WEBVTT 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:18.480 What's this, you ask? Why, only the coolest remote control you've 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:18.480 never seen before. 00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:27.840 But, Linus, you might say, "It looks like you stole 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:33.040 that from a hospital." Well, that's actually a funny story. But, 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:37.080 we'll get to that later. First, did you know that this bad boy is in the 00:00:34.680 --> 00:00:40.360 Guinness Book of World Records? How many TV remotes can say that? 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:46.560 Four. >> Four. Really? Oh, that's more than I 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:49.600 expected. But, those other three are not 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:52.280 the world's very first programmable 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:59.480 universal remote, and none of them were made by Steve freaking Wozniak. Oh, Woz 00:00:56.720 --> 00:01:03.840 is pretty cool. Yeah. And did I mention that it still works all these years 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:09.160 later with many modern devices? I heard Woz plays polo on a Segway. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:12.880 To our sponsor. Saily. If you're traveling, make sure 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:17.440 you stay connected with your loved ones back home using Saily. With Saily, you 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:21.160 don't have to hunt for Wi-Fi in foreign countries, and you can say no to sketchy 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:27.280 SIM providers at the airport. And the best part is you can save 15% on your 00:01:23.440 --> 00:01:29.600 Saily eSIM data plan at saily.com/LTT. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:34.880 We'll have that down below. When Woz, the great and powerful, left Apple for 00:01:31.800 --> 00:01:38.240 the final time in 1985, the new company 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:41.240 he founded, called CL9, had a simple, 00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:42.760 reliable mission: to eliminate the army 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:47.440 of remotes threatening the sovereignty of your living room once and for all. 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:53.200 And just 2 years later, he unveiled this, the CORE Master Programmable 00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:56.880 Universal Remote Control. To say that this thing was 00:01:54.760 --> 00:02:01.600 mind-blowingly ahead of its time would be a serious understatement. Now, remote 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:05.440 controls themselves weren't a new thing. Even wireless remotes had existed since 00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:09.520 about the mid-1950s. But, the ones that most people were 00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:13.880 actually using back in the '80s looked more like this. So, when the Core rolled 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:20.400 onto the scene with its dual microcontroller architecture, 36 KB of 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:22.640 memory, a 100-page spiral-bound manual, 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:25.560 and an interface that only a programmer could love, 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:29.680 the public didn't even know what they were looking at. And, honestly, I can't 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:37.240 really blame them. What are these buttons? A, B, and C minus, P, and then we've got 00:02:35.040 --> 00:02:42.640 these 16 ones that are labeled with hexadecimal digits? Clear as mud. But, 00:02:40.920 --> 00:02:46.520 as you would expect from the Woz, there's an elegant logic beneath its 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:51.520 obtuse surface. The interface is organized into 16 pages 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:55.560 that you select by pressing the page button and then one of the 16 buttons 00:02:54.320 --> 00:03:01.120 below. If you don't want to do all of that, your most frequently accessed pages can 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:07.239 be bound to the three quick page buttons here, A, B, or C. 00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:11.160 Each page can store up to 16 commands, 00:03:07.239 --> 00:03:14.519 or, and this is the really cool part, 16 00:03:11.160 --> 00:03:16.519 sequences of commands, as long as those 00:03:14.519 --> 00:03:24.280 commands are somewhere in the remote's memory. So, page 15, or 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:26.000 F. Wait, is F 15? Yeah. It's the last 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:31.600 one. That wouldn't be 16? So, 16 options, they're numbered 0 to 15. 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:37.640 Yes. Very programmer words. Oh my god. Start counting at zero. So, 00:03:34.440 --> 00:03:39.920 page 15, which is of course the 16th 00:03:37.640 --> 00:03:44.239 page since it starts at zero and uh numbered F, 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:50.120 could be full of just random single commands, but then page 11 could have a 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:55.400 Blockbuster and chill sequence that dims the lights, fires up the CRT projector, 00:03:53.520 --> 00:04:00.640 and tunes the hi-fi, all with a single button press. 