i have a mx-850 and mrf-250......i cannot for the life of me, find a location that is not getting huge interference from my panasonic plasma.....seems everywhere i try to locate the mrf-250, the status light stays lit and the remote functions terribly.....i do not have too many options on where to put the base, as the ir sensors are only 10 feet long anyways......

could someone give me a recommendation on what to do?

If you have the ID on the bottom of the MRF set to "0", change it to something else. "0" is an open address, used specifically for checking for severe RF conditions. Be sure to change it on the base, as well as in the software.

Let me know if that helps.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
Control Systems Consulting, Sales & Online Programming

thanks for the response....i did read about that, and will try switching the channels , but i also figured that if the status light is lit brightly the whole time, then it was showing that there is severe interference, and i may be screwed anyway.....anywhere within about 12 feet of my plasma causes the red light to glow brightly.....

would the MRF-300 help the situation even more by enabling me to locate the antenna further from the interference?......as of now, even the ir sensor seems affected by the plasmas interference......i can locate the mrf-250 somewhere where the status light is merely blinking, and when i move the ir sensor towards the tv, the status light glows brightly again......

If changing the ID of the MRF-250 and moving it doesn't help, then maybe the MRF-300 would be useful for you. This is one of the purposes the new antenna was designed for.

If you would like one, I'd be happy to help you out.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
Control Systems Consulting, Sales & Online Programming

Dear Damon and fullcontact,

Changing the RF address will NEVER help anyone with RF interference! If the address is set to "0" you can detect the best mounting location. If the best location still flickers on ID#0, you can remove the antenna and trade half the range for better results. If the LED still flickers with the antenna removed and the base station in the optimum spot, you should try an MRF-300, the MRF-250 will not give good results.

After you've seen no flashing for at least a minute, THEN you should change the RFID to a VALID RF ID. "O" is only for testing interference. Do a download after setting signal to RF and routing each of your emitters to the correct LINE OUT (don't leave it set to ALL). Position each flasher for best operation. For TiVo, Replay and satellite or cable boxes, put up the Guide and navigate while experimenting with flasher/emitter position. When you can navigate the Guide with the same kind of response as the original remote line of sight, glue the flasher/emitter in that spot.

Best Regards,

-Eric

Eric Johnson
VP of Technology

Universal Remote Control
Phone 1-800-247-7001

eric, thanks for your help.....i spoke with Damon on the phone and he had cleared most of that info out for me.......i just cant seem to get over the RF interference from my plasma tv.....even if i can get the MRF-250 status light to remain off for a minute, as soon as i hook an IR emitter up to the 250, and place the other end of the IR emitter near my component, the status light starts flickering all over the place again.....i cant seem to get the 250 far enough away from interference to utilize the RF capabilities....

its driving me nuts because once i seem to have it perfectly working for a few minutes, it eventually gets interference and will work only randomly.....

ok, ive had it.....i give up......5 hours of testing and moving and retesting to no avail.....no matter where i put the MRF-250, as soon as i connect the IR emitter to my cable box and the 250, the status light is immediately bright red, and not even flickering......if i remove the IR emitter from the cable box, then it is fine.....doesnt matter where i plug the power in.....i walked around the room as much as i could with the 10 feet of IR emitter cord, and still, the status light is solid red......too bad, because the minimal time i could get it to work in my application, it was great....

After reading this post I became inspired to try to improve my MRF-250 performance. What I did find interesting is that it matters where the power cord is routed. If I route the cord straight through my rack from the rear to the front I show lots of interference. If I Lay the cord on the floor to the side of the rack without moving the MRF-250 it shows no interference. Is there any tricks to help with this?

Fullcontact,

As we discussed earlier, you will probably want to switch to an MRF-300 and extend the antenna, using CAT5. If you're interested, give me a call and I'll see what I can do for you. (914) 509-5360



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
Control Systems Consulting, Sales & Online Programming

thanks Damon......ill call ya tuesday....B

If you're experiencing the status light flickering, one thing you all should do is plug in the MRF-250 in different locations throughout the house, not just in the same room as the equipment. This will tell you if the RF interfenece is endemic in your neighborhood (due to proximity to power lines etc.). If so, even the MRF-300 may not help you.

Mike
1-866-SURFAV1

My last straw is to extend all of the flasher wires with cat5 to another location. This works fine with the MRF-250. I have done multiple jobs where I will have the equipment in the basement 50 feet away and the DVD at the back of the room and a PLasma on the front wall. I have never had to remove a HTM product for bad RF reception. I have had to remove a few hairs from my head however to accomplish this.

SurfRemote,......i did try plugging the MRF-250 in an outlet away from the equipment, and it was fine....no flickering whatsoever......as soon as i connected an IR emitter, and ran it up to my cable box, whammo, the red status light is solid red......somehow the interference is traveling thru the emitter cable back to the unit or something.....ive even snapped on a ferrite choke core for lack of other ideas to no avail.....

id like to run some CAT 5 cable, but i would think i am going to run into the same problem if in fact the interference is capable of traveling thru the emitter anyway....why else would the status light be blank until the emitter is touching the component?

Mike,

Good point! At URC, we came across some customers who happened to live near radio towers, and those were what we believed to have created their poor RF environments for them. A couple of them even tested at neighbors' houses to see if the poor RF was consistent or isolated, and it was consistent.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
Control Systems Consulting, Sales & Online Programming