A Repairable Remote Control?!

Here's another reminder to take the batteries out of stuff that isn't being used. Whoever designed this should have been given an award. It's the first remote control I've ever seen where you can leave the profanity, dynamite, bench vise and service mallet at home. What is this sorcery?
This is a slight variation on the remote control Zenith included with a new TV for the last few years they made CRT TV sets. I've always thought it was an excellent design -- easy to use and comfortable to hold. Two patents are mentioned on the battery cover, though neither are "design" patents:
patents.google...
patents.google...
Does anyone want to try and track down the design patent, if there was one?
No, I don't know what's up with the audio in parts of this video, other than to say it's just another great example of why I think a purpose built camcorder still reigns supreme.

[@uxwbill]

Just a quick word before things get too far along -- I encourage and explicitly allow you to take measures such that you can watch this video without annoyances. If I get in trouble for saying so, well, it's been fun!

[@ArlenMoulton2]

You sir, have got to be one of the most wholesome KZbinrs out there, not only for allowing us to block annoyances, but also the incredibly varied and interesting content you make, and for this I thank you!

[@beastlygota]

Rarely have I seen a small, plastic, doomed-to-be-e-waste like device be so serviceable in recent times. I know it comes from an older TV set, but wow. The engineering team behind it really did their job well.

[@The_Magic_of_Zelda]

Very rare to find any tech device that is user serviceable anymore.

[@raym9691]

Good to see you back making videos again, too bad it's not cold enough for cold starts... always enjoyed the cooking videos like Christmas and Thanksgiving and the new years 🎉

[@KaidoFujimi]

Good to see another video from you, Bill. Hope to enjoy some more content from you in the future.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I remember having a zenith remote that looked a lot like this, great design and comfortable remote all round

[@johnbuonarobo7779]

Hey William. Glad to see you post. Hope u and ur family doing well. Happy holidays my friend.

[@curiosity2314]

Probably and thoughtfully designed for cleaning of the pads.

[@ENB2002]

In a world where everything these days seems to be designed explicitly to prevent user disassembly, this is a welcome breath of fresh air. Thanks for sharing!

[@uxwbill]

I really debated making this video. On the one hand, I thought it rather silly to make a video about something so mundane and ordinarily that most people are never going to repair. On the other, I was quite seriously astonished that Zenith designed this remote so it could be taken apart nonviolently. I'm not sure I can really express how _surprised_ I was! (The kind of things I get excited about...) So, I thought it definitely deserved some recognition, years after the fact. It'd really be something if one of the designers came along after all of these years and found this video. To them I would say, yes, someone noticed and cared about the thought that went into this.

[@cdogtheyoutuber1511]

just wanted to say love the wide variety of content on this channel thank you for posting videos about a wide variety of content from computers to cars to cooking to a little bit of everything

[@MadITGeek]

My Zenith TV I had as a kid/teenager had a remote that looked exactly like that one, but with a Zenith logo on it. never knew it came apart that easily, nice!

[@JoshsYouTube]

I love the videos. Its a special day when a new uxwbill video shows up in my feed.

[@joshmatthiesen4552]

I subscribed. Really thought I had done that years ago lol. I know I’ve been watching your videos for a long time. So not sure why I wasn’t subscribed. But glad to see a new video. Even if not long. Hope all is well with you and your family. Happy new year sir.

[@vwestlife]

It was certainly designed better than the microphone of the camera you were using. Was that a smartphone that couldn't make up its mind on whether to use the front or back microphones?

[@uxwbill]

iPad Mini 6.

[@redneckbryon]

Growing up in the 90s my father always left the TV remote on his cup of coffee or juice until one day, it’s slipped in nose first. I believe it was an OEM JVC, or Panasonic remote can’t quite remember what the TV was now, since this happened in like 94, I was 9. In this case, getting a universal remote could have been an option, but we would have lost a lot of TV functions, since we just had regular cable at the time. Luckily, it did have screws so we were able to, take it apart dry it out and it worked perfectly fine afterwards.

[@JeffCD77]

I've gotta say, in the 46 years that I've been on this Earth, the idea of repairing a remote control has never once crossed my mind. I've always considered them a consumable item. If they stop working, buy a new one. Although, I will say, I don't think I've ever had one that stopped functioning.

[@crazycincyguy]

My grandma's tv had this remote. She had a circa 2000 Zenith Console TV. I think hers may of had a few more buttons then this on it but it followed this general design.

[@ppoutine]

Always love hearing from the world of uxwbill!

[@jasejj]

For all that they were clever, they didn't think to physically separate the battery compartment from the circuit board as was standard practice among Japanese manufacturers in the 1980s. Had they done this it may have been salvageable.

[@mikeall7012]

Wow we had that remote, when I was a teenager, for our basement TV. Nostalgia waves.

[@HiVizCamo]

Not surprised the Zenith folks did so well with such a small detail, glad to see that. I'd be interested in seeing if this could be salvaged, if only on general principle. All my family ever bought for decades was Zenith, my dad wouldn't touch Sony or Panasonic with a 10' barge pole, again on general principle 😃

[@theericfreeze1493]

I've never actually encountered a remote like this but I've worked with various garage door remotes that come apart easily.

