While scouting around eBay I came across this auction for a single button Space Command remote. Not having the privilege of owning a 60's Zenith Roundie Space Command and not seeing one in person, I'm not that knowledgeable in all the different remotes. I know there was 300, 400, and 600, but this is a new one on me. Was it the 100 ? What did the 1 button function, On & Off ?

What year was this remote produced ? 1950's ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Zenith-Space-Commander-Remote-Control_W0QQitemZ220367988464QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH _DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220367988464&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A3%7C294%3A50

I have one of these, it came with my 1977 Zenith 13" portable color set. On this set the tuner has 18 possible presets, each one tunable to any channel, 1 of these presets can be the "off" selection. each time you click the remote it shifts up one preset. Logan

Those were all used on portables... I've seen most of them on 16" color tube sets from the early 70s. They were for channel change only, but you could set the tuner to turn the TV off on a certain channel. The ones with the silver button were for the early set, and the blue and black buttons were later.

Charles

After posting this I went on you tube and saw Doug's demonstration of this remote for a 1971 Zenith. Pretty cool.

What year was this remote produced ? 1950's ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Zenith-Space-Commander-Remote-Control_W0QQitemZ220367988464QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH _DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220367988464&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A3%7C294%3A50
No. That single-button unit looks more like it was introduced in the Zenith line of portable TVs in the 1970s. This type of remote was not used with consoles or table models with a CRT larger than thirteen inches.

In the early '50s, Zenith's very first attempt at remote control for their television receivers was the "Lazy Bones", which was a wired remote. The remote unit operated all basic functions of the TV (on/off, volume up/down, channel up/down and probably mute), but the thick, multiconductor cable running across the floor from the set to the viewer's couch or easy chair was unsightly and a safety hazard, not necessarily in that order. Zenith's first ultrasonic wireless remote was introduced in the late fifties and was an improvement over the Lazy Bones, in that the ultrasonic signals it employed to activate the TV's control functions eliminated the long control cable. However, the new ultrasonic remote system, dubbed "Space Command" (a name that was used by Zenith until at least the '70s), had at least one minor flaw: the remote functions could be activated by stray noises in the same room as the TV, as well as by the ultrasonic control signals from the hand unit. There were reports of these sets switching on for no apparent reason in the middle of the night; this often happened if the owner's dog, for example, walked in front of the set and the dog's tags clinked against its collar. The resulting sound was often of just the right frequency to activate the on/off function, volume up or down, channel up or down, etc.

A similar (and much more exasperating) problem reared its ugly head in 1955 when Zenith introduced its "FlashMatic" TV remote, which was the company's very first attempt at wireless remote control. It used a ray-gun shaped device that looked for all the world like a flashlight, which when aimed at one of four photocells at each corner of the CRT mask would activate TV on/off, mute, or channel up/down. However, this system had a very serious flaw in that, if sunlight or other types of stray lighting hit one or more of those cells, the television would go crazy. Depending on which cell(s) was/were being illuminated at the time, the set could switch on/off at random, change channels by itself, the sound would switch on and off (mute/unmute), etc. If all four cells were illuminated at once, all hell would break loose (all basic functions of the television operating simultanerously), as this system had no lock-out schemes to prevent false triggering. I have often wondered how many FlashMatic sets wound up in repair shops due to burned-out tuner drive motors or stripped tuner drive gears, if or when the tuner tried to rotate in both directions at the same time when both channel-change cells were illuminated (accidentally) at once. :scratch2: Another minor flaw of this system was that the photocells at each corner of the CRT mask were not labeled, so viewers often could not remember which cell controlled which function--leading to inadvertent activations of the wrong one, say muting the sound when the viewer actually wanted to change channels.

Because of these problems, the FlashMatic was withdrawn from the market after about 1956 and was replaced by the ultrasonic Space Command remote system. The latter was the standard for Zenith TV remotes for about the next 25 years, until the infrared remote system was developed. The IR system is now used in all TVs (including Zenith) manufactured since the early eighties; it is impervious to extraneous noises and almost impossible to trigger accidentally, since it responds only to its own IR control signals.

Reading this thread reminded me of a friend having a TV set (1970's) with a one button remote - really unusual in that it had a steel rod inside it, with a small hammer striking it activated by the button. It did not require any batteries, and I think the principle of operation was production of sound from the steel rod by using it as a tuning fork. When used you could just hear a click when the button was pressed - not really a tuning fork sound in the conventional sense. I can't remember if the remote would just change the channel, or turn the set on/off, or both, not sure.

Did I dream it all up? or can anybody confirm the existance of such a remote, I am sorry my dream didn't stretch to knowing the manufacturer :D

John

Reading this thread reminded me of a friend having a TV set (1970's) with a one button remote - really unusual in that it had a steel rod inside it, with a small hammer striking it activated by the button. It did not require any batteries, and I think the principle of operation was production of sound from the steel rod by using it as a tuning fork. When used you could just hear a click when the button was pressed - not really a tuning fork sound in the conventional sense. I can't remember if the remote would just change the channel, or turn the set on/off, or both, not sure.

Did I dream it all up? or can anybody confirm the existance of such a remote, I am sorry my dream didn't stretch to knowing the manufacturer :D

John


I don't think you dreamed it all up. There was at least a garage door opener that operated on that principle. The rod vibrated at a frequency above our hearing. Supposely some dog tags would make a similar frequency as they jangled and cause havoc with the garage doors.

John

Reading this thread reminded me of a friend having a TV set (1970's) with a one button remote - really unusual in that it had a steel rod inside it, with a small hammer striking it activated by the button. It did not require any batteries, and I think the principle of operation was production of sound from the steel rod by using it as a tuning fork. When used you could just hear a click when the button was pressed - not really a tuning fork sound in the conventional sense. I can't remember if the remote would just change the channel, or turn the set on/off, or both, not sure.

Did I dream it all up? or can anybody confirm the existance of such a remote, I am sorry my dream didn't stretch to knowing the manufacturer :D

John

Those were the standard for all TV remotes from the 50s to the 80s. Zenith used the tone bar system from '55 to '78, and most all mfrs used it all through the 60s. The pre-1980 remotes were all based on the same principle (ultrasonic tones), but when they started having more than 3 or 4 buttons, they went to electronic tone generators with a battery. Some later replacement remote hand units for the old tone bar type TVs were actually electronic toned, matched to the frequency of the old ones.

And yes, dog tags, keys, dropped dinner forks, etc., would operate TV functions. Even a flushing toilet was known to do it :scratch2:

Charles

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/kx250racer/ZenSC500rem.jpg

And yes, dog tags, keys, dropped dinner forks, etc., would operate TV functions. Even a flushing toilet was known to do it :scratch2:

Thank you ! - I remember now about keys jingling, changing the channel. :D

Thanks for the pic too - snaps it all into focus - so to speak !

John

I've had several of these remotes show up, but never a set that uses one!
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/TonyMore040.jpg

I've had several of these remotes show up, but never a set that uses one!


I did... It's a 16" B&W tube hybrid portable from about '73. I don't remember exactly how the remote worked, but the on/off switch was settable to an unused channel, like the Motorola and the Zenith 1-button sets.

Charles