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a wet tv remote control problem

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Carol Haynes:
I would suggest thoroughly washing it in clean water and then place it in an oven on 'keep warm' setting (no higher than 50C) for a couple of hours or in a warm airing cupboard (or wherever your hot water tank is) over night.

Gothi[c]:
Like app said, open up, dry each part seperatly. Remotes are very simple devices usually, and it isn't all too complicated to (dis)assemble them.

What you have to worry about is corrosion. Parts of the pcb circuitry may have corroded and thus lost it's connectivity. If it's not working after drying, visually inspect the pcb for circuit lanes that 'don't look right', and repair them.

You can repair them by either soldering new wires onto the pcb, bridging the broken parts, or a more elegant solution: this little gizmo.
It lets you 'draw' conductive circuit lanes right onto a pcb, or any other surface. GREAT for repairing corroded or otherwise broken circuitry.

There is very little chance that your remote is broken because of a short circuit from the liquid, since these things work on very low voltages and carry very little current. The IC's involved aren't too sensitive usually either. (Unless you have some fancy hi-tech remote)

nudone:
thanks for the tips so far.

opening it up really isn't going to happen. i'm a careful kind of person when it comes to these things so i've managed to dismantle gadgets and put them back together many times before (including complete strip downs of laptops).

this remote really does look like it's designed to break the casing unless you know where the magic button is to get it open. maybe a good twist would make it spring open but i can't really risk forcing it if its just going to snap.

at the moment it's drying out on top of the tv as that appears to produce quite a bit of heat. if the insides do start to corrode then i will have to return it to the shop - but for the moment i'll just hope that it will dry out during today (and tomorrow, and the next day, etc.)

it does seem to be working a bit better at the moment - maybe.

pro3carp3:
Why don't you take it to the shop before it starts to corrode?

nudone:
Why don't you take it to the shop before it starts to corrode?
-pro3carp3 (August 22, 2007, 07:10 AM)
--- End quote ---

i don't think it will corrode - if it does then i'll have no choice but to return it to the shop.

(cody assures me that the remote will magically start working again tomorrow after the night pixies have been to work on it or even replaced it with a fully working replica.)

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