Broken Remote? How do I check?

[james]

I have a remote control (for a saorview box) and it seems to have stopped working. I have changed the batteries to no avail. Any suggestions on how I can check if it's the remote rather then the device it controls?

[Fran]

Sometimes you can turn on the camera on a phone and look at the IR LED as you press a button on the remote and the camera will "see" the ir light that is invisible to the human eye. I have a little transistor tester gadget that also can see the IR and give you the code it uses. Not much use to you though!

I gather that 9 times out of 10 the fault is down to one of 3 things. There is a crack in the printed circuit board, or the battery terminals are either corroded or solder joint broken, or some crap has seeped in under the rubbery contact pads which means they don't contact the pcb pads any more.

Depending on how confident you are, you could try opening it up and seeing if its cracked from a fall or the battery terminals. If its not that you can clean the pcb and the rubber key pads and see.

[james]

Thanks Fran.
The battery connections are OK. Nothing works so it sounds like it was dropped and the circuit board is damaged (I have not taken it apart). I have ordered a new (compatible) remote and hopefully this will sort things out.
James