URC-6131 for $8.50 - don't order!

Herbie · Post by **Herbie** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 4:59 pm

Hey all. I was worried this would get missed if I put it in the Marketplace section, hope nobody minds.

I was poking around looking for another 6131 for a friend and stumbled onto a pretty good price from X10.com for lots of the URC remotes.

EDIT: X10 is backordered from their supplier, and has no friggen idea when they're going to get remotes in stock. But they happily charged my CC a week ago and didn't bother to contact me about it. NEVERMIND.

Cheers and Happy Holidays.

Herbie · Post by **Herbie** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 5:02 pm

One other thing: The default is that when you add the remote to your cart, it will automatically add the $5.99 "Auto Replacement Plan" too.

Make sure you select "Purchase without Warranty" or remove the item from the cart BEFORE you checkout!

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 6:30 pm

Remember also that these will be un-modified remotes, so you will also want to place an order for some EEPROMs and 6-pin connectors.

Herbie · Post by **Herbie** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:03 pm

Yeah, I was already ordering some other stuff from Mauser, so they got tossed in.

Normally I'd just buy from you (and I just did), but given that price and the fact that I need several of them, this was a good way to save a little money and I'll just do them in an assembly line...

Expect an email next week asking for advice on how to open them up!

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:53 pm

There's detailed advice on opening remotes here...
http://www.hifi-remote.com/jp1/disassemble/

The way I do it is to use a very small screwdriver top pop open the first clip. I hold the remote upside down with the battery compartment side facing me, then I use the screwdriver to open the upper right hand corner.

Once the first clip is popped, I slide a plastic putty knife into the crack and slide it around the opening to pop the rest of the clips. You can get plastic putty knives from the hardware store for about $1. If you don't have one available, you can also use an old credit card (but be prepared to trash the card).

I solder in the 6-pin connector first, then I place the PCB back into the lower half of the remote casing (to hold it in place). I then place the EEPROM onto the U2 spot and hold it in place with tweezers. I have a long thin tip on my iron (which kinda looks like a sharpened pencil). I lay the tip down across pins 1 thru 4 soldering them all at once. This also serves to hold the chip in place while I individually solder pins 5 thru 8. Remember, it's OK for the solder to bleed between pins 1 thru 4, but not for pins 5 thru 8.

I then put in the batteries and lay the button sheet down on the PCB so I can work the buttons, and I do a 981 reset. If you get 2-short, 1-long blink, you need to go back and check your work, if you get 4-short blinks, all is good so far, now you just need to try a download to check the 6-pin connections. If that works, you're done, now you just need to re-assemble the remote.

Herbie · Post by **Herbie** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 10:45 am

You da' man. Thanks.

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 12:46 pm

How much does URC save by excluding the EEPROM and pins? I'm not sure what the marketing decision is behind making the best remotes on the market and selling them crippled.

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:03 pm

As far as OFA is concerned these remotes are not crippled, after all (apart from JP1, which they don't support) what is it that the remote cannot do without the EEPROM on board?

They probably save 50 cents a remote, which over a million remotes is $500k. Plus 50 cents at wholesale translates to a couple of bucks at retail.

The way they look at it is this, they save 1/2 a mil making the remotes, then they eat the cost of the 1 or 2 thousand service remotes that they need to create to replace the remotes that get sent in for upgrade.

From my POV, I'm quite glad that this popular remote ships out like this, because it's opened up a little niche for me to do the modified remotes.

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:51 pm

Thanks, Rob! Which leads to the next question... How many remotes do you modify? And how much income do you make from this little hobby?

Herbie · Post by **Herbie** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:31 am

Lurker wrote:How much does URC save by excluding the EEPROM and pins? I'm not sure what the marketing decision is behind making the best remotes on the market and selling them crippled.

At my day job we design and build Cable Modems (lots more complex and expensive than these remotes), and if I could give my boss an easy way to save $0.50 per unit, I'd probably get a promotion and a bonus.

We kill ourselves to drive cost of our product, so I can totally understand that saving $0.50 on something that probably costs like $3 to make is a huge BOM savings percentage-wise.

Post by **The Robman** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:55 am

Lurker wrote:Thanks, Rob! Which leads to the next question... How many remotes do you modify? And how much income do you make from this little hobby?

I can't possibly estimate how many 6131s I've done, but it's got to be several hundred. Look at it this way, apart from the ones that people have modified themselves or got back from UEI with an upgrade, I've done all of them!

I don't know how much extra income I've made either (and if I did, I wouldn't tell

), but it did help me pay my property tax bill this year.

Herbie · Post by **Herbie** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 4:26 pm

NOTE: X10.com is out of stock on these, but doesn't really "know" it, it took a week AFTER they'd charged my card before I had to get on the phone to get someone to figure it out. I'm a schmuck, don't order these. First post has been edited.