I just spent two days troubleshooting an intermittent problem with a SEN-10266 IR receiver diode which I was using to get commands from a TV remote to drive a robot with a Arduino Uno. It was working fine all day while I was testing my robot. Then in the evening it started to miss-read the IR data from my TV remote. It seemed to stop working when I touched the IR receiving diode or moved the wiring or anything near it. It seemed to work when I held the connecting wires to the diode. Maybe a loose connection so I checked the plugs/pins. They looked ok but I still replaced them. Still the same problem. I got so frustrated I soldered the IR diode pins directly onto the connecting wire. Still the same intermittent problem. I then replaced the IR diode with a new one. Exactly the same intermittent problem. Maybe it was something in my Uno program? So I wrote a simple program to just read the IR data from the IR diode. Same dam bloody problem! Intermittent miss reads but it seemed to be a little better (less number of miss reads) when I held or jiggled the connecting wire (it was plain PVC insulated connecting wire) or even when I put my hand near the IR receiver. I tried pointing the TV remote in all different directions. Still the same problem. I replaced the batteries in the TV remote. Still the same problem. I changed the IR diode input from pin 12 to pin 11 on the Uno. Same intermittent problem. I gave up and went to bed. I left everything as it was. When I got home from work next day I tried it again and the IR diode was working perfectly! But later this evening it started to miss-read again.
I finally found the problem.
Can anyone guess what was causing my problem?