Maurice

 

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I have put some fresh double sided tape on the cover and it’s going back where it belongs. One thing that I have found with this player is that the buttons need holding for at least one second unlike others which are instant, that helps.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I eventually found a problem with the remote, the field of sensitivity is shaped like a letterbox, making pointing at the sensor limited. I bought another remote on ebay and it has about six times the area of sensitivity. The first remote will get taken apart and it may be the led or something easy to replace. I have switch cleaning lubricant if required.

 

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