URC-8800 AV Producer 8 "battery lo" error

zanzibuz · Post by **zanzibuz** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 12:51 pm

I have a URC-8800 AV Producer 8 remote that is actually a good remote, but I have had to replace it. After every keypress the display tells me "battery lo". I have put new batteries in it, and I have tested those new batteries and I know they are good. The batteries are NOT low at all.

This is incredibly annoying to have, and actually it makes the remote unusable. For instance if i am trying to goto channel 11, I press "1", then it displays "battery lo" for 3 seconds and locks the keypad, and then by the time that the keypad is free my tv has forgotten that I had pressed hte 1 to begin with. Changing volume isnt easy, because after each slight adjustment in the volume the remote displays "battery lo" and you have to wait until that screen is finished before the volume adjustment can continue.

I contacted OFA customer support, and they suggested that I should reset the remote. I did that, no help. I have left the batteries out of the remote for a couple of weeks, in an effort to clear all internal memory, but that did not help either. Also there is no visible corrosion on the battery contacts, so i dont think thats it.

This remote is out of warranty so there's no way to get OFA to fix it. I wish I could get this thing to work again. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks

Garth

usblipitor · Post by **usblipitor** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 1:09 pm

I wish you the best in fixing it. There is a how-to guide for opening the remote here if you want to take a look inside for any internal loose or corroded contacts, especially near the battery.

If you cannot fix it, I see two producer 8 remotes for auction at ebay. I do not think OFA makes these remotes anymore. Also, Rob has URC-7800m remotes for sale.

jamesgammel · Post by **jamesgammel** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 2:28 pm

BTW, you could leave the batteries out for 10 years or more and the remote won't lose memory. Advertised "shelf-life" data in an atmel eeprom in these is over 100 years with no battery power supplied.

I think they meant the lcd equivalent of the 981 reset, not an ops reset if that's what you tried.

If you really want to clean out all old memory, use IR and the advance>purge>upload>mfr. reset. Or upload a Virgin configuration.

weak battery springs and even slight corrosion will make the remote think batteries are low, when they really aren't. As old as the P-8's are, it wouldn't be surprising that something like this is the root of your problems.

Jim

gjarboni · Post by **gjarboni** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 10:26 pm

jamesgammel wrote:BTW, you could leave the batteries out for 10 years or more and the remote won't lose memory.

This is entirely accurate, but I think OFA was trying to clear the processors' RAM. The RAM in the MCU can survive for long periods of time without batteries and with no keypresses. However holding down a key for 30 seconds will effectively drain the charge and clear the RAM.

jamesgammel wrote: weak battery springs and even slight corrosion will make the remote think batteries are low, when they really aren't. As old as the P-8's are, it wouldn't be surprising that something like this is the root of your problems.

This is also a good thing to check. However if this isn't the problem the latest extender (posted in the Extenders' Area) will fix this problem. It's not an advertised feature (nor an advertised bug

) but to save memory I eliminated the calls that check for the low battery condition. That version of the extender isn't a great place to start with extenders, but if you want I'll help you through it.

Of course, this assumes you have a JP1 cable. You do have a cable, right?

Jason M.