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Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

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Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#71
Along the same lines, I had a hell of a time tracking down the reason my washroom GFI (ground fault interrupter) tripped on random occasions; i.e., the electric outlet would lose power and need to be reset.

It turned out that an iPhone receiving a phone call tripped it -- even before it starts to ring! Making a phone call didn't do anything. Here's a 13-second video:

https://vimeo.com/247730625

I'd love to hear comments about the possible cause.

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#72
post #11

Is it just me who'd love something like this to happen to me? Would be great fun tracking down the source of the problem (if it was my car; probably less so if I was in the house...) There's a lot of options to try to isolate the problem, just thinking out loud here - a) Back into the driveway returning from work. See if alarm goes off. Next morning, see if alarm goes off as you drive out. b) Remove fuse for reverse…

My fire alarm goes off once every few months at 3 AM. From what I heard this is not uncommon.

Try cleaning it with a vacuum cleaner. Was listed in the manual for mine and it hasn't false alarmed in years since we did it.

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#73
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a fire alarm going off due to low battery once. We searched the house for 3 hours trying to find it. Gave up, slept through the beeping. Next day, enraged, we tried again. Eventually we found it in the bathroom trash can.

Just did this yesterday, and eventually found it was the neighbours one that was flat. It’s the 3rd time I’ve knocked on a neighbours door (different people each time) to ask them to take a battery out an alarm. I’d consider it a feature if they combusted after alarming for a day.

It's amazing that people can just tolerate or not be aware of things like this.

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#75
post #71

Along the same lines, I had a hell of a time tracking down the reason my washroom GFI (ground fault interrupter) tripped on random occasions; i.e., the electric outlet would lose power and need to be reset. It turned out that an iPhone receiving a phone call tripped it -- even before it starts to ring! Making a phone call didn't do anything. Here's a 13-second video: https://vimeo.com/247730625 I'd love to hear comme…

I can often tell that I'm about to receive a text message because my poorly shielded computer speakers will start buzzing. I assume it's caused by a transmission from my phone's radio inducing a current in the amplification circuit.

I would guess this is what's happening with your GFI. Even though you're receiving the call, your phone is probably transmitting too (sending back the equivalent of an ACK or something). The current induced causes a difference between hot and neutral and the GFI trips. It's surprising that it can induce a strong enough current! I'm not sure what wattage cell phone radios operate at.

Edit: Ah missed the detail about outgoing calls not causing it. That is very strange! Perhaps a cell phone engineer can shed some light on that!

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#76
post #71

Along the same lines, I had a hell of a time tracking down the reason my washroom GFI (ground fault interrupter) tripped on random occasions; i.e., the electric outlet would lose power and need to be reset. It turned out that an iPhone receiving a phone call tripped it -- even before it starts to ring! Making a phone call didn't do anything. Here's a 13-second video: https://vimeo.com/247730625 I'd love to hear comme…

Does it happen with any other kinds of phones? Like can a landline or Android phone also trip your GFI when it receives a call?

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#77
post #71

Along the same lines, I had a hell of a time tracking down the reason my washroom GFI (ground fault interrupter) tripped on random occasions; i.e., the electric outlet would lose power and need to be reset. It turned out that an iPhone receiving a phone call tripped it -- even before it starts to ring! Making a phone call didn't do anything. Here's a 13-second video: https://vimeo.com/247730625 I'd love to hear comme…

Does it happen with any other kinds of phones? Like can a landline or Android phone also trip your GFI when it receives a call?

The same thing happens with a Motorola RAZR V3 GSM quad-band cell phone (a flip phone). I have that on video as well though I didn't upload it. I haven't tested any other phones.

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#78
post #11

Is it just me who'd love something like this to happen to me? Would be great fun tracking down the source of the problem (if it was my car; probably less so if I was in the house...) There's a lot of options to try to isolate the problem, just thinking out loud here - a) Back into the driveway returning from work. See if alarm goes off. Next morning, see if alarm goes off as you drive out. b) Remove fuse for reverse…

> Is it just me who'd love something like this to happen to me? I love reading about interesting problems and creative ways to solve them. I used to wish for the same. But then I was given a super annoying one. In my apartment I heard this beep about once every 90 seconds or so. I tried ignoring it for a while hoping it'd go away. And just so at the right frequency and infrequent enough Impossible to determine direct…

Which app did you use

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just did this yesterday, and eventually found it was the neighbours one that was flat. It’s the 3rd time I’ve knocked on a neighbours door (different people each time) to ask them to take a battery out an alarm. I’d consider it a feature if they combusted after alarming for a day.

It's amazing that people can just tolerate or not be aware of things like this.

My nemesis was one of those round stick-on LCD clocks that used to be popular.

The designer apparently thought that emitting a single beep every five minutes or so would be an awesome low battery indicator.

I didn't know what kind of thing was making the beep, naturally, which was unhelpful.

It took about a month of me slowly going mad before I finally found the thing at the back of a desk drawer.

Re: Neighbor's house alarm triggers when I put my car in reverse

#80
post #11

Is it just me who'd love something like this to happen to me? Would be great fun tracking down the source of the problem (if it was my car; probably less so if I was in the house...) There's a lot of options to try to isolate the problem, just thinking out loud here - a) Back into the driveway returning from work. See if alarm goes off. Next morning, see if alarm goes off as you drive out. b) Remove fuse for reverse…

Here's my odd story. Years ago, my wife and I were sleeping over at my parents house and we were awoken by garbled conversation from the clock radio. I sleepily checked it out and saw that the radio was turned off. Thinking that the on/off switch was broken, I just unplugged it. The garbled conversation continued. At this point I wondered if my parents house was built on top of an ancient burial ground...

Talking to my father in the morning, he indicated that his neighbor had taken up Ham radio and he was having to put filters on various devices to reduce interference. To this day, I wonder if his spotty wifi in the house is related to his neighbor turning his system...

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