The SA8300HD IR pickup is on the left side of the clock when facing the unit from the front. Trust me, I've had them apart and deal with them everyday.

The reason some people get IR repeater or RF kits to work more reliably on the right side of the clock is that the IR pickup is TOO sensitive to IR overload and moving it away from the actual sensor can help along with turning down the emitter level on an MRF300.

We had the same excact problem SA8300hd. URC MX850/MRF-300, would work great, then just go intermitant and not very reliable. IR always worked like a champ. Tried everything, even putting the sensor inside the unit with no luck. Finally suggested client swap the box as a last resort, and its worked ever since with the new SA8300hd.

Thanks guys. Unfortunately I'm already on my second SA8300HD and still have no luck with reliable control. The IR only works perfectly but the only way I can get the emitter to work is to hold it about 3" directly in front of the box. Unfortunately I can't figure out a way to mount it in mid-air ;-)

I stand corrected. The IR sensor for the SA 8300HD box *IS* to the left of the clock...however, MRF-250 emitter placement seems to work better on the right of the clock (for me) and MRF-300s can function well with an emitter on the left side of the clock.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
http://www.ProRemotes.com - Authorized Dealer & Remote Programming Services

remoteshoppe,

Try taping over the IR window on the SA8300HD with black e-tape and cut a small hole with a razor in the middle of it about the size of a pen tip. Now place emiiter over that and see how that works.

Don't bother wasting your time opening the chassis up...no need to get the emitter any closer since the problem is with IR overload.

I fixed one today by completely masking the IR sensor with black e-tape that was cut to the size of the entire left pane of the panel and then placed the emitter to the far left of the window. Worked perfectly on all commands including repeating commands such as fast scroll through the guide.

yhx tweeterguy... I'll give it a shot and report back

I just got back to the shop today after vacation and I have to admit I was wrong about our display unit. It is an 8000HD and on that one the IR receiver IS on the right side of the clock.

The customer's home I was at today had an 8300HD with an MRF-300 and I put the emitter on the left side of the clock where the receiver is and had no problems with the IR output set at about 1/3. This setup is not using an MX-3000, it is an MX-850.

Make sure you're not using emitter port 6 for this cable box. Port 6 is much hotter than the rest and will most likely overload the IR seneor.

Tweeterguy, thanks for the idea.

Jim, did you try it out yet? Just curious on how you made out with that.

I'm back at the clients house on Thursday and want to be armed with a couple of ideas to try out.

Thanks again,
Rob

Sorry i didn't post back sooner. I decided not to try the electrical tape trick because I was concerned by how it would look. My equipment is not hidden from sight... I just prefer to use RF over IR because of the reliability in sending all of the commands in a macro regardless of where the remote points.

I was able to fix my problem by mounting the IR emitter on the bottom of the shelf that sits above my SA8300 and then I moved the cable box back deeper on its shelf so it sits about 3 inches away from the emitter. the signal strength is turned down to its lowest and this has been working perfectly for the past 2 nights. I am happy to say that my MRF300 is now controlling all of my equipment 100% of the time. Yeah... an arduous process (no fault of URC) but now its done

OK, I just got home from the clients house and I'm feeling pretty good. I tried the electrical tape thing....didn't work, I tried swapping out the IR emitter with a Niles emitter....no good. I even brought over my demo mx-3000 and mrf300 and swapped those out......no good. The homeowner had another 8300HD cablebox and swapped those.....didn't work.

Here's what did work. I moved the RF antenna about 20 feet away from the closet, rack, and components. I used the extra wire URC gives for the antenna and extended it with cat5. The RF output is set at about 1/3 on port 4. Also had to fool around with the different RF channels. We tried 3, 9, F and ended up with A. The IR emitter is right in front of the IR sensor on the cablebox. With this I seemed to get fairly consistent operation. I left my clients house feeling pretty good. I just want them to use it and make sure we're good.

Thanks everyone for all your help.
Rob

I had several problems with my MRF-300 on my sci atlanta box...now I just hooked up a 3.5mm direct into the IR in on the back. How come no one has mentioned that you can do that?

MJE, are you saying that worked? I've tried it in the past, and it didn't work.

Dino

Come on now. First thing I thought of but Cablevision Long Island ships the boxes with the IR port and the SATA port disabled and reserved for future upgrades

mine was operable I live in cape cod mass...but ive also found that attaching the IR eye to the left hand side of clock on the one part of the unit that isnt smoked/glazed over. stick it on vertically and PLEASE shut off IR/RF and make sure only RF is checked because you will run into a TON of problems that way. attach the unit vertically along the clear part of the plastic and enjoy. Please turn the power of that particular output ALL the way DOWN on the base station. Make sure you are using any channel but 0 and it also helps to knock down the RF distance to approx 1/3 power. good luck

ps you dont need to use a russound 56k ir remodulator...ive found that problem only exists in russound products and SciAtl products.