2. amps-preamps
  3. 1359062475

Beware of 'Ghost Switching'

I have had a C-J Primier 17LS for over a decade and it has served me well. About a month ago it started switching from phono to C.D. or other modes, all by itself. I never had this problem before. I don't use the remote so took out the batteries thinking the remote may be the issue. No help. The Ghost Switching only occured while I was in the Phono Mode. I sent the unit back to C-J for repair. They had it for two months, could not replicate the issue and found nothing wrong internally. After I put the unit back in my system it started to Ghost Switch again. I placed a tin foil shield over the section where the romote sensor eye is located on a hunch. No more issues. It seems outside signals were causing my pre-amp to Ghost Switch. Not sure what type of signals could cause this, but if you experience such an issue save yourself some grief and money by placing a shield of heavy tin foil over your remote 'eye'. This may start to become a common issue with all the wireless devices in use.
quincy

Showing 1 response by almarg

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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Thanks, Zd :-)

All I can offer is a guess, and my guess, assuming (as appears to be the case) that the remote control function is IR rather than RF, would be that the root cause of the problem is interference from a fluorescent or compact fluorescent light that is in the area. Electronic ballasts that are commonly used in fluorescents operate at frequencies that are not all that different than the pulse rates which are emitted by IR remote controls.

If nothing involving the room lighting changed around the time the problem began to appear, but fluorescent lighting is present, perhaps the problem was triggered by age-related degradation of one of the lights. Or perhaps something degraded in the IR sensor mechanism, causing it to become abnormally sensitive to interference from the lighting.

Just a guess, as I say.

Regards,
-- Al
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