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D-Cell Remote Co

No more irritating battery changes
  (+4)
(+4)
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Most remote controls operate with a couple of AAA-sized batteries* or worse, one of those little CR2032 lithium coin cells. I understand manufacturers want their remotes to be compact and sleek but, after talking to people this seems to be misguided.

No one is bothered by how large/heavy a remote is, within some reasonable constraints. Everyone hates losing the remote, and it usually gets lost because it's slim enough to slide between sofa cushions or hide under a magazine. Everyone has had a remote with dying batteries that cause annoyance. So, the solution.

You're buying a new TV, you admire the luxuriously large box and note the model number. You head over to the D-Cell Remote co website and order up a remote for your TV. A couple of days later and a reassuringly heavy box arrives in the mail. Inside is a reasonable replica of your TV's original remote, but the back section of the plastic molding has been redesigned and massively expanded to hold 2 D-cell batteries which come pre- installed for convenience. Instead of 650mAh AAA cells that might last a year, we have 30,000mAh that will see you into the next decade or more. You could easily double the power of the little IR LED for more range, and there's much less chance you'll lose the thing**.

As a bonus, the D-Cell remote is likely to be on hand, and effective in a home-defense scenario.

*Each one is technically a cell, multiple cells make a battery, but whenever I refer to cells correctly, it seems to generate confusion. **Especially if you select the "EZ-find" fluorescent option with the mini-strobe.

bs0u0155, Dec 17 2021

Zinc Air Large Capacity Battery https://www.battery...strial-battery.html
[bs0u0155, Dec 17 2021]

Obviously I was not the first to think of a gun shaped remote. https://patents.goo...atent/US5253068A/en
[xandram, Dec 18 2021]

My Remote (boring AAA batterys) https://www.amazon....odels/dp/B07MG42VN5
[bs0u0155, Dec 20 2021]

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       I would like a remote control with a crank handle to generate a small amount of electricity to make it work
hippo, Dec 17 2021
  

       Surely pressing the buttons could generate electricity   

       Also waving it around like an automatic watch
pocmloc, Dec 17 2021
  

       Or go retro and have it attached to the tv with a cord.
RayfordSteele, Dec 17 2021
  

       //If someone would offer this size with a Li-FeS2 chemistry//   

       meh, it's within a few % of standard alkaline chemistries. Zinc Air (link) is where it's at for ultimate capacity.
bs0u0155, Dec 17 2021
  

       Liquid fossil fuels are much more energy dense than the best batteries.   

       2-stroke pull-start remote is the obvious solution
pocmloc, Dec 17 2021
  

       //Liquid fossil fuels are much more energy dense than the best batteries. 2-stroke pull-start remote is the obvious solution//   

       The FUEL might be more energy dense, but the conversion to kinetic energy by the engine is dreadful, then the conversion from kinetic to electrical, poor. Then some form of storage? How does it compare to Zinc-air? Lets have a look at some numbers:   

       Zinc air is 0.4Whr/gram. Which is 1440J/g   

       Gasoline is about 46000J/g. BUT, a tiny 2 stroke engine will be lucky to get to ~20% efficient (9200J/g). The electrical generator on that scale will be ~60% (5520 J/g) and probably another 10% loss in rectification/commutator losses (4960J/g). So, still good. But, how are you using it? You're not going to pull-start it for each time you press a button, so do you leave it idling for the length of the show? The whole evening? At that scale, you'd probably want to go with a nitro engine, they're compression-ignition 2 stroke & valve less, so a lot easier to make at that scale. Although the fuel is less energy dense and the efficiency is horrible.   

       /I zink your link is on zee blink./   

       Fixed.
bs0u0155, Dec 17 2021
  

       Just give the remote wireless charging capacity and a charging cradle. It won't ever actually be there, but you can pretend.
MechE, Dec 17 2021
  

       //give the remote wireless charging capacity//   

       Knock off replacement remotes are in the $10 range. Building in wireless charging might be tough to get down to price.   

       //It won't ever actually be there// So no one will know if it actually works? Great! Slap the sticker on the box and ship it!
bs0u0155, Dec 17 2021
  

       Retro cord with pushbutton rewind like the better vacuums used to have.
RayfordSteele, Dec 17 2021
  

       + I think this sounds useful. Maybe reshaping the remote to look like a handgun or some thing where the two large batteries can be stored.That way it wouldn’t be awkward to hold and everyone wants to shoot their television!
xandram, Dec 18 2021
  

       //but Apple iPhone and Apple Watch can both be used as remotes for supported products.//   

       Another example of Apple's marketing. They do it all the time "Look at this shiny feature (implications of exclusivity) apple products have... " when I have had apps controlling my various AV tech for years, Roku/Samsung/LG. The apps are never as good as a dedicated device, having to unlock your phone, pull up an app and have no tactile way of finding the correct button. Not a great experience.   

       //Maybe reshaping the remote to look like a handgun//   

       Guns famously have a small number of buttons related to a core featureset, remote controls have a fairly large number of buttons. Although the ability to reshape the remote is interesting, maybe re-prioritize is a better phrase. The remote for my TV <link> has the emphasis all wrong. It has very large buttons for numbers and channel up/down, but I never use these. The buttons I use most are the little play/pause/stop buttons way down the bottom. It's clear that the remote design still assumes the main use is over- the-air broadcast rather than streaming applications/other inputs.
bs0u0155, Dec 20 2021
  

       What do you people do, that your remotes run out of batteries all the time? I've had my current TV for nearly 11 years; I think (not entirely sure...) I've replaced the batteries once.
Also, gun remotes exist. I've seen ads for them, but not a real one. Very basic; just channel, volume, power (maybe mute?) IIRC.
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 23 2021
  

       //What do you people do, that your remotes run out of batteries all the time?//   

       Well, the number of apps necessitates an awful lot of menu navigation. Lots of things need signing in, which needs a lot of booping about on alphanumeric menus. Then there's the apps that you need to keep moving, lest the autoplay a loud trailer at you. But, honestly I think the remotes spend a good amount of time wedged between sofa cushions with the buttons pressed.
bs0u0155, Dec 23 2021
  

       So what you need there are sofa cushions intelligent enough to creep or ooze away from the buttons. The mattresses of Squornshellous Zeta would probably make a good starting point.
pertinax, Dec 24 2021
  


 

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