I went to a Denon training event yesterday and was told that many of Denon's receivers and DVD players have a non-proprietary, IR port on the back that can be used with a special cable in place of an emitter on the front. The cable type mentioned was an "IR serial cable". Apparently, this cable has 3.5mm male jacks on each end.

I've looked at a bunch of sites including Xantech and Niles, and can't find this cable anywhere. Anyone know where to get it?

Thanks,

Dawn

Dawn,

You can buy any cable with 3.5mm Male Mono Plugs on both ends. You can use a cable with 3.5mm Male Stereo Plugs on both ends, but it may be slightly more expensive. It's also easy to add plugs to both ends of a wire if you've run the wire through wall or conduit.

I did a really quick google search and got the following.

[Link: cablestogo.com]

Note that I have not used this company so can't tell you if they're good, but they've definitely got a selection of 3.5mm stereo cables on their site.

Denon, (As well as Integra, yamaha, and several other that I cant recall off hand) uses a standard 3.5mm Mono minijack for IR input on the back.

Xantech does sell them, but they are not listed on the main web page. Buried in the catalog.... 784-00 is a standard emmitter extension that works (3.5mm to 2 conductor tinned leads)

THey also have a 1ft. Mono Male-Male 3.5mm 6017440 and a 10ft mono 6017450

Hope that helps
John

Thanks guys, that's what I thought, but I wasn't really 100% sure.

Dawn

I've used these cables quite a bit, make for a clean install. However, I just found out that the MRF-250 RF base for the MX-3000 does not support this type of connection. the minijacks don't have a negative ground. FYI

Ok, I found the 3.5mm mono cable in a drawer in the garage.

Interesting results. Works fine with Channel Plus/Xantech IR coax repeater system via IR targets around the house. Does not work when connected to a Pronto RFX-6000 RF box.

Used the same port on the back of the Denon 5803. Bummer.

Am I doing something wrong?

Dawn

Try stereo 1/8 mini jacks. I do not know your Pronto or the Denon but the HK, for example used a stereo mini jack and required ring and sleeve as oppsed to tip.

Alan

Insert a 100 Ohm resister in series with the Output. This is something that is standard int he Xantech blocks, but lacking in the RFX boxes. Philips assumes your always going to use the crappy dual Emmiters the RFX comes with.

I just take my leftover ends from my xantech emitters (when I need to cut them, of course) and splice them together. That way I can make any length I need.

I have not yet installed the 250, but on the 200 this method has worked fine.
Do you have any more info on this??

Impaqt,

I'm not too much of a DIY person. I can splice wire, but I'm not really good with a soldering iron :)

Could you please go into some more detail on this procedure?

Thanks,

Dawn

IR is Fun!

Resistor
[Link: parallax.com]

These are readily avaialable at Radioshack (FOr significantly more than 15 cents)

In a Xantech system, the Striped lead is "SIgnal" and the blank is ground Just put the resistor inline on the positive lead.

(Stripped Lead) (Resistor)
----------------------{{{{}}}}--------------------------\
================================O (This is the Emmitter)
----------------------------------------------------------/
(Ground Lead)

Impaqt,

Thanks, that doesn't sound too difficult -- even for me.

Radio Shack has them for a bit more $$ (they give you 5 for 99 cents).

Thanks so much for your help. I'll let you know how it works out.

Dawn

Impaqt,

You were right. The 100 Ohm resistor worked perfectly. Now if I can only find an easier way to do this. Splicing, is not my idea of fun.

Thanks again for the solution!

Dawn