URC 9910 RF extender

[akkhandelwal]

Never needed to use the RF extender till I bought a new cabinet to house all the devices. It seems that the extender is not communicating with the remote.

Both remote and extender were dropped few times. Is there a way to troubleshoot it?

Thanks

[The Robman]

Environments are not all created equal, some places have more RF noise and some have more obstacles that can block the RF signal. So your first move should be to try having the remote and base unit close together. To do this, position the base unit on the coffee table in front of your TV, then try standing behind or beside the TV (ie, in a position where the IR signal would cannot reach the TV) and then try the remote. This will confirm that something is broken in the remote or the base unit.

If that is indeed the case, my guess is that it's more likely that the remote is the culprit. You could open the remote and see if anything is broken or loose. There's a round white plastic coil in there that's likely to have come loose. This is the modem and has nothing to do with the RF signal, so don't get sidetracked with that. The RF puck is a small round PCB that is raised above the normal PCB. I have no advice as to what you might have broken nor what the fix would be though.

You would need a 2nd good remote and base unit to determine which one is really broken.

[The Robman]

Somebody else just posted a pic of the insides of a URC-9910.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8669/9910.jpg

The RF puck is the circle all the way to the right, and the modem coil is the white plastic circle slightly to the left of that.

[akkhandelwal]

Thanks to all for the advice.

I did open the remote and found that the RF module had broken loose from the connector, in the process damaging the PCB at the terminal

I was able to trace the broken connections and soldered tiny wires upto the connectors and solder them back to the terminals. Now it works without any problems.

While putting the RF module back, I added extra cushions so that it has no place to move in the housing, to avoid a similar situation in future.

[The Robman]

Congratulations. It feels good to be able to fix things like this, doesn't it?

[msrivastava]

This is a great forum guys -

Needed some help and so logged in.
I have a 9910 remote.

I fried the base unit by plugging it directly into 220 V supply in India - its a 110V unit I purchased from US.

Any help available on how to open the Base unit - wanted to look around to see what I had damaged inside and if I can replace some parts to get it set right....

[radunn]

Thanks to all for the advice.

I did open the remote and found that the RF module had broken loose from the connector, in the process damaging the PCB at the terminal

I was able to trace the broken connections and soldered tiny wires upto the connectors and solder them back to the terminals. Now it works without any problems.

While putting the RF module back, I added extra cushions so that it has no place to move in the housing, to avoid a similar situation in future.

Hi,
I seem to have the same problem you repaired. Is this responsible for the red indicator to flash when a button is pressed and is there a small red plastic bulb attached to the front of this RF puck/module? Mine is broke in half and the light does not light when buttons are pressed .. and, there is no communication the the IR/RF command ctr.. However the remote works fine when directly pointed at assigned devices.

Can you advise me as to where to look for the 4pin connections that might be broken and how you cushioned it?

In advance thanks for your time and support.