Grrr, Remote Control Overlap!

[Inno]

When I use the remote for my home stereo receiver (Yamaha RX-V795) it almost always changes the channel on my Pansat 3500SD..........This is very annoying! I was listening to music the other day and went to turn it up and all of a sudden I'm on a competely different channel. It wasn't moving a channel at a time but kept changing them the whole time I had the volume button pressed.

I'm guessing its the Pansat's IR reciever that's at fault because there's not a single button on the Pansat remote that will change the Yamaha. It's probably not tuned to a real tight tolerance........I can't change the address of the Yamaha remote but is there a way to do it with the Pansat?

Any other ideas? Maybe if I went with a UHF remote for the Pansat (which would be handy for other rooms anyway) I could get around it.

Ideas?

 

[Mr Tony]

Maybe if I went with a UHF remote for the Pansat (which would be handy for other rooms anyway) I could get around it.

Ideas?

that won't help it as the IR sensor still is active.

I have the same issues with 2 boxes and 2 DVD recorders/HDD (the HDD are the same brand)

I just made up a piece of cardboard and put it in front of the one DVD recorder I'm not using at the time (if both are on)...the recievers I do the same thing. Works pretty good

 

[Keith Brannen]

When I use the remote for my home stereo receiver (Yamaha RX-V795) it almost always changes the channel on my Pansat 3500SD..........This is very annoying! I was listening to music the other day and went to turn it up and all of a sudden I'm on a competely different channel. It wasn't moving a channel at a time but kept changing them the whole time I had the volume button pressed.

Had the same problem with my Pansat 3500SD. I found that when I used my Star Choice remote to turn up the volume on the TV, it would repeat whatever the last thing that was done on the Pansat (change channel, signal, information, etc.). Now that the sound is through my RCA Home Theatre System, I don't have the problem, as I don't use the volume control on the Star Choice remote. Fortunately, the RCA HTS remote does not interfere with the Pansat.

One thing I can suggest is to make sure that the last button you pressed on the Pansat remote is the information button, before turning up the volume on your Yamaha remote. Not much of a solution, but it will work!

 

[gabshere]

maybe a option is a universal remote that works the yamaha, hopefully finding one that doesn't control both unless selected to do both.

 

[Inno]

that won't help it as the IR sensor still is active.

I have the same issues with 2 boxes and 2 DVD recorders/HDD (the HDD are the same brand)

I just made up a piece of cardboard and put it in front of the one DVD recorder I'm not using at the time (if both are on)...the recievers I do the same thing. Works pretty good

The IR sensor may still be active but I could just put a little piece of tape over it. Or yeah, maybe some sort of shield..........or move the FTA a little further away from the Yamaha in the rack.......just when everything was going so well!!!

 

[Inno]

maybe a option is a universal remote that works the yamaha, hopefully finding one that doesn't control both unless selected to do both.

It's not that it's set to control both, it's that the frequencies are so close that the Pansat "thinks" it's getting a signal to change channels when what I'm actually doing is just adjusting the volume on the Yamaha so as such I don't think a universal unit would help a whole lot.

 

[mastermesh]

Yes, I think it's that the frequencies are too close too... Back in the days I was a kid, we had Phaser Tag, which was a generic/cheaper version of laser tag. Anyways, the gun worked on IR. We could shoot it at the vcr and make it turn off, or or act weird. Totally freaked dad out when we'd do that before he was aware that it could do that.

As far as the universal remote... DON'T BUY IT AT BED BATH AND BEYOND, ESPECIALLY IF YOU SEE A SIGN ON THE DOOR THAT SAYS WAY BEYOND! (Click Movie reference there...)

 

[partyharty]

If its a IR remote (normal) then your best bet is moving the eyes as far away as possible from one another. Otherwise you can take a piece of tape and tape over part of the eye (so that mabey it will not catch the signal when it is sent from the other remote). I have used black electrical tape to do this and it worked pretty good. (I covered 1/2 or so of the eye and I had to hold the remote a bit higher to trip the top receiver). You will have to play trial and error for a bit though.

If you know of a place (or a peson) that does old time electronic repairs they could replace the eye with another (not sure if this is possible now, heck I am not even sure if you can find an old time electric repair shop anymore). Some older gear you could replace the eye with a different eye (both the sender (in the remote) and the receiver had to be replaced)). I am not sure how this will work in a newer receiver though (the only eyes I have ever replaced are in older equipment, I have never tried it with (newer) equipment that has the surface mounted chips, I figure it would be a pain (or at the very leastmore expensive then the receiver is worth) to replace.

A universal remote would be cool however if this one does it there is a good chance that the universal will do it as well.

 

[Inno]

I do "old time electronic repairs" myself........Used to do it at a shop 'till things got a little too disposable for my liking. It is my understanding that it's not really the IR receiver or transmitter that is the problem, it's the frequency of the signal being output. We had a test jig which consisted of an IR receiver connected to a oscilloscope to test remotes. With this we could "look" at the pulses being sent by the remote. Those pulses are generated by the internal IC in the remote. If you were to alter that it would no longer operate the unit it was designed for. To alter the receiving unit to match would be next to impossible.

What I was hoping was that Pansat had a changable remote address, much like the Express-Vu remotes (especially the UHF) where if you were having problems where your neighbor was changing your channel (and vice versa) you could change your remote to a different address (corrsepondingly a different freq.) and eliminate the problem.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

I have a theory for an elegant solution. Maybe someone has the materials on hand and can test it.

A polarizing filter is placed over the IR output of the remote transmitting the interfering signal. Another polarizing filter - oriented 90 deg. out of phase with the first filter - is placed over the sensor of the receiver which is being interfered with.

The results will depend on the ability of the filters to pass IR unimpeded.

 

[Inno]

That is worth a try. I have an old pair of polarised sunglasses that just might do the trick.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

Another source for scrounging polarizing filter material is anything with an LCD, such as a pocket calculator. Most if not all employ a clear, thin, and easily removable layer of polarizing plastic that sits atop the LCD itself.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

I became curious enough to tear apart a perfectly good dime store calculator and give it a whirl.

Since I don't have a remote that interferes with my 3500 I placed the polarizers on the 3500 receiver and the 3500 remote, hoping that the receiver would only respond to the remote when the remote was held level with respect to the receiver.

I placed overlapping pieces of black electrical tape over the entire display area of the 3500. I tested the effectiveness of the mask with the remote. I was surprised that there was little degradation in the performance of the remote! ... even with a double layer of tape the remote still worked out to about 3 feet from the receiver.

With both receiver and remote effectively masked with several layers, and windows cut in the masks to accept the polarizers, the results were disappointing.

At close range the remote worked no matter what position it was in. At medium range the polarizers worked as expected, but only when the remote was directly in front of the receiver. When using the remote from long range or at an angle to the front of the receiver the receiver responded no matter what position the remote was in. Multi-path reflections seem to overcome the polarization.

 

[Inno]

Well thanks for trying that.......you must have more time than I do . I'm sorry to hear that it doesn't work. For some reason, for the past couple of days I haven't had too much trouble with it. It might be because the receiver is pushed further back in the cabinet.

 

[rglore]

I just tried what Keith said in post #3 and it works! Whenever the 3500 changes channels when it's not supposed to, I press the exit button on it's remote and it quits doing that.

 

[Inno]

hmmm, that might be worth a try......it's not too complicated to do and worth it if it works