I have the MX-850 and MRF-250. The MX-850 is set to send RF signals only. The MRF-250 sends IR through the blaster and also through one emitter. All was working fine for several months and then the other day, all of a sudden, it quit working. I changed the batteries in the MX-850, and re-booted the MRF-250, but neither helped. The MX-850 indicates it's sending IR out, but the LED's on the front of the MRF-250 do not indicate that they are being received. The one LED is on steady, indicating the the unit is on, but there is no other LED activity on the MRF-250, regardless of which buttons I push on the MX-850.

Any help would be appreciated. I thought about changing the RF channel, but haven't had time to mess with it yet. What do you think?

I did have a MX-350 do that and it was the rf inside the MX-350. Come to find out that the client had thrown it at her husband. Replaced it and everone was happy, at least with the remote.

You've set it to ID 0 and made sure the interference light is not always on, correct?

In the RF software for the MX850, you should only use the emitter setting, and disable the front blasted. It should also be set for RF only on that specific output from the MRF250. Rested to a valid ID, not "0".

I can't remember if I did that back in January when we first set the system up. I was going to try trouble-shooting when I got here this morning, but to my great surprise, the system now works just as flawlessly as it had in the past!

If I understand your advice correctly, if the problem reccurs I should set the ID to 0 and see if the interference light is on. Wait, let me check now ... I don't see any light on other than the power light. If the problem reccurs, I'll set the ID to 0 and see if the light comes on then. Right?

And I guess if it is then try different channels?

I'll try that, too, if the problem reccurs. For now though (see my previous message) all is working well again. I like being able to use the front blaster instead of the emitters, though.

You most likely won't see the interference light on when the MRF is set to any other ID than 0. Setting it to 0 will show the interference.

I did set it to 0 and I saw no interference light. But that was when the unit had begun to operate properly again.

If it stops working again I'll repeat the above test and see if the interference light comes on.

Is this the right way to check if my problem might be caused by interference?

This has happen to me twice in the past. Each time just fiddling with the MX-850 for a while (read fiddling as smashing buttons) fixed the problem. It's stupid, but it worked.

Yes.

Do you have the MRF-250?

Do you know if the IR output of the MX-850 also stopped working along with the RF?

Had 2 MX800's do that a while back, had to replace them because they would no longer transmit RF.

When this happened, the IR worked fine. It was only the communication to the MRF-250. When standing close to the MRF-250 and pressing buttons, the light on the MRF-250 would light up a tiny bit. But not until after really mashing the buttons did it start working again.

Sounds like this would make for unhappy customers. If these URC products are really this unreliable, I'm surprised CI's continue to be devoted to them.

I've heard a lot of bad things about the MRF-250 on these forums, too, but it sounds like even if you'd had the MRF-350 you'd still have had these same problems.

No way, I guess, to isolate the problem and determine if the problem was with the remote control or with the MRF-250.