The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ remote were a mechanical marvel
The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ remote were a mechanical marvel
The Space Command fixed problems we still live with today.
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I like the sounds of the tines! It's basically just a tuning fork, so wild.
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I’m old and still call the remote “the clicker”. My 7 year old wondered what the heck a clicker is.
Cue old dad “back in my day, the remotes actually clicked” story.
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@reverendz @dingus, when I was young, I was the remote
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Our first tv with a remote control that wasn't me or my sibling using small vise grip on channel knob had a telephone included in the tv.
Like this was in 1982 so not a modem ... just a tv with a land line phone built in that you have to use the remote to make or receive a call.
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Yes! Those channel knobs were so easily broken. I thought we were the only ones turning channels with pair of vice-grips clamped on the nub.
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This was mentioned a couple of weeks ago on the Vergecast. I was wondering if someone was going to get assigned the article, and here it is!
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I had a Heathkit TV that used a variation of this design! If you held it really close to your ear then you could actually hear it emitting.
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That's fancy. Our clicker only had two buttons for channel changing.
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@igalmarino In my childhood our remote worked by emitting electronically generated ultrasonic sounds. It looked like that one: kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/tel…
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Never seen or heard from anyone using tape to mask their remotes. Is this really a thing?
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Never seen or heard from anyone using tape to mask their remotes. Is this really a thing?
Not this exactly, but my grandparents had a guide taped to the backside of their remotes to make it easier to use.
The tape strategy has some appeal, though, mainly in that I use maybe 5 buttons 95% of the time.
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Those don't take batteries and your click generates the electricity for the signal. Right? Like a wind up radio.
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No, it's a tuning fork that produces 4 seperate tones, one for each "button." The TV had a microphone listening for tones and would respond accordingly. You didn't actually have to point the remote at the TV, which later became a problem, as the mic on the TV was technically always listening for a tone.
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Nope! It's the sound that does the work. The TV has a microphone in it.
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