Remote Control; Solved!

[dacari]

Hey Techdomi...I too have my doubts that this problem is related to "hard drive noise".....I too took out my hardrive and was streaming from my NAS in another room of the house...what I have noticed is that...about 4-5 mins after playing a certain file types...the remote stops responding...then will continue to work after the file has stoped playing...I also get the same result with a external drive connected to the usb ports...so far avi files look to be the main suspect...but not limited to..

A-100

[wired203]

Dacari you can test to see if it's an issue with the front plastic panel being smoked too heavily by taking the top of yout PCH off and removing the front panel (should slide strait up and out) and putting the top back on and testing again with the face removed. Since you have no HD if the problem persists I would recommend a RMA, if the problem resolves I would do the acetone trick on the front panel.

[dacari]

Y thanks wired..but what I don't understand is my unit came with no smoked plastic over the IR eye..so when I was reading this fourms..I was confused to what they are talking about because that is how my unit came...I tried the acetone over the clear plastic window over the IR but that does not help....the only thing left to try is the capitor mod...

[techdomi]

Just an update on the problem I was having with the remote (after a few minutes of normal operation, the remote would only work 5-10cm away, no hard drive attached). A few days later, after a reboot (I had done many before), the unit continued to work normally past the usual minute. At first I was afraid to turn it off again, fearing the problem would return, but it has now been three weeks and it still works after a few reboots.

Weird, I swear I didn't change anything to fix it, but I'm not complaining. Works great now!

[nianoniano]

(06-15-2008 05:45 PM)Pucco Wrote:  OK, I know what the problem with the HDD disturbing the IR receiver is now.
The IR receiver which I think is IRM3638 from Everlight is missing the filter capacitor on its power supply that the manufacturer is
recommending in the data sheet.

First the external power supply is generating 12V and that is directly connected to the HDD power connector.
Then a DC/DC regulator is transforming 12V to 5V which is then connected to the HDD connector.
The IR receiver is placed next to the HDD connector and takes its power direct from the HDDs 5V via a 33ohms
resistor but without the recommended/required filter capacitor.
That means that all power supply noice and ripple on the HDDs 5V will be feed direct in to the IR receivers power supply pin.

A small capacitor must be soldered between the supply pin and the ground pin of the IR receiver. This is very simple to do for any one
with minor soldering skills on the bottom side of the PCB. But for every one without soldering skills it is nothing to do except try to get it fixed
by PCH (unlikely).
It is definitely a design flaw.

(04-01-2009 05:53 PM)Pucco Wrote:  There seem to be a lot of people with this problem now. I did have plans to do a wiki on this but havn't had time yet.
This is a quick description I made to a couple of forum members in a PM. It is for a A-100 but I think it looks the same on A-110.

Any capacitance will make improvements but recomended values by the manufacturers are 10-100µF placed close to the the IR receiver.
Some people seem to have a large capacitor outside the PCH printed circuit board and connect it with wires with success.
You should also do the paint cleaning to improve the senitivity of the receiver.
With the capacitor soldered and the paint removed you should be able to point the remote in any direction with full functionality. You can also enable auto repeat in the menu.

On my PCH I have a surface mounted capacitor of 10µF in size "0805" (2.0x1.0x1.0 mm).
It is placed right between the legs of the IR receiver.



I have also tested to place a tantal capacitor of size "A" (3.2x1.6mm) lying on the side to see if it would fit. It will fit well.
Note the direction of the tantal capacitor, it is polarized. There is a bevel to the right indicating the positive pin.




Here is how it looks in real life with the ceramic soldered and the alternate tantal capacitor placed next to the IR receiver pins:




Here is the IR window when it is clear:

(04-01-2009 07:19 PM)wired203 Wrote:  Well if your going to go to a electrician here is the datasheet thanks to laserfan.

"http://www.ebrights.com.cn/file/PDF/INFRARED/INFRAFED%20REMOTE%20CONTROL%20RECEIVER%20MODULE(IRM)/IRM3638.PDF"

I used a standard can style 10v 47uf capacitor with wire leads as that's what I had handy, Pucco works in the electronics field and had access to surface mount caps. Basically see what your electrical guy has on hand.

As for A) it's one capacitor, his picture just shows the one he soldered on and the 2nd lower one is of a different type for size comparison.

B) soldered to pins 2 and 3 on the IR device itself, spec sheet link above.

C) print out the diagram a electronic guy can follow that.

D) 10v is fine, must be over 6.4volt as Pucco stated as if the voltage on the cap is say sub 5v it will pop.

If you look at the diagram in the datasheet it calls for a 47uf but Pucco went as low as 10uf and his works great as well. To be honest even the average say xbox modder that would solder in chips could do this mod.

I'm having troubles with remote due hard disk instalation, so I will go to technician for solving with your scheme.

[chris57]

This looks like great information that should be fed back to the factory. Can you let me have a detailed step; by step and a sumary of the problem via PM.
I'll do the WIKI article for you and pass along to Syabas with regards this resistor seeming to be the culprit.

[elche99]

And the question is: where do you find the correct capacitor and, mainly, where do you buy it in 2-3 units and not 2.000-3.000 ?

[jackhappy]

I too would love to get a link to where I can buy the capacitor, just to make sure that I get the correct one.

[BanditRider]

You've probably got some broken or unused piece of electronics laying around your place somewhere. 10 - 100 uF is a pretty broad range. Try one. If it doesn't help, try another. Also, capacitance adds in parallel so two 10 uF in parallel = 20uF.

[jackhappy]

Just a quick question. In my case, I've had the same Western Digital hard drive in there for over a year, but am just now experiencing these IR problems. So which one has started to fail, the Popcorn Hour, or the hard drive?

I tried sticking a Maxtor hard drive in there, but experienced the same problems, so I would assume this is a Popcorn Hour issue.

I know that adding the capacitor will fix it, but I'd rather not have to mess with that if the problem happens to lie with the hard drive. Just double checking before moving forward.

[BanditRider]

It's always been a Popcorn Hour issue because they "forgot" to use that filter capacitor.

My theory as to why you're just now starting to experience this problem is as your hard drive ages it may use a bit more current to keep the platters spinning and also, as your drive becomes fragmented, the additional head movement may put additional noise on the supply.
Fragmentation will occur when deleting files and adding new ones, FTPing more than one file at a time, downloading torrents, etc.

A new low-power "green" drive may solve your problem or just install the capacitor and be done with it.