Real pain this is...

I have just installed Sky + and during the upgrade (from standard Sky)
my BlueDelta Smart-Blaster got damaged. The male RF connector broke
off the PCB (inside the pass-through plug). I tried re-soldering it to
no avail (although it's years since I did this sort of thing at
school). I then went miles to Maplins to buy a replacement and they
only had the Eye's in stock, not the Blasters, and would not be re-
stocking them! So, I went up the road a bit and bought a "Magic Eye"
just to get me out of jail and keep the kids from climbing the walls.

The Magic Eye, once installed, doesn't work properly! Only some of the
buttons on my SKY+ remote are recognised by the device, others have no
response at all when pressed.

I do suspect that the one I bought might be a hooky copy as it's from
a firm called Mercury Telecraft Ltd, whose telephone number is dead
when dialled. Although my unit looks exactly like the one here...

http://pembrokeshiregift.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=224

...and this says it's compatible with SKY+ boxes.

Any ideas?
Cheers

wrote in message 
news:92bfc7d7-1e9b-4bb8-9fdc-ffd48c1b8bbd@i76g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Real pain this is...
>
> I have just installed Sky + and during the upgrade (from standard Sky)
> my BlueDelta Smart-Blaster got damaged. The male RF connector broke
> off the PCB (inside the pass-through plug). I tried re-soldering it to
> no avail (although it's years since I did this sort of thing at
> school). I then went miles to Maplins to buy a replacement and they
> only had the Eye's in stock, not the Blasters, and would not be re-
> stocking them! So, I went up the road a bit and bought a "Magic Eye"
> just to get me out of jail and keep the kids from climbing the walls.
>
> The Magic Eye, once installed, doesn't work properly! Only some of the
> buttons on my SKY+ remote are recognised by the device, others have no
> response at all when pressed.
>
> I do suspect that the one I bought might be a hooky copy as it's from
> a firm called Mercury Telecraft Ltd, whose telephone number is dead
> when dialled. Although my unit looks exactly like the one here...
>
> http://pembrokeshiregift.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=224
>
> ...and this says it's compatible with SKY+ boxes.
>
> Any ideas?
> Cheers

My Pyramid I use for this job will not work if the Sky remote is pointed 
directly at it. I have to point it in the general direction and bounce it 
off the ceiling or the walls.

It may work for you . Worth a try.

Gary

On 6 Jun, 15:06, "Gary"  wrote:
>  wrote in message
>
> news:92bfc7d7-1e9b-4bb8-9fdc-ffd48c1b8bbd@i76g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > Real pain this is...
>
> > I have just installed Sky + and during the upgrade (from standard Sky)
> > my BlueDelta Smart-Blaster got damaged. The male RF connector broke
> > off the PCB (inside the pass-through plug). I tried re-soldering it to
> > no avail (although it's years since I did this sort of thing at
> > school). I then went miles to Maplins to buy a replacement and they
> > only had the Eye's in stock, not the Blasters, and would not be re-
> > stocking them! So, I went up the road a bit and bought a "Magic Eye"
> > just to get me out of jail and keep the kids from climbing the walls.
>
> > The Magic Eye, once installed, doesn't work properly! Only some of the
> > buttons on my SKY+ remote are recognised by the device, others have no
> > response at all when pressed.
>
> > I do suspect that the one I bought might be a hooky copy as it's from
> > a firm called Mercury Telecraft Ltd, whose telephone number is dead
> > when dialled. Although my unit looks exactly like the one here...
>
> >http://pembrokeshiregift.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&produ...
>
> > ...and this says it's compatible with SKY+ boxes.
>
> > Any ideas?
> > Cheers
>
> My Pyramid I use for this job will not work if the Sky remote is pointed
> directly at it. I have to point it in the general direction and bounce it
> off the ceiling or the walls.
>
> It may work for you . Worth a try.
>
> Gary

Hi Gary,

Thanks for that. I should have realised beforehand!
It's exactly the same way I have to go about getting my wife and/or
kids to do something for me :)
And, yes, it's my request that has to be bounced off the ceiling and
walls, not my wife and/or kids!

