TV remote control -- two of them work -- then they don't

Did you manage to find someone with a SmartPhone to test your 2 remotes?

 

me too, and i'll throw in window washing and vacuuming.

 

I can clean the breakroom and bathrooms at work just fine, if I'm on the duty roster for that task at the end of the day. But at home I have no idea or skill to do the same thing.

A digital camera can also "see" the IR transmissions from any modern remote, same as a cellphone can.

 

An i-Phone camera will "see" if the remote is working.

I hate phones too.

When I was working, for 45 years I was tuned to the demands of phones.

When I retired, I did a lot of gardening etc and was outside off and on all day. I'd hear the phone ring. And keep gardening. Just to prove that I WAS NO LONGER at the demand of phones.

I'd get inside, see a message left - my Mum. I'd ring her "you must have been out, you didn't answer". "Nope, I heard it but was outside". She couldn't comprehend that I wouldn't sprint inside to answer the phone.

Dishes - if I don't do them - they don't get done. So I do them - eventually.

Fortunately my dogs clean their own. When they've finished eating, they check each other's plates and give them a second clean - and then another, ditto, ditto. Their plates shine.

 

possible, but i've never heard of it. sometimes when you drive through a blasting site, they tell you to turn off your radio. sounds pretty old fashioned though, with all the electronics today.

 

The reason they tell you turn off radio xmtrs, is the RF emission can cause blasting caps to detonate. Rare, but apparently it has happened.
Virtually no chance the RF from the construction guys did anything to the locking system however.. Worst that could happen, let's say I am parked next to your car. I key the XMTR in my car, 45 watts, through a 8 dB gain antenna, gives you 360 Watts Effective Radiated Power, or ERP!! It would overload the FOB receiver so when you pushed a button on your keyfob, the car might not hear it! That"s about it!!

 

ALIENS.
Or Big Brother.

 

Unlikely to be the machinery affecting the TV Remote.

Almost all TV Remotes are InfraRed - though I understand some are RF, but I've never seen one. If you test using an iPhone or SmartPhone camera and you see a beam when you press a button, it will be InfraRed. I recently tested a dozen I've got here - changing batteries, cleaning contacts etc - and they're all IR.

 

Our DirecTV remotes have both an IR and RF component, which is quite odd.

 

My Dad had been in his home for 15 yrs since he retired. He said to me that his garage door kept going up at odd intervals. He had 2 remotes, one in the car and one inside the home. He wasn't really one to delve into mysteries, so when he heard it go up he'd just press the button and put it down again. Though he'd come home and found it open a couple of times, but they were home 98% of the time.

Went on for a couple of weeks till he noticed that one day it went up - and his neighbour was reversing out his driveway. Went across to chat with him, asked him to press his remote - and the neighbours door opened and Dad's closed. Problem solved - the neighbour's NEW garage door opener still had the same factory default coding that Dad had. He got his changed.

 

Remoting through history:

The Television Remote Control: A Brief History

If it strikes you oddly in first paragraph that Tesla invented TV remote in 1893, he did not. That was for moving vessels or vehicles.

 

Thoughtco are among those fighting the good fight, highlighting gee whiz in science. A bit of looseness in the editing room ought to be forgiven.

 

doing better than my dad who presses the garage remote control trying to change the tv channel.

 

When I use my iPhone at home, I have to be sitting at my desk where my landline phone used to be. I tend to reach for that ol' phone once or twice too, even though it's not there...

 

I take it that smart phones lack IR emitters in hardware? It might be useful.

 

Nine years is quite geriatric for a TV!
It was about that many years ago (June 2009---I just looked it up) that they started broadcasting in digital in the US, so if your TV is as old as that it's probably not even a TV anymore.

If you've investigated both ends of the IR, and made sure that your receive window isn't occulted by pictures, empty beer cans, other viewers, dust, etc...then I'd say that it's time to stick the crowbar in your wallet, fire up the Model A and go into town and get another one.

You'll probably be pretty surprised.
Millenniels just aren't into the ginormous TV screens like Nanny and Pap are, and costs for them trending southward.
If you don't have black tape over the camera on your laptop, you can get a "smart" TV and eliminate one or more set-top boxes that might be contributing to your entertainment clutter.......and maybe even blocking the IR shutter on your present TV.

Good Luck!