[@nknasi]

whenever I see a b-body caprice wagon in the wild, I think of your blue one and wonder if the rust in the spare tire well has advanced to the point of the spare tire falling through.

[@TheScramblerTV]

Remote controls are both extremely affordable and extremely simple. 99.99% of people would never bother to repair one. And yet, some engineer decided to make a small effort towards making it more repairable. I truly hope that engineer is doing well. I also wish that more people would be like them, many modern electronics are deliberately designed to be less repairable. It is sad to see how much society has fallen over the last ~25 years.

[@AiOinc1]

That is some incredible battery damage in there, wow. Also, what a fantastic design. The board is so well laid out too - They even left the part number on that microcontroller for you! Repairable products don't get enough recognition. I've had a remote that was repairable, not quite as well as this though. It was an early programmable remote for a VCR. 6 screws, 9 volt battery. It had an LCD on top. I think it was called a VCRPlus or something. Is this a kitchen table I spy?

[@igorfilin8342]

Hello, Bill! Nice to see you, it's rare. Will wait for a New Year vid!

[@isaac24]

Happy belated birthday William!

[@xoddf2]

When I was a young child, I would simply throw a remote control at the wall to open it.

[@eDoc2020]

My ceiling fan RF remote (circa 1995) also comes apart without plastic clips.

[@lmull3]

Wow, I wish every remote was like this! Ashame the batteries ate those traces for breakfast, lunch AND dinner.

[@uxwbill]

I think "brunch" was probably also involved somewhere.

[@oledcrt]

I’ve only ever had to repair one remote and it pretty much came apart like this one. It was a gray/silver Samsung something or other.

[@twocvbloke]

A repairable remote control?? There's a rare thing... :P

[@OBC-radio]

“The Quality Goes In Before the Name Goes On” - Zenith, another great American company “lost to the sands of time”…

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

More like whimpered out and became a shell of it's former self. Or maybe it was there earlier marketing that really put a contrast on their drop in quality. All television sets where becoming cheaper and naster. It's just that Zenith REALLY stood out.

[@reaper15a]

@@qwertykeyboard5901 No, it was Walmart, same thing happened with Magnavox.

[@uxwbill]

@@reaper15a It wasn't entirely Wal-Mart. Zenith found themselves in a difficult position, lacking the resources to bring new designs to market. They spread themselves very thin, branching out into things like electronics kits (Heathkit) and computers. It sure didn't help that the last of the large picture tubes they made in their own facilities were junk. (Zenith closed their facility where those tubes were made and switched to large picture tubes from Philips or Thomson, a move that probably came too late.) Back in the early 2000s, my father and I were in the market for a new TV. The choices came down to a Sanyo at Wal-Mart and a Zenith from an independent dealer, both with 27" screens. We bought the Zenith, wanting to support a small/local business, and unfortunately got bitten by their defective picture tube after about a year and a half. Years later, someone gave us a very similar if not identical Sanyo TV to the one we'd been looking at -- to this day it still has an outstanding picture. Hindsight being what it is, we should have bought the Sanyo TV. I inherited my late grandfather's 2001 27" Zenith console TV. It's still working well, though little of it was actually a Zenith product by that point. The picture tube is from Philips and I've been told it was assembled in a Magnavox plant in Tennessee. Only the chassis came from Zenith -- and who knows how much of it is really their design? It is, of course, little more than a table TV in a huge cabinet.

[@georgez8859]

Nice to hear from you Bill I wonder if that remote was designed and made in China or the US

[@uxwbill]

It was almost certainly designed in the US (around Chicago) and definitely made in Mexico.

[@Dude_behind_the_Camera_35]

When you have time would you do an update on all the vehicles still around. Like Furheads Jeep and Keykeepers EBGPOJ?

[@uxwbill]

You should ask the people who own those vehicles about them. Furhead and the Keykeeper both have their own channels. I have my doubts the EBGPOJ will ever go back together. Furhead's Jeep runs and drives, but needs a lot of work.

[@Dude_behind_the_Camera_35]

@@uxwbill Thank you for letting me know about the other channels. I do subscribe to both you and Keykeeper. Didn’t know Furhead had a channel too. I catch a video whenever they are uploaded and I enjoy them. I understand KZbin is just when there is something to film and that all of you have a private life outside of it and I respect that. I’m not one of those people who take the time to try and expose people on the internet. Keep doing what you do.

[@uxwbill]

@@Dude_behind_the_Camera_35 I _think_ all my three brothers' channels are linked somewhere on my channel page, if KZbin hasn't helpfully removed that feature as well. Furhead made a bunch of videos a while back and then stopped for reasons unknown to me. The Keykeeper hasn't made one in a while, because he works very long hours. College153 never made a lot of videos. I too find myself very busy with work stuff and just wanting downtime at the end of the day. I still generally enjoy making videos, though outside of short "one take, one upload" videos like this that don't need editing, producing a regular video is usually several hours worth of work that I can only get to on the weekends.

[@fisqual]

Love a good design like this! Thanks for sharing.

