xantech IR repeater system

[aoehlke]

well, I purchased one of these setups the other day, paid 175$ for it locally in ottawa. talked the sales guy down 25$ and no tax to boot!

what a slick little system.
let me describe:

the unit has a 1/2" brass button IR receiver, this gets mounted into your cabinet. it has a green led in it that blinks while it is receiving IR commands from a remote.

inside your cabinet, this receiver connects to a "Connecting block" which has 6 outputs and 12V DC power supply/transformer.

you can use sinlge "blinkers" on the outputs, for up to 6 devices, or double blinkers for up to 12. my system came with 4 single emitters, so I have 2 free slots. these little emitters or blinkers attach to your componets, the setup is fully wired, and there is 0 lag between IR commands. I have seen the lag with X10 type IR repeater systems that transmit stuff wirelessly or what have you, but this is instantaneous. maybe i will take some pictures but it has really cleaned up my home theatre, now I dont need the wooden cabinet doors open when using my components. it got high wife approval ratings. really great, one of the best thigns I ever bought really.

how does this relate to sage?
I am hoping now, to run an emitter all the way back to my PC. My HTPC is not in my cabinet, as it is also my regular PC and sits at my desk (but in the same room). I had prewired a ton of cat 5 and coax and other wire types (a huge umbillical cord) from the back of my tv to the wall with the PC for future connectivity options... I currently only have 1/2 a cat5 line in use as it's my svideo output to my tv from the xcard in the pc. I say 1/2 cause the cat5 is 8 conductors and svideo uses only 4... the little female svideo connector was 12$ at home depot OUCH! but it makes a nice clean install, its a Leviton system, they make light switches and receptacles etc.
anyways back to the remote thing...
I am hoping the wire run (about 30') isnt too far to "extend" one of these emitter lines from the cabinet with the xantech, all the way back to the PC. I will buy 2 female "mini headphones" type connectors to use in the leviton mouting plates on the wall... I believe these emitters only need 2 conductors(unless using a dual emitter) so I hope this works. It should, no technical reason why it wont, unless the cable run is too long and signal gets too weak, but i doubt it. Then, I can point my harmony remote at my cabinet, and control sage back at the PC, with no lag.
I will post my install results after the weekend... but I'm really only trying to turn some of you guys on to this xantech product. If your gear is in a closet, or other room, and you can install this little receiver in a tv stand or what have you, you will be all set. Xantech also makes a "black box" unit if you dont want to drill into your cabinet, but really, this little one is so much better, very unobtrusive. and again high wife approval factor.
I think you can buy a similar kit at partexpress.com, but check your local hifi shops (not bestbuy, but "real" stereo and home theatre stores) to see if they carry xantech or simialr products... .you will not be disappointed.

cheers

[Jesse]

Hi aoehlke,

What conneting block did you get? There are definite limitations to emitter wire length and this length is dependent on (1)whether the box is the standard block or the high powered emitter out block, and (2)the wire guage. I called xantech a while back on this and got the specifics from them. My notes are at home so I can post this info tonight. From memory though, I dont think 30' feet should be a problem.

My xantech stuff works great and like your system, has resulted in improved waf.

Have fun,

Jesse

[aoehlke]

Hi Jesse.
From memory, the block i got is the CB60... but that is a guess, I will have to look at the actual unit myself.
I dont know that it is "high powered"... but it might be... not sure. It operates on 12V DC... served out from a transformer block from standard 120V AC.

If you remember tonite, please PM me or post those notes you got from xantech... I would like to have them for future reference.

30' was being a bit liberal too... it is more like 22-25'.
I will be sending it via cat5... 2 conductors of 24 AWG each.

[SPHurley]

Check out www.smarthome.com their web page has manuals and designs for small and large systems.

[Jesse]

Hi aoehlke,

My block is a 789-44 (not high power) and the max emitter wire length is 30' if using 18 guage wire. The high power block (791-44) has a max emitter wire length of 100' when using 18 guage wire.

You are below the max distance but are using a smaller guage wire. I would just give it a try.

Good luck,

Jesse

[aoehlke]

or, i could use 2, 24AWG for each conductor, that would give me beefier "wire" gauge.
will try it on singles first... cant play with it til the weekend though

I also found out leviton doest have the mini headphones connector for the wall plates I am using... I will have to use a regular rca type and then get the rca to headphones dongle cord... sigh.

I did one other cool experiment last nite though... I am sending svideo (4 conductors) and L&R audio (2 conductors each) over a cat5 run... total of 8 conductors in the wire.
Rather then occupy my wall plate with the 3 connectors however, I made my own "proprietary dongle" I used a regular rj45 connector on the wallplate, and then made a 3 foot dongle, with rj45 on one end, and the svideo, L&R audio on the other. It's not really pretty, but not ugly. I had to do this cause the leviton wallpaltes I am using only have room for 6 jacks each, and i have a double gang box, so 12 jacks max... however, my wiring scheme need 14 connections at this box!

2 coax (2 jacks)
svid and L&R audio from the xcard (3 jacks)
svid and L&R audio from vid card and sound card (3 jacks)
ethernet ( 1 jack)
rca video and L&R audio from satellite to PC (3 jacks)
IR to PC (1 jack)
IR from PC (1 jack)

I ended up turning my 3 jack sets into single jacks by using these home made dongles.
Ideally though, I should have use a 3 gang box... but too late for remodelling now!

I swear by cat5... so so versatile.