strange behavior from home appliances

IR receivers have lots and lots of gain. They are very sensitive to stray RF signals.

We had a similar problem back in the late 80s when I worked for the Cable box manufacturer General Instrument.

Dr_Doggy said:

I swear I have, I forget exactly, maybe it was the screen brightness that flickered, i remember i couldnt see it with my eye, but i think i(we) resolved it by changing a setting in the tv, i even forget if it was e-star, but something like that.

this was like 2 yrs back now,

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If you did?, then it was one specific (peculiar) TV, for who knows what crazy reason, it's certainly not something general.

schmitt trigger said:

IR receivers have lots and lots of gain. They are very sensitive to stray RF signals.

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All such problems disappeared with the introduction of the three pin IR receiver IC's. Prior to that there were lot's of different schemes used, usually mounted in screened boxes.

As much as I hate to say it, it's the IOT (Internet of Things) issue. Home electronics are becoming self-aware, and are accumulating too much power over humans. The day is coming. Mark my words!

Several weeks ago, I suddenly woke up at 3:00AM, and found all of my major appliances arranged around my bed—the fridge, stove, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer—in a semi-circle around my bed, as though they were watching me sleep. Initially, I disregarded it. We have lots of heavy vehicular traffic in the neighbourhood, and the vibrations could have caused the appliances to move around. A couple of weeks later, exactly the same thing happened again. This time, when we moved them back to their proper location, we bolted them down, rounded off the bolt heads with a file and peened the threads over the nuts, to make sure nothing would come loose. And just to be sure, all of the kitchen knives are now locked in a secure cabinet. I don't want to be alarmist, but it doesn't hurt to take precautions.

Nigel Goodwin said:

All such problems disappeared with the introduction of the three pin IR receiver IC's. Prior to that there were lot's of different schemes used, usually mounted in screened boxes.

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You are correct; the integrated IR receiver all but eliminated RF susceptibility. But that doesn't mean that they are absolutely immune.
I mean, when weird things happen, one should not dismiss probable root causes unil proven incorrect.

Maybe a neighbor is playing with a Tesla coil or a huge transmitter.......

schmitt trigger said:

You are correct; the integrated IR receiver all but eliminated RF susceptibility. But that doesn't mean that they are absolutely immune.
I mean, when weird things happen, one should not dismiss probable root causes unil proven incorrect.

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I've never seen any such case, nor heard of one - and I'm in a user group of large numbers of TV service engineers all round the world.

It's certainly not a 'probable root cause', although there 'might' be an insignificant possibility, but it's way down on a list of possible causes.

Even if it is down to RF interference, it's far more likely to be affecting the set directly, rather than through the IR receiver.

Nigel;
I'm not questioning your knowledge or capabilities. I have nothing but respect for your opinion.

All I'm saying is, this bizarre behavior as described by the OP is either poltergeist or something more mundane.

Nigel Goodwin said:

If you did?, then it was one specific (peculiar) TV, for who knows what crazy reason, it's certainly not something general.

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It was a fairly generic brand as i recall, Im trying to recall....

I think it was cause of the tv's: Eco Sensor