« Project X | Home | Reproducible random ordering from "sort -R" »
March 2, 2012
Remote control repair
I repaired my DVD player by replacing the IR receiver for the remote control. It hadn't worked since about 2005, but I'd been hesitating about actually sorting it out. Admittedly, for a lot of that time I was convinced it was the remote control itself that was defective, and didn't want to give my credit card details to one of the many dodgy-looking replacement remote control websites.
Anyway, in case anyone's interested, the model was a Panasonic SC-HT520 and the replacement part I used was a Vishay TSOP 1838 (example , but the photo shows the wrong thing) which uses a 950 nm wavelength and a 38 kHz carrier. The pin assignments are exactly the same as the original one from the player, so you just have do undo some screws (hint: take the grey panel off the front of the DVD tray before disconnecting the power), desolder the old one and solder the replacement. The tracks on the PCB are nice and large, so it's dead easy. Total cost: €1.55, and about half an hour (plus many hours of research and figuring out what would be suitable, but that doesn't count).
I remember reading somewhere that the receivers on certain Panasonic units often seem to go bad, so if anyone is interested and needs more guidance than the above, post a comment here and I'll put some photos up.
Anyway, in case anyone's interested, the model was a Panasonic SC-HT520 and the replacement part I used was a Vishay TSOP 1838 (example , but the photo shows the wrong thing) which uses a 950 nm wavelength and a 38 kHz carrier. The pin assignments are exactly the same as the original one from the player, so you just have do undo some screws (hint: take the grey panel off the front of the DVD tray before disconnecting the power), desolder the old one and solder the replacement. The tracks on the PCB are nice and large, so it's dead easy. Total cost: €1.55, and about half an hour (plus many hours of research and figuring out what would be suitable, but that doesn't count).
I remember reading somewhere that the receivers on certain Panasonic units often seem to go bad, so if anyone is interested and needs more guidance than the above, post a comment here and I'll put some photos up.
Leave a comment