The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

On 25 Feb 2021 at 20:10:32 GMT, "GB" wrote:

The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

It doesn't totally surprise me, but it's a bit sad. It should be possible to
make a remote control without any operating system complex enough to lock up.
What is the name for a system all of whose possible states are defined? That
is surely a reasonable ambition for a remote control?


--
Roger Hayter

On 25/02/2021 22:50, Roger Hayter wrote:
On 25 Feb 2021 at 20:10:32 GMT, "GB" wrote:

The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

It doesn't totally surprise me, but it's a bit sad. It should be possible to
make a remote control without any operating system complex enough to lock up.
What is the name for a system all of whose possible states are defined? That
is surely a reasonable ambition for a remote control?

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and it
was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure such chips
must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for something like
a remote should also be able to be exhaustively tested (automated
testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or lock up - ignoring
hardware failure.

On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.


Probably the same mistake that I made. The Humax control has
two buttons at the top to select whether to control a TV
or the PVR.

If you're trying to control the PVR, maybe you accidentally
pressed the TV button!

Indeed, removing the batteries will cause a reset and
resolve the problem

On 25/02/2021 23:17, Steve Walker wrote:

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and it
was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure such chips
must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for something like
a remote should also be able to be exhaustively tested (automated
testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or lock up - ignoring
hardware failure.

But a remote is a battery operated device and electronics have a limit
to how low a power supply can go.
--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 25/02/2021 23:44, alan_m wrote:
On 25/02/2021 23:17, Steve Walker wrote:

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and
it was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure such
chips must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for
something like a remote should also be able to be exhaustively tested
(automated testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or lock up
- ignoring hardware failure.

But a remote is a battery operated device and electronics have a limit
to how low a power supply can go.

And brownout protection simply stops them until you replace the battery.

On 25/02/2021 23:17, Steve Walker wrote:
On 25/02/2021 22:50, Roger Hayter wrote:
On 25 Feb 2021 at 20:10:32 GMT, "GB" wrote:

The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

It doesn't totally surprise me, but it's a bit sad.Â* It should be
possible to
make a remote control without any operating system complex enough to
lock up.
What is the name for a system all of whose possible states are
defined?Â* That
is surely a reasonable ambition for a remote control?

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and it
was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure such chips
must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for something like
a remote should also be able to be exhaustively tested (automated
testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or lock up - ignoring
hardware failure.

I recall the Viper chip and how the Australian government too the
various parties to court over claims made.

You will often find ARM processors in safety critical systems but these
will generally be multiprocessor in a control / safety check roles. That
way bugs become less of an issue too.

On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

with my freesat Humax I always think my remote is broken until I notice
it has to be on the right setting to work the unit and not the tv etc....

I notice that a remote I have has a header inside it, and apparently it can
be made to be used on several different models by connecting it to a
computer and changing the software. I'm not surprised in the slightest, but
normally the failure mode is more basic, silly rubber conductive gunk
blocking the buttons operation, or shorting it out, Just get a simple
light detector and see if the led is pulsing, assuming it has not also got a
visible one of course.
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Roger Hayter" wrote in message
...
On 25 Feb 2021 at 20:10:32 GMT, "GB" wrote:

The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would have
thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

It doesn't totally surprise me, but it's a bit sad. It should be possible
to
make a remote control without any operating system complex enough to lock
up. What is the name for a system all of whose possible states are
defined? That
is surely a reasonable ambition for a remote control?


--
Roger Hayter

In message , Jimmy Stewart ...
writes
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?
Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

with my freesat Humax I always think my remote is broken until I notice
it has to be on the right setting to work the unit and not the tv
etc....

Yes - and easy trap for the unwary!

I've got a couple of RCs that no longer work at all, and also a couple
where only some of the buttons work.

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is to
hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a quiet
spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear a
'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.
--
Ian

On 26/02/2021 08:40, Ian Jackson wrote:

snip

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is to
hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a quiet
spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear a
'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.

