4 Failed Remotes? Coincidence? I Don’t Think So!



Beginning August 8, 2015 about 8 pm











It didn’t work either. WTF?


But I still want the sound through the hifi.




What are the odds on that being a coincidence?








I’m open to suggestions…




About Harry Stottle

One Response to 4 Failed Remotes? Coincidence? I Don’t Think So!

  1. Reposting this from a facebook friend: Think it pointed me to the probable solution:

    “Harry assuming all your remote controls communicate with their devices via an infrared LED (most do). If there is another source of infrared signal in the room it could be drowning out the signal from your remotes. You can maybe even locate it by using the camera on a mobile phone. Point a remote control at your mobile phone camera, press a button on the remote and you’ll see the infrared LED light up on the phone’s display; phone camera CCD’s are sensitive to IR and show it as white. Anyway my point being, if somewhere in the room you have a remote control that is sitting under something that is pressing on the buttons, it will be flashing a constant IR signal to all your devices which will render them unable to decipher the signal from their own remote controls, unless you get close enough to the devices such that the signal from the remote becomes much stronger than the ‘jamming’ signal. It’s also possible one of your other remotes has malfunctioned and is constantly streaming an IR signal which is similarly jamming the signals from your other remotes. You can check this using the phone camera method. Also, consider the possibility that someone mischievous may have pranked you with something like this..”

    to which I replied:

    “Veeerrry interesting, Jason. And I think you may have hit the nail on the head. As soon as I read your hypothesis I twigged that it might have just been something as innocent as something pressing a key on one of the remotes and send out a continuous blocking signal. And I think I can even pin down the offender. Bearing in mind that the effect disappeared just after I set up the camera to capture the effect, I now remember, as I picked up the camera, there was a fifth remote immediately beneath it, which I hadn’t paid any attention to because I haven’t used it for about 5 years. Its for a VCR/DVD player which is very handy for converting between formats but its that long since I felt the urge to do so. But the camera might have been depressing one or more of its keys which would explain both the IR flooding and the sudden return to normal when I tried to video it.”

    Brilliant. I don’t feel so paranoid now! Mind you, that also makes it much less interesting. I was looking forward to donning the tinfoil hat…

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