Mail in 6131?

[The Robman]

http://www.hifi-remote.com/jp1/disassemble/

[airauto]

Thanks Rob, I thought there was a specific disassemble for the 6131. I got it open. Only broke one catch. It doesn't look too bad. I can't find a mark on the one you modified for me. Thanks again.

[The Robman]

I've been doing it for a while!

For the 6131, I hold the remote upside down with the underside facing me, then I use a very small screwdriver to pop open the upper right corner. Then I slide a plastic putty knife into the crack and drag it around the edge popping open all the other clips. The only marking that you will sometimes see is by that first clip.

Now, the new URC-6131n is a completely different story, that one was a bitch to get open!

[airauto]

Soldered the JP1 connector and eeprom today. Everything works great. Loaded the extender. Still working great. Thanks all.

[doni-49]

I too have a 6131 that OFA upgraded. Is it possible for me to change out the chip with a 2k one? If so, how do I get one and how do I install it?

Thx.

[The Robman]

It's easier to install a chip in a remote that doesn't have one, rather than needing to remove one first. There's a good chance when you remove surface mount chips from PCBs that you will tear away some of the traces, which can be tricky to fix depending on which trace you remove.

But to answer your question, go to the Hardware forum and read the relevant sticky thread.

[ubiquityman]

Soldering iron with solder wick typically lifts the pads after a few times of contact.

The key to removing surface mount chips without having expensive surface mount equipment is to avoid physically handling the pads.

I have Milwaukee heat gun that I bought ($49) about 5 years ago that removes SMT devices with extreme ease.

I just put the attachment on the head that directs/narrows the airflow, and set the heat gun near minimum heat. I blow on the chip for a few seconds, hold the board upside down and give it a little tap or I lift the SMT device with a pair of tweezers.

I've removed very dense pin chips off motherboards using this method. Really any heat gun will work as long as you have a good nozzle attachment to narrow the hot air flow. If you have old/junk motherboards, PCI cards, hard drives, you can practice on those before trying it on your remote.

I would guess that with some practice, you might even be able to use a small propane or butane torch to do the same. If you don't need to save the chip you are removing, try to heat the chip from the center to get heat uniformily to the legs. (if you need to save the chip, then heat the legs.)

If you are going to use a torch, PRACTICE on some junk equipment first. A torch is hot enough to burn PC boards if held too long in one spot.

(Also, see the hardware thread for instructions on how to open up the 6131N very easily and quickly with marring the sides)

[zaphod7501]

I wouldn't use open flame on a PC board. Fiberglass does strange things under flame. There are hot air jet tips available for many small propane soldering irons. (Great for heat shrink tubing too)

[The Robman]

But I think you've just demonstrated that it would still be alot easier (for a non-expert solderer) to just get a new remote than to try to remove the existing chip. I can't tell you how many remotes people have sent me where they totaly messed things up, and this was just soldering in the 6-pin, so I dread to think what sort of a mess they'd make trying to remove the chip.

Having said that, I've removed SMT parts many times using just a regular soldering iron and desoldering braid, and I keep all my dead remotes so I can steal resistors and capacitors, etc from them!

[ubiquityman]

I agree that it's probably more trouble than it's worth for most people.
I'm not great with solder braid. I often seem to work the pads a little too much.

If using a torch or hot air, another suggestion is to take a piece of metal (say the top of a tin can) and drill a small hole to shield the rest of the components below so it doesn't get heated form the hot air or propane torch. You'll have to hold the piece of metal with a pair of pliers so you don't get burned. You can even cut little spring plates/leaves into the hole so that it will press gently against the side of the EEPROM to lift it out.

After looking at a picture of the board again, I'm not so worried about the fiberglass because it's pretty resilient, but rather the small SMT components besides the EEPROM which typically get blown away by the air flow once the solder melts on those components.

[bevhoward]

>> heat and a little tap <<

concur with the need to insulate adjacent components... I've used a number of approaches from masking tape walls (messy) to, most recently, a piece of thin "hardy board" with a cutout the size of the component to be removed.

(note, "hardy board" is used behind bathroom tile and can be found at building supplies)

>> little tap <<

I have found that a "sharp rap" against the bench works best.

Learned this from a local electronic salvage firm that had about 30 electric frying pans filled with sand where the boards were placed component side up... the salvager would walk a circle around the room, removing each heated board and striking it sharply against the edge of the collection bin, then push the next board down into the hot sand.

hope this helps,

[abroadst]

Hi. I'm curious about what the drawbacks of having a 1k EEPROM vs a 2k one are. I presume there is less memory for additional codes. Can someone explain this for me? Is the difference likely to be a problem for me if I decide to have OFA upgrade a 6131 rather than buying one with a 2k EEPROM installed or doing it myself.

Thanks.

[abroadst]

I couldn't find it elsewhere, so forgive me if it has already been posted or discussed at length, but what exactly are the differences between the 6131s available? I understand that there are models with different letters after the number, like n or nw. What do these mean and do they make any difference regarding their ability to be upgraded?

[The Robman]

With the 1k remote you get 1k of memory, with the 2k version you get 2k of memory (ie, double). Without an extender, the 2k remote gives you nearly 2 and a 1/2 times the upgrade memory. With the extender installed, most of the extra memory is available for keymoves.

[gfb107]

Whether it is likely to be a problem for you or not depends mostly on what equipment you want to control. More precisely, it depends on how many of them will require device upgrades (and if any of those require protocol upgrades as well). It also depends somewhat on how "fancy" you want to get (Will you be installing the extender? Will you be using L/DKP? Will you be using DSMs?, etc)