00:03:58.720 --> 00:04:04.760 But wait, what's that? You're worried about remembering what you've programmed 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:09.400 into each button? Well, don't worry. Woz has you covered. The Core Master 00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:13.360 included a handy paper journal where you could write down what you've programmed 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:18.280 into each button for your own reference. Okay. That's pretty janky. 00:04:15.959 --> 00:04:23.200 But come on, guys. This was an era where your VCR could, at best, be programmed 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:27.880 to start and stop at a specific time of day. The Core, by contrast, had the 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:32.040 potential to be a game changer. Let's say you wanted to record several 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:36.919 programs on different channels while you were away on vacation. You could set the 00:04:34.440 --> 00:04:40.880 Core to turn on your cable box, wait a couple of seconds for it to warm up, 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:45.120 change the channel, turn on the VCR, record the first program, then turn 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:49.800 everything off until the next program you wanted to record was scheduled. 00:04:46.840 --> 00:04:54.360 Rinse and repeat. You could even program it to adjust for daylight savings time 00:04:51.840 --> 00:04:58.400 changing while you were away, thanks to its built-in timers. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:01.880 You can even modify the frequency and the repeat rates of your captured IR 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:05.880 signals to make sure that those automated sequences don't get messed up 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:08.800 if you accidentally hold the button on your source remote a little too long 00:05:07.280 --> 00:05:13.160 while you're training the Core Master. And if that wasn't enough, those stored 00:05:10.520 --> 00:05:17.360 sequences could also include the programming buttons cleverly hidden 00:05:15.200 --> 00:05:21.200 under this little slider. That's right, you guys. Woz made a 00:05:19.400 --> 00:05:26.840 universal remote control that could literally be programmed to reprogram 00:05:23.760 --> 00:05:28.720 itself in 1987. 00:05:26.840 --> 00:05:32.640 Genius. Mostly. 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:36.919 See, one glaring omission from the Core Master is the absence of any 00:05:34.919 --> 00:05:42.560 non-volatile memory. I mean, in fairness, that had barely been invented, 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:47.800 but it does cause significant usability issues. See, if the batteries ever go 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:53.320 flat, you lose not only whatever you've programmed into the device, but also its 00:05:50.280 --> 00:05:55.120 entire firmware. 00:05:53.320 --> 00:05:59.920 To overcome that weakness, the core includes a secondary lithium battery 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:04.560 that's designed to keep the memory alive in the event that the 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:08.400 primary bank of AAA batteries is dead or removed. 00:06:06.400 --> 00:06:14.040 The bad news is that it only lasts for about 40 hours. So, this has a very 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:18.360 similar issue to early pocket PCs where if you let them go flat, 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:23.440 you're starting from scratch. Now, in fairness, the CoreMaster 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:25.560 retailed for something like $200 back in 00:06:23.440 --> 00:06:29.640 1987. So, it's not an unfair assumption that you 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:34.280 would be using it so frequently that you would notice the low battery warning 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:36.000 with plenty of time. But, 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:39.680 nowadays, when you're buying one of these off eBay, 00:06:37.760 --> 00:06:43.840 it's a big problem. Luckily, Digi-Key still stocks the 00:06:42.320 --> 00:06:47.800 appropriate battery, and you can download both the tools to flash the 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:52.640 firmware and the firmware itself from this website. 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:55.040 So far, so good. Unfortunately, you also 00:06:52.640 --> 00:07:00.520 need to have or make the serial interface unit and snap that into place 00:06:57.919 --> 00:07:03.960 where the IR interface usually lives in order to reprogram the remote, which 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:08.400 takes about 15 minutes. By the way, did we even mention that it has a modular 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:11.440 interface at the front yet? Like, how cool is this? 00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:15.400 Anyway, that's a little bit off topic right now. Shout out our new pal Ray, 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:18.800 the guy behind this awesome website, who took care of the battery replacement and 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:22.480 the reprogramming for us. Which means that all I need to do 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:25.480 is try it out. Come on out here, pancrats. We're going 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:29.440 to start with something easy. We're going to learn the power command for our 00:07:27.440 --> 00:07:33.760 device, and then we're going to program it into our CoreMaster. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:37.960 We've got the remote for the LG swing that you've got right behind you there. 