why do TV remotes get “weak” when the batteries start running low?

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I’d instinctively expect it to be more of a binary thing: they work, then when the batteries get to a certain level they completely stop working.

Instead you get this in between phase when the batteries start getting low, where you have to get closer to the TV for them to work. Why?

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12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

At the end of your TV remote is a little LED, it fires infra-red light at your TV that is picked up by a sensor on your TV.

That IR light flashes to tell the TV messages, so when you press a button on your remote, it flashes a code extremely fast to let your TV know what button you pressed.

So the reason this starts to fail is the same reason torches fail. There isn’t enough power to keep on the light, so it dims until it goes out. This is the same with the IR LED, not enough power is running through it to light it up sufficiently to be detected by the TV.

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