Remote Control

[AuroraB]

OK-OK....

I do know this will be blasphemy to the purest of the purists... but anyway....

For a long time now we have been used to the ease of remote control of commercial equipment, also other than HiFi.
Many of the top audio brands have long since adopted the remote as a convenient way of control.
Ten-fifteen years ago, ML ( I think ) was one of the first top brands to implement an electronic volume control, in the form of the ladder part of a D/A converter to drive an opamp in current mode, a solution hailed loudly by the reviewers. Potentiometers have always been debated as a culprit in terms of distortion. One of the main concerns about RC in preamps, have been the inclusion of "noisy" digital circuits, but this can be remedied by use of some of the modern microcontrollers that goes into "sleep" mode at a time-out. Quality relays close to the input connectors have long since been preferred for switching inputs, instead of wiring everything to the front panel.
Does anybody know of such a project somewhere on the Net ???
Moody microcontrollers and the program development of these are by far my personal favourite of the trade, even if I do have a fair amount of experience, ( also bad ones)......

Halgeir

[dshoaf]

I seem to remember an article some years back in what is now called Audio Express where a remote control circuit was retrofitted to a mid-fi preamp. Had a motorized pot along with a circuit board controller. The hand unit had to be programmed, I seem to remember. Anyway, to me it seemed that inserting microprocessor-based controllers into a low-signal device would certainly be inviting the noise you refer to and the shielding and grounding schemes would really have to be examined to minimize those effects. Still, if that's your bag.....sorry I can't be more specific on the date of the article - had to get rid of lots of old stuff when I downsized my house a couple of years ago.

Cheers,

David