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Review on πŸ’» Enhance Your Presentations with Logitech Wireless Presenter R400: The Ultimate Wireless Presentation Remote Clicker and Laser Pointer by Bill Russett

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Warning from Emptor: Planned Obsolescence/Poor Quality Control

TLDR: The capacitor in the receiver was not properly soldered at the factory, causing it to fail unless constant pressure was applied to the end of the receiver. Initially this problem appeared about 4-5 months after purchasing the item. I admit I should have looked into the warranty right here and now, but being a busy teacher towards the end of the school year I threw it on my desk and used my wireless mouse as a backup. Summer passed and I forgot it while sitting in a drawer. I left my wireless mouse at home this morning and went in search of this remote which I remember bought but didn't remember what the problem was. The computer turns it on, recognizes it first, and then immediately stops interacting with the receiver at all. Through experimentation, I was able to determine that when I pressed the end of the receiver, the system worked as intended. I initially assumed the problem was in the way the USB was connected to my computer. I have cleaned both the receiver port and the receiver port on my computer with an electronics cleaner to no avail. At this point I decided to hack open the receiver case to inspect the circuit board. To my surprise, I found that the capacitor was (I think) badly soldered and only connected when I pressed it against the board. This is shown in the attached pictures. That explains why pressure on the body solved my problem. I'll probably try to fix it myself with some solder as it's an easy fix. Still, I was disappointed to find something as simple as bad soldering as the cause of the problem. I don't know if this is an intentional design flaw meant to fail out of warranty or if it was just poor quality control the day this receiver was made. I called Logitech customer service this morning to give them an opportunity to fix the problem. . The receiver is already out of warranty, so I'm not surprised they didn't offer to replace it. However, I tried to share the manufacturing defect with customer service and they didn't seem to care. To be honest, you may have a different experience with this product than I do. However, I wanted to share my discovery as a warning.

Pros
  • Office Electronics
Cons
  • Dump