HD300 external IR receiver

[toricred]

Any chance an IR adapter I have from my USB-UIRT I no longer use would work as well?

[Tiki]

Doubtful. If you are talking about an external IR Emitter that plugs into the USBUIRT, then definitely not (since that is an emitter, and what you want for the HD300 is a receiver).

[toricred]

The USBUIRT is both an emitter and a receiver so I'm not certain that's good logic.

[pjpjpjpj]

There’s a point to this, bear with me…

My parents go on all these senior bus trips. You know, a bus full of senior citizens, off to see Branson, Missouri, or Mount Rushmore, or the world’s largest ball of twine, or whatever. On said trips, there are always games that they play – trivia, who is wearing the most jewelry, who is the oldest, whatever. The “prizes” (quotation marks intentional) are usually worthless junk.

On a trip not long ago, my mom won a little doohickey that the trip organizer claimed she “found at home and had no idea what it was, so put it in the prize bag” (gives you an idea of the level of prizes, eh? “stuff that the organizer had laying around and didn’t even know what it was”).

It was a long cable with a 3.5-mm plug at one end (looked like a stereo headphone plug), and a small bubble at the other end with red plastic cover and what appears to be a small led inside. Best I can tell, it’s an IR receiver or flasher. What an elderly woman was doing with it laying around in her house, I have no idea….

So, finally getting to the point… I’m thinking that this device looks a lot like the IR receiver that can be added to the new HD300, but this device has no specs printed on it. Is there a risk of damaging the HD300 if I try it? If it were rated for some other watts/volts, or had the power/ground/signal connectors rearranged, could it damage the HD300? Or, is there a way (with a multi-tester or something) to test the gadget and find out which bands on the plug are which?

If it shouldn’t harm anything, I will give it a shot. If it could damage something, it’s probably going in the trash. ...unless y'all want to answer a trivia question with a shot at winning it....

[ybrew]

The vuduXL had a similar IR Receiver. Similar in that only the IR Receiver they sold would work with the Vudu. I tried others and they simply didn't work, but they didn't damage the Vudu.

I'm certainly not saying you can't damage the HD300 with the wrong IR receiver, but I only chanced it with the Vudu since I got it for free and didn't really care too much about it. The HD300 is worth a lot more to me than the Vudu and I'd hate to screw it up by not spending $7 or so on the right IR receiver.

That said, bring on the trivia!

[matt91]

I asked in another thread, and the response from Plucky was that the device is specific to the HD300.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by matt91

I asked in another thread, and the response from Plucky was that the device is specific to the HD300.

I saw that thread, but from the spec (which indicates which of the segments of the plug are which), if you had another gadget which was arranged the same way, it should work, whether Sage claims that it's proprietary or not...

Of course, Sage won't ever tell you that others would work... they want to sell theirs. I'm just wondering about the odds of actually damaging a unit. Meh, probably not worth it, even if the chances are miniscule. Especially since I don't really need the IR (and didn't order one) at this time.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by toricred

Any chance an IR adapter I have from my USB-UIRT I no longer use would work as well?

The Hauppauge receiver will not work.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

It was a long cable with a 3.5-mm plug at one end...

The HD300 has a 2.5mm IR jack.

This is all covered by the FAQ, which also includes instructions on how to make your own.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by toricred

The USBUIRT is both an emitter and a receiver so I'm not certain that's good logic.

I think it's pretty good logic, since I specifically said "if you are talking about the external IR emitter..." which is just an emitter and not a receiver.

You are correct that the USBUIRT main unit contains both an emitter and a receiver, but it connects to your PC by USB, and the HD300 connects to its external receiver via a 2.5mm jack, so it won't connect directly.

That being said, it might be possible to tear a USBUIRT apart and wire it's receiver to a 2.5mm jack and get it to work, but unless you're just a hacker at heart and love the challenge of figuring out how things work, is it really worth the effort to save $7? Especially, if there is a slight chance that you could damage your $150 HD300?

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I think it's pretty good logic, since I specifically said "if you are talking about the external IR emitter..." which is just an emitter and not a receiver.

You are correct that the USBUIRT main unit contains both an emitter and a receiver, but it connects to your PC by USB, and the HD300 connects to its external receiver via a 2.5mm jack, so it won't connect directly.

That being said, it might be possible to tear a USBUIRT apart and wire it's receiver to a 2.5mm jack and get it to work, but unless you're just a hacker at heart and love the challenge of figuring out how things work, is it really worth the effort to save $7? Especially, if there is a slight chance that you could damage your $150 HD300?

Not to mention you would be modding a $50 USB-UIRT to save a $7 part. If you just don't want to buy the official one Sage has made the specs available in the FAQ. Find another that meets the specs or roll your own.

S

[toricred]

I already have the USBUIRT, actually 2 of them, but I moved to serial tuning for DirecTV. I don't really need the external IR, but if it would work I would find a way to use it. No big deal.

[mike1961]

What is the maximum length this cable can be? I saw the print out and it said 1500 +- 50 but I was not sure if that was inches, centimeters or what? Also, does anyone know where I can get an extension cable for this kind of 2.5 mm jack because I think according to the diagram it has three conductors signal, power and ground?

Thanks,
Mike

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by mike1961

What is the maximum length this cable can be? I saw the print out and it said 1500 +- 50 but I was not sure if that was inches, centimeters or what? Also, does anyone know where I can get an extension cable for this kind of 2.5 mm jack because I think according to the diagram it has three conductors signal, power and ground?

Thanks,
Mike

Any M/F 2.5mm stereo cable will work... like this one

1500+- 50 is mm would be my guess... so 1.5m or 5ft +- 2in

EDIT: my guess is it can be quite long... probably not 100's of feet but i would think 10's of feet would work just fine