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TV remote control

Remote control

The way we love our remote controls, you'd think our living rooms were the size of Texas! It's an awfully long way to go, isn't it, to change the television channel or pump up the volume on the stereo? Remote controls are a perfect indulgence for couch potatoes everywhere—but have you ever stopped to wonder how they work? How come your TV remote doesn't trigger the video? Why do you have to point it directly at the TV? And when you aim your remote at a neighbor's house, does their TV channel change too? Let's take a closer look at the mysteries of remote control!

Photo: A typical TV remote control unit. Early TV remotes did little more than change the channel. With a modern remote control, you can control virtually every aspect of how a TV works. This remote can also control a DVD player hooked up to the TV set.

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Contents

  1. How remote controls use infrared beams
  2. Radio control
  3. How to repair a broken TV remote control
  4. Find out more

How remote controls use infrared beams

Infrared LED on a TV remote control

Photo: The small infrared LED on the top of a typical remote control.

The first thing you notice about a remote control unit is that it has no wires, so it has to send signals to whatever it's operating using electromagnetic waves. Light, X rays, radio waves, and microwaves are all examples of electromagnetic waves: vibrating packets of electrical and magnetic energy that travel through the air at the speed of light. Most remote controls send signals using infrared radiation (which is a kind of invisible red light that hot objects give off and halogen hobs use to cook with), though some use radio waves instead.

If you look at the top of your remote control unit, you'll see there's a small plastic light-emitting diode (LED) where the infrared radiation comes out. Now take a look at your TV or video. Somewhere on the front, there's a very small infrared light detector. When you press the remote control, a beam of infrared radiation travels from the remote to your TV at the speed of light and the detector picks it up.

Human eyes can't detect infrared, so even if you press the buttons on your remote and stare at the LED you won't see anything happening. Some animals, including rattlesnakes, can detect infrared. Rattlesnakes have tiny infrared detectors buried in pits near their eyes, which work a bit like the infrared detectors on your TV. By homing in on infrared heat, snakes can locate prey at night when there's no ordinary light to see by. What would happen if you pointed a TV remote control at a snake and pressed the buttons? Maybe it would think you were a mouse and slither over to eat you. It's unlikely you could control a rattlesnake with a TV remote—and we don't recommend you try!

Coiled rattlesnake

Photo: Rattlesnakes "speak" infrared, just like TV sets. Picture by Gary Stolz courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service.

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Remote control codes

It's no good the remote control just sending out a burst of random infrared. Clearly if your remote control has 20 or more buttons on it, it must have a way of sending out at least this many signals—each one different enough for your TV to be able to decode and understand it. When you press one of the buttons, the remote generates a systematic series of on/off infrared pulses that signal a binary code (a way of representing any kind of information using only zeros and ones, which computers use). So a short pulse of infrared could signal a 1 and no pulse could signal a 0. Sending many infrared pulses, one after another, allows your remote to send whole strings of zeros and ones. One code (maybe it's 101101) might mean "volume up", while another (perhaps 11110111) could mean "mute sound."

As well as sending out pulses that tell the TV what you want it to do, the remote also sends a short code that identifies the product you're trying to control (for example, a specific make and model of TV). That ensures your remote operates only the TV, not the video, and not any other TVs that happen to be nearby. Generally, this means each remote control unit can operate only one appliance made by only one manufacturer. Of course if you could discover the codes that different TVs and videos understand, you could build a remote control that operated any appliance. This is how universal remotes work. They let you control any TV or video and, instead of sending out only signals specific to one brand of equipment, they can send out codes that any make or model can understand. One inventor has even gone so far as to develop a remote called TV-B-Gone that systematically sends out a "switch TV off" signal using every possible manufacturer's code. It's designed to allow TV haters to switch off annoying TVs covertly as they wander through shopping malls and department stores!

Screenshot of Android LG smartphone set up as a Sony infrared TV remote control

Screenshot: Turn your smartphone into a remote control. If your phone has a built-in infrared transmitter, you can use it as a remote control. Here's my Android phone set up with an app called Quick Remote to behave like a Sony TV remote control. Apps like this can control TVs, set-top boxes, stereos, air conditioners, projectors, and pretty much anything else for which you can figure out the right infrared codes. Unfortunately, iPhones don't have IR transmitters so, if you're an Apple fan, you'll need to get an adapter if you want to do this sort of thing with your phone.

Can I switch on my neighbor's TV set?

Infrared remote controls are relatively low powered and will send signals only about 10–20m (35–70ft). Like visible light, infrared is relatively low-energy electromagnetic radiation and, unlike radio waves, cannot penetrate through solid walls. That means there's no chance your ordinary infrared remote will switch on your neighbor's TV or DVD recorder by accident!

