Let me start by warning you that I am a Newbie with IR wiring.

I have a total of 10 devices that I need to control with IR from a single RFX9600. 8 of them are located in the same cabinet, the other 2 are in another room. I have a cat-5 cable connecting the two locations, terminated with 2 RJ-14 (4 conductor) jacks on each end. Of the 8 "local" devices, two of them have back-panel IR-in jacks and the other 6 need stick-on emitters.

It seems to me that I need six IR jacks, which is more than the four the RFX9600 provides. (I'm assuming I need one jack for each of the two hard-wired devices, three jacks for the six stick-ons, and one jack for the second location.) How do I expand this? Also, am I correct in my guess that I can simply send an IR signal over two of the wires in the cat-5 cable? (The cable run is probably about 15-20 feet.)

Thanks very much for any help or advice!

Mark

You can use a Xantech CB12 or other expansion connector block off a single IR jack. Just make sure that you get the wiring of the mono plug correctly. The tip is IR Signal (S) and the ring/barrel is Ground (G). The CB12 takes a 3-pin connector (I believe) and on this 3 pin connector, there are 3 specific pins, only 2 of which you need to use here.

Thanks for the response, Lyndel. I checked out the Xantech website and found the item you mentioned. I don't think it's exactly right for me as it has only one emitter jack. I called their tech support and they recommeded I use the 791-44 (wired as you suggested). This unit has 10 emitter jacks, so I should be set.

Yes, the amplified connecting block will also work just fine....

I ran out of room in my old Xantech CB60 connecting block. Anyway, I just ordered a Xantech 791-44 connecting block and power supply. I plan on connecting an IR output from the RFX9600 to the 791-44 as discussed above. Quick question - in the RFX9600, what is better to use: the high or low output setting?

Thanks.

My general experience is as follows

Most IR systems will drive about 100-200 feet of 22-24 gauge wire so cat 5 is fine. Xantech amplified will do over 1000 feet

Each seprate zone takes 1 pair. In a single zone you can not have two or more identical units (components) unless you want them to see exactly the same IR signals at the same time

A cable can terminate in multiple emitters as long as the emitters are wired in series. I have driven 4-6 emittrs off a 100 foot cat 5 pair from a Global Cache unit with no issues. I do not know what the RFX line from Philips will drive but I suspect it will be similar. Testing is easy.

You should be OK using the Low output setting if your wire run is not too terribly long.

Start there and then move up to Normal output if required.

My run is within the same rack, so low should do it. Thanks, Lyndel!

Just an update to this thread - I tried the direct wire approach of connecting my RFX9600 directly to my Xantech 791-44 connecting block. Using this approach, most, but not all of my devices worked. My TiVo and X10 commands did not work. In order for everything to work, I had to use an IR emitter connected to the IR output of the RFX9600. I placed the IR emitter in front of an IR receiver connected to the Xantech 791-44. With this "optical" approach, everything worked fine. I reported this issue in the following thread:

[Link: remotecentral.com]