Question
Where is the remote sensor for the 250gb Sky+ HD box? I have got a sender and transmitter, so I can have Sky upstairs in my room, but I cannot get the remote to change channel. I cannot find the sensor on the box for love nor money. Any ideas?
Submitted online by Andy
Our Answer
We’ve only been asked this one the once, making it a rare question. It was also one we didn’t have an immediate answer to, and we had to do some research.
First off, it’s important to note that there are lots of different Sky boxes out there, made by different manufacturers, so there’s no one quick and easy answer.
Our Sky+ HD box is one of the newer models made by Amstrad, and here’s where the IR sensor is located on our box.
How did we find it?
Ahh – Some trial-and-error. We needed something that blocked infrared signals from our Sky remote control. We first tried using a metal tray, but it wasn’t accurate enough, so we switched to tin foil.
We found that the signal from the Sky remote control is quite powerful. It seemed to be leaking into the Sky box from a number of places in the casing. We had to weaken it a bit, and we did this by pointing the remote control in the other direction, and bouncing the IR signal off the painted white wall.
With the signal weakened, and our strip of tin foil, we held down the “i” information button on the Sky remote and covered up parts of the front panel. We eventually found the sweet spot where we could no longer get the Programme Information box to pop up. Here’s a picture of our Amstrad Sky+ HD box showing the tin foil in place.
This seemed to prove to us where the pesky little IR sensor for our make and model was hiding. If you’re reading this, we’re guessing you’re on the same quest as the original poster, and we hope this is of some help.
If you have a different model of Sky box, and know where to find your sensor, please add the information as a comment below, to help the wider Sky community, and to save on the Bacofoil!
Your absolutely correct! What a nightmare.
Even the grey front facia strip leaks ir signal which enters the box and can intermittently hit the receiver.
Strange no one seems to make the ir covers anymore??
Handy if you have several sky boxes stacked in a rack, stops them lighting up like a Xmas tree!
Thanks so much guys, had exactly same problem, Sky remote was too powerful to pin down, had the entire rack giing on and off even when touching a chosen unit. not even firing it through a thick plastic funnel wrapped in electrical tape helped.
There are a few answers on the net but this one is confirmed as the only accurate one I’ve found. (Using DRX890-Z units).
Good work,
Thanks again,
D2
Brilliant, thank you very much. Using a Slingbox but remote was very intermittent, not good when you only get home occasionally. Works perfect now, thanks again.
(by the way I’m an Electrical Engineer, my varification below is “flux capacitor”, what memories)
This has been extremely helpful. We have just installed a media unit in our living room with the sky box in a draw. We are using an IR repeater and could not find the right place to put the transmitter. All sorted, thanks very much.
Kewl
Kewlio
Thanks so much for this had some issues when a box was changed for a different model, it used to be to the left of the circle. All sorted now.
I have tried hints above but it seems there could be an IR at both ends of the sky box. Is this possible?
Thank you this worked well for me. The IR cable that has a sticky pad had fallen off the Sky Box, I used the approach above and it worked very well. I have now put strips of sellotape around the pad so that when/if it falls off again I’ll know exactly where the eye is. Thanks
I believe the remote should work up to 30ft away. Recently the Sky engineer swapped the +HD box to resolve a fault. He tested the install from 4ft distance and left happy. When we sat at our normal position 12ft the remote didn’t work. We eventually found it needed to be a max 9ft to work.