Today I received a Remote Extender and 2 additional transmitters from Blu-Do. I installed the 2 optional transmitters in a couple of remotes for my Sony T-60, one of which I keep in the master bedroom and the other in the garage. They work well and are more convenient then the pyramid type repeaters that i had been using(I do not have to be concerned with pointing remote directly at that transmitting pyramids. However I also installed the last of the Blu-Do transmitters in my Mx-500 and it does not work at all. I had failed to closely read the information posted on the Blu-Do site that warned that would not work with Universal Brand Remotes(I had always called my Mx-500's as Home Theatre Remotes). Nevertheless this was my error and I do not fault Blu-Do.

My question is if there is another like solution that may work with the Mx-500 or must I upgrade my Mx-500 to another of their family that does have RF to IR capability to get effective control. I have 3 Mx-500's, one in what I call the bonus room that has its own home theatre system, another in the family room where I have another system, and one in the kitchen of my home where I keep a remote so that I can control the family room system which is line of sight from the kitchen but the components to be controlled(3 Tivo's, the DLP TV and various other devices) are just far enough away to not be reliably controlled because of the distance involved. I have a Pyramid in the kitchen that I now point my Mx-500 toward that RF's to the pyramid receiver in the family room. This works kinda ok, but then I must have two receivers for RF/IR pointing at my component stack(the Blu-Do and the Pyramid).

I clone the 2 Mx-500's for the family room system so that they are mirror images for backup purposes. I suspect that if I were to buy an Mx600 or 650(whichever supports rf) that I will lose this cloning facility. Is this true? Anyway just looking for any ideas. Remote Extender would have been perfect, but of course no support for Mx-500's. Any other products out there that functions the same, but works with Mx500's?

Point of curiousity. What charges the rechargeable battery in the Remote Extenders that are installed in your remotes. Are they charged off the remaining batteries, or do they merely just fill a slot and pass current to the remote extender hardware? The enclosed documentation is not very good in explaining the system and how it functions. Why is there a rechargeable battery in their receiver that points to the devices to be controlled(there is an ac connection to it)? Why does not Remote Extenders function with an Mx-500? I am sure there is a good technical reason.

Thanks
Roger
Silicon Valley

This message was edited by Sxrxrnr on 03/23/05 03:57 ET.

You can clone a mx-500 to the mx-600, but not the mx-650 though. Only thing is, the OFF key on the mx-600, which is on the right side of the mx-600, will be programmed with the ON commands from the mx-500. The mx-600 will communicate directly with your pyramid extenders, no need to point.

This message was edited by edmund on 03/23/05 04:18 ET.

The charger is in the RF base station. You get two batteries with the extender so that you can swap them when one gets low. There is a new model coming out soon that will address the issues the extender has with some universal remotes. Whether it will work with the MX-500 remains to be seen. The transmitter "reads" the IR signal in the remote and some (like the MX-500) are not able to be picked up by the transmitter.

Mike

Roger,

The MX-650 can be cloned to one another, but not to/from an MX-500 or 600. The MX-650 is essentially a hybrid of the MX-500 (button layout and the way it is programmed) and the MX-800 (addressable RF capabilities, controls 20 devices and has the extended database with discretes).

If you would like a free consultation, I would be happy to help. You can call me at: (914) 509-5360.



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

Thanks to all of you for enlighening me on the Remote Extender(as I mentioned in my post, the documentation was "not very good". After reading the posts on the battery charging, I would have to say that is extremely poor(I hate this as I have been in the IBM Mainframe operating system software business since 1968 and poor documentation probably is responsible for 80 percent of technical service calls) as there is nothing to alert the user that he must swap batteries from the base station to the extenders to keep them in a charged state. This also explains to me why the extenders that I placed in my T-60 Sony Tivo remotes initally functioned and now do not. Apparently the batteries submitted with the product are about dead(having come with some slight charge).

