Dissecting a Remote Control

Ever wondered what is on the inside of your remote control and what makes it do the things it does? Well, you are about to find out. In this post, we will be breaking one open and exploring its basic components.

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What's on the inside?

From the left: Front outer shell, buttons, circuit board and back outer shell (and the battery compartment)

The circuit board is the main frame of the remote control and it is made up of a thin fiberglass inscribed with copper wires and is attached to a wooden board. The inscribed copper wires are integrated connections that the buttons on the outside lie on. In other words, the integrated wires are what you touch when you press a button. The integrated wires are all connected to the integrated circuit and the other components.

Components of the circuit board:

1) Light Emitting Diodes (a.k.a LED lights): The human eyes cannot perceive the light of the LED on the remote control. The LED uses infrared lights to send Morse code line signals to the receiving device e.g TV, cable etc. The LEDs are what transmits your input (the button you press) to the receiving device, which is why the remote control has to be pointed in the general direction of the receiving device otherwise it would not be able to read the signals and so would not respond to your input.

2) Integrated Circuit: The black round object is what holds the integrated circuit, the core of the circuit board and the remote control, it is what controls everything. It contains a microchip processor that interpretes the input (buttons pressed) and sends the output to the receiving device through the  LEDs. It contains the programming that allows the remote to understand your input and gives the appropriate output. The pins surrounding the integrated chip (the black circle) all connect the copper wiring to the programming it requires to perform different functions.

3) Capacitors: The remote control has two capacitors, which stores energy to use in short bursts such as sending the infrared signals through the LEDs and emission of lights of the pressed buttons.

4) Resonator: This is used to control the frequency and transmission strength of the remote control. It is used for providing quartz-frequency stabilization, it allows for precision and reduces the possibility of interference from other signals.

5) Jumper Block: A jumper block is a set or cluster of jumper pins. A jumper pin is a small metal component/connector that is used to open or close a circuit. The placement of the jumpers determine the configuration settings of the device. The jumpers aid the transmission of the signal frequency to the receiving device on the same frequency.

6) Battery Terminals: The negative and positive battery terminals that fit into the battery compartment and are used to channel the energy from the batteries. The negative is the flat or compressed spring, which will connect to the positive side of the battery, while the positive is the regular spring and it will connect to the negative side of the battery

References:
https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/inside-rc1.htm
https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/inside-rc.htm
https://learn.adafruit.com/circuit-playground-c-is-for-capacitor/what-is-a-capacitor
https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/ecs-inc/ZTT-12.00MT/X907-ND/170094
https://www.solidremote.com/blog/saw-resonator-in-rf-remote-control-application/
https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-jumper-2625910
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/5299/jumper