Remote Locking / Unlocking - Anyone ever had interference ?

darrenjuggins · April 24, 2006, 14:58

Hi All,

Had a very starage experience the other day, which has only happened to me once in the past...

For some very strange reason, my car would just not unlock on the driveway at all, I tried my normal key and also my back up which is never used, but nothing.

Eventually the car did open, but refused to lock up again. I've only had this ever happen once before.

I drove the car out of the close and parked up elsewhere and the keyfob(s) worked fine, I tried various locations on the way back and they all seemed to work fine.

Got back home again and nothing - this phenomon lastest for approx 1-30 (6pm till about 7-30pm) after that everything is back to normal.... anyone know what it might be ?

I've heard A-Wac's can affect trasmitters or weather condidtions, just wondered if anyone else had such an expereience, it was more frustrating than anything, but a bit weird as well..

Cheers

Darren J

philster_d · April 24, 2006, 15:02

yep outside Gas's hose I got auto locked out of the car.

And outside Toni's once there was a rogue infa red doorbel overiding all car alarm fobs.

Regrds

Phil

Two's Company · April 24, 2006, 15:07

I've had this before, although it's only ever happened outside my house for some reason. Thankfully it only happens maybe once a year! s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Anonymous · April 24, 2006, 18:27

I had it happening repeatedly.. I replaced the battery in the fob and all was well again.

If it's just a one off though, could be a sign the battery is starting to go, or just interference from something.

darrenjuggins · April 24, 2006, 19:28

I think interference, as I used both fobs (one which never gets used at all).

everything is working happily again now, but it is quite strange, wondered if anyone had that wizzo scientific answer to our plights ?

Cheers

Darren J

Anonymous · April 25, 2006, 00:24

A possible inteference source is, bizzarely enough, a mircowave oven in operation. It appears that many cookers leak a wide band of RF interference. My Baby Cam + Wifi get messed up when our microwave is operating. Oh and I don't stand too close these days too...

kanujunkie · April 25, 2006, 06:53

only time i've seen this is at heathrow airport, car park 1A, top floor parked right next to the radar array. You could stand next to the car and everytime the dish span in the rough direction of the car it would arm or disarm the car, looked really wierd flashing away to itself. IMHO though the chances of this happening are very rare, you would either need a high power signal or that one in a million chance that its the right one signal. IMHO most of the time its just because people have forgotten to change there fob batteries and dont understand the reaction they get from the car

philster_d · April 25, 2006, 09:19

outside gaspars house I think it was the overhead mains lines, but no cars would work there not just mine. 10 meters away it was fine.

Anonymous · April 25, 2006, 12:25

Quote from: "ShaunyF"A possible inteference source is, bizzarely enough, a mircowave oven in operation. It appears that many cookers leak a wide band of RF interference. My Baby Cam + Wifi get messed up when our microwave is operating. Oh and I don't stand too close these days too...

In my student days I remeber a friend had a keyring which would light up in lectures if someone was trying to call on his mobile whilst on silent. Left his phone next to my microwave one night and the light just went absolutely crazy. Proves just how much these things leak.

dreambackup · April 25, 2006, 14:03

microwave ovens are terrible (especially for wi-fi networks since the both operate on the 2.4GHz band). cell phone are too a weird source. if I put my old Nokia on my HP laptop, the mouse cursor will move by itself when the cell phone connects to the network and / or rings... s:? :? s:?

we live in a world full of those waves and, even though nothing has been proven (yet), I don't think it's a good thing for our health.

I use to have a Jeep that would unlock by itself just about anywhere because the keyless entry was then coded with too few combination (so when another Renault - Jeep was sold by Renault in France, at that time - owner was parked around, chances it would open my doors were pretty high!!!).

I don't have a clue about Toyota's keyless entry and the wave band it uses by it's likely you have a house alarm around using the same. therefore, they get in conflict... even if not using the same code s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · April 26, 2006, 00:18

Yip microwaves are bad. I worked 12 years for the Health & Safety Laboratory, some of the time looking at EMC. We had all the kit for performing electrical certification (a device's ability to suppress EM inteferrence as well determining the amount of EM a device generates). As I recall keyfobs use 416Mhz or was it 426Mhz which is a low power unlicienced band. Which means anyone can use it, and they do. You do often get dirty, high power, wideband RF sources that can mess things up. Ask my ex neighbous- when I was 18 I was pumping out a massive 10W (1mile radius tops) of priate radio from my bedroom, the next doors bought a new TV as they thought their set was faulty as I wiped out their Ch1-5 s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Anonymous · April 26, 2006, 19:13

So in summary then :

any other device which also uses this low power unlicenced band (like door bells, cordless phones etc) has the potential to interfere with nearby alarm keyfobs, as do more powerful sources of electromagnetic energy such as microwaves, radar and pirate radio!.

But sometimes it's just due to a flat fob battery.

Well I've learnt something new. s:D

s:D