Has anyone else experience this? I for one still can't beleive it but I can't explain it any other way.

I have a Pronto RU950 with latest firmware and docking station. I've had it for a few years and am very happy with it and I have it working perfectly for my system.

Now we are in a new house and I have re-built my same system. The room now has a passive IR sensor in it for the intruder detection system and the entire room is lit only by low-voltage halogen lights. Also Xmas has come and we put up a tree and added some Xmas tree lights.

Suddenly my remote doesn't talk to the Arcam amp anymore!! (and no the batteries aren't low as I have the docking station - but read on...) Confused as I was I queried the internet (as you do) and various things came up regarding passive sensors and halogen lights interfering with stuff. I thought I'd start a process of elimination and try out some things...

Turning off all the lights in the room made no difference. (note I don't have any remote controlled lights - yet!).
Completely covering the intruder sensor also made no difference. Now I was even more confused. Even disconnecting the wireless door bell chimer didn't help (I was clutching at straws!!)

After a few days I noticed that the remote *did* actually work in the day time and not when it was dark. Suddenly it dawned on me there was one item I hadn't thought of. The Xmas tree lights!!

Turning them off resulted in it still not working. However, 10 seconds later it began to work. Curiously I started playing around with the Xmas tree lights.

Turning them back on - and the remote stopped working. Turning them off again, remote still did not work. 10 seconds later it worked. And it continued to work until the lights were turned back on again.

After much testing I have concluded that it has to be the xmas tree lights that are causing the problem. I can't explain why I have to wait 10 seconds after they are turned off before the remote works again, and why it only affects the Arcam AMP but with the lights off everything works flawlessly. Sheilding the Arcam from the lights makes no difference at all. The lights themselves are nothing special just standard 150 multi-coloured lights from Focus (!!) with 8 different twinkle modes (!!).

Any else experienced anything like this??

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you all.
Gareth.

Wow, that is an interesting problem and good job on the detective work!

I am betting one of the IR Guru's here will have a theory. Should make some interesting reading.

It appears the IR frequency of your Amp's IR system is disturbed by the Christmas lights but I do not know how. Unless the red colored lights emit a light spectrum which washes out the IR in some way.

Happy Holidays to all!

Dave D'Arche

don't know, but how do you turn the lights on/off

The room lights are turned on and off by a standard MK Logic plus 9-way grid system switch panel (just 9 standard on/off swtiches arranged in a grid).

The Xmas tree lights use a small transformer that plugs into a mains socket on the other side of the room to the AMP. But it is on the same mains ring as the amp. To turn them on/off I just toggle the power socket switch.

I'm not one of the IR Gurus. But I'm pretty sure Dave is correct about the red lights. I have an IR receiver in my house and a Halloween one of my props uses red lights (I have white X-mas lights)and the IR receiver flickers as though it is receiving IR. Although it hasn't interfered with my IR transmissions.