Bug-Man’s Blog

I bought one from eBay. At $8 + $5 shipping, who could refuse!

It has arrived and it’s been somewhat successful so far! Field tests will continue.

When it arrived I found it to be compact and lightweight, which exactly what you want. It’s around 1×1.5 inches by about 0.5cm thick. It has a small key-chain clasp that means you can carry it everywhere, and it’s comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

The functions are Power, Channel Up/Down, Mute, Volume Up/Down, and AV/TV. When I received it I went for a walk around the city looking for easy prey. Down the mall I went! I’m not going to explain exactly *where* I went, because I don’t want to incriminate myself, however I will describe what happened.

First I walked down the mall attempting to turn off a few screens. To do this you need to hold down the power button and the remote will cycle through its known power-off codes and eventually reach the one for the TV you are pointing to (if it is programmed in.) Depending on which order the codes are in, this can take some time. In different countries they do use different brands, and since this was imported from America I have a feeling the Australian codes are further down the sequence list, because I did find that for some TVs it took longer than expected to find the right code.

Initial tests down the mall were unsuccessful and my confidence at using the device has not matured yet. I walked past one store which had two screens and I thought I had been successful in turning off one when it went black, but it started playing again and for a moment I had thought that I’d turned it back on. After watching it for another 30 seconds or so I realised that this was the sequence of video playing on the screen and that my test had been unsuccessful here. I was probably too far away and the mall was just that little bit crowded at that time so I moved along to see what else I could find.

Many stores sets were well within their doors so would have required entry before I was able to wreak havoc. I moved along. One of my work colleagues was accompanying me and we went into a food hall. Stopping by a rather large television retailer we walked, as many do, to admire the plasma screens and CRTs that lined the walls. I walked to a covert area, held the device in the palm of my hand and held the button, aimed roughly at a couple of sets. The left-most set and the right-most set both turned off, the centre set remaining on. I’d released my grip by now and so wasn’t willing to try it again, but as I talked to my friend I held the remote towards another set and let it rip. Within about 10 seconds it had found the right sequence and the TV was off!

I took a phone call. We exited the store and I talked on the mobile, all the while attemting to turn off a super large jumbo massive set at the front of the store. I couldn’t do it. Either I didn’t have the range or the sensor was blocked by a display of small boxes. I moved along.

Returning to work I tried it on an AKAI TV set. It worked for Power and channel, but didn’t appear to work for anything else. I will try it later on and I’ll get better!

After leaving work I managed to turn off one set advertising products in the store and then turn it back on, but I couldn’t change its channels. It’s unsuccessful with a Grundig, but works on a Loewe.

Field tests to continue!