[Dhananjay Gadre] happened across a useful little trick the other day. Take any old 1N4148 or 1N914 glass-package signal diode and wire it up right, and you’ve got yourself a nifty little IR detector.

This circuit confuses the infra-red receiver in a TV. It produces a constant signal that interferes with the signal from a remote control and prevents the TV detecting a channel-change or any other ...