Hey guyz I am doing a fairly large home and needed 3 RF extenders for the Pronto Pro to work the 4 different systems and multi room. I placed each of the three RF extenders in separate rooms. They are all addressed the same 0/1. I spliced together all 4 mini Jacks from each unit to Cat 5 running from each room to a termination block in the Mid Atlantic rack. From the termination block I tied on IR flashers to the gear. I made sure that the positives leads from the mini jacks where on tip and the neg where on ring this would in theory work but it only works intermittently Due to? EMI? Wired incorrectly? Or maybe there is an address conflict? (Each extender is canceling each other out) I dunno?;( When it works, it works seamlessly. I waz thinking about putting a zantech IR block to amp the IR frequency to the flashers. Is this redundant? All I know is the filthy rich have no time for my petty RF dilemma after shelling out there kids potential tuition. If any one knows how to stack these bad boyz let me know... and yes I know where the pronto forum is located.

Patrick, have you tried to disconnect those evil Pronto RF extenders, and replace one of them with a simple IR receiver. then reset the remote for IR. and bypass the RF modules at the MA rack and go straight into a simple 4 channel IR block? the reason I'm asking is because I've always found those RF systems to be very inconsistent. and by bypassing the RF, and trying it IR, you may get a more consistent result. let me know what happens regardless, and good luck with your filthy rich...

Patrick,

I'm not a custom installer, but I have played with the RF extender(s) quite a bit. Under some circumstances, there CAN be a problem with range as well as placement with these things. What I don't understand is why you have them all set to the same ID - other than maybe ease of setting up your ccf. Bocapro has a good point, but if you're going to stick with the extenders, try changing the ID's (on both the units and the ccf) if not the channels.

Jim L

If a customer wants reliability Pronto RF is NOT the solution. I put a few in last year and them replaced them with Crestron control systems. I would never sell another Pronto RF system again. Pronto IR, no big deal but the RF just ...........

Dave

There are several potential problems that can cause problems with the RF application with the Pronto Pro and the RC9200 as well. Fujitsu plasmas give off RFI that affects reliability. Any 2.4 Gigahertz devices in the home can also degrade performance ie. 2.4ghz cordless phones and wireless lans. I'm sure there are others of which I'm unaware. Marantz is aware of the problem and is working on it. Crestron is way more dependable but the price is steep.

Patrick,
I've tried to use the RF extenders several times with no success. I've run into problems using more than 2 ports on the extender. Also at CEDIA this year a rep. from Philips told me RF does not work with Macro's.

KFE

Well, there was a problem using RF on the home page, but only on the initial release of ProntoProEdit. Although there are certainly better control solutions than the extender, it has no problems with macros. Either all RF or mixed IR and RF codes.

Jim L

Jim. I have 3 systems around the house and one main one. If I addressed each RF extender differently then my modulated devices (TiVo,VCR,300 sony DVD,MP3's(PC) and multiroom would not work the same through out the home. Meaning I would have to select a different page (panel w/ different RF properties) each time I walked to a seprate corner of the home. Also it looks kind of silly with 4 IR flashers on one piece of gear

Guess I'm kinda thick this morning, but yes they should. Addressing each extender differently just means that you are broadcasting TO (not from) a specific room.

Lets say you have two rooms, A and B with Tivos in them, each controlled by RF extenders set to different ID codes. You would need a ccf page for each room, but you should still be able to control room A or B from anywhere in the house since the remote is outputing RF. You certainly wouldn't need more than 1 RF extender per room.

Your description sounds like you think that you need line of sight from the remote to the RF extender, which is not the case.

Sorry if it's me that's not understanding. Since this system is so extensive, perhaps the best solution would be as others have suggested. Ditch the extenders and go for a control system that is hardwired for better reliability.

Jim L

The devices are modulated, Which means the device has it's very own channel to be view through out the rest of the home. (This saves on buying the same device for each room.....) Now you need to control the thing. In theory the RF extendor should do the trick, but... nope it works only intermittently. Sure you could copy and paste the same device "Pronto Device page" and address it differently in the properties per each room. but I would get the same intermittent results regardless. I think what Shoe mentioned was right on about the RFI. these peeps have the latest and greatest Ghz phone, plus 802.11 -b all sorts of fun RFI stuff floaten around their oversized home. We also may have ran our cat5 for the IR flashers next to some romex or several light cans.(I should listened to my mom and to become a Doctor) Thats it I'm done responding..... I have a life. Thanks for your help Gentlemen.