What is this mystery electronic part?
March 2, 2008 8:21 PM   Subscribe

What sort of electronic device did this thing come from? More pics here, here and here. It was lying on my bedroom floor, and I have no idea where it came from. What is it, and were did it come from? Any ideas?
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese to Grab Bag (10 answers total)
 
Best answer: looks like it could be part of a remote starter for a car
or some beeping dollar store thing
posted by KenManiac at 8:25 PM on March 2, 2008


Best answer: Those four gold patterns on the back are where rubber control buttons (like on a TV remote) make their contact, so whatever it was had four buttons arranged in a square as per those pads on the circuit board.

I can't make out the text on the chip (top right, first pic), but looking up the function of that chip would be the next clue.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:28 PM on March 2, 2008


Best answer: The simple circuitry, Hitachi logo and the 4 "contact" traces in the second link would make me guess that this is from some kind of remote control for a household appliance or something.
posted by melorama at 8:29 PM on March 2, 2008


Response by poster: Mystery solved, all of you were right (KenManiac particularly so): it came from the remote starter of my mother-in-law's car. She didn't tell me it wasn't working until just now. Thanks, all of you.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 8:37 PM on March 2, 2008


Adding to the "remote" hypothesis, there is a long circuit trace on the back that is only connected at one end. That suggests it's an antenna, which in turn suggests a remote that is radio-based rather than IR.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:40 PM on March 2, 2008


oops, it's no-longer a hypothesis :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 8:41 PM on March 2, 2008


looks like a controller board for x,y,a,b buttons on a third party ps2 or xbox controller. Here's a link to something similar.

http://wrongcrowd.com/arcade//pics/cont_pcb.jpg

sometimes the traces are gold in older controllers, and are actually separate boards for d-pad and buttons. thus, you could be looking at a board for just a d-pad or buttons. looks ancient from the size of the traces, as well as the lack of carbon coating over the gold. cant find a pic of individual boards, but they do look like that. Bare minimum, the interlocking gold teeth that form four squares on the back are for a big fat button to mash down and complete a circuit, so you are looking at a 4 button command input board.
posted by wuzandfuzz at 8:43 PM on March 2, 2008


heh, didnt see the posts above. sorry!
posted by wuzandfuzz at 8:44 PM on March 2, 2008


So why was a piece from your mother-in-law's remote starter lying on your bedroom floor?
posted by Joleta at 8:48 PM on March 2, 2008


Also you may want to add an NSFW tag/disclaimer, some of those ads are entirely unrelated to remote control starters if you take my meaning.
posted by Skorgu at 5:17 AM on March 3, 2008


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