The tastiest technical solution – MSE forum's infrared solution
Recently I was stumped by a nasty in my bedroom – and of course when you’ve got a problem like that, there’s nowhere better to ask than the MSE forum.
The question was quite simple. We have a TV in the bedroom with a very bright, blue LED, which keeps me awake. While covering it is the obvious solution, do that and the remote control doesn’t work as the LED is co-located with the sensor.
I’d been told about a special red gel lump that you could get to cover it, yet even though I searched the web I couldn’t even find what it was called, never mind where to find it. So I zipped to the techie board for a bit of crowd sourced wisdom.
Of the suggestions, the answer which stuck out was, ‘buy some Quality Streets’, as the coloured sweet paper would do exactly the same job, blocking out the blue light while still letting the infrared signal through. This weekend I did just that (even better it was on a 2for1 in Sainsbury’s) and frankly it’s the tastiest technical fix I’ve ever seen.
I simply got the paper, folded it over neatly and stuck it on top. It now almost totally blocks the light out, but the remote still works. Thanks to all on the techie board who suggested answers.
Hopefully this blog will get a bit of search rank, so if anyone is in the same position again, they’ll find this and the answer, and be able to do it cheaply and quickly too.