How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

In message , Robin
writes
On 26/02/2021 08:40, Ian Jackson wrote:

snip

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is
to hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a
quiet spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear
a 'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.

How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

It won't tell you if the actual LED has failed (which is unlikely), but
it will give you pretty good confidence that the rest is OK. As Brian
has said, for the LED, some digital cameras might show you it's flashing
(even if it's not visible to the human eye).
--
Ian

On 26/02/2021 08:40, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Jimmy Stewart ...
writes
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
awayÂ* and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
wouldÂ* have thought that you can reboot a remote control?
Â*Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

with my freesat Humax I always think my remote is broken until I
notice it has to be on the right setting to work the unit and not the
tv etc....

Yes - and easy trap for the unwary!

I've got a couple of RCs that no longer work at all, and also a couple
where only some of the buttons work.

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is to
hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a quiet
spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear a
'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.
my fav dodge ....

Robin formulated the question :
How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

It doesn't, it will detect a radio remote control's operation. For IR,
point it at a camera, or camera phone and look at the resultant
picture.

On 26/02/2021 09:03, Robin wrote:
On 26/02/2021 08:40, Ian Jackson wrote:

snip

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is
to hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a
quiet spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear
a 'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.

How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

you don't get any noise...try it

"GB" wrote in message
...
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would have
thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

by taking the batteries out?

I have to do that frequently with all of mine

On 26 Feb 2021 at 09:27:53 GMT, "Harry Bloomfield, Esq."
wrote:

Robin formulated the question :
How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

It doesn't, it will detect a radio remote control's operation. For IR,
point it at a camera, or camera phone and look at the resultant
picture.

A convenience, that applies to our satellite box but I'm not sure about its
Human predecessor, is an LED on the target equipment that flashes when it
receives an IR signal. It is useful to distinguish a remote control failure
from the satellite box itself locking up, which latter is annoyingly common.

--
Roger Hayter

Can old people press the buttons
really hard if the batteries are failing?

Robin wrote:
On 26/02/2021 08:40, Ian Jackson wrote:

snip

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is
to hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a
quiet spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear
a 'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.

How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?


A webcam or a smartphone cam, can see the 940nm
light from the remote.

Here, I shot webcam video, so I'd catch it blipping,
then cropped down to just the remote front portion.

https://i.postimg.cc/65P9p8nc/infrared.gif

Paul

On 26/02/2021 09:40, tim... wrote:


"GB" wrote in message
...
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

by taking the batteries out?

I have to do that frequently with all of mine


I took the batteries out, but that didn't work. What it needed was to
hold three buttons down for several seconds. I then needed to
reprogramme it with the code for our TV.

On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 11:23:12 PM UTC, gareth evans wrote:
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

Probably the same mistake that I made. The Humax control has
two buttons at the top to select whether to control a TV
or the PVR.

If you're trying to control the PVR, maybe you accidentally
pressed the TV button!

Indeed, removing the batteries will cause a reset and
resolve the problem


+1

Jonathan

On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 8:40:55 AM UTC, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Jimmy Stewart ...
writes
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?
Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

with my freesat Humax I always think my remote is broken until I notice
it has to be on the right setting to work the unit and not the tv
etc....
Yes - and easy trap for the unwary!

I've got a couple of RCs that no longer work at all, and also a couple
where only some of the buttons work.

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is to
hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to a quiet
spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will hear a
'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.
--
Ian


Look at through a smart phone camera and you can see the signal on the screen.

Jonathan

On 26/02/2021 14:13, GB wrote:
On 26/02/2021 09:40, tim... wrote:


"GB" wrote in message
...
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

by taking the batteries out?

I have to do that frequently with all of mine


I took the batteries out, but that didn't work. What it needed was to
hold three buttons down for several seconds. I then needed to
reprogramme it with the code for our TV.


