Heavy Duty Remote

 My Parents own this old CRT TV from 1998. Over the years i often had to clean and repair the original TV remote, until the point it wear out completely. TV remotes often suffer from grease, human sweat or battery leakage which attack the sensitive pcb. So i bought a cheap universal remote, which then lasted for 3 years. Then i figured out, that my parents would only use the Volume-, Channel- and Power- buttons. The first idea was to built a durable remote out of a piece of wood, with wooden buttons and stuff, until i stumbled over an old 2-button-remote, which is used on construction sites, small cranes or elevators, on a flea market. Anyway, first i had to figure out, how to mount 3 additional buttons.

Tools required:
- Jigsaw
- cutter knife
- Screwdriver set
- hot glue gun
- different pliers
- sandpaper
- soldering Iron
- solder
- a dremel tool
- a drill
- multimeter

materials:
- (project box)?
- 4-5 tact switches from used pc-cases
- mounting sockets/ plastic brackets 
- different wires
- 2 identical pens
- 3 small screws  

While dissembling the industrial remote, i noticed, that  the actual switches were missing. Also the top socket was originally used for a small light bulb. Most of the bottom surface part of the "brick" remote had to be removed with a dremel tool.

I decided to use the light-bulb-socket for my custom made power button. For the knob i took a button from an old sweater, which could easily fit inside the socket, and painted it red varnish. The switch with the spring came from old pcb parts. Both parts, the switch and the knob had to be stabilized with a small tube in between and glued together. To fix it to the socket i used some mounting sockets from old PC casings. a small screw and lots of hot glue.

The original two buttons have an internal spring, which allows to press the knob with more comfort. Again
i took the plastic brackets with built in switches, screwed them underneath the sockets and glued everything tight.

Next i had to find some suitable knobs for the custom channel switches. I found these two identical pens with a perfect aluminum head. In order to extend the top part of the switch i used the parts from the pen and fitted the whole beast in the plastic bracket, which then could be glued. Then i drilled two holes on the top part of the "brick" and fixed the brackets with the switches underneath.

For the battery casing i reused the back part of the original remote. Had to cut it out with a jigsaw, clean up the edges with some sand paper and glue it inside the bottom part of the "brick".

Because of its anomalous look, i had to find some catchy looking Orb. Fortunately i had this old "eau de toilette" lying around. Its perfect. So i stuffed the led on some plastic cone inside the orb and glued everything in place.

First i had to do the wiring job. For the PCB  i had to locate the traces for the 5 buttons. Best advice here is to hold the pcb against a light source and make some continuity tests with the multimeter. After i soldered all the wires and isolated everything with hot glue.

Finally i've cut out some labels for the volume buttons. Mission accomplished!