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:41.400 Cool. And this guy is IR, so we should be able to just learn it on this guy. 00:07:40.200 --> 00:07:46.960 Okay, so you just press any button to power it on. Let's go to a page that I haven't programmed anything into yet. 00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:51.640 So, let's go to page five. Oh, wait, hold on. Page five. Yep. All 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.800 right, we're on page five. So, pick the button that you want to 00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:59.880 program to. You can start at A or you can start at one, doesn't really matter. I'm going to 00:07:57.640 --> 00:08:03.960 go with what makes sense to my reptile brain and I'm going to go with one. 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:08.320 So, hit the one key. Now, you've got 51 in the display there. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:11.120 Beautiful. If you pop open the programming stuff at the bottom, you 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:17.080 can't change any of the programs without hitting the enable button first. And 00:08:14.760 --> 00:08:21.760 now, we'll hit the do button on the bottom to start programming capture. 00:08:19.919 --> 00:08:27.640 And you've got this little L here showing that you're starting a sequence. 00:08:24.280 --> 00:08:28.520 Okay. So now, we can just 00:08:27.640 --> 00:08:34.440 Oh. There we go. >> C is captured. Damn. So now that we're 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:38.320 done that, you can stop the program with okay. 00:08:36.400 --> 00:08:40.680 And give it a shot right behind you. Okay. 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:50.440 There you go. It's just that easy. >> It's It's actually kind of elegant. 00:08:47.760 --> 00:08:53.839 1987. That's crazy. Okay, let's find out if 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:58.280 it's a toggle then. It is. It is. 1987. 00:08:57.800 --> 00:09:03.920 Okay. >> can program another one and have 1987 start Netflix for you. 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:06.880 Let's do it. Okay, Netflix. 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:10.240 Okay. I'm going to turn enable off then. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:13.720 So, okay. >> up uh It picked up me. So, let's just turn it off again. 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:20.320 >> no, hey, hey, put that away. We don't need that anymore. We only use this now. 00:09:17.839 --> 00:09:24.839 Off. Got him. Can't imagine the look on my wife's face if I put this on the 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:24.839 coffee table though. 00:09:27.560 --> 00:09:34.400 There you go. And then I I could put I could put arrow keys in. Yeah, no, with the uh 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:38.160 when I was testing this out upstairs, I put all of the arrow keys in for the TV 00:09:36.160 --> 00:09:41.600 upstairs. It was a Hisense. Everything worked flawlessly. This is 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:45.480 crazy. Okay. Do 00:09:42.760 --> 00:09:48.720 Hit me. Left? Yep. Okay. 00:09:47.520 --> 00:09:53.920 Eight. Do down. Down or okay? 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:53.920 Down. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:01.480 Okay. Enable off. All right. 00:09:59.040 --> 00:10:04.120 Now I just have to remember all of that. So home? 00:10:04.160 --> 00:10:11.880 I should be able to Dude, this is so cool. Okay, so I could 00:10:11.040 --> 00:10:16.240 uh I could open up YouTube. Okay. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:24.520 Core master. Dude, this is like actually usable 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:28.080 though. If you have a like giant brain and you 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:34.000 can remember your TV interface on here 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:36.440 somehow. Well, I had uh 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:40.400 I had notes for when I was doing stuff. Right. I had pen troubles, too. But 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:44.839 Solid solid journal. Uh available at lttstore.com. Our 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:49.000 notebook notebook. Or wait, which one is this? Whatever, it's a notebook. 00:10:47.560 --> 00:10:54.240 You can get a screwdriver to write in it. Can can we make it do more? Yeah, I mean 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:59.360 we can do a program. So let's do something super super easy where you 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:02.800 might want to move the volume up like five or six steps or something like 00:11:00.640 --> 00:11:05.400 that. So let's program volume up into there. 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:07.720 We can use like the number three. It doesn't really matter. Oh, yeah, you can 00:11:06.880 --> 00:11:09.960 use C and D. >> D. 00:11:11.040 --> 00:11:17.839 Hey, there we go. Just like that. Easy peasy. You want to move it up 10 00:11:15.800 --> 00:11:21.360 steps with one button? I mean, not really, but sure. So what 00:11:19.760 --> 00:11:26.200 you want to do? Just start the way you did before. Choose a button that you 00:11:22.800 --> 00:11:28.960 want to bind to first. Enable. Yeah. Oh, 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:34.880 okay. So this is easy then. If I want to turn my volume down really fast, then 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:40.880 all I've got to do is go do 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:43.960 this this this this this. 