IR Help

[myyaz33]

I am trying to plan out my IR distribution setup and am hoping someone can help me out. I am pretty new to IR distribution and HA itself but am leaning towards Xantech equipment.

I do understand that I will need receivers in each of the rooms I want to use a remote.

I have the following equipment on the first floor that I would like to control anywhere in the house.

1st Floor Living Room Equipment-
DVD Player
TV
Stereo

I also have a stereo in the basement I would like to control and that is also where I have the USB-UIRT that will send the signal to control the living room equipment.

Basement-
HA Server with USB-UIRT
Stereo(1 Zone connected to speakers in ceiling throughout the house)

Can I piggy back two 789-44 connectings blocks? (one downstairs and one upstairs)

Hopefully I have been clear enough.

 

[Treetop]

Wires are so 1990's

Why not just get a RF remote? MX-?? (your choice), Nevo, Harmony 890, etc. Heck, a cheap x10 rf remote might work!

Hardwired is a better solution for many (most) things, but for your particular situation, I'd investigate RF remotes. A repeater may or may not be necessary since your going through 3 floors, but...

Great place for more information on remotes: Remote Central

Just throwing out a different approach to your situation :lol:

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Wires are so 1990's

Treetop, you know better! Yeah, there are a lot of alternatives to wires but nothing has the reliability of wires.

 

[Treetop]

LOL

Yeah, there are a lot of alternatives to wires but nothing has the reliability of wires.

I meant 1890's !

wait... when was the telegraph invented?
Bah... 1830's
Trivia for the day... "Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872) is generally credited with making the first practical telegraph in 1837."

Can I piggy back two 789-44 connectings blocks? (one downstairs and one upstairs)

Yes, they can be daisy chained together.

While wired is tried and true... all the cool kids are going wireless :lol:

(When I said "cool", i really meant folks that are to lazy to fish wires through their walls)

 

[Treetop]

I also have a stereo in the basement I would like to control and that is also where I have the USB-UIRT that will send the signal to control the living room equipment.

Is the HA server (ala USB-UIRT) going to control the 1st floor equipement? If so, being the cheapass that i am, you can always go with some Powermids. I use a few of these to send signals thoughout my pad.

 

[myyaz33]

I really want to stay away from any wireless IR stuff unless absolute neccesary.

How does one goes about piggy backing the 789-44? Can I just use cat5 to connect them together using the screw down terminals?

 

[Treetop]

http://www.xantech.com/products/i_folder/i_79144.pdf

page 4

DOH! I switched products on you...

For the 789-44...

http://www.capitolsales.com/info/tech-basicIR.aspx
http://www.xantech.com/products/i_folder/i_78944.pdf

Not sure if you can chain 2 of these together (from their docs), since there is no High IR out, but then again, this one block can control up to 8 devices (using dual-emitters).

 

[pete]

look for a niles irz6+, it lets you do fully zoned IR . . 6 inputs, 10 outputs (1 per input plus 4 common/switchable)

 

[myyaz33]

thanks for the idea on the Niles equipment however because I am impatient sometimes I went ahead and ordered 2 of the Xantech 291Kits. Now I am wondering if I can do what I want with it after looking a bit deeper.

I am now wondering if I can just split off the cable from the receiver upstairs and run in to both the connecting blocks upstairs and the connecting block downstairs. I would then do the same downstairs? I also wonder if this would cause a problem with because one receiver would actually be plugged into 2 powered connecting blocks?