Something else extremely interesting has come out of my trial of the Remote Extender. I had previously posted a problem with my laptop causing interference with my Mx 500's ability to communicate with my home theatre devices. When I initially set up the Remote Extender, the problem worsened. To shorten the story, I have found that if I hide(like placing a pillow between the base stations and my home theatre stack)the extenders base station and the pyramid for my other/previous/current(still need for the Mx 500 support) that I can sit at my laptop and use it while my Mx 500 can communicate and control my system.

Previously(before remote extenders and just pyramid) I found if I close my laptop lid all would be well. Once I installed Remote Extender, closing my laptop lid made no difference(I still could not use Mx 500 to control stack). Somehow these base stations are talking to the IR eyes on my devices even though no commands are being given by a remote control device. So then when I actually give a control from my Mx 500 by pointing directly at the "stack" nothing would happen. I suspect that the laptop lid closing on my laptop and things to somewhat work has to do somehow with my laptop sitting on the same end table as is my pyramid and Remote Extender's base station. I also suspect that having both a Remote Extender base station and pyramids(which I still need for Mx 500 remote control from my kitchen---I have a post in the installers forum on this topic also which I will update with these finding is causing some conflicts.

Bottomline for me that a Remote Extender that would work with my Sony Tivo Remotes and my Mx 500 is the best solution. The Mx 600/650 would work well, but still I would need Remote Extenders for my T-60 Tivo's. Wonder when this upgraded Remote Extender support for possible Mx 500 be available. Hate to have to buy again. The pyramids work somewhat OK, but not perfect, but I have been getting by for 2 years this way.

Hope this is all understandable. I will post this, then go to my other Posts on this topic, and copy and paste them in to this thread so perhaps it will make more sense.

Thanks again to all. I hope our findings help someone else in the future. This laptop thing was driving me nuts, not because of what it was doing, but the mystery of it.

Roger
Silicon Valley Ca

[Link: remotecentral.com]

This is Thread number one posted by me on laptop interference problem. I will post another link from the installers forum in the next posting.

This is the link to my second thread on this problem with laptop interfering with Mx 500. This is copied from the Installers Forum. I will then copy and paste this Thread to the installer forum. Hope this comes out ok.

[Link: remotecentral.com]

Not if you used a 600/650 with your Tivos. Obviously, that's a much greater expense, but it would be the best solution.


I'm supposed to be getting revised versions in a few weeks, but there's nothing definite and they've missed target dates before.

Mike

The Tivo Sony T-60 remotes are in the garage and the master bedroom. All they need to do is control their respective local tv's and the Sony T-60 which is in my family room stack of components. In my humble opinion the Sony remote is perhaps the finest remote that has ever come package with any home theatre product as a standard feature. Just wish they had only one button that I could switch the tv from antenna 1 in to antenna 2 input. I have cable on 1 and Tivo comes in on 2 so sometimes I must use the Tv's own remotes just to change inputs. Either that or just one "learned" key would also work. The Home Theatre product would be over kill there and you are correct on the cost issue. I have also discovered that the pyramid rf/to Ir unit and the Remote Extender unit interfere with each other if they are within sight of each other. This makes both unreliable, so I separate them so they cannot see each other and all is apparently well. This is also why some months ago when I turned off IR support in my laptop that the situation improved. The IR support in the laptop was hitting the pyramid on the same table and causing it to be unreliable(sometimes work, other times not) unless I closed the laptop lid(which would disable ir in the laptop). I will be eagerly awaiting the next release of Remote Extender and hope that it works with my Mx 500's. I would guess that all I would need is the transmitter that goes into the Mx 500 battery slot. Would this be correct? If so the rest of my Remote Extender components I can continue to use. It was very nice in the old days when with my RCA satellite receivers, I could have both RF and IR support simultaneously and it worked very well. The Sony sat receivers, you had to select one or the other, and this was a pain because if you wanted RF you could not also have IR for your universal remotes. Now the Tivo's and Sat receivers do not give you RF at all. Short-sighted or cheap, either word will do.

Thanks for your input
Roger
Silicon Valley, Ca

Roger,

You've got mail!

David
www.BlueDo.com