C860 & Rh2 Remote

[d.maddock1]

I just bought an 860 with remote from pricejapan and they sent me the rh2 model remote.  It doesn't seem to work with either the sharp or kino2 players (I use cacko).

The rh2 box only lists the c3000 model.  Does anyone know if this is supported on the 860?

[ltrm]

I've got a sinking feeling that the 860 can only work witht the rh1 remote. :-(

Electrically, it would be interesting to know what the difference between the two is.

[TRIsoft]

Hi Maddock1,

sorry, but the CE-RH2 is working only with the SL-C3000 and
the PC-CV Muramasa Notebook series.

Main differences are different function positions and the "Zaurus"
logo on the CE-RH1 while the CE-RH2 only shows "SHARP"  

Due to the fact that a CE-RH1 will not work with a C3000 and a
CE-RH2 won't do anything with another model we expect that
SHARP has changed the whole electrical part in it. Otherwise
the buttons should work (even if the functions will not be what
is written on it).

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

[pelrun]

I've got a sneaking suspicion that the main difference between the two remotes is that the ground and key lines have been swapped around.

The ce-rh1 counter-intuitively has the key wired to the sheath of the connector (which is usually ground on 3.5mm plugs) and the ground is the first ring. When I wired up my own remote I got them the wrong way around and produced something that on my C860 gave the same symptoms as experienced by those who tried ce-rh1's on the new hardware.

I could be completely wrong, of course; and even if I'm right the buttons may be wired up in a different order - which would require some keyhelper hacking to work around. It might be worth someone's while to build a simple adapter to swap the wires over and try it out...

[d.maddock1]

pelrun,

Sounds like you may be right.  I'm going to slap together an adapter tomorrow and try it out.

[d.maddock1]

Well, here's what I've gathered from closer inspection.

I opened up my remote and compared it to the photos of the rh1 found here:

http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/doggie/linu-zau/rem/rem.htm

They are virtually identical.  The only noticable difference is an extra resistor between L1 and R3 (see left photo at the above link) and a tracer or two.  Here is a photo (sorry it is so blurry.  I couldn't get my crappy digital camera to focus on it.)

http://dave.maddockfamily.com/zaurus/remote.jpg


So, I checked out your hypothesis.  You are indeed correct, the ground and key lines have been changed around.  I tested this by inserting the remote jack 3/4 of the way in in both factory-default and swapped wiring configuration.  In the first case, nothing, in the second I got audio, which indicates to me that the RH2 has the ground wired to the sheath and not the first ring.

However, swapping them does not make the remote work.  With the remote's plug 'fixed' and plugged in properly, you get no audio and no response when pressing the buttons.  I tested the buttons using the keyhelper settings program.  It wasn't catching any keycodes.

Frankly, I think Sharp simply wants to screw over its customers who are upgrading by forcing them to purchase a new remote for no logical reason.  The product is virtually identical and it appears that what changes do exist are there simply to force incompatibility.

Needless to say, I'm now in the market for an RH1.  Anyone got one lying around?

Dave.

[d.maddock1]

Just a quick update on my remote because I've received several offers to buy it.

Pricejapan was very understanding and are replacing it with an RH1 for me because of the error, so I am sending it back.  However, kudos to pricejapan for great service.  Recommended if you're looking to buy.

[pelrun]

The resistances would be the key - if they're not what the Z is expecting then it just ignores them. My own remote initially had a couple of buttons not work because I hadn't gotten the resistances close enough.

Upshot is that it's probably completely unfeasible to retask one as the other (unless the one you want is out of stock and you do hardware hacking for fun) so I'm glad priceJapan are being so helpful. They were great when I used them too

This whole issue is not necessarily Sharp being evil; as it stands my 860 tends to get a lot of spurious volume down keypresses when I plug in my microphone - so they could simply have modified the design to make those kind of problems less likely.