Been having a bit of trouble with the remote central locking on the medway handyvan this week.
I suspect I need a new battery in the key because the range that it works at is steadily getting smaller.
So, I've been using the 'hold the remote to your head' ploy - which to my surprise actually works - it easily doubles the range of the remote.
How the hell does that work? It certainly isn't the power of my brain.........
Don.
It is a complete guess, but it may be that the signal pattern is not symmetrical. If you point the fob, it tends to be end on to the vehicle, whereas against your head it is probably sideways. This may just give a stronger signal in that direction.
Maybe somebody has the kit and time to check this out, perhaps it has already been done.
Chris
Well obviously I knew that :-)
Truth be told, I understood barely 10% of the article.
Could someone explain it in old money please?
O.K, try
Don.
Getting better! I understood half of that one!
What make of vehicle was it again ? - I believe some Citroens (?) have the alarm sensor built into the roof of the somewhere, so it could be that holding it to your head just brings it closer :-}
Another "trick" i've heard of is to hold it near to your mobile phone (I think you need to be calling out for this to work though) - apparently in some circumstances this can even work "remotely", i.e. if you've locked your keys in the car - phone the missus, and get her to press the alarm key at _home_ near the mobile (!)
The Medway Handyman brought next idea :
Just simply holding it up in the air can help.
Fascinating - must try that before I next have to take a taxi journey to SWMBO's workplace to collect my car keys from her handbag. (bless...)
Out of interest, how many different systems are there for 'plips'? I thought mostly they were I/R which presumably wouldn't fare well via a mobile phone! eg, with my car you need to aim the plip at the receiver built into the car roof from about 1 metre away, whereas with SWMBO's you can do it from 5 metres away through the kitchen window.
David
I thought they were mostly radio wave operated nowadays. Certainly our Mondeo and my Dads Zafira are.
People often aim them at the car even when they don't need to. Our Mondeo can be locked /unlocked from inside the house behind the house wall
Get it replaced under warranty. Could be dying battery or transmitter/receiver slightly out of tune/synch.
On the lorry cranes I repair and service if you use the radio remote control handset it not only blocks most transmitters for fobs for around 100 yds, but it neatly opens Rovers, Citroens and a couple of other makes. Handy innit ;-)
On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:46:33 +0100, "R" mused:
I was on a site the other day and the auto shutters on the front of the shop were remote control. The remote also locked and unlocked various cars in the car park and peoples keyfobs not only locked and unlocked their cars but open and shut the roller shutter.
Radio Luxombourg. Night time reception used to fade in and out due to the same reason...
A reflected signal and a direct signal might arrive at the same point out of phase as one signal has traveled further up to the point where the positive part (peak) of one signal arrives at the same time as the negative part (trough) of the other signal thereby cancelling one another out. IIRC.
or
perhaps the back of your skull is acting like a satellite dish with the focal point being your forhead so all emitted signals are being reflectd forward? who knows.
:¬)
Vans not new, only new to me. 03 reg. Stuck a new battery in & it's now fine.
I can't think of any mechanism that would allow that to work with a modern GSM phone....
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in news:evp2dg$ovu$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org:
I didn't understand either of them.
But the effect certainly works on my motorbike (self fitted) alarm; I think I saw the effect on Top Gear, and as my zapper has a very short range, I tried it and it works.
I've also found street furniture, scaffolding, etc effective.
mike
Me neither, but hey, strange things happen. Perhaps the blipper latches into harmonics on the phone signal or something, and somehow strengthens the signal - or something :-}
A friend of mine who happens to be into wireless networking assures me you can do a similar thing with network cables.
Glad to be of service
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