At 99 years of age it's no surprise that my mother relies heavily on the Acorn chairlift mounted on the rear stairs of her high set Queenslander-style home. The chairlift is operated by toggles on the armrests, but was also supplied with two hand-held remote control units, and it makes sense in her situation for one to be kept upstairs and one downstairs.
When one of the remotes went on the blink recently I discovered how difficult it would be to replace one in the event of loss, damage or terminal failure. The guy who had installed the chairlift was unable to get the failed unit working, and bought along several units from his box of spares, none of which worked at first. He was eventually able to get one working so we again have the necessary two remotes.
Incidentally, the chairlift was purchased secondhand from an aged care service provider, so the manufacturer isn't compelled to play any part in support. I have tried to contact them about purchasing a spare remote but cannot even get a reply.
Anyway, that experience got me thinking about possible future problems, as it seems unlikely that the installer would be able to provide a replacement next time round.
By chance he left behind the original unit that had failed. By viewing the business end of that remote through my mobile phone camera lens I can see the three infrared lenses lighting up when either the Up or Down button is pressed, so there is definitely some signal being transmitted.
I'm not 100% sure where I'm trying to go with this, but I'm wondering if there is some way to read the signal being transmitted by one of the good remotes, and compare it to the signal being transmitted by the dud.
And even if so, where to then? Would it be possible to build a basic remote that transmitted the required signal. Compact size wouldn't matter, it could be as big as a shoe box, just so long as it worked.
When one of the remotes went on the blink recently I discovered how difficult it would be to replace one in the event of loss, damage or terminal failure. The guy who had installed the chairlift was unable to get the failed unit working, and bought along several units from his box of spares, none of which worked at first. He was eventually able to get one working so we again have the necessary two remotes.
Incidentally, the chairlift was purchased secondhand from an aged care service provider, so the manufacturer isn't compelled to play any part in support. I have tried to contact them about purchasing a spare remote but cannot even get a reply.
Anyway, that experience got me thinking about possible future problems, as it seems unlikely that the installer would be able to provide a replacement next time round.
By chance he left behind the original unit that had failed. By viewing the business end of that remote through my mobile phone camera lens I can see the three infrared lenses lighting up when either the Up or Down button is pressed, so there is definitely some signal being transmitted.
I'm not 100% sure where I'm trying to go with this, but I'm wondering if there is some way to read the signal being transmitted by one of the good remotes, and compare it to the signal being transmitted by the dud.
And even if so, where to then? Would it be possible to build a basic remote that transmitted the required signal. Compact size wouldn't matter, it could be as big as a shoe box, just so long as it worked.