Remote control unit #2: Broken PCB

Description of failure

It is not possible to turn on the remote device or control the remote device with the remote control.

Troubleshooting

This board is visually unremarkable at first. If you look into the infrared LED with a cell phone camera (not visible to the human eye, but only through the cell phone camera) and press a button, you won’t see any reaction. Thus, there must be a problem somewhere. If you look more closely (hold the PCB against a light source), you can see a small hairline crack through the PCB. This separates the conductors to the transmitting infrared LED.

For the repair, the solder resist around the crack must be carefully removed with a knife. A fine piece of wire can then be soldered over the break. The remote control now works again!