ThinkFlood recalls lot of RedEye Mini IR dongles

That didn't take long, in fact just days after we told you that Thinkflood started shipping the RedEye Mini IR dongles that help turn your iOS device into a remote control, and with favorable results, the company's website is now recalling a lot of them. If you bought one that happens to have a serial number that starts with C0101, then you can expect a replacement sent to you out of lot D0102, when they become available (whose headphone jack is held to the board with solder like the prototype pictured, instead of foam). For those who don't want to wait, full refunds will be available. This is obviously not what anyone wants to hear, but the only thing worse than a recall is when a company notices a problem with the manufacturing process and instead just hopes you don't notice.

[BuzzMega Posted Jul 24th 2010 11:24PM]

The problem is not trivial.

In the affected units, a burst of coherent light can randomly emit from the laser while changing channels, and it will come out at the peak 10,000 nanowatts, potentially burning a small hole in the surface of your LCD TV or wall.

Plasma sets are not affected, and though small children or pets may be singed, for the most part, they will not be killed outright.

[Ucvbn Bjfyuvs Posted Jul 25th 2010 2:36AM]

@BuzzMega
Would a bumper help?

[Arranis Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:54AM]

@Ucvbn Bjfyuvs

How 'bout a free case?

[uzerzero Posted Jul 24th 2010 11:47PM]

@pple is poo

Read the manufacturer's site and you'll find out that it's a little more than just a simple circuit board or an audio jack hooked up to an IR LED. Personally, I think it's rather innovative what they did.

[christophercccc Posted Jul 25th 2010 12:16AM]

You're a d**k Ben. This is why that other company addressed it quite reasonably and yet all these tech brats are still throwing a little fit. Try focusing on something else; BP, trafficking, something. I'm trying my best to stop visiting engadget because of this ridiculousness.

[KrakaJap Posted Jul 25th 2010 12:34AM]

And if you're lucky like I was and your recalled IR is not suffering from this defect, now I will have 2. One for my iPhone and one for the wife's. :)

[appsman Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:46AM]

Wait. Is the photo showing a "good" one? That looks like it's built like complete crap. Horrible construction quality.

[Gad Get Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:30AM]

@appsman

Psst! It's the naked silicon! It always looks like that!

[appsman Posted Jul 26th 2010 1:59AM]

@Gad Get - Not sure if your joking or not. I was referring to wiring from the PCB to the stereo plug. The solder joints look cold and lumpy. In a tiny mass market product like this, there shouldn't even be any wires at at all. All the connections should be right on the board. The problem they have is that while there are lots of PCB-mount stereo jacks, there may not be any PCB-mount plugs, hence the ugly looking wiring kludge that's sure to break, especially considering the stress that plugs get. What's also telling is that they didn't even know those were horrible looking connections when they used that photo in a press release.

[tmarks11 Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:01AM]

Anybody use to have one of the Sony palm PDAs? The ones with the "commercial grade ir emitters"? Those werekiller, Sony shipped them with software so it could duplicate any remote control. Strong enough ir so it could change the channels on the tv set at the bar from 20 feet away.

[TRACE Posted Jul 25th 2010 9:09AM]

yeah, yeah, enough of that crap already.

[spaceman99 Posted Jul 25th 2010 11:19AM]

@uzerzero
It's a $0.50 microcontroller, a capacitor to get some DC to power it, and an LED and some simple code. Hardly innovative, rather an obvious method to try if the direct LED approach doesn't work.

[AFB Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:30AM]

''the only thing worse than a recall is when a company notices a problem with the manufacturing process and instead just hopes you don't notice.''

Is this a direct shot on the half eaten fruit...?

[SeaBiscuit1711 Posted Jul 30th 2010 1:27AM]

Hate to say I was right, but...I was right....

Nearly opted for the RedEye but after a good friend's recommendation, opted for the Re Universal IR Remote instead. The RedEye came close but the Re just had the range of features I knew I wanted. Maybe it's time to reconsider folks....? Take a peek at the Re from NewKinetix...

[carababy Posted Aug 7th 2010 6:49PM]

Anyone here got a Re? Need some 'real people' info...