Remote Control hacking dought

[PedroSilva]

Hi,

I've bought a cheap remote control which is to be hacked for the purpose of changing the TV input with a button.

I've opened the remote. There's a membrane with a little black dot and on the board some kind of contact.

How do I connect my button to the board? I've tried with a metal piece to see if the remote button is activated, but it doesn't seem to be. Does it work by pression?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm kinda lost

[Minwah]

Sounds like the norm for remote controls/gamepads.  The 'black dot' is made of something that conducts electricity (carbon of some sort?).  Anyway, where the dot touches on the circuit board should have 2 seperate traces of bare metal - you need to connect a wire to each part, and connect the wires up to your button.

The principal is just the same as for hacking gamepads - there is info on that on this site somewhere (console section maybe).

[PedroSilva]

Thanks Minwah ... but one question pops up:
Doesn't the contacts where the dot will touch should be made of metal? They seem to be of the same material of the black dot. Could I solder metal do it?

[math0ne]

You should be able to scrape away the black stuff with a screw driver (gently) and then soder to the metal underneath..

[PedroSilva]

That's what I love most about this forum:
There's always someone with an answer ...

[PedroSilva]

OK ... I spotted where the contacts connect to the board. Two more questions:

If I solder the cable directly to the tracks it should work, right?

The remote emitter of IR it just like a led (maybe it is

[Minwah]

If I solder the cable directly to the tracks it should work, right?

Yes, but make sure you have scraped enough of the black stuff off to get a good contact.

The remote emitter of IR it just like a led (maybe it is  ). Can I desolder it from the board, attach it to cable and solder the cable back to the board ? It will still work ?

I would say yes, that should be fine - just make sure you get the pins the correct way around if it is an LED (diodes are particular about polarity).

[PedroSilva]

Great ... on to work.

Thanks Minwah

[toyfiend2004]

and just for clarification, pics of everything would be helpful so we can see both what needs to be done, and also the finished project if anyone wanted to do this in the future.   

[PedroSilva]

Will do as soon as there's something to see ...

[PedroSilva]

As requested. here are the pics.

The cheap remote control:


The membrane with the little black dots:


The board with the contacts:


The IR emitter: