Ghosts

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jwax
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Ghosts

Post by jwax »

Have a 23" Insignia LCD TV which I use for video monitoring of a nearby video camera. Been using it for over a year.
Several nights ago, it powered itself up, went from "Video" input to "TV" input, and started scanning through the channels.
I shut it off manually, but it kept coming on, by itself, for the next two days randomly.

Thinking it had developed a weird malfunction, I retired it, and replaced it with a Visio 21" LCD TV.
Same thing happening with this TV! It doesn't change to "TV" input, but stays in the "Video" mode, but still randomly powers on!

My house is over 200 years old, so have I got playful ghosts, or a line voltage problem that can send power up signals into these TV"S?

About to try a line voltage filter to see if that solves the problem.

Has anybody seen line voltage spikes that can perform input functions?
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Externet
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Re: Ghosts

Post by Externet »

Hi John.
Seen a TV remote control emitting commands by itself caused by a nearby idle cell phone.
Without any other actions, tape cover the TV infrared window; move the remote to another room with batteries removed just to confirm, and come back... :???:
- Abolish the deciBel ! -
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ghosts

Post by Janitor Tzap »

Externet wrote: Sun Nov 01, 2020 8:53 am Hi John.
Seen a TV remote control emitting commands by itself caused by a nearby idle cell phone.
Without any other actions, tape cover the TV infrared window; move the remote to another room with batteries removed just to confirm, and come back... :???:
Very Interesting............
You could do that, or put the cell phone somewhere else, instead of next to the remote.
Or simply turn the cell phone off, or even remove its battery.
Then see if the condition still happens.

Hmmm..........

I've seen this problem with older CRT Televisions that have Power Relays that are controlled by a separate 5V Power circuit,
that has the remote receiver circuit which turns on the main power to the set.
A voltage Spike would trigger the relay, and power up the set.
It could also cause the set to change channels.

Most Television/Monitors now a days state not to plug them directly into an AC outlet.
But, to plug them into an AC Line Filter/Surge Protector/Suppressor strip first, and it in to the AC Outlet.
I think it has to do with the ULSIC {Ultra Large Scale Integrated Circuits}, that are lower power.
Thus, they require tight voltage regulation of the 5V, 3.3V, 1.5V, and 1.2V Sources.

I'd get a good quality AC Line Filter/Surge Protector/Suppressor Power strip to plug the Television in to.
Or get a UPS{uninterruptible power supply} unit, with the AC Line Filtering/Surge Protector/Suppressor built in to it.

Check The House Wiring!

Old AC wiring is not just a nuisance.
But a FIRE HAZARD WAITING TO HAPPEN!

If you have the newer 3 wire outlets.
Image
Check to see that you don't have AC on the Neutral to Ground.
This would indicate open or crossed wiring.

Here's a AC Outlet Ground Tester.
Image
Which makes it easier to check the outlets, then having to use a DMM {Digital Multi Meter}.


Good Luck with it.


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dacflyer
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Re: Ghosts

Post by dacflyer »

the last TV's I worked on that had a similar issues were the RCA CTC131 Series.
they were notorious for having cold solder joints around the tuner housing. this would lead the tv to do all kinds of weird things.
turning on or off randomly, changing channels, making the volume go up or down.. or mute.
it even would blow the eeprom, and if that was the case, you had to replace it and then reprogram the tv.
it was a good tv if it wasn't for that issue.. RCA refused to acknowledge it as a bad enough problem to do a recall. but i repaired over 100 of them..
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jwax
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Re: Ghosts

Post by jwax »

Sounds like the suggested explanation is a cell phone could induce a signal into my IR Remote Control to switch the TV on/off?
Never would have guessed that, but what do I know? :)
Trying the black tape over the IR detector on the TV. BTW, the remote for the TV is nowhere to be found, certainly not in this room. I'm just using that TV for a video monitor. Of course, other remotes in the room my be the culprit.
Waiting for ghostly things..........
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ghosts

Post by Janitor Tzap »

dacflyer wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:01 am the last TV's I worked on that had a similar issues were the RCA CTC131 Series.
they were notorious for having cold solder joints around the tuner housing. this would lead the tv to do all kinds of weird things.
turning on or off randomly, changing channels, making the volume go up or down.. or mute.
it even would blow the eeprom, and if that was the case, you had to replace it and then reprogram the tv.
it was a good tv if it wasn't for that issue.. RCA refused to acknowledge it as a bad enough problem to do a recall. but i repaired over 100 of them..
Wow, thanks for jogging my memory about those particular RCA Chassis's.
My one friend who had a Electronics Repair Shop, had a TV of that chassis model that he kept in the back room.
It was originally a customers set, that had a blown power supply, the bad solder, and the popped eeprom.
The customer refused the repair estimate, and dumped it on him.
Which turned out to be a good thing.
Because he was seeing a lot for those TV's with blown eeproms.
Thus, he fixed it up, but installed a 8-pin Ziff-Socket where the eeprom was located.
He would put in a good programed eeprom, start up the set, get the set in to diagnostic mode.
Remove the good programmed eeprom, while it was still running, then put in a new unprogramed eeprom.
Save the settings to the new eeprom, shut down the set, then turn it back on to make sure the eeprom was now programed.
He'd burn several eeproms this way, so he would have a supply readily on hand.
{Also, it was cheaper then getting an eeprom burner that would burn those small 8-pin package eeproms.} :mrgreen:


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dacflyer
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Re: Ghosts

Post by dacflyer »

I never knew that was possible...
I always did it the hard way..go all thru the menu..the sucky part was trying to get to where you needed to be to get to the Horizontal hold menu.
Usually the horizontal was out of whack. You wanted to get that set 1st so the H.O.T. didn't short out from being so out of range.
then I'd go thru most of all the other settings...
Them tv's were the only sets that i knew of that had a alarm clock feature to where the tv could be programmed to turn on at a certain time as well as off.,,plus it had the sleep timer too.
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Lenp
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Re: Ghosts

Post by Lenp »

Sounds like a case of Visio-itis! (See my Viso related posts!)
I have a 'smart-set' that turns itself on, selects a channel then you loose all remote control. Only un-pluggung restes it and shows it who'se the boss. Visio swapped all boards under warrenty. It turned itself on that night! They say 'Maybe it's something on your wireless network, power line interference, a neighbor is poining his remote from 500 feet waay, kids playing tricks....They just don't know.
Problem is, we don't like what it selects to watch......
But, it's fixed now. I just put an inline switch on the power cord. No problem now!
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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jwax
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Re: Ghosts

Post by jwax »

I don't believe in ghosts anymore!
Black tape over the IR detector has stopped the random turn-on problem!

As I recall, years ago when IR remotes were in their infancy, I recall a "kit" that used a high power IR emitter that was good for several hundred feet of range. Wondering if one of those is loose in the neighborhood.

Thanks for the inputs guys!
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ghosts

Post by Janitor Tzap »

jwax wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 5:40 pm I don't believe in ghosts anymore!
Black tape over the IR detector has stopped the random turn-on problem!

As I recall, years ago when IR remotes were in their infancy, I recall a "kit" that used a high power IR emitter that was good for several hundred feet of range. Wondering if one of those is loose in the neighborhood.

Thanks for the inputs guys!
Hmmm.......

Is there a IR Remote control actually in the room where you have the Insignia LCD TV, or the Visio LCD TV?
What I'm thinking is that the IR receiver in both sets, is using the same IR pulse train that the remote uses to activated functions on either set.

Another thing to try, is take the remote from the Insignia TV, aim it at the the Visio TV.
Press the buttons, and see if the Visio reacts.

I've come across an RCA DTV Box, and a RCA Satellite Receiver Box that both used the same IR pulse train's.
Thus, I could use one remote to control the functions of either receiver boxes.



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Externet
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Re: Ghosts

Post by Externet »

jwax wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 5:40 pm I don't believe in ghosts anymore!
Black tape over the IR detector has stopped the random turn-on problem!
Noooooo! :sad: I was hoping being a true ghost and restarting a 'Rice pulling'-like subject :sad:
- Abolish the deciBel ! -
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