"micky" wrote in message

stuff snipped

When my remote wouldn't work with my Powerid pyramd IR relay , it
turned out the Powermid transmitter in one room, the device I was
supposed to aim the remote at, was overloaded..

People told me that the CFL lamps or the incancescent lamps would do
that, so I started being more careful to turn lights off in t hat
room, and then on the whole floor. But I would wake up in the
middle of the night, no sun outside either, to see the red indicator
light that said it was receiving IR flashing on and off. I changed
to another transmitter and it did the same thing. So I had to
disconnect the whole thing. I'm going to try a third transmitter,
but there must be some IR or maybe a harmonic of it? somewhere.

Powermids are very susceptible to strong RFI, which is a serious issue
considering people use them most often with TV sets. Trying moving the
Powermid away from anything that might generate strong RFI. My old tube TVs
were big offenders, but stereos and LCD/LED TV's can do it, too. I set up
my X-10 to turn off all Powermids ) except the link currently in use so that
they don't pick up stray light or RFI and put it "on the line." I had to do
that because with six Powermids spread throughout the house the stray
reception becomes cumulative and really intolerable

I've found that if the LED stops flashing when I put the unit inside a large
pot (with the sensor facing out) then the problem is not stray IR light, but
RFI. I also was able to use my Homevision log (it records IR events, even
those it does not recognize) to determine that at certain times in both
spring and fall that strong, late afternoon sunlight in the room with the
"blasterMid" (-: screwed up Powermid reception.

So the nexrt step is to put a swtich on the transmitter and turn it
off whenever I leave the room. That will probably help me, but not
you.

Yes, that should certainly help you. With X-10 and HomeVision I can set it
to turn off the Powermids when the roomlights are turned off unless I want
to turn them on manually. After I installed my third powermid, things got
totally unreliable so I had to institute some way of turning off units not
in use. Almost all of my IR receivers - the ones without the external
antenna - are located in "alleyways." I try to place them inside things
that create shadows - as in velcroed upside-down in a bookcase at the very
back of a row of books. I've concealed one in a planter - with plastic
flowers - so that I have to fire directly at them to make a hit and so they
are protected from stray light. X-10 is notorious for scaling
difficulties. The more units, the more issues. Each X-10 unit absorbs a
little bit of the signal and the more you have, the more each signal
degrades. How did we get from wireless doorbells to X-10? (-"

Anyway - first test with the Powermid is move it around or Faraday cage it
to see if the LED stops blink. Both units (illogically) respond to stray
light and nearby RF. IIRC, the folks in comp.home.automation or the
AVSFORUM concluded it was bad shielding on the unit's IF transformers that
made them blink when near a strong RFI emitter. That information is subject
to being completely wrong.

--
Bobby G.