Guy Lavoie
Active Member
I have just set up an actual installation (as opposed to a temporary bench setup) of my Buffalo IR repeater system and I'm having some strange behavior that I'd like to discuss with anyone having worked with these devices.
This installation was prompted by my recent subscription to digital cable TV. I have a single cable box that I wanted to share with both TVs, so I set it up such that the audio and video signals out of the box go into a modulator that my TVs can view by going to channel 77. This setup allows both TVs to continue receiving analog cable as well as my in-house channels. I realize that I'm not getting the best picture quality but until I get a large hi-def TV, this is already very good. Anyway the subject I want to get to is the Buffalo IR...
I have a IR-250 sensor near one TV and an IR-350 near the other. These go back to a IR-100 connecting block and a mini-emitter stuck to the cable box. If I connect only one IR sensor (either one) it works just great. If I connect both sensor's signal lines at the same time, operation becomes very iffy, needing to be quite close (a couple of feet) to the sensor with the remote to get it to work at all. Furthurmore, the activity LED on the IR-350 shows constant activity, seemingly receiving IR "noise". If however I disconnect just the signal line from the IR-250 near the other TV, the IR-350's LED stops blinking wildly and once again works great. Similarly, disconnecting the IR-350's signal line lets the IR-250 work just great. Ok, I reconnected both sensors to do more troubleshooting.
Doing furthur experimentation, I could stop the IR-100's activity LED from blinking like the one on the IR-350 by connecting its ground screw to electrical ground. But this did not stop the IR-350's LED from blinking constantly. I then tried running a 4th wire which connected the IR-100's ground screw to one of the screws on the IR-350, but no improvement was observed. I did notice though that simply holding the IR-350 in my hand would make the LED blinking a lot dimmer or completely go away. A test with the wife holding the IR-350 and me trying the remove from a distance showed good range too. Trying to connect the ground screw to the TV's cable-in ground did not help. I did find one that that did work however. I wrapped the sides and back of the IR-350 with (I can hear them laughing already...) tin foil! The foil does touch the ground screw (and 4th wire back to the IR-350).
Has anyone experienced something like this? I would like to find a better way to finish up this installation properly but at least now its working reliably. Are the IR sensors that sensitive to noise? Any why is it only when I connect two of them that these problems appear?
This installation was prompted by my recent subscription to digital cable TV. I have a single cable box that I wanted to share with both TVs, so I set it up such that the audio and video signals out of the box go into a modulator that my TVs can view by going to channel 77. This setup allows both TVs to continue receiving analog cable as well as my in-house channels. I realize that I'm not getting the best picture quality but until I get a large hi-def TV, this is already very good. Anyway the subject I want to get to is the Buffalo IR...
I have a IR-250 sensor near one TV and an IR-350 near the other. These go back to a IR-100 connecting block and a mini-emitter stuck to the cable box. If I connect only one IR sensor (either one) it works just great. If I connect both sensor's signal lines at the same time, operation becomes very iffy, needing to be quite close (a couple of feet) to the sensor with the remote to get it to work at all. Furthurmore, the activity LED on the IR-350 shows constant activity, seemingly receiving IR "noise". If however I disconnect just the signal line from the IR-250 near the other TV, the IR-350's LED stops blinking wildly and once again works great. Similarly, disconnecting the IR-350's signal line lets the IR-250 work just great. Ok, I reconnected both sensors to do more troubleshooting.
Doing furthur experimentation, I could stop the IR-100's activity LED from blinking like the one on the IR-350 by connecting its ground screw to electrical ground. But this did not stop the IR-350's LED from blinking constantly. I then tried running a 4th wire which connected the IR-100's ground screw to one of the screws on the IR-350, but no improvement was observed. I did notice though that simply holding the IR-350 in my hand would make the LED blinking a lot dimmer or completely go away. A test with the wife holding the IR-350 and me trying the remove from a distance showed good range too. Trying to connect the ground screw to the TV's cable-in ground did not help. I did find one that that did work however. I wrapped the sides and back of the IR-350 with (I can hear them laughing already...) tin foil! The foil does touch the ground screw (and 4th wire back to the IR-350).
Has anyone experienced something like this? I would like to find a better way to finish up this installation properly but at least now its working reliably. Are the IR sensors that sensitive to noise? Any why is it only when I connect two of them that these problems appear?