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:46.720 Okay. Yeah. So, theoretically, I could 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:52.160 go up volume up volume up volume up volume. Okay, so I'm at 10 and then I 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:55.720 hit this. Boom. Five. 00:11:56.160 --> 00:12:01.120 And you can go a step further and actually choose functions from other 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:06.800 pages. So, instead of just hitting the C button, you could go page seven C or 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:10.200 page eight B and then access the different functions that way. So, I 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:14.640 could have bathroom break where I press one button and it'll pause playback and 00:12:12.760 --> 00:12:18.480 turn up the house lights. Yeah. You can actually go a step further with the 00:12:16.040 --> 00:12:21.200 programming. This is deeper than I'll go right now. 00:12:19.680 --> 00:12:25.680 You can add loops. So, it will do an action five like do a 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:30.040 series of actions five times, then move on to the next step. 00:12:28.400 --> 00:12:34.839 I don't want to do that. I don't know. But, you can do it. Absolutely 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:39.640 incredible, isn't it? I mean, fun fact, DVDs didn't show up in the US until 00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:45.000 about 10 years after this remote came out and it was four more years after 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:47.880 that before Harmony was ever a thing. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:51.280 So, why did this not only not take off, but no one seems to have even heard of 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:59.200 it? Well, for starters, as I've alluded to before, 00:12:54.200 --> 00:13:00.520 it wasn't cheap and it wasn't especially 00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:05.280 user-friendly. It feels like exactly the sort of 00:13:02.920 --> 00:13:09.520 solution that a genius multimillionaire might devise for a problem that only he 00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:14.680 had at the time. There's no shortage of passion in this 00:13:11.800 --> 00:13:18.720 device. Woz even said that he programmed the Apple II assembly language into this 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:22.400 thing so that you could program it just like your Apple computer. 00:13:21.280 --> 00:13:28.080 So, it was perfect for the highly educated 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:31.640 low-level programmer geek in your life, 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:33.800 and quite literally no one else. So, 00:13:31.640 --> 00:13:39.040 if you ask me what went wrong, I would say that it was just too advanced. And 00:13:36.800 --> 00:13:44.680 by the time that multiple remote anxiety became a mainstream issue, CL9 was out 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:48.840 of business, and other cheaper, simpler solutions were coming to the market. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:53.360 Either in the form of universal remotes that had codes for thousands of devices 00:13:50.880 --> 00:13:58.440 pre-programmed in, or single-vendor solutions where your TV remote came with 00:13:55.960 --> 00:14:04.000 buttons that worked for a matching VCR or AV receiver, or both. So, 00:14:01.880 --> 00:14:07.960 if there's a lesson in all of this, I would say it is 00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:13.640 do your market research. Even now, advanced programmable remotes are pretty 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:15.040 niche devices, and as CEC continues to 00:14:13.640 --> 00:14:20.520 improve, please improve CEC, and more things 00:14:17.800 --> 00:14:26.440 shift away from IR control, they're probably going to get even more niche. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:30.880 But, all that said, it doesn't mean the Core Master was a 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:38.600 complete failure. In fact, the device lived on as the PIC 100, and later the 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:40.800 PIC 200, marketed by Celadon, a custom 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:44.440 remote control company who appears to have adapted it for use on X-ray 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:51.880 machines. This has actually been spotted, well not quite this, but the other ones, in use 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:54.080 as recently as the late 2000s, about 20 00:14:51.880 --> 00:14:57.160 years after its introduction. I guess you never know where the story's going 00:14:55.400 --> 00:15:01.440 to end until you get there. And you never know where the segway is 00:14:58.800 --> 00:15:01.440 going to end. 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:10.520 To our sponsor, Saley. Surely you're counting down the 00:15:08.920 --> 00:15:14.520 days until your next vacation. You earned it, by the way. Or maybe it isn't 00:15:12.680 --> 00:15:17.520 time yet, but you have a business trip coming up. Regardless, it's important to 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:21.880 stay connected while you're visiting places that don't happen to be home, and 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:25.800 And shouldn't be paying obscene amounts in roaming fees. Well, thanks to 00:15:23.560 --> 00:15:29.400 Saylite, you don't have to. You can download their eSIM one time and you'll 00:15:27.680 --> 00:15:34.240 be able to pick up affordable plans in over 200 countries. Want to backpack 00:15:32.400 --> 00:15:38.200 across Europe this summer? 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