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Infrared sensor is now red...

coledog

coledog

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 14, 2006
622
1
Roanoke, VA
Ok, so I fell in the water with my phone in my pocket etc. Got it all good and dried out with a hair dryer, turned in on and everything is perfect...for then.

About 2 hours later I see that one of the infrared sensors that used to just be a colored circle behind the glass is now "red". What caused this (I know water obviously) but has anyone else seen this happen? Any way to fix it?

I'll be hoping I got the phone out of the water and my pocket soon enough that I didn't trigger all the water damage triggers...
 
coledog said:
Ok, so I fell in the water with my phone in my pocket etc. Got it all good and dried out with a hair dryer, turned in on and everything is perfect...for then.

About 2 hours later I see that one of the infrared sensors that used to just be a colored circle behind the glass is now "red". What caused this (I know water obviously) but has anyone else seen this happen? Any way to fix it?

I'll be hoping I got the phone out of the water and my pocket soon enough that I didn't trigger all the water damage triggers...
Click to expand...

Infrared? Infrared is for heat - you're talking about the water indicators.

And yes, their triggered
 
Water triggers are electronics now? By the ear speaker? There are 3 infrared sensors there, one is now glowing red, the other 2 are not.

Infrared is for a whole lot more than heat buddy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared)...it's in remotes, in Macs, in cars, in phones...infrared is one of the most used technologies of the decade IMO.
 
coledog said:
Water triggers are electronics now? By the ear speaker? There are 3 infrared sensors there, one is now glowing red, the other 2 are not.

Infrared is for a whole lot more than heat buddy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared)...it's in remotes, in Macs, in cars, in phones...infrared is one of the most used technologies of the decade IMO.
Click to expand...

Excuse me, the "sensors" are usually mixed up and, given your basic question, I mistakenly assumed that you were referring to the wrong sensor.

If you want to look at the water sensor, shine a light down the headphone jack and take a look, if it's read, you've triggered the sensors.

EDIT: You'd think somebody so pompous could figure out how to use the search button
 
I don't care about the water sensors though...please re-read my original post...I was asking why one of my infrared sensors (for brightness adjustments, proximity to face, etc) was glowing red.

I know that a moisture detection strip is in the headphone jack and other places too.
 
Does it still work - can you point out which sensor ? Water could be changing wavelength to red presumably from invisible to the eye IR.
 
Everything works great actually, in fact the red glowing is gone this morning...

It was the bottom one of the 2 stacked sensors.
 
Humans can't see inrared light with their eyes. Something must have gone wrong if you can see it. Either you're an alien, you have bionic eyeballs, or the LED is dying and putting out light in the visible spectrum.
 
The General said:
Humans can't see inrared light with their eyes. Something must have gone wrong if you can see it. Either you're an alien, you have bionic eyeballs, or the LED is dying and putting out light in the visible spectrum.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats true, I dont even think those sensors are IR
 
Slypr said:
Yeah thats true, I dont even think those sensors are IR
Click to expand...

The proximity sensor is an IR LED and an IR receiver. They are right next to each other. When something gets close and bounces the infrared light into the receiver, it knows there's something close.

That's how the proximity sensor works.

If you open the phone application and make a call, you can see the IR led flashing in your iSight (if you have a Mac).

photo8u.png


It is a different wavelength than a remote control. Remote control IR shows up white on video cameras, this one is purple. Actually, it might be ultra violet light, I have no idea.
 
It'll be a photodiode/phototransistor but they can detect different wavelengths of light ... some use IR light
 
That little "infrared" sensor goes on an off as something sets it off. Make a phone call and during the call put your hand over the location of the sensor. When you pull your hand away you will see that the "light" is on for a split second until the screen turns back on. Try it.
 
cantuchristoph said:
That little "infrared" sensor goes on an off as something sets it off. Make a phone call and during the call put your hand over the location of the sensor. When you pull your hand away you will see that the "light" is on for a split second until the screen turns back on. Try it.
Click to expand...

You're imagining things. None of the sensors emit any light in the visible spectrum. The only light that humans can see that is emitted from the iPhone is the LCD's backlight.
 
cantuchristoph said:
That little "infrared" sensor goes on an off as something sets it off. Make a phone call and during the call put your hand over the location of the sensor. When you pull your hand away you will see that the "light" is on for a split second until the screen turns back on. Try it.
Click to expand...

He's right. It's a very small red light on the bottom of the two sensors nearest the speaker. It stays on for a second or two after you take your finger off.
 
benflick said:
As have I on multiple occasions. Do you have a 3G?
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm making calls and looking for the light you're talking about. I'm in darkroom even, and see no such light.

Unless your eyes can see infrared light, you're imagining things.
 
The little red light is showing up right now only when the screen is on and keeps showing up a little after it goes out.

Here is a pic from my isight...it isn't nearly as bright as it looks in the pic, just imagine a red pacman...
 

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coledog said:
The little red light is showing up right now only when the screen is on and keeps showing up a little after it goes out.

Here is a pic from my isight...it isn't nearly as bright as it looks in the pic, just imagine a red pacman...
Click to expand...

I doubt there's much you can do to correct this as the most likely explanation is that something on the mainboard is shorted which pertains to that component being illuminated.
 
Yea, that's what I was figuring...I might try taking it to ATT and whining about it, I can't tell if the water strip was triggered or not, looked white to me but I doubt it.
 
Perhaps the wavelength of light emitted from the proximity sensor is right on the edge of the visible spectrum of light. It does appear to be a different color than remote controls through a camera.

If a little bit of water got in your iPhone and disabled a resistor, perhaps the LED for the proximity sensor is putting out way more light than designed.

Now, if the wavelength of light that it emits is around ~720nm, then that could explain why some of us can see it and some of us can't. I may just have poorer vision.

It would also explain why the iSight camera sees it much brighter than us.

light_Spectrum.jpg
 
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