[mythtv-users] Looking for a New remote

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Sun Dec 26 15:48:34 UTC 2010


On Sunday, December 26, 2010 07:41:12 am George Nassas wrote:
> On 2010-12-25, at 8:48 PM, Raymond Wagner wrote:
> > On 12/24/2010 18:29, George Nassas wrote:
> >> The charging mechanism doesn't.
> > 
> > I find I suffer that problem on most of my rechargeable wireless
> > gear.  I don't know why, but they've never managed to produce
> > robust contacts.  I always end up getting out the soldering iron
> > and dropping a bead on each of the contacts.
> 
> Wow, wish I was courageous enough to break out the soldering iron.
> 
> It's particularly galling because harmony remotes have usb connectors
> on them but it never occurred to anyone at logitech to allow
> charging through that interface. Eventually it did because newer
> models can be charged by usb but I'm SOL.
> 
> In the interest of adding actual value to this thread: I keep a
> pencil eraser next to the charging cradle and every so often rub
> down the contacts on the remote and the cradle. I also keep a C cell
> battery nearby to put weight on the remote so it will maintain
> contact once established. That has worked so far although there is
> some amount of jiggling involved to get it to make contact in the
> first place.

Wow, both the "bead of solder" and the "pencil eraser" methods will 
work, for a time, maybe.

There are problems with both methods, Google will find you many of them.

Pencil erasers will remove any gold plating that might be on the contact 
(it's only a few molecules thick and can be easily worn away, and static 
generated by the process can destroy things).

Solder is not that great a conductor, the flux contains horrible things, 
and its application will also destroy the gold-plated connectors (if 
they were there), and solder is not very corrosion resistant.

Applying solder may simply solve a poor mechanical connection, by making 
the connector "higher", and generating more contact force, but solder 
will deform over time, requiring a repeat procedure.

Any device needing any of these methods is simply poorly designed. For 
the price of a Harmony I would expect much better.


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