IR remote control - battery drain

[Beerbarian]

I have a Mitsubishi Black Diamond DVD player (BD30DVD) which works
fine but it's IR remote control seems to drain batteries quite rapidly
over time, while not in use.
I first suspected the cause was dud batteries bundled with the device,
but I have since gone through a few packs of premium brand alkaline
AAA batteries, and the same effect is seen with each fresh battery
change: the remote drains the batteries while lying in a drawer not in
use.
I've made sure nothing is lying on top of it to prevent having one or
more buttons kept accidentally pressed, yet after about a period of
about 2 months on non-use, the remotes two AAA batteries are dead.
The player and remote are about 18 months year old, and have very
little use.
I'd say I've used it about 6 or 7 times previously, but got gifts of
DVD's for Christmas and now am anxious to get watching without going
out to the shops to get more batteries every time! (some functions are
only available on the remote)

I've dug out the multimeter and dismantled the IR remote to try my
hand at some fault finding, and was hoping one of you fine folks might
give me some pointers as where to begin?
I won't go into component specifics just yet, suffice to say the
circuit is quite simple, although the workmanship on the factory
soldering looks very poor, and already appears to have a bridge wire
from one track to another, but no obvious shorts.
I'm just looking for tips on tracing the constant voltage drain, if
that's not being too simplistic from my description.
At the moment I'm removing the batteries each time I put it away, but
the delicate battery covers lock tab has already snapped because of
the constant use it's got, and I was think if fitting a slider switch
to give on/off to the device, but I'd really like to get to the root
cause if I can.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

Éanna

 

[**THE-RFI-EMI-GUY**]

If I had to guess, some liquid has gotten into the keypad and is
shorting the circuitry.

 

[Jeroni Paul]

If the remote has an LCD display or some memory in it, that could be the
cause.

Beerbarian expuso:

 

[H. R. Bob Hofmann]

It seems to me the first thing to do is to check to see if there is
battery drain when the remote is just sitting on a table with no keys
depressed. That is elementary. Then some sharp taps with a blunt
instrument while monitoring the current drain might show where the
problem is. But, if the DVD had a warranty, has the warranty
period expired? It usually includes the remote as well as the player.
What about just getting a new universal remote? For the cost of the
batteries you have used, you probably could have gotten a new remote.
I know that that is not as satisfying as fixing the problem, but
unfortunately we have gotten into a "trash rather than repair"
economy, as another thread has been discussing lately.

H. R. (Bob) Hofmann

 

[Ross Mac]

I have a Mitsubishi Black Diamond DVD player (BD30DVD) which works
fine but it's IR remote control seems to drain batteries quite rapidly
over time, while not in use.
I first suspected the cause was dud batteries bundled with the device,
but I have since gone through a few packs of premium brand alkaline
AAA batteries, and the same effect is seen with each fresh battery
change: the remote drains the batteries while lying in a drawer not in
use.
I've made sure nothing is lying on top of it to prevent having one or
more buttons kept accidentally pressed, yet after about a period of
about 2 months on non-use, the remotes two AAA batteries are dead.
The player and remote are about 18 months year old, and have very
little use.
I'd say I've used it about 6 or 7 times previously, but got gifts of
DVD's for Christmas and now am anxious to get watching without going
out to the shops to get more batteries every time! (some functions are
only available on the remote)

I've dug out the multimeter and dismantled the IR remote to try my
hand at some fault finding, and was hoping one of you fine folks might
give me some pointers as where to begin?
I won't go into component specifics just yet, suffice to say the
circuit is quite simple, although the workmanship on the factory
soldering looks very poor, and already appears to have a bridge wire
from one track to another, but no obvious shorts.
I'm just looking for tips on tracing the constant voltage drain, if
that's not being too simplistic from my description.
At the moment I'm removing the batteries each time I put it away, but
the delicate battery covers lock tab has already snapped because of
the constant use it's got, and I was think if fitting a slider switch
to give on/off to the device, but I'd really like to get to the root
cause if I can.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

Éanna

Hey, Beerbarian, maybe you got some beer in that remote and one of the keys
is sticking. You might try some contact cleaner that doesn't attack plastic
to clean them. Make sure to test it in the battery compartment where a
little plastic damage won't matter. And please, remove the batteries
first!...Good Luck, Ross

 

[Bernard]

Le 28/12/2003 00:48, Beerbarian a écrit :

I've made sure nothing is lying on top of it to prevent having one or
more buttons kept accidentally pressed, yet after about a period of
about 2 months on non-use, the remotes two AAA batteries are dead.
The player and remote are about 18 months year old, and have very
little use.

Hi,
a way to know if it's a key which is always depressed, or if the remote
is always emitting for x reasons, is to put your remote near an old lw
radio receiver, when on, you will ear clock,clock,clock... in the radio
because appropriate harmonics pass through the filters of the radio.(
cf. Fourier series)