If you do want to operate equipment in other rooms, it's possible to buy radio-frequency remote controls (and adapters for conventional, infrared remotes) to extend their range. A typical RF remote might operate in the frequency range 400–450 MHz, where an ordinary infrared remote would operate at perhaps 300 THz (3 × 1014 Hz = 300 million million hertz)—roughly a million times higher frequency. With equipment like this, it is possible to receive signals from a neighbor's home, much like you can receive their wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) signals.

Who invented the remote control?

US electrical engineer Eugene Polley (1915–2012) came up with the idea for an electronic remote control system years before many people even owned a television. And here it is, as drawn by the inventor himself! What we have to remember is that mid-20th-century televisions were nothing like as sophisticated as modern ones. Although they were essentially electronic, they still had mechanical tuning systems (so you turned a clunky dial to make the tuner switch from one receiving frequency to another, much like you still do with analog radio sets to this day). That meant Polley's remote control was a part electronic, part mechanical device, and quite a bit more cumbersome than the ones we have now, although no less ingenious.

Illustration of Eugene Polley's original 1955 TV remote control device from US Patent 2,903,575.

Artwork: The original electronic TV remote control, from US Patent 2,903,575: Control system by Eugene J. Polley, Zenith Radio Corporation, filed on May 6, 1955 and granted on September 8, 1959. Courtesy of US Patent and Trademark Office.

How did it work? You pointed a simple handheld flashlight (labeled 30, "light source") at one of four photoelectric cells (shown here in green and numbered 17, 18, 19, and 20), each of which was linked to a separate electronic switch (numbered 23, 24, 25, and 26) and controlled a separate function of the TV. On the top left, 17 operated an electric motor, 27, which automatically turned the TV tuner dial to a higher frequency. On the top right, 18 turned the dial the opposite way. On the bottom left, 19 switched the TV on or off. And on the bottom right, 20 adjusted the audio volume. Everything was controlled through electronic circuits in the blue box marked 21.

Radio control

Infrared remotes can operate TVs and videos only over quite short distances. The infrared LED is quite small and low-powered and the receiver on the TV or video is small too. This is why you generally have to point the remote directly at the appliance you're trying to control. Some remotes are more tolerant and it is sometimes possible to bounce the infrared beam off a wall, mirror, or picture and still change channel. Infrared remotes are no good for controlling things over distances greater than a few meters (feet); the infrared energy is too easily soaked up and dissipated along its journey.

To control things over greater distances, you need to use a different kind of system called radio control. You operate radio-controlled cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, and robots using a handheld radio transmitter box that sends signals from an antenna on the top to a matching antenna on whatever you're interested in controlling. Radio signals can travel much further than infrared ones without interference, especially if the transmitters and antennas are large and powerful.

A yellow radio-controlled helicopter mounted as a science museum exhibit.

Photo: A typical radio-controlled helicopter. Inside, the "passenger compartment" is packed with radio-receiver electronics, a motor that spins the main rotor, and servo motors that control the steering (rotor pitch) in exactly the same way as a real helicopter's. This is an exhibit at the Think Tank science museum in Birmingham, England.

Who invented radio control?

It was Nikola Tesla—with this ingenious toy boat, patented in the United States in 1898. An antenna (1) picks up radio signals that control the motor (2) and battery (3) that power the boat's propeller (4). A second motor (5) controls the rudder (6) that steers the boat.

Radio-controlled toy boat invented by Nikola Tesla, patented in 1898, from US Patent 613,809.

Artwork: Tesla's boat, from US Patent 613,809: Method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels or vehicles by Nikola Tesla, courtesy of US Patent and Trademark Office.

In his own words:

I require no intermediate wires, cables, or other form of electrical or mechanical connection with the object save the natural media in space... My invention... involves the production of suitable waves or variations and the conveying of the same to a remote receiving apparatus capable of being operated or controlled by their influence.

Nikola Tesla, inventor of remote control, 1898

So radio control, which seems pretty modern, has actually been around well over a century. The photo below shows how it was being used to drive a full-sized automobile in Washington, DC way back in 1928! The man on the right is holding the radio-control unit with an antenna you can just about make out poking out from the top. You can also see a small receiver unit picking up signals from the man's controller on the running board of the car to the left.

Radio-controlled car, Washington, DC, 1928.

Photo: Radio-controlled car, 1928 by Underwood & Underwood, courtesy of US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Types of radio control

There are two broad types of radio control known as single channel and multi-channel.

