Use Tinfoil To Boost Your Remote Control’s Range

I would like to see this done for car remotes. Mine sucks.

KStrike155

(Also the video played in IE but not my usual Firefox. YMMV.

RevWaldo

Happy accident - the plastic lens that covers the LEDs on my TiVo remote recently fell off, and now its performance is noticeably better. No more getting channel 2664 when we punch in 264. Might give this a go as well, although AFAIK LEDs have internal reflectors and lenses that should make this unnecessary.

RevWaldo

That's cool for an IR remote, do you think it will work for my RF remote my dual dish tuner uses?

Picking up an AM radio tweaks the reception, maybe holding the car remote near your head works like that?

jeffk

@ChesterNanger: Time to return to the mother ship.

Fitwit

@happinessiseasy:
I guess I don't understand how so many people developed the habit of calling Aluminum foil "Tin Foil" when we stopped using tin and replaced it with aluminum long before most of us using this forum were born. You can still buy Kleenex brand tissues, so it makes sense why that name still sticks.

I didn't drive to work this morning in a "Horseless Carriage" thankyouverymuch.

When I hear someone talk about tin foil, I expect them to tell me about the time they caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. Needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah --

Zundfolge

great for fucking with the neighbors tv... like in "grumpy old men"

urbanturban666

@Zundfolge: Don't be a dick. Not everyone blows their nose with a Kleenex brand tissue, either. People still call it tin foil because of habit. Get over it.

@solareclipse2: That depends on if RF signals bounce off of aluminum foil. I would guess that they would, but the problem becomes finding the transmitter. It problem broadcasts 360 degrees (so you don't have to aim it), so I'm not sure what good it would do to make it unidirectional with tinfoil.

It only really increases the range because it's higher in the air. Holding it near your head really doesn't do much but raise it's altitude.

ShwetaAmphinomus

Ok, this is one of my little pet peeves.

Nobody uses TIN foil anymore, it was replaced long ago with ALUMINUM.

So are you saying we need to order actual Tin foil from some metal supply place, or do you really mean to head down to the kitchen and get the trusty old aluminum foil out of the drawer and use it?

Zundfolge

@RevWaldo: "Might give this a go as well, although AFAIK LEDs have internal reflectors and lenses that should make this unnecessary."

Not only this, but it doesn't seem like placing a reflector inside the remote, and parallel to the LED would do a whole lot. At most, my guess is that it would just make the IR signal bounce around inside the remote a bit more.

I read somewhere (here maybe) that holding the car remote to the head helps to improve the range somehow.

John Tan

@solareclipse2: My guess is no, because if it's an RF remote it won't have an IR LED for you to place a reflector under. This is just a guess, though.

Guys, RF remotes (also your car remote) foes not rely on light, rather microwaves. You cannot simply boost it by placing foil inside, it'll probably make things worse. Nothing you can do other than fresh batteries and making sure the inside is clean. (I'm an RF engineer)

ErrolTiberius

"I can take apart a remote control....and I can almost put it back together"

AbigailBabba

This sounds crazy, but trust me it works. You can extend the range of you car 'blipper' (read remote central locking control) by pressing it against the side of your head and looking at your car, then press the relevent button. Honest, it works! Rich

ChesterNanger

How about for increasing antenna strength? (for TV)

@happinessiseasy: Is that a Mosbyism? ;)

@dv8godd: Aluminium was also the accepted spelling in the U.S. until 1925, at which time the American Chemical Society officially decided to use the name aluminum thereafter in their publications.

Source: [periodic.lanl.gov]

@RevWaldo:
"although AFAIK LEDs have internal reflectors and lenses that should make this unnecessary."

LEDs, themselves, don't have any internal reflectors or lenses. The diodes just emit light in an omnidirectional sense.
Maybe you meant that remotes have reflectors and lenses for this purpose? If that is what you meat, I've not found that true in any remotes I've had apart (which is a very small cross-section of all remotes out there).

@beala:
I believe the goal with this is to reflect the IR signal such that more is ultimately emitted out the front, rather than being blunted inside the remote itself. It's similar in concept to a flashlight - without the reflective surface behind the bulb more than half the light emitted isn't directed out the front.

Thorprime

I improved my remotes by buying a harmony one. Even for the same appliance, the signal is much stronger, and I can point it anywhere in the room, it doesn't matter.

jeffeb3

@solareclipse2:
No, it would not. the foil will absorb, not reflect the rf.

jeffeb3

@Zundfolge: If it's going to be a pet peeve... why not call it ALUMINIUM instead of ALUMINUM too? ;)

@happinessiseasy: Not being a dick. There are some fairly significant difference between the properties of tin and aluminum, which might make a difference here.

You can still purchase tin foil.

BrockBrockman

@ChesterNanger: This only works because you are raising the height of the transmitter in your remote control. It has nothing to do with holding it next to your head.

I don't know many people who call it "tin foil", most people I know called it just "aluminum foil".

I do know some people who call the freezer the "ice box"!

AngelBlue01

@ChesterNanger: that's because it's touching your tin-foil hat...

felixxx999

@Zundfolge: I had the same reaction as Zundfolge. No one I know uses that term, any more. Do you also get your cold food from the Ice Box?

JudiA

@JudiA: I keep my oleo in my icebox, thank you very much.

@Zundfolge: My father called the refrigerator the "icebox" and his stereo system the "vic" (short for Victrola). Would you have gotten on his case for that too?

Yeesh, find something better to be peeved about.

@Thorprime: Ahh right you are. I guess I wasn't watching the video closely enough the first time through. I thought he was just covering the inside bottom of the remote in tinfoil, rather than making a reflective backboard.

