That must be the electronics world's most hushed-up secret then.

What happened, and how did they not get the recognition that deserves?

Any more info will very much be appreciated on infrared remote control R&D history, thanks Ian.

What amazes me is the chronic shortage of video footage of Australian manufacturing operations exists, or has been publicised. I've seen one of the Philips valve factory and one of AWA's television, valve and transistor manufactuing at their Rydalmere factory. That's all I've ever been able to find on Youtube. Maybe the NFSA has more but hidden away, if so, this doesn't achieve much.

When I was an apprentice, the tech took us on an excursion to the James N Kirby factory at Bankstown. It was a huge operation, making electric motors in every size imagineable. We were there for half the day in order to see everything. I am not sure where apprentices go for an end of year treat these days - there's not that many factories making that sort of thing anymore.

I am not sure where apprentices go for an end of year treat these days

Probably McDonald's.

Read you loud and clear there Brad.

All trainees benefit from field trips, without doubt.

We were treated to a day course at RAAF Laverton Victoria when I was an apprentice. Despite us all being "expert" solderers,
we were taught how to solder the NASA way.

No kidding, NASA Specification soldering, half an hour preparation per solder joint. We scoffed in disbelief until our instructor explained
how a tiny air bubble in a poor solder joint potentially became a miniature explosive when exposed to a low atmospheric air pressure
environments, capable of bringing down aircraft and spacecraft.

We learnt how to solder that day. And it made us better techs. How many times in our service careers have we seen the results of totally
crap soldering in early CTV's for example? (Why are there less dry joints today---what were they doing wrong early CTV days?)

Which reminds me (I digress massively) Who can remember those horrible PCB's with rice bubble-like solder joints? They always looked like classic dry joints, but as soon as you attacked with an iron they would bubble madly, giving the impression you were causing more DJ's. There was nothing wrong with them, they just looked wrong!!!

The soldered side was spray painted blue, sometimes red or green. Was it the paint which frothed perhaps?

The frightening thing is how many young people work for slack Mac's, not a lot of job opportunity anymore for the young ones and the pay is a so low they can't buy or rent .
They have terms for their situation.
1 squting,,, means a simple pleasure after working all week, Squting can mean a free pleasure ,due to lack of money ,eg listen to music or being able to buy one beer at the end of the week.
They also call them selves Generation nothing.
This is being general though and not every young person is in that situation.i became aware of their terms and thinking in my last job and when I lived in thornleigh I knew lots of younger people.
I feel there is some truth to their situation...
It's quite a mountain to be taking on.
Pete

Possibly because when a lot of these factories were churning out their products video records of any of would have been something way down the list of things to attend to by the folk running the places PLUS at that time video like we now all see on YouTube would have been a rare event.

Quite a lot of educational 16mm films were made up until around the mid 1980's when that format began use fade away and I have a B&W 40 minute 16mm doco on the Philips factory making valves along with a few other docos made by the PMG on things electrical etc but never seen any of those transcribed across to video.
There would have been many many interesting 16mm films aimed as schools and places like the PMG training schools and even the ABC & DCA on this sort of stuff and as it fell out of regular usage the copies were simply dumped and that is where I scrounged my copies from...The Dumper bin..sad but true.
So I would imagine that many others also went that way and a huge slice of what was a very vibrant industry within OZ has all been consigned to landfill.

Lindsay

The Pye IR remote was a bit of an accident of history.

Someone at Pye got the idea from a Signetics press release I believe. Then Signetics was taken over by Philips who were making ultrasonic remotes and so didn't want to do anything with the product. Their IR chipset came much later.

The parts used were the SAF1031 / SAF1939 transmitter and the SAF1032 receiver. A very simple solution and it worked well.

When Pye Marrickville closed my company took over the tooling for the remote and used it for an early Video On Demand system we sold to schools. But that's another story. Suited Pye/philips, they had a source of spare parts for the service department.

That is interesting and valuable from a historic view.

I only ever came across one ultrasonic remote television but cannot remember the brand. I think it was European, not sure, but I
remember the control unit. A large hand held box, two big paddle switches which struck a bell. Most bizarre, but the damn thing worked.

Korting rings a bell, (no pun) but not sure, far too long ago.

Admiral (Aust) had ultrasonic remote model. Had separate small chassis to amplify/decode dual chime signal (channel & volume.)

Admiral (Aust) had ultrasonic remote model. Had separate small chassis to amplify/decode dual chime signal (channel & volume.)

Schoolmate of mine's parents had an Admiral set. To my amusement his old man used to change channels at the dinner table by hitting his fork with his knife.

And now you know why ultrasonic remotes entered the dustbin of history!

I remember the Admirals and that was largely true.

The AWA C6333 / Thorn 63T1 sets came with a choice of dual rotary tuning or touch tuning with ultrasonic remote.

I had one of each (in different rooms) and one night when watching the footy I remember spooking my mates by changing the channels and turning the set on and off when visiting the lavatory or going to the kitchen for more drinks. Even back then, the idea of using a remote control without having to point it at the telly was a bit alien to them.

At first I said, it must be a ghost but at the end of the night I fessed up. The only thing I didn't like about the concept was that I could hear it whistle like a tripler when a button was pressed on it.

..I could hear it whistle like a tripler when a button was pressed on it.

Often humans can hear 'ultrasonics'; I used to hear 'ultrasonic' alarm in the basement/storeroom at AWA-Bris. (they would switch it off every morning) - it had ~3" concave (piezoelectric?) transducers mounted in the upper corners of the brick & concrete floor (highly reflective for high frequencies.) Monkeys can hear to beyond 30kHz; we have vestigial cochlear stereocilia similar to them.

For some reason I can hear all sorts of things like that, even though I do have hearing loss in my right ear. The most common annoyance is when I come across triacs or SCRs resonating. The VSDs that control trains are the loudest. The Sydney C-Set has the loudest control equipment of any train I've seen (or heard).

"loudest control equipment of any train I've seen (or heard)"

One of my abiding memories of the 2000 Olympics was standing waiting at Olympic Station where a continuous stream of trains looped through the station, shifting the crowd. There was a repeated warble as each train electronically "geared up" leaving the station.