I'm trying to finish my first and hopefully last one of these abortions. The control over the Cox Schientific Atlanta cable box is inconsistent at best. I have tried different addresses and nothing works.

1) Sometimes the 260 won't respond at all to the remote. It is powered up, but the status light won't blink or anything. It's like it doesn't see the 450.

2) Other times the emitters will work and the status light blinks when a command is sent, but nothing happens to the cable box. No response at all.

3) At one point, the cable box acted like it had a dozen commands or so buffered, and then all of the sudden, they would all execute.

4) I have tried both fixed and variable emitter outputs to no avail. I have tried all different levels on the variable emitters, too.

I'm about to smash this thing. I have been farting around with this for a couple of hours.

Thanks!

Get rid of the 260 and go with the 350. The cost difference will far outweigh the amount of man hours you will waste getting this to work correctly. NEVER USE THE MRF-260!

Anyone else wonder if this was a bizarre Point Of Sale posting at first? My definitions are getting screwed up!

1) Make sure the basestation is kept a good distance away from the cable box. These are known to generate a fair amount of RF interference. At minimum, try putting it somewhere else.

2) Could be a cable box issue. But, it could also be a URC problem with rejecting what (I think) it thinks is noise. I've had it so it will seem to stop accepting a specific code, ie. if I'm entering channel "555" it will absolutely refuse to produce any 5s... but then I use any other code, and suddenly after that 5 will start working again. You might want to also try alternate emitter placement. Some models can be overly sensitive, and freaky things happen.

3) Now that IS a cable box issue. They just do that now and again.

4) Ah, okay. Well, I'd still try putting the emitter on off-center or something. I'll also repeat the suggestion to get a better basestation!

does it work fine in IR mode?

I know this may sound weird, but take off the antenna. I have had many 260's that have acted funny and work great once the antenna is removed.

FASTLS

What he said.
 

The customer supplied all the gear. I'm just a victim. :(

I tried removing the antenna, but I couldn't tell if it pulls off or unscrews. I didn't want to break it, so I left it on. The cable box responds perfectly well to the remote when I open the cabinet door and point it directly at it.

For whatever reason, it magically started working, again about 5 minutes after I made the post. wtf.

I explained to the customer that the base station may be flaky and he said he'll let me know if it starts acting up again.

It's Stella Artois time....

It is definitely interference. I speak from experience. You have to put the 260 in address 0 or sniffing mode as URC calls it. Then locate the base where there is no interference and/or remove the antenna which will reduce interference and range. Once you have it located away from the gear and have no interference, the base will work but wont have any routing, then set to an address other than 0 for routing to work. Its a bit of a pain but the only way for a 260 to work reliably.

Some goofy experiences I have had with the MRF260 is mostly related to shit HDMI cables and interference. Keep the MRF260 away from everything and do not route IR wire anywhere near HDMI cables. Use ferrite core suppression on the IR wires if you have them.

I have a client with a PS4. I could not figure out why thy the MRF260 and MX780 were so inconsistent until I started unplugging things. The PS4 was the culprit. Within 18" of the PS4 and the 260 would go crazy.

Ferrite core magnet around the antenna....higher the magnet the better the range, but less noise rejection...opposite as you move the magnet lower. Pretty much anything with a microprocessor can affect the base, so move it away from STB's, routera/switches and use ID zero to look for RF interference....as stated use the mrf350 when you can.My .02

Whenever the 260 is mentioned, automatically shift your POS definition away from point of sale.


It does sound weird but even URC recommends this for the 260.


And while you have that, write the speech you'll give the next owner of a 260 regarding its added installation costs!

Thanks for the suggestions, so far. The gear is in a small cabinet, so the 260 is about 2 feet away from the cable box.

I couldn't figure out how to remove the antenna, though. Does it unscrew or pull off?

As I recall, it unscrews.


Did you change the RFID from zero on the 260 and the 450?

We stopped using the 260 years ago.  You CAN get them to work with all the tricks listed above but its just not worth the troubleshooting time.  We only use the 350 and very rarely have any issues.

What they said or try wrapping it (just the antenna) with aluminum foil (how I got mine to work with an mx-980.