"Wally" wrote:
in ,
on Sat, 8 May 2004 22:40:12 +0100,

: How would one approach retrofitting a remote control to a ready-made preamp?
: Am I right in thinking that I could put some kind of receiver into the amp
: and use an existing remote? I don't envisage a need to do anything other
: than volume up/down and mute.
:
: What's the cheapest way to get a receiver? Maplin seem to do a few kits /
: modules - lots of them are 'two channel' - do I need three channels, hence
: two receivers? What about making one on Veroboard? Are there standard
: circuits which would make it little more than a soldering job, or is design
: effort needed? The Maplin receivers that I have my eye on are 13 quid each
: (H96AU) and have the learning thingy for channel codes, and they do a nice
: little remote for a tenner (PW32K).
:
: What about controlling the amplifier? The first thing I thought of was a
: motor drive on the existing volume control, and a relay for the mute. I
: don't know yet if I can control the volume pot from inside, but, if I can,
: then the mechanical bits can be done, but at a cost in effort. I'm not sure
: about the implications of driving a motor from the amp's PSU - I don't know
: if it has enough power in reserve, or whether there might be noise problems.
: I feel that, if I have to start building circuit boards to account for the
: addition of a motor, then maybe it would be feasible to do it all
: electronically. If it is, can it be done without degrading the sound
: quality? What ways are there to approach it? My lack of knowledge of the
: subject says to somehow alter the gain of an existing amplifier stage, on
: the assumption that that would be outside the signal path - but I have no
: idea if I'm right.

Have a look at http://stiftsbogtrykkeriet.dk/~mcs/Remote/index.html
(and http://stiftsbogtrykkeriet.dk/~mcs/Remote3/index.html )

Mikkel Simonsen hangs out on rec.audio.tubes, and I'm sure could fix you up
with a PCB or complete kit for either of those, if you were interested.
The first one is perhaps all you want, or need, judging from your post.
Well worth supporting, IMO. I look forward to obtaining one myself sometime.
There's a relay attentuator version in the works as well, I believe.
[Courtesy email copy to Mikkel...]
Perhaps he might drop in to this thread and comment further himself.
Ross M.
(in .nz, not .zn! :-)