[@bbishoppcm]

My grandparents had this remote in the mid 90s… if only I had known this…

[@blakebechtel5192]

Now I know that the remote for my zenith VCR will be able to be taken apart if I need to.

[@Wehiremonkeys]

Not remote controls as such but I commonly notice that on 1980's walkmen (and similar devices) thy commonly use screws to hold the entire casing together. This is at odds to models from the mid 90's to 2000s which commonly used (evil) plastic clips making it much harder to change the belt

[@RetroPCUser]

I love my Walkman. I inspected the belt and she was nice and smooth, no goo, and plays well. Gotta fix the rechargeable battery mod since one wire broke off. I also took the Insignia remote control inside from the back yard and cleaned it, but I need to replace the one capacitor.

[@Bluethunderboom]

Zenith was merged by LG from S.Korea since somewhere in 2000's. Although it's rare to find the second-hand remote in pawn shop, flea market, garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, moving out sale, thrift store, storage warehouse, old building warehouse, and/or private electronics stores, it just really like looking for a needle in the haystack for the remote replacement. On the other hand, infrared LED may come in handy for parts replacement, same thing as for red LED to use as a pilot light for power supply, and what not. Too bad that remote circuit board traces is too far gone, and common sense tells me, if I am not using any devices, always remove batteries from the battery compartment before the battery will leak and ruin the terminals and circuit board traces. Who knows the universal remote will work on any electronics while program the universal remote, but the OEM remote maybe somewhere in right who-knows-where.

[@odius94]

An unexpected Bill?

[@Monster404ftp]

Zenith was a wonderful manufacturer until selling the last 45% of their stock to lucky goldstar? in 1999 if I remember correctly. However, the engineering that went into that remote is quite fascinating. I have not really had to get inside many remotes, but Thankfully my 1987 Panasonic CTJ-2065R 20" TV still has it's decently working OEM remote, so I have not had to go through what would normally be an absolute hassle, at least not on this unit anyway.

[@gerredstallings465]

What did this remote go to one of your TVs

[@uxwbill]

As the video says, it is a universal remote. I found it in a thrift store, still in the opened packaging it came with when new. Since I liked the design, I bought it. I didn't find out about the battery damage until much later.

[@gerredstallings465]

Yeah that stinks probably got used a lot before u got it but who knows

[@drammensveien1]

great design 👍👍👍

[@Redlightening38]

Hows the technics sa 1010 reciever doing and do you still have it?

[@uxwbill]

It needs a restoration and I don't use it very often.

[@nonsuch]

I have that same remote for a mid 90's Zenith TV. Funny.

[@eleven99]

Happy birthday, by the way

[@amyhawkins4554]

Will there be any Christmas cooking videos?

[@uxwbill]

Not that I know of.

[@TheHyperPenguin]

On my nearly 40 years on this spinning ball I can say nope havent come across a remote designed like that. Not just cause im in Ireland and Zenith didn't really take over this part of the globe. Irionically at the minute im dosing my mothers dvd remote in vinegar trying to neutralise that alkaline mess that cheap budget batteries left behind. Funny enough they are Kodak branded. I use my mobile repair kit to try and open pandoras remote box sometimes. However always leave marks in the case. Sometimes i bring them back to life with a short enough lifespan that gets me until the replacement arrives. Trying to find original replacement remotes here is a pain though. Mainly cause its knock off remotes branded and look the same that flood online markertplaces. You dont know until they arrive as well. Another thing i hate about remotes these days. One drop and its a baby's rattle toy until you pry that apart and find the broken chunk of those clips that hold it together.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I hate alkaline batteries.

[@tallboyyyy]

I used to have this exact remote but it wasn't branded Zenith. I believe it came from my local cable company and had their logo on it. It was a long while ago so I don't really remember the details and the remote is long gone.

[@uxwbill]

There were many variants of this remote control floating around. I've seen one branded "Gateway" (not the computer company, but rather some kind of home automation system) that had RF as well as IR control capability. It showed up in a local junk store and I gave a few dollars for it. Unfortunately, it fell out of my truck and I ran over it without realizing. That also proved fatal. Oh, I was mad about that!

[@WalterKnox]

I know that Charter cable (now Spectrum) has the same remotes to this day. I have two of them. Although it seems that they nolonger have the screws and snap together. also a slightly different button layout. It is very obviously derived from the same design and mould for the casing.

[@Corvette1658]

Oh yeah I got first comment and by the way happy belated birthday uxwbill.

[@supervortex8363]

nice t see you bill

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Wait a new Uxwbill video

[@uxwbill]

Nope, it's still the same old trouble you've been having for years.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

@@uxwbill lol oops typo. That should've said New Uxwbill video...

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

1:50 Ehh... Give me a few hours and I think I could resurrect something like that. It should be doable!

[@uxwbill]

Oh, it's doable and maybe not even as bad as it looks. Another one is less than $7 on eBay, and there's no shortage to choose from. So, how much do you value your time?

[@djcrownvic]

$7.00 CAD an hour@@uxwbill

[@intergalactic_Planetary]

i love uxwbill videos, i clicked this one so fast when i saw it