New owner-need help

[Burchard2]

We just purchased a 2016 Salem 27RKSS. It has the LED light strip that comes with remote to change colors, dim, etc. The lights will turn on with the switch in the camper but we can't get the remote to turn lights on/off or change colors. We've tried a new battery, no luck. Is there a trick to getting remote to work or can anyone help with what it is we aren't doing correctly? Help is greatly appreciated. Sherry B.

[DaveSchwartz]

Many small, thin remotes that come with a coin-cell battery have a small plastic strip that you have to pull or remove before the battery will make contact. If that's not the problem and the remote is an infrared remote (has an LED on one end) make sure you point the remote at the receiver (wherever that might be).

[Burchard2]

Thank you. I checked and didn't see a plastic strip and I have no clue where the receiver may be (LOL) but I pointed the remote at all four corners of the awning. Still nothing.

[DaveSchwartz]

If you have a volt-ohm meter (every RVer should be carrying one of those) you should test the voltage of the coin cell. The battery cover on the remote should show you how to open it for replacement (you'll need to know how to do that at some point anyway). A brand-new coin cell should be 3.2 volts. I've seen remotes stop working when the voltage gets down to 3 volts (even though that's supposed to be the nominal voltage of the cell). It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a coin cell DOA.

The receiver should be somewhere on the outside of the camper under the awning. These multi-color RGB LED strips have a controller which is probably somewhere in the wall near where the strip power comes out (one end or the other). The optical receiver is usually on a short pigtail from the controller - should look like a tiny black button (shaped like a LED) but it may be behind an IR-transparent plastic cover so no guarantee you could see it. On pictures of your unit I've seen on the web, I would suspect that little black circular thingy near the front end of the awning on the side wall just to the upper right of the speaker. It its behind or integrated into a plastic fitting, I'd check that the receiver itself hasn't slipped out of place.

[aceinspp]

I'd check the battery and go from there. Later RJD