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Wednesday 13 May 2015

Fix Faulty Remote Volume

We use a Logitech Harmony remote to control our equipment in the living room. We have had the remote for years and it gets a lot of use. Not surprisingly, the button that stopped working first was the volume up button.


I have several Harmony remotes but the one I prefer, from those that I have, is the Harmony 300. Probably because it is the simplest.

I made an assumption that the fault was just a dirty contact. It made little difference what the fault was because if it was anything else I would be neither able to diagnose it nor able to fix it.

Taking the remote apart is not too difficult once you know how.



There are four obvious screws under the battery cover and two hidden under a sticker at the infra-red end. I needed to use the blade of a box cutter as a lever to prise the sticker off.


The sides are held together with plastic clips. I used a mobile phone opening tool to slide between the seam and a small flat screwdriver to separate the clips. They all came apart easily with a little levering.

Once the two halves are separated the red plastic lens can also be lifted off to leave the circuit board fully exposed. That is held down with three screws.



Now you have access to the contacts and the inside of the buttons.


I cleaned both sides with some foam anti-static electrical contact cleaner and paper towel. I've had the spray of cleaner in my shed for years so I was surprised it still worked. I think we packed it when we moved house so it is over 10 years old!


Once dry I put it back together. The only tricky bit is making sure the rubber keys line up exactly. There are some tiny guide pins that must be in place. 

The volume now works.

9 comments :

Ingrid en Rob said...

Thanks,my remote drank some beer....

John C Brown said...

I've found a few remotes can't handle their drink :-)

Unknown said...

Thanks for detailed disassembly instructions. In my case, same as for other remotes I have opened, I found what looked like cooking oil floating around on the PCB under the buttons. I needed to wash the two flexible button parts in a warm bath of dish washing detergent. The contact side of the pcb I washed down with rubbing alcohol (isocol). Then dried all with paper towels and sunlight.

John C Brown said...

Thanks for the tips on other cleaning methods. I only used the spray as I had some in the shed.

Funny the things we gather over the years. I've also got a bottle of Isopropyl alcohol knocking about somewhere :-)

Pat from Northern CA said...

Thank you for this tutorial. Many of my Harmony 300 buttons were not functioning. . Excellent pics enabled me to take it apart, gently clean circuit board and use tooth brush & Dawn and hair dryer to really clean rubber keys. Again, thank you. Pat in Davis, CA

John C Brown said...

Thank you. I'm glad it was helpful.

Bob said...

Many thanks. Very useful.👍👍👍

John C Brown said...

You're welcome.

Unknown said...

Thank you