As it happens, the solution to my problem came to me in a brief moment
of inspiration, yesterday morning!
Before leaving for work, I again tried to use the Sky+ remote with my
set-up and, surprise surprise, all the buttons now worked as they
should, in conjunction with the Sky+ box, located behind the wall onto
which my LCD HD TV is mounted. After a bit of head-scratching, I
realised what was going on... my TV is a Philips Cineos LCD with Ambi-
light features (for those who don't know, Ambi-light is a dynamically
lit 'glow', around the picture area of the TV, which matches the
dominant hue of the current frame as displayed in the picture area).
The glow from the 'Ambi-light' system was interfering with the IR
signal to the MagicEye, from the SKY+ remote! Disabling the Ambi-light
resulted in the MagicEye controlling the SKY+ box exactly as it
should!

Who knows how much time I may have spent resolving this issue, had I
not experienced this brief (and unexpected) moment of enlightenment?

How can I re-post this to make it easily found by others with the same
problem?

Cheers
deano.

wrote in message 
news:7109295c-fd82-4d42-ac8d-6feb27634f51@b1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> On 6 Jun, 15:06, "Gary"  wrote:
>>  wrote in message
>>
>> news:92bfc7d7-1e9b-4bb8-9fdc-ffd48c1b8bbd@i76g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>
>>
>> > Real pain this is...
>>
>> > I have just installed Sky + and during the upgrade (from standard Sky)
>> > my BlueDelta Smart-Blaster got damaged. The male RF connector broke
>> > off the PCB (inside the pass-through plug). I tried re-soldering it to
>> > no avail (although it's years since I did this sort of thing at
>> > school). I then went miles to Maplins to buy a replacement and they
>> > only had the Eye's in stock, not the Blasters, and would not be re-
>> > stocking them! So, I went up the road a bit and bought a "Magic Eye"
>> > just to get me out of jail and keep the kids from climbing the walls.
>>
>> > The Magic Eye, once installed, doesn't work properly! Only some of the
>> > buttons on my SKY+ remote are recognised by the device, others have no
>> > response at all when pressed.
>>
>> > I do suspect that the one I bought might be a hooky copy as it's from
>> > a firm called Mercury Telecraft Ltd, whose telephone number is dead
>> > when dialled. Although my unit looks exactly like the one here...
>>
>> >http://pembrokeshiregift.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&produ...
>>
>> > ...and this says it's compatible with SKY+ boxes.
>>
>> > Any ideas?
>> > Cheers
>>
>> My Pyramid I use for this job will not work if the Sky remote is pointed
>> directly at it. I have to point it in the general direction and bounce it
>> off the ceiling or the walls.
>>
>> It may work for you . Worth a try.
>>
>> Gary
>
> Hi Gary,
>
> Thanks for that. I should have realised beforehand!
> It's exactly the same way I have to go about getting my wife and/or
> kids to do something for me :)
> And, yes, it's my request that has to be bounced off the ceiling and
> walls, not my wife and/or kids!
>
> As it happens, the solution to my problem came to me in a brief moment
> of inspiration, yesterday morning!
> Before leaving for work, I again tried to use the Sky+ remote with my
> set-up and, surprise surprise, all the buttons now worked as they
> should, in conjunction with the Sky+ box, located behind the wall onto
> which my LCD HD TV is mounted. After a bit of head-scratching, I
> realised what was going on... my TV is a Philips Cineos LCD with Ambi-
> light features (for those who don't know, Ambi-light is a dynamically
> lit 'glow', around the picture area of the TV, which matches the
> dominant hue of the current frame as displayed in the picture area).
> The glow from the 'Ambi-light' system was interfering with the IR
> signal to the MagicEye, from the SKY+ remote! Disabling the Ambi-light
> resulted in the MagicEye controlling the SKY+ box exactly as it
> should!
>
> Who knows how much time I may have spent resolving this issue, had I
> not experienced this brief (and unexpected) moment of enlightenment?
>
> How can I re-post this to make it easily found by others with the same
> problem?
>
> Cheers
> deano.

Google will pick this up I should think.

It is very quick.

Glad your sorted now.

Gary