Unexpected interference... ¿?

Thread Starter

Externet

Joined Nov 29, 2005
2,201
Hi.
Has any of you experienced unexplained temporary or permanent disfunctional remote controls for household appliances from presence of nearby cellular telephones and/or Wifi signals in the home ?

A Vizio 'smart' TV is not receiving its IR remote signals any more at all and the remote is confirmed transmitting ; IR remotes for another TV and a satellite receiver appear to lock-up/latch-up? until gently tapped/knocked/reset o_O (of the type that contain NO crystal resonators and battery contacts are not the issue !)

Have also a report from a friend that his 'IPTVbox' goes deaf to its remote control when his cell phone is in the room, not necessarily very close nor active (just stand-by)...

Technically, it may make sense being affected. Light, please ?:eek:

Should I wrap their printed circuit boards in aluminium foil to evaluate ? Not easy with one entire side having button contacts...
Edited... Could the RF somehow alter the programmed code on some remotes ?
 
Last edited:

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,153
Just some thoughts:

Use an electronic camera, like hhe one in your phone to see whether you can see the remote control transmitting. Some phone have very good IR stop filters but you can usually see something.

If you have not done so already, you can turn off anything in your house that transmits IR or RF.

Do you have a florescent light with an electronic ballast? Thoe can interfere with IR communications. Try turning out the lights.
 

Thread Starter

Externet

Joined Nov 29, 2005
2,201
Thanks.
With a camera is how the remotes were confirmed to emit. Emit wrongly?; -cannot tell-
No wifi router in the house. All ethernet wired. Unless the internal wifi of smart TVs and laptops and others are playing dirt by themselves.

At times, remotes and cell phone spend the night together on a night table/coffee table. When do cell phones emit more RF ? At receiving a call, at sending, at reporting to the tower... ?

Zero fluorescents, but plenty of 120VAC LED bulbs with their electronic drivers. Ambient illumination is not an issue.
 

BobaMosfet

Joined Jul 1, 2009
2,110
I would not really focus on the transmitter, so much as on the receiving end. It could be they are not well shielded due to FCC regulations requiring them to accept all signals, and this may be creating to much noise at the receiver end.
 

be80be

Joined Jul 5, 2008
2,072
Let's see could wifi or cell phone be problem I sure don't think so.
more like your led light are putting out IR to the TV

Why let's look at how IR works it's led that is sending data by blinking a IR led
Now say you have a led light pointing at your tv and it makes a lot of IR light
the TV not going to see the remote.
Plus Vizio 'smart' TV suck we have 2 of them and the living room one with led lights on you have to point right at
the IR receiver.
The one in the bedroom lights never on while watching tv works way better.
Oh and the cell phone is always next to it the wifey can never be without her phone.
LOL

I got one of them RCA remote that you program for TV and Blue ray it's a lot better in the living room I beleave it has more output power I still have to point with lights on but
I don't have to get out of my chair now LOL
 
Last edited:

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
It seems to me that if you are experiencing communications between IR devices, the place to look is for IR sources.

Not RF... Not Bluetooth... Not all smartphones...

So what IR sources exist in your environment? Pay attention to those.

What causes poor IR reception? Dust? A flakey circuit clock?

I’d build a test transmitter, that sends a simple code over a standard carrier. Does it experience the same problems? If so, does cleaning the receiver help? Does manipulating the carrier frequency on you text device help?

I wrote this because IMHO there are many red herrings in this post. And I doubt that any interference can cause code changes. Occam’s Razor, there is a misconfiguration between the two devices.
 

BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,928
Can you use a universal remote on your tv? Fresh batteries. Clean RX lens.

I have not experienced that problem.

But when I installed the new cox 5g cable modem.........my cordless phone went to hell.
 
Top