Humax might point out that that is entirely consistent with you (or
anyone else with access to the remote) having (accidentally or
otherwise) having held down said three buttons for several seconds and
then entered a different code. But I expect you'd have to make a real
nuisance of yourself before they asked your age and when you last had a
memory assessment


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

I find Humax to make good kit which always seems to have one massive
design flaw which never gets fixed.

on my Humax you could put custom firmware on the box which enabled you
to get an app for your phone to do the remote actions, it always worked
even when the remote stopped working

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 26/02/2021 15:54, Robin wrote:
On 26/02/2021 14:13, GB wrote:
On 26/02/2021 09:40, tim... wrote:


"GB" wrote in message
...
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

by taking the batteries out?

I have to do that frequently with all of mine


I took the batteries out, but that didn't work. What it needed was to
hold three buttons down for several seconds. I then needed to
reprogramme it with the code for our TV.


Humax might point out that that is entirely consistent with you (or
anyone else with access to the remote) having (accidentally or
otherwise) having held down said three buttons for several seconds and
then entered a different code.Â* But I expect you'd have to make a real
nuisance of yourself before they asked your age and when you last had a
memory assessment


Last used by my darling wife. I explained several times that she needs
to switch off the recorder and the TV. She knows which buttons to press.
For reasons I cannot understand, she insists on pressing them both
together, rather than sequentially. Until now, that hadn't caused a
problem, other than one or other of the gadgets staying on. I suspect
that this wasn't a use case that was subject to much testing by Humax.

On 26/02/2021 15:32, Jonathan wrote:

If you're trying to control the PVR, maybe you accidentally
pressed the TV button!

Indeed, removing the batteries will cause a reset and
resolve the problem

This was easily the biggest cause of callbacks when I used to sell Humax.

Bill

On 26/02/2021 09:26, Ian Jackson wrote:

It won't tell you if the actual LED has failed (which is unlikely), but
it will give you pretty good confidence that the rest is OK. As Brian
has said, for the LED, some digital cameras might show you it's flashing
(even if it's not visible to the human eye).

Unfortunately they generally have filters that stop IR these days,
because without such the colour balance used to be affected.

Bill

On 26/02/2021 09:27, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Robin formulated the question :
How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

It doesn't, it will detect a radio remote control's operation. For IR,
point it at a camera, or camera phone and look at the resultant picture.

An old one!

Bill

"tim..." wrote in message
...


"GB" wrote in message
...
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would have
thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

by taking the batteries out?

I have to do that frequently with all of mine

I've never had to do that with any of mine.

On 26/02/2021 15:33, Jonathan wrote:


Look at through a smart phone camera and you can see the signal on the screen.

Not if it has an anti IR filter which I think all modern ones do.

Bill

On 25/02/2021 23:22, gareth evans wrote:
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.


Probably the same mistake that I made. The Humax control has
two buttons at the top to select whether to control a TV
or the PVR.

If you're trying to control the PVR, maybe you accidentally
pressed the TV button!

Indeed, removing the batteries will cause a reset and
resolve the problem

The PVR remote will usually remember which model of TV it's configured
for when you change the batteries, so it must have non-volatile memory
which could prevent it being reset. The original One For All had to have
the batteries removed for a long time before it lost all its codes. The
reprogramming would fail after a time, or maybe after it had been
reprogrammed too many times.

--
Max Demian

On 26/02/2021 17:04, Gordy wrote:
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

I find Humax to make good kit which always seems to have one massive
design flaw which never gets fixed.

We have a Humax (FVP-4000T) that we no longer use. It could have been a
very good system, except that it had bugs and poor design choices:

It was slow - often resulting in us pressing buttons numerous times and
then shooting too far and selecting the wrong thing.

It was non-intuitive - when deleting a number of items, it would
sometimes move the focus to the item above after deletion and sometime
to the item below, making deleting rapidly a slow and careful progress
.... and there was no way to turn off confirming each one in turn. Okay,
you could select a number, but it is far simpler when deleting 4 or 5 to
just keep hitting the individual delete.