@jeffeb3:

I had a Harmony 880 that had great range, but when it died I replaced it with a Harmony 1000 that has AWFUL ir performance. Definitely would not recommend that thing.

brianhatch

You know I have heard that you can increase the range of your car's key fob by holding it up to your head. Isn't that something.

brianhatch

@jeffeb3: I have a Kameleon remote, and mine uses dual LED's, so the range is hella long.

@infmom: I stopped using the old verbiage of "toilet" and instead call it by it's proper name, the Colbert.

@jeffeb3: Not exactly, if he grounds the foil and places it at the correct distance for the frequency of the transmitter, it may reflect the RF. But that might be more trouble than it's worth.

@Zundfolge: I'm almost afraid to ask, but not quite; do you call it soda or pop?

Jake712

@joeybonj: Laser beams will shoot from your eyes.

Darkest Daze

@ChesterNanger:

ok.. but what will happen if you are not looking at your car?

@Thorprime: LEDs are not omnidirectional.

They are, in fact, highly directional. Annoyingly so, in some cases, although it is virtually never a drawback for IR remote applications.

There is absolutely no way that "more than half the light emitted isn't directed out the front". This isn't you're daddy's hot glowing filament, you know.

See for yourself: look at any LED data sheet.

Making this "trick" pretty suspicious in my book.

Besides, how much range do you need on an IR remote? My remotes shoot 20' or more, through glass, to the home theater components. Where are you, the backyard?

This is incorrect. The standard 5mm LED (which is what these are likely to be) is shaped like R2D2. That is, a cylinder with a spherical cap. The clear plastic acts as reflector in that the light bounces off the inside surface of it. This is called a collimator. So yes, they DO have "reflectors". For a majority of LEDs, the light distribution is heavily biased towards the front, making any attempt to gather light from the sides fairly futile. This is very easy to see by lighting up an LED, looking at it head on, then gradually turning it till you are looking at its side.

SugitaJobonee

@screaminscott: it works from metal fillings in his teeth most likely, i have wire holding my jaw together, any radio frequency is intensified near my jaw

nme2me

Holding the car remote to your chin, for example, makes the signal go farther, No doubt about it, I do it from inside my house, and it locks the car out at the curb. Without touching my chin, even at the same height, it will not work.

AmandaElephino

AngelBlue01. Us Brits call it Tin Foil still. Adn we call Aluminium Aluminium not Aluminem too!!! But then we are seperated by the same language!

GroverNestor

How about blocking IR interference coming from my Panasonic plasma? The comcast remote works about 30% of the time.

RamonRhapsody

Dude, how far away is this guys TV that he needs to extend the range?

AlgernonMagpie

Will aluminum foil work in place of tinfoil?

PalmerBuzzard

So, to sum things up nicely:

Whaaa! it's called Aluminum Foil, not Tin Foil!*

Also, I've heard that if you put a car remote to your head it increases its range through some type of sorcery.

Can we move on now? Please?

*Unless you're in the UK, apparently.

@[www.tomsguide.com]

VenomIreland says click the heart button.

@[www.tomsguide.com]

VenomIreland says click the heart button.

@Zundfolge: I thought there was already a good supply of tinfoil hats to draw upon around here???

paintbox

@Zundfolge: That's funny, right there - I don't care who you are...

@ChesterNanger:

That may be hazardous to your health.

Gilbert Capulong

your comment ""I can take apart a remote control....and I can almost put it back together"" made me laugh. A bit like when you press the accept button when downloading something and realize you shouldn't have done that. woops LOL

ShorashiBanks

Cool ! but it can use for TV Remote ?

poysian

@Darkest Daze:

oh yeah.. i'll try this asap.. Xmen's Cyclopes style!

So where do I buy this tinfoil stuff?

All I see in the stores are rolls of aluminum foil.

rockhopper

@Bill Clark: I know it's accepted in the US at this point, that wasn't really what I was getting at. By most accounts, it's still a mis-spelling and most of the rest of the world doesn't seem to care what the American Chemical Society thinks. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, though recognizing Aluminum as an acceptable variant, still sees Aluminium as the standard.

It's still a likely long-running mis-spelling, whether they accepted it or not. One really need only look at it's neighbors on the periodic table to glean that.

Personally, I'm American... and I still call it Aluminum. I don't have a personal stake in the matter... just pointing out that, if we're inclined to be anal retentive and insist on proper nomenclature over tradition... we might as well go all the way.

There is a video on there for boosting car remotes. http://science.discovery.com/videos/brink-home-with-kip-kay-wireless-remote....html

RoseBiblos

Ouch. Really Lifehacker? This is like 3 years old! How is that an acceptable post?

ChelseaHawk

He's actually quoting a popular song by the Flobots. "Handlebars". But yeah, it applies very well here :-)

VikasEpaphus

@glassdevaney: I'm tired of people calling it tin foil meaning aluminum foil.

_Ko0LaiD_

I don't have tin foil readily available, can i use aluminum foil?

_Ko0LaiD_

Scientific Proof of car-fob-to-head trick... http://www.remcom.com/varipose/varipose-examples/keyless-entry.html

MalvaJalopy

@paralaxc: I can only assume you're referring to HIMYM here, but I'm drawing a blank on the reference. Little help?

@jeffk:

That's ground plane reflection, which is fine for low frequency wavelengths like AM radio, (in the range of thousands of kilohertz or less than or right at one megahertz) but not for the higher frequencies that most car remotes work at. The 300-400 mhz band most remotes transmit on, coupled with the *very low* power they broadcast at means that any ground plane effect is negligible.

ZipperSeven

@ChesterNanger: inductive coupling to your calcium skull which increases range. best when pressing the remote transmitter dongle under your chin close to the bone. try it to extend range. there are not enough wireless engineers on this site :(

brutek