tekdroid Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 The good news!I have overcome my fear of RM-MC40ELK dissection.The bad news!It took the death of the remote to do it (more on that later).The good news!It's quite easy (with a bit of force and a bit of care) to open her up after you have unscrewed that single screw, so you can clean out dust, etc. If you are the type of person annoyed by that spec, you know what to do (and you know who you are!).The bad news!The MZ-NH1 - the model this remote came with - is lost without this remote. Seriously hampered. No, another remote won't enable all her features. While the MZ-NH1 spends her life looking understated and simple, inside there's not much there. She's very much in need of someone to discover all her features. Ah, such is the price of minimalist vanity.The good news. * Remote died before unit has (Hi-MD unit is still living. Yesssss)* We have some quick pics?Observations* The scroll wheel seems to be made by ALPS; if you remove the scroll wheel it says ALPS on the back (not pictured).* the white bit behind LCD is the backlight bit, which shines the light through the LCD glass. I'm sure someone could mod this to make it brighter * I have been through hell with this remote, and giving this remote the (controlled) hell I did, I had some darkish bits in my display caused by sun(light) damage. ie. when backlit, some areas had bits that were uneven (ie. darker). Anyway, the white backlight bit I mentioned...well that part on my unit was slightly scorched by the sun (brown spots on the white panel). The fix? Simply wiping the brown spots off. Hooray, no more darkish backlit areas on the display. The bad news?A full dissection and put-her-back-together did not fix her up, despite these discoveries. The problem was?Let me tell you the tale:*cue harps*The remote's behaviour can best be described as: WEIRD. VERY VERY WEIRD.Let me provide a summary (?). 1) unit seems to want to record (yes, record) every time the remote is attached. ie. you just attach a remote to a unit (any unit) and it will turn the unit will wake up, acting like you pressed a button, (I had no stuck buttons). Scared it would wipe a disc, I disconnected the remote, took the disc out and write-protected it. If you inserted a protected disc, it would flash PROTECTED constantly. If you had a low battery , it would do the NOT ENOUGH POWER TO REC thing. Basically, I confirmed it wants to record every time you attach the remote to it. Other remotes? Work normal, as expected on the same units!2) the STOP button - every time I pressed it - acted as if it were record, too. I kid you not.3) at one point, (though it only happened once) the track forward and back buttons controlled the VOLUME (I am not kiddnig you). Crazy! I know how this sounds, but all this happened.4) at some points you could see about a million different menus flash up every second and repeat constantly. Obviously something was digging into those menus but it sure as hell wasn't any physical button or wheel.5) scroll wheel would only work when you pressed down on it. But here's where it gets interesting... randomly... like about 2% of the time... the scroll wheel went back to working just as it always has. But it only happened 3 times or so... 98% of the time (and up til this point) no more workee unless pressed down. Absolutely no response to scrolling (yet scrollng it would still turn the backlight on!... sometimes). Yeah, I know...weird.Now, before this, over the past few weeks, I did have the remote once or twice not responding to next track or previous track, or PLAY... from memory. I sort of scratched my head at that, but thought nothing of it, really.So anyway, this crazy remote made itself known today while I was minding my own, listening to some music in Group Playback mode. Group Play ended like normal and I pressed PLAY by feel again, like I normally do... and there's no music. I looked at the display and it was... to my shock, in either REC or REC PAUSE mode (!). Pressing stop was useless, as mentioned.ConclusionAnd so with all said and done, time for a new (expensive) remote...which I am not exactly enjoying having to buy.Anyway, goodbye MC-RM40ELK, we shared some good times, my friend.Rain (!), scorching sun (!), cold... ahh the memories. Thousands of KM on bike. Crazy recording sessions.I guess this is the end *sniff*Love,MZ-NH1 & tekdroid.Saturday, 7th March 2009. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strungup Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 But It presents some very interesting observations ......... As in With a bit of imagination it might be possible to create a remote that has RECORD ............ On the Remote ! which would mean true stealth recording , with your HiMd .... Not Having to reach in the Bag or Sox , or Jacket or whatever Body cavity you might have hidden the device to turn on the RECORdING If in Fact it was trying to go into RECORD , then it Secretly Means , that it WAS possible , and SONY didNT Let Us HAVE IT !!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kino170878 Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 If in Fact it was trying to go into RECORD , then it Secretly Means , that it WAS possible , and SONY didNT Let Us HAVE IT !!!!!!Maybe if you shouted louder they would listen. But I doubt Sony would comply. Only if they got pushed down into a lion cage head-first like in Goodfellas, now that might work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avrin Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 It IS possible to make a remote with a REC button. All you need is to provide the required resistance between the required contacts of the remote connector. And, if you are good with the soldering iron, you can even modify an existing remote, setting this function to one of its buttons.I don't remember exact resistance values for various remote functions, but there were diagrams somewhere in these forums. And there IS a specific value for the record function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 yeah those exact thoughts (recording remote) went through my head. It's just weird how in its exasperating death the remote ended up doing what it always wanted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strungup Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Tekdroid if you want I will make an exeption , and go find you a 40ELK .You could paypal me . I have to go to AKIBA anyway next month to get parts for some repairs I am doing . I can pick one up in a shiny new package for you .email me ( in my profile I think ) or get it from Wizard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Tekdroid if you want I will make an exeption , and go find you a 40ELK .OK cool! It would be rude not to accept your exception I'll get in touch with Wiz (found out the hard way you have PMs disabled )Unexpected and appreciated. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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