Harmony remote making irritating noise

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Ouranos

118 posts

Master Geek

#51384 27-Nov-2009 21:56

I've just brought a Harmony 785 advanced universal remote. Everything works OK, except that the remote makes an irritating high-pitched buzzing noise continuously whenever the screen is on. The only time the noise stops is when the screen switches off or when the remote is rebooting (eg. after updating settings).

The noise isn't loud, but in a quiet room it is loud enough to be audible from with 1m.

Is this noise normal or is the remote faulty?

bcourtney

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#277095 27-Nov-2009 21:59

Is it the remote or the cradle? I've had this remote for about 18 months or so now and find that the cradle makes this noise when it's plugged in so I simply unplug it when I'm not charging the remote

Ouranos

118 posts

Master Geek

#277096 27-Nov-2009 22:03

The noise comes from the remote itself. The cradle is currently in another room, so that isn't the cause.

bcourtney

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#277097 27-Nov-2009 22:09

Heh, just checked with my remote and sure enough it makes a high pitched noise too (as well as the cradle). Like yours, it's only when the screen is on. However I had to stick it right up to my ear to hear it!

Like I said before, I've had mine for a while now and this is the first time I've noticed it so obviously can't be as loud as yours! Either that or my home theatre system is too loud...

chiefie

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#277103 27-Nov-2009 22:26

Same as my 880, BUT you had to have it right up to your ear like.... REAL CLOSE...

TBH, it doesn't bother me as I can't hear it, we can only hear the audio from the TV over the tiny-tiny-tiny noise from the remote's screen.

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bcourtney

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#277104 27-Nov-2009 22:31

Yeah, I think you'll find that nearly everything that has a backlit LCD-type display emits this sound to some level. My iPhone does for example - but again you have to press the phone hard up to your ear to hear it!

Ouranos

118 posts

Master Geek

#277106 27-Nov-2009 22:33

Hmmm, sounds like a "feature".

I can hear it from 1m away, at least when the room is quiet (including, for example, during pauses in dialog), which is quite irritating.

chiefie

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#277108 27-Nov-2009 22:35

Yours maybe faulty, as I can't hear our one at all...

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Nety

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#277179 28-Nov-2009 10:46

Yip for sure faulty. Take it back and get it exchanged.

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Disrespective

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#277235 28-Nov-2009 15:23

My 785 is perfectly quiet. No noise from the remote. The charger does emit a sound, but that's from the wall wart as opposed to the charger itself. I'd send it back and get a replacement.

richms

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#277328 28-Nov-2009 22:31

I cant stand squeeling electronics...

I had to charge my nokia N97 in another room because the charger squeeled.

My harmony 525 doesnt seem to make any noise, but it has a blue backlight so may not need an inverter like the white ones in the better remotes.

But it does have something rattling inside it.

After the 3rd one it was decided that it was a common design feature. Bloody annoying.

My charging base for my BL5C batteries squeals.

None are as bad as the typical medium high pitched CRT squeal however. Garage TV does that bad sometimes till its warmed up.

More annoying than the noise is visible PWM flicker which I saw on another univeral remote I was looking at in a shop instead of the harmony. Ick. Bad enough on a cellphone and crappy car brake lights but a remote where its always sitting in your peripheral vision - no way...

Richard rich.ms

illicit

553 posts

Ultimate Geek

#277369 29-Nov-2009 00:44

The rattle in the remote is a sensor/switch to turn on the screen when you pick it up.

richms

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#277370 29-Nov-2009 00:46

Ah, that probably explains why the damn thing randomly lights up at night time.

Still seems crap to make something that rattles. Surely there are better ways to detect motion that dont make it sound broken and false trigger all the time.

Richard rich.ms

Ouranos

118 posts

Master Geek

#277464 29-Nov-2009 14:22

I took the remote back to the shop and got a replacement. The replacement remote makes the same noise as the first one but much, much quieter. The first remote was audible from 1m away, while I can hear the replacement only when it is right next to my ear - and even then only faintly, so it is fine.

Meanwhile, I emailed the Logitech Helpdesk and received this reply: "This noise would be considered as normal for the Remote. The noise that you hear is actually the timing crystal for the backlight timer." OK, so the noise might be normal, but the loudness wasn't.

Thanks for your comments.