Oh!pEnions: 03/06/11

De lemode nu workee

Someone's Astro addiction is temporarily stopped for the moment because the remote does not work. Yes, the remote is no working. And no workee is da remote. So, the remote working is not.

And there were no sticks. Or poles. Or even, an instant a 15feet growth of finger (well, THAT would be very interesting indeed when you get fingered...) Anyway, I tried to see what the problem was and to tell you the truth, I was mystified as well.

First tell tale sign: The circuit board looked very bad.

No, I don't mean its made from cheap resin PCB but

pay attention to the brown stains which is not hand-
made... Got it?

No? Pay attention to the corroded springs.The conclusion?

No idea yet? OK, here is another clue. Pay attention
to the brown stains. Still don't get it?
Hand? Stains? Stains?

OK, this is what happened. Somebody used the remote too much and it leaked all over the place. The battery's chemicals were so bad, it corroded the chrome plated springs. And it was so bad, I could not replace them since my soldering iron was not hot enough to get the solder to melt and make the joins. Therefore....

Therefore, I improvised la. You think, what?

But alas, the there was more damage to the circuit board. I have tested the Infra-red LEDs and they're transmitting but the Astro set is not acknowledging the signals. So, the endcoding part of the remote must be busted as well. For all you know, when someone wants to change the channel, they pressed that button (which sends the signal: Advance the channel by one, you stupid Astro) but all it came out was possibly, '1001010101010010101010000 10010 010100101010100101 000111111"*

* Don't ask me. I don't even know what it means. It all made up just to fill the space in this blog.