The box locked up randomly, missing recording and requiring a power restart.

The associated H3 streaming box was 50/50 over whether it could connect
when turned on - often requiring both boxes to be rebooted ... not good
when the main box is mid-recording.

When scrolling through the list of recordings, you could not read the
description of the programme unless you selected it and then you had to
back up to continue down the list - other boxes simply display the
description of whatever programme on the list you are currently on.

It was an okay box, that with better software, particularly the user
interface, could have been great.

On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 05:17:53 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH the trolling senile asshole's latest troll**** unread

--
"Who or What is Rod Speed?

Rod Speed is an entirely modern phenomenon. Essentially, Rod Speed
is an insecure and worthless individual who has discovered he can
enhance his own self-esteem in his own eyes by playing "the big, hard
man" on the InterNet."
https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/r...d-faq.2973853/

Steve Walker wrote:
On 26/02/2021 17:04, Gordy wrote:
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

I find Humax to make good kit which always seems to have one massive
design flaw which never gets fixed.

We have a Humax (FVP-4000T) that we no longer use. It could have been a
very good system, except that it had bugs and poor design choices:

It was slow - often resulting in us pressing buttons numerous times and
then shooting too far and selecting the wrong thing.

It was non-intuitive - when deleting a number of items, it would
sometimes move the focus to the item above after deletion and sometime
to the item below, making deleting rapidly a slow and careful progress
... and there was no way to turn off confirming each one in turn. Okay,
you could select a number, but it is far simpler when deleting 4 or 5 to
just keep hitting the individual delete.

The box locked up randomly, missing recording and requiring a power restart.

The associated H3 streaming box was 50/50 over whether it could connect
when turned on - often requiring both boxes to be rebooted ... not good
when the main box is mid-recording.

When scrolling through the list of recordings, you could not read the
description of the programme unless you selected it and then you had to
back up to continue down the list - other boxes simply display the
description of whatever programme on the list you are currently on.

It was an okay box, that with better software, particularly the user
interface, could have been great.

So what's so much better that allowed you to ditch the Humax?

I agree about many of its deficiencies but I've yet to see anything
that's a whole lot better.

--
Chris Green
·

On 26/02/2021 21:23, Chris Green wrote:
Steve Walker wrote:
On 26/02/2021 17:04, Gordy wrote:
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it
away and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who
would have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

I find Humax to make good kit which always seems to have one massive
design flaw which never gets fixed.

We have a Humax (FVP-4000T) that we no longer use. It could have been a
very good system, except that it had bugs and poor design choices:

It was slow - often resulting in us pressing buttons numerous times and
then shooting too far and selecting the wrong thing.

It was non-intuitive - when deleting a number of items, it would
sometimes move the focus to the item above after deletion and sometime
to the item below, making deleting rapidly a slow and careful progress
... and there was no way to turn off confirming each one in turn. Okay,
you could select a number, but it is far simpler when deleting 4 or 5 to
just keep hitting the individual delete.

The box locked up randomly, missing recording and requiring a power restart.

The associated H3 streaming box was 50/50 over whether it could connect
when turned on - often requiring both boxes to be rebooted ... not good
when the main box is mid-recording.

When scrolling through the list of recordings, you could not read the
description of the programme unless you selected it and then you had to
back up to continue down the list - other boxes simply display the
description of whatever programme on the list you are currently on.

It was an okay box, that with better software, particularly the user
interface, could have been great.

So what's so much better that allowed you to ditch the Humax?

I agree about many of its deficiencies but I've yet to see anything
that's a whole lot better.

We switched to open, Linux based satellite receivers, running OpenVix -
very handy as they can share a single disk, allowing them all to play
recordings that another box made and even to use each other's tuners if
their own are busy. There are still a few niggles and catch-up has
almost stopped working - but the TVs can do that bit themselves. I must
look for a replacement add-on for that.

