A

adamsafe

Audiophyte
I am moving all my components into my basement and running CV cables up to my TV. What is the best product to extend my IR signal from the TV room down to my components?

Also, is there a special consideration for a Plasma TV in this application? Someone told me Plasma TVs emit IR signals that may screw up typical IR extensions.

Thanks.
 
JohnA

JohnA

Audioholic Chief
adamsafe said:
I am moving all my components into my basement and running CV cables up to my TV. What is the best product to extend my IR signal from the TV room down to my components?

Also, is there a special consideration for a Plasma TV in this application? Someone told me Plasma TVs emit IR signals that may screw up typical IR extensions.

Thanks.

All you need to do is splice in some Cat5 wire from the IR receiver to the IR repeater hub. Just make sure you match the -/+/ and signal conductors on both ends. There are some issues with the interference from plasma, but most companies make "plasma proof" IR receivers. Or you can mount the IR receiver somewhere away from the plasma.

Hope that helps :D
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
IR repeater systems are fairly easy to set up and as said above, usually just require a piece of CAT-5 between your TV location and the basement head-end.

At your TV you will want a plasma proof-IR receiver and in the basement will be the power supply (12 volt) and IR distribution amp. The plamsa proof IR will be connected to that amp, and IR emitters will feed off the amp to all your components.

Look here: http://www.smarthome.com/irsignals.html
Specifically: http://www.smarthome.com/8130BR.html
which has the plasma proof IR receiver, connecting blocks, IR emitters, and your power supply that you'll need.

Yes, plasma proof IR receivers are (in my opinion) a little pricey, but they do a far superior job to receiving IR codes. Also, keep in mind that your equipment may not be compatible (read notes on Smarthome). Most equipment is compatible though. Ask first (here or elsewhere) if you have any doubts about some of your equipment.
 
G

gcmarshall

Full Audioholic
I know this is an old thread, but it applies to my question. Can anyone help?

I want to run an IR emitter cable about 16 feet from my equipment cabinet, through my basement, and up to the Lutron dimmer. Thus, I will be able to control my dimmer using the RF feature on my remote and RF base station.

However, my IR emitter cable is only 10 feet. I need to extend it. It has been suggested that I use Cat5.

This (finally) brings me to my ultimate question -- WHEN I LOOK IN THE CAT5 JACKET, THERE ARE 4 OR 5 WIRES inside the jacket; WHICH ONES DO I USE WHEN I SPLICE THE CAT5 INTO MY IR EMITTER CABLE? In other words, my IR emitter cable has the IR flasher on one end and the 2.5mm miniplug on the other end. I plan to cut it and splice the cat5 in between those two ends to make an extension cord.

Which of the cat5 wires inside the cat5 jacket do i use, or does it not matter as long as they are correctly matched up on both ends?
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
...THERE ARE 4 OR 5 WIRES inside the jacket; WHICH ONES DO I USE WHEN I SPLICE THE CAT5 INTO MY IR EMITTER CABLE?
Use any color you want - pick a color. Heck, I'll do it for you! Use the blue wire to go on the solid IR emitter wire and use the blue/striped wire to go on the striped IR wire.

No - wait... use the brown pair.

or maybe the oran.. green pair... uh...

;)

Truly - does not matter. You can use almost any 2-conductor wire in the universe. People recommend/use cat-5 because it is incredibly cheap and easy to get ahold of.
 
jcPanny

jcPanny

Audioholic Ninja
RF remote

Instead of an IR repeater, you might consider an RF remote. I got the URC-300 remote w/ RF base station for just over $100. It can control my gear from anywhere within 100 ft.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Instead of an IR repeater, you might consider an RF remote. I got the URC-300 remote w/ RF base station for just over $100. It can control my gear from anywhere within 100 ft.
jc - This post was brought up from the dead pretty much. If you read the current un-dead discussion you will see that the guy is using an RF remote currently but needs to extend the IR emitter wire from the base station (whichever brand) to a Lutron dimmer switch.

Lots of great RF remotes out there these days that everyone should seriously consider over IR repeater systems.
 
shakedog

shakedog

Audiophyte
extending a flasher to like 500ft. or so

i'm doing a custom installation and need to extend 2 flashers approx 500ft using one cat5. As far as I know, all I really need to take into account is the voltage drop due to I squared R losses. To be conservative I'm thinking of splicing each flasher lead to 2 of the 8 cat5 conductors in order to make use of all the conductors.

I also need to extend a few line level audio signals (left and right rca) the same 500ft....can RG6Q (unsure what they are swept tested to) accomplish this deed?

Aloha from Hawaii.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
i'm doing a custom installation and need to extend 2 flashers approx 500ft using one cat5. As far as I know, all I really need to take into account is the voltage drop due to I squared R losses. To be conservative I'm thinking of splicing each flasher lead to 2 of the 8 cat5 conductors in order to make use of all the conductors.

I also need to extend a few line level audio signals (left and right rca) the same 500ft....can RG6Q (unsure what they are swept tested to) accomplish this deed?

Aloha from Hawaii.
500' is a long - LONG way to go with the power signal for IR over Cat5 and I think you will be hard pressed to get it. It may work, but... it's not a given that it will.

The line level audio run is just a bad idea.

I would go to balanced audio and use a shielded audio cable (not speaker) for the run. Convert it from unbalanced to balanced audio, run it as far as you want, then take it back from balanced to unbalanced at the end of the run. I would expect the cost savings of the cable will help cover the price of the balanced/unbalanced converters.
 
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