[mythtv-users] Vampire LIRC????

Grant Emsley grant_emsley at yahoo.ca
Mon Feb 6 02:00:50 UTC 2006



Brad DerManouelian wrote:
> On Feb 5, 2006, at 8:21 PM, Darius Hardy wrote:
> 
>> Yan Seiner wrote:
>>> My lirc only works in daytime....  No kidding....
>>>
>>> Read on for this bizarre, but true, happening...
>>>
>>> I've been using lirc happily for a number of years.  Recently (last
>>> week) I got a shiny new Sharp 37" LCD TV, and hooked it up to my  
>>> mythtv box.
>>>
>>> Everything works fine (except for some unrelated failures) but the
>>> remote only works during daylight.  In the morning, before sunup, no
>>> remote.  During the day, no problem.  At night, after sundown, no  
>>> remote.
>>>
>>> I've not done a scientific study of exactly when it fails, but the
>>> day/night (or rather, light/dark) effect is clear.
>>>
>>> Since all worked fine at all hours *before* the Sharp TV arrived, and
>>> now it exhibits this rather bizarre behavior, somehow the TV is  
>>> messing
>>> with LIRC, but only after dark.....
>>>
>> Could the TV be emitting IR and swamping the receiver? Maybe there's
>> enough natural IR in the daytime for the receiver to notice and
>> compensate, but not enough at night.
>> Try shielding the receiver from direct sight of the screen.
> 
> It's more likely to be an artificial light source interfering with  
> the IR. I've heard fluorescent light is especially bad. Try turning  
> off your lights and trying the IR. If there's more than 1 light on  
> normally, turn them on one at a time until it stops working to find  
> your culprit. Unfortunately the solutions really are to not use the  
> light causing the problem or move the receiver and transmitter closer  
> to each other until they work.
> 

The spiral shaped energy saving bulbs that I have around my house have 
that effect on remotes.  I had one that would actually cause my TV to 
turn on and off every 20 minutes or so.

Here's what I would do:

First, put the receiver and the remote really close together and cover 
them with a blanket or cardboard or something.  Anything thick enough to 
shield it from surrounding lights.  If that doesn't work, either the 
receiver/remote is having problems, or it really doesn't work in the 
dark.  If it does work, its something in the environment that is 
stopping it from working.

Then try unplugging the TV (since that's the only thing that changed) 
from power and your mythtv box.  Check if it still has problems.

I don't know if there is a way to see the raw data that the receiver is 
getting, but if you can you could look at that to see if its picking up 
anything when you aren't using the remote.


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