Before we start this tale, I want to lay the groundwork by saying the remote for the Freya has always been finicky. You have to point the remote directly and straight-forward at the IR sensor for it to work. If you are "off-axis" at all, the remote won't work.
But here's where it gets interesting (well, interesting if you like stories about remote controls).......
We had some friends over a few days ago, and one of their kids stuck the sharp end of a pencil into the hole on the front of the Freya where the IR sensor is. It wasn't powered on and no one was injured during this exploration by the tiny person.
The Freya looked ok and undamaged, but when I powered it up the remote no longer worked. Obviously they had damaged part of the IR sensor.
I pulled the tubes and all the cables and looked into the chassis with a flashlight. The IR sensor is just a little black blob of a thing that looks like a resistor, with two metal legs soldered to the board. The pencil had bent the sensor over and away from the hole on the chassis. No wonder it didn't work!
Without disassembling the darn thing I was able to reach into one of the tube holes on the top of the chassis and gently bend the sensor back up against the hole.
I put it all back together and low and behold - it not only worked again, its fixed all the off-axis issues that were present from the factory! I can actually use the remote without wanting to throw the damn thing across the room! I can be sitting in a side chair and use the remote!!!! Whoo hoo!
So if you have a Freya and the remote doesn't seem to work unless you're doing some sort of annoyed rain-dance-twist to get it to respond to the remote, you may want to try this tweak. Note that you should probably replace the battery in the remote first. Simple fixes first.
Disclaimer if you try this:
- I'm not responsible for you breaking the IR sensor. It's a fragile looking thing - so be careful.
- I'm not responsible for you electrocuting yourself. Seriously - unplug it first.
- It still may not work. I'm no engineer, just a dude with a DIY tip.
But here's where it gets interesting (well, interesting if you like stories about remote controls).......
We had some friends over a few days ago, and one of their kids stuck the sharp end of a pencil into the hole on the front of the Freya where the IR sensor is. It wasn't powered on and no one was injured during this exploration by the tiny person.
The Freya looked ok and undamaged, but when I powered it up the remote no longer worked. Obviously they had damaged part of the IR sensor.
I pulled the tubes and all the cables and looked into the chassis with a flashlight. The IR sensor is just a little black blob of a thing that looks like a resistor, with two metal legs soldered to the board. The pencil had bent the sensor over and away from the hole on the chassis. No wonder it didn't work!
Without disassembling the darn thing I was able to reach into one of the tube holes on the top of the chassis and gently bend the sensor back up against the hole.
I put it all back together and low and behold - it not only worked again, its fixed all the off-axis issues that were present from the factory! I can actually use the remote without wanting to throw the damn thing across the room! I can be sitting in a side chair and use the remote!!!! Whoo hoo!
So if you have a Freya and the remote doesn't seem to work unless you're doing some sort of annoyed rain-dance-twist to get it to respond to the remote, you may want to try this tweak. Note that you should probably replace the battery in the remote first. Simple fixes first.
Disclaimer if you try this:
- I'm not responsible for you breaking the IR sensor. It's a fragile looking thing - so be careful.
- I'm not responsible for you electrocuting yourself. Seriously - unplug it first.
- It still may not work. I'm no engineer, just a dude with a DIY tip.