I know most of you guys recommend the 490-90 but I'm having problems.

I bought a new Panasonic plasma panel but my old 490-00 was overloaded with noise from the screen so I bought the 490-90 at great expense but the trouble is it won't receive anything beyond about 11 ft (plasma on or off). It stops receiving everything at 12 ft, no emitter blinking at all but it's perfect at 10 ft.

It's mounted just beside & behind the plasma panel as instructed but it isn't an interference problem as the poor range is the same with the plasma off in a dark room.

All remotes are the same. The 490-90 has a good 12v supply.

Xantech System:
1 x 490-90
3 x 490-00
5 x 283m
1 x 791-44
1 x 781RG

Any ideas?

MX-850 and MRF-250

1) is the tv is such a position as to cut off the IR signal going to the 490-90 based on where you are sitting?
2) are you using the crappy remotes that come with your gear, if so get a real remote that will offer better range, not all remotes are created =.
3) are your emitters placed properly over the IR receivers of the gear?
4) if you have IR 3.5mm jacks on the back of your gear, use them, they are far more reliable.
5) UPGRADE THE POWER SUPPLY!

trouble shooting 101, strip the system down and restart connecting pieces testing after each connection until you find the problem child. start with 1 IR receiver, one component, and one emitter.

If it is a commercial model panasonic, you might be stuck with it. I had a commercial NEC and a commercial Panasonic give me all kinds of hell (of course they were customer supplied). I tried the MRF250, 490-00, 291-80, and all kinds of stuff. I could never get it to stop interferring. I ended up having to place a 291-80 on a dresser. The interference was really bad. With the TV off, I could work it with the 490-00, 291-80, and the MRF250, but as soon as the TV came on, all hell broke loose.

See if you can put the IR receiver some where else closer to the seating area. Alos, it might be a faulty emitter, (Had one of those once), and try Mr2channels 101 tips.

Mike

I have used lots of these with commercial stuff no problem, however, however I have had power supply issues, the 781rg prob isn't enough for all you have because the 49090 needs more power than most, give it a dedicated 781rg and use the reccomended resistor to send the ir signal to local stuff and/or far away equipment. The diagram I am talking about is either in the 49090 manual or on the xantech website, I can't really describe it better than the diagram.

hopefully you are not suggesting using multiple power supplies in parallel...best bet it to upgrade the power supply to the Xantech 782 power supply.....1000mA VS. 200mA for the 781rg

I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but the SpeakerCraft IRC-2P works great.

and at only $150, might not be too painful to make the system work. I've installed them on NEC's and they work fine.

Did you miss the word 'dedicated' of course you wouldn't put regulated power supplies in parallel.

You put a local supply on a cb12 and use the 2 wire IR out to feed your other connecting block, with a 79090 a dedicated 781rg works better than the 782.

The 490-90 has been replaced with the 490-95. The 95 costs considerably less, doesn't require a hole-saw for installation (just kidding--but it has a smaller diameter), and seems to work even better than the 90.

I find that most Xantech IR reliability issues come from the power supplies. I probably see at least one service call per week on an average for Xantech power supplies. Keep in mind that we have been installing them since 1981, so there are a lot of them out there that can go bad. Prior to the 781RG, they sold the 781, which was not regulated. I have had to replace almost all of the orignals. Xantech sensors are somewhat critical as to supply voltage.

I remember the first time I ran into a problem with the power supply. I could see that the system was working--at least the emitters were blinking, but it was unreliable. After about a half an hour of trying to re-position the emitters and looking for other problems, I finally replaced the power supply. Now, after checking to see if an emitter is loose, we try replacing the power supply, and usually that solves the problem.

Did the same thing...now if all "looks" good but does not work....grab the volt meter...and a new power supply.