Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep
BTW, does anyone use the AM radio trick to test remotes.  |
It used to be a valid test for most remotes - the resonator was either 450,455, or 500Khz, close enough to have the pulsing detected by the radio. Now, they use faster clock speeds. I've got one (a memorex learning remote) with a nice 4.5Mhz clock - it does nothing to an AM radio.
Now, the standard is to aim the IR remote at a CCD camera (any digital camera, camcorder, an iPad/tablet camera, or any smartphone or webcam) You can see the pulsing of the IR LED. RCA made a business-card sized IR sensitive tester - the remote would cause a little box on the card to glow.
We used an ultrasonic remote tester made by Zenith, a little metal box with an opamp and an LED to indicate operation of ultrasonic remotes. Zenith provided modification instructions at one of their service seminars on how to modify it to check IR remotes and to even check for drive signals on System 3 sets. That thing paid for itself in spades - we repaired remotes, mostly of the RCA ilk, as RCA rarely sold a "new" replacement remote, only selling rebuilt/remanufactured remotes that were cosmetically used. So we fixed the customers remotes to save them money, and kept their business.
Here's a pic of the tester.