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Comment by MomsAVoxell | Hacker News Reader

I have a TV-Be-Gone device, which is designed to disable TV’s in a certain radius. It has been an absolutely wonderful little accessory during business trips .. someone watching something obnoxious at the hotel bar? TV-Be-Gone!

A Flipper Zero would be the modern equivalent, I suppose. I like the idea of being able to turn off devices in a certain radius - but I don’t like the idea of everyone having one. Having ultimate power over the wireless noise in my immediate vicinity - awesome .. but seeing someone empty their pockets at the airport and a Flipper Zero in the inspection box - not so fun.

It’s going to be a wild and woolly future, the more these kinds of shenanigans become relevant.

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There was a guy who did TV-Be-Gone chips to put into car keyfobs (certain Valeo fobs used in Rovers, Citroëns, Peugeots, Renaults, and high-end Toyotas were infrared, in the late 80s/early 90s, and the remote central locking fobs were cheaply available from your friendly neighbourhood scrappy for pennies by the late 90s).

He also did a considerably more expensive one that worked on Furbies, which "chatted" in sync using infrared, and told every Furby in the room to stop talking and go to sleep immediately.

If you had child back then, or you babysat one, you'll know why this one was his biggest seller.

It's pretty easy to do, a Pi (of any kind) and an IR LED that sends the power button codes for the common TV brands will do it (since it's often a toggle, it'll also turn TV's on if they are off).

RF remotes are harder to hack together but similar principle. Whether IR or RF, the codes are common across all devices of the same model/protocol.

TV-Be-Gone can work in public places, but it's is not going to work through walls for neighbors.

Can you see their window?

Pick up a cheap CCTV infrared floodlight, gut it, and gate it with Ye Olde Bloody Great MOSFET driven by your TV-Be-Gone microcontroller.

Unless you manage to aim a strong IR blaster at their window/the ceiling behind it.

Indeed. It works with infrared light, the same way most TV remotes do.

A spark gap does pretty well. But the FCC fowns on such things.

TV-B-Gone Kit:

https://github.com/adafruit/TV-B-Gone-kit

I used to use the IR blaster on my Android phones to shut off the TVs in doctor's office waiting rooms when I was the only one waiting.

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