Single-channel radio control is effectively an on-off switch operated at a distance by radio wave. So, to give a very trivial example, you could use a single-channel control to switch a lamp on or off at the bottom of your garden. The sender unit would consist of a low-powered radio transmitter, while the lamp would need a radio receiver and a relay (to convert the low-powered, incoming radio signal into a higher-powered electric current big enough to operate the lamp). Single-channel radio control can only switch things completely on or completely off; it can't turn them up or down by degrees.

Blue radio controlled Ford Mustang car and Super Muscle RC unit with antenna extended.

Photo: RC as most of us know it: a simple radio-controlled car. Photo by Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com, published under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) licence.

Multi-channel radio control is used to transmit more complex and useful signals to a piece of remote equipment—for example, to make a radio-controlled car speed up, slow down, or steer from side to side. Instead of just sending a basic on/off signal, it transmits a series of coded analog or digital pulses that are decoded by the receiver and used to produce specific actions. For example, turning a steering wheel on a radio-control transmitter will send a series of pulses that make an electric motor rotate by a corresponding amount to steer a radio-controlled car one way or the other. Motors that work this way are known as servo motors. Unlike normal electric motors, which rotate an arbritary number of times according to how long they receive an electric current, servo motors are much more controllable and have built-in electronic feedback mechanisms (based on potentiometers—similar to variable resistors), which enable you to make them rotate by reasonably precise amounts.

What is radio control used for?

Radio control isn't just used in toys; many of the latest wireless gadgets use similar technology, including Bluetooth® (a convenient way of operating computer-based equipment without wires), RFID (radio frequency identification) technology used in anti-shoplifting systems, and Wi-Fi, used in wireless Internet. Even cellphones communicate using a wireless system not unlike radio control. So maybe remote control isn't just for couch potatoes after all?

How to repair a broken TV remote control

A Sony TV remote control taken to pieces, showing the circuit board and rubber membrane keypad inside.

With no moving parts, you might think a remote control would last forever. But all that pushing and poking eventually takes its toll. One day, you may find your remote stops working: the buttons you press no longer do anything, no matter how hard you prod them.

This can be a real nuisance, because chances are your TV is now obsolete and the remote you need is no longer manufactured. Fortunately, it's often possible to repair a defunct remote. If the entire remote stops working, most likely the batteries have gone. That's the first, most obvious thing to test before you go any further.

If only a couple of buttons have gone—typically the volume up/down or channel buttons, or other buttons you use most often—you have a different problem. Remotes are built around a rubber membrane keypad. Each key is part of a single, large piece of rubbery plastic. Under each one, there's a thin strip of conducting paint or plastic. When you press the key down, the conducting material bridges contacts on the printed circuit board directly underneath, completing a switch and activating the circuit. In the top photo here, you can see the membrane keypad (second from the right) and the circuit board it sits on (second from the left). Over time, a thin greasy film builds up between the bottom of the keys and the top of the circuit board. I'm not sure what causes this, and it doesn't really matter (probably as the current flows through the conducting material on the base of the key it warms up slightly and that gradually degrades the material). This film acts as a barrier between the base of the key and the circuit board and stops the keys from completing the circuit.

How to fix it? First, remove the batteries. Next, carefully open the case of your remote. You'll either have to undo some screws or, with a remote like the one shown here, separate the top of the case from the bottom with a thin, flat screwdriver. Generally, if there are no screws, there are several plastic clips holding the two parts together and you need to find them and push them gently to open the case. Go carefully! Once you've taken the case apart, separate out the layers as I've done here. Inspect the circuit board, particularly the bits of the board that are directly underneath the buttons that aren't working. See a film there or a dirty deposit? Put a small amount of detergent and water on a cloth and carefully wipe it away. Don't use anything abrasive. Gently wipe the bottom of the rubber membrane keys to remove any film from there too. Do this very carefully so you don't damage or degrade the conducting layer. Make sure the whole thing is completely dry, reassemble it, and you may well find it works again.

If it still doesn't work, the conducting layer on the base of the non-functioning keys has probably worn away. (If you have a multimeter, you can test the bottom of the keys to see if any current flows, and establish that this is the fault beyond doubt.) You can buy repair kits and conducting paint pens to touch up the damaged layers, but they're quite expensive and it might not be worth the bother. In theory, you could use a soft graphite pencil to make a temporary repair, but that's unlikely to last very long. Another option might be to transplant one of the working keys to replace the broken ones, but since these keypads are built from a single piece of material, that's going to be a slightly tricky operation involving rubber surgery!

A simpler alternative is simply to find the model number from your remote and type it into eBay or your favorite auction site. You might well find a replacement someone no longer wants.

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