Hi, I am trying (unsuccessfully so far) to use the MX800 base station with my double headed Sonance ir flashers and a 1/8 to 1/8 cord to the ir in port on the back of my Rotel 1065 receiver. One of the double headed ir flashers is on a Panasonic 62 DVD player and the other on a 3100 HD Sci. Atl. cable box. I am obviously using 1/8 to 3/32 adapters to plug all the cables into the mx 800 base station. I get no signal to the receiver or DVD player, but the cable box does work.

Is it possible that the adapters are sapping power or signal from the cables? I tried it with the supplied HTM ir flashers and it works fine, so its not the output at the base station.

Any ideas? I guess its not that BIG a deal to use the supplied flashers, but I really wanted the clean look of the receiver plugged into the back rather than a ir turtle sitting on the front of the receiver and a single ir wire to the flashers rather than the two required by the single head HTM flashers.

Many thanks in advance,

E. J.

Do the Sonance IR-blasters work with another setup and those devices?

I can't imagine that the adapter is reducing the output enough to render the system nonfunctional. Is the cable firmly connected to the adapter? You could run to Radio Shack and get their littler credit-card-sized IR tester (it lights up when receiving IR, pretty neat item) and see if any IR is being sent from your IR-Blasters.

Here's the card from Radio Shack, it runs $6:


David
www.BlueDo.com

Thanks David. I was going to go there to get some 3/32 mono cables. The plan now is to cut them and splice them into the wire with the 1/8 end that requires an adapter. That way I will remove the adapter out of the equation.

I will pick up one of these fancy infrared sensors too.

Thanks again,

E. J.

Let me know the results!

No luck. I cut the end off the direct cable from the receiver and soldiered in a 2.5mm end - it only worked sporadically, besides looking home made. So I scrapped the idea and pulled out all the old ir repeaters and cables and am now using the supplied RF 200 cables. Works fine.

But when I hook in my VCR and CD player, which are located in the main viewing room away from the equipment rack, I will need to extend the length of the ir wires. So I will still need to find a 2.5mm extension cable - I didn't see any at radio shack.

E. J.

PS - they no longer sell those ir testers. Too bad, looked cool.

I'm sorry the adapters didn't work out for you!


Strange - they're at my local RatShack.

I think the problem's with your IR emitter, not the Radio Shack adapter. I've had customers use the RS adapter with other emitters that have 3.5 mm plugs with success. If I recall correctly, they used a Xantech single IR emitter.

Mike
www.SurfRemote.com

Thanks Mike. Weird part was the hard wire connection from the 200 to the receiver wasnt working with an adpater either. Oh well, the supplied ir flashers are working fine now, just not sure whats going to happen once I need more than 6, and I need to extend the length of them.

E. J.

When you need more than 6, you can buy another MRF-200. Then you wouldn't even have to extend the wires, cause you could put the second one in adifferent location.

You can also wire emitters in SERIES up to four to an output without problems. Just don't wire in parallel.

I don't understand your problem with Sonance emitters. I always assumed they bought theirs from Xantech...

I'll try to get someone at Sonance to send me one and report back.

Best Regards,

-Eric

Eric Johnson
www.hometheaterpro.com

Phone 1-800-247-7001

[ rant ]I hear you Dan, but should I have to spend another $100 to do it? I mean the remote is expensive enough already. While I love the remote and system, I just cant for the life of me figure out why they botched the ir flasher bit so badly? They used 2.5mm instead of 3.5mm jacks and that forced the single headed ir flashers when the industry standard is pretty much dual head ir flashers with 3.5mm plugs. There is a multitude of 3.5mm extension cables, adapters etc... available readily, but not much for the 2.5mm size. I mean, I only need another 5 feet to reach my last two pieces of gear. Should I have to buy a new base station for those 5 feet?[ /rant ]

This is just my opinion, of course.

E. J.

Yeah, I agree, it was a bad move. I would have been much easier if they were standard jacks. Especially for such an expensive remote.

Update, Eric just returned an email to me with a simple solution for extending the wire length: just splice in additional two conductor wire. Duh! Why didn't I think of that? Anyway, his factory support via forums like this and email is awesome and I really appreciate it.

Eric, want me to send you a Sonance ir emitter for testing? I have two that I am not using now. ;)

E. J.