In article , gareth evans
writes
On 25/02/2021 20:10, GB wrote:
The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.


Probably the same mistake that I made. The Humax control has
two buttons at the top to select whether to control a TV
or the PVR.

So has the Toshiba
If you're trying to control the PVR, maybe you accidentally
pressed the TV button!

Indeed, removing the batteries will cause a reset and
resolve the problem

--
bert

On 25/02/2021 23:17, Steve Walker wrote:
On 25/02/2021 22:50, Roger Hayter wrote:
On 25 Feb 2021 at 20:10:32 GMT, "GB" wrote:

The Humax remote stopped working, and I was just about to throw it away
and buy another when I thought I would google the problem. Who would
have thought that you can reboot a remote control?

Maybe, you guys all knew that, but it surprised me.

It doesn't totally surprise me, but it's a bit sad.Â* It should be
possible to
make a remote control without any operating system complex enough to
lock up.
What is the name for a system all of whose possible states are
defined?Â* That
is surely a reasonable ambition for a remote control?

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and it
was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure such chips

That was certainly the marketing spiel. But it all ended acrimoniously
and in tears. This paper predates the point where things started to go
wrong. But makes a clear distinction between what was formally proven to
be correct and what was asserted to be proven correct.

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/mjc...ProofPaper.pdf

must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for something like
a remote should also be able to be exhaustively tested (automated
testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or lock up - ignoring
hardware failure.

It is often hardware failure or CPU glitches that catch you out. It is
hard for a CPU that finds its program counter memory mapped into ROM!
TI99xx series had all of its registers including the PC in ram.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 25/02/2021 23:45, Steve Walker wrote:
On 25/02/2021 23:44, alan_m wrote:
On 25/02/2021 23:17, Steve Walker wrote:

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and
it was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure such
chips must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for
something like a remote should also be able to be exhaustively tested
(automated testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or lock up
- ignoring hardware failure.

But a remote is a battery operated device and electronics have a limit
to how low a power supply can go.

And brownout protection simply stops them until you replace the battery.


But batterieswhen left often have a habit of "recovering" for a short
period.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 26/02/2021 09:26, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Robin
writes
On 26/02/2021 08:40, Ian Jackson wrote:

snip

One way of finding out if an RC is actually transmitting a signal is
toÂ* hold it close to a radio with a ferrite rod aerial, and tuned to
a quietÂ* spot on the long wave. If the RC is transmitting, you will
hear aÂ* 'burpity-burp' noise when you press the a button.

How does that detect a failure of an infrared transmitter?

It won't tell you if the actual LED has failed (which is unlikely), but
it will give you pretty good confidence that the rest is OK. As Brian
has said, for the LED, some digital cameras might show you it's flashing
(even if it's not visible to the human eye).

This used to be the standard way of checking if the IR LED was flashing
but some phone cameras now have a IR blocking filter and will not detect
the IR LED on their main camera - on some of these IR filtered phones
the forward looking "selfie" will still detect the IR LED.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 02/03/2021 19:51, alan_m wrote:
On 25/02/2021 23:45, Steve Walker wrote:
On 25/02/2021 23:44, alan_m wrote:
On 25/02/2021 23:17, Steve Walker wrote:

Yes, there was certainly a chip back in the '90s (it might have been
called Viper) where every combination had been thoroughly tested and
it was known that there were no hardware design faults. I'm sure
such chips must exist today and, if so, the simple code required for
something like a remote should also be able to be exhaustively
tested (automated testing) and provide a system that cannot fault or
lock up - ignoring hardware failure.

But a remote is a battery operated device and electronics have a
limit to how low a power supply can go.

And brownout protection simply stops them until you replace the battery.


But batterieswhen left often have a habit of "recovering" for a short
period.

So the remote crashes, reboots when the voltage is high enough and
either works for a bit or dies when you try and use it. The batteries
are dead anyway, so you've lost nothing.