# Anyone Build their own IR extender?



## Klez (Mar 26, 2006)

Anyway I have my TIVO in my game room and two TVs in the garage hooked up to it. I would like to build or maybe even buy a hard wired IR extender (no pyramid RF stuff). Anyone done this before? I searched the forum and the internet, but all the schematics I found were for RF. 

Thanks


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## The Bird (Mar 31, 2001)

Heres a Sony MRD-D1 this transmits the IR signal over the existing coax video cable.


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## Klez (Mar 26, 2006)

Thanks! That would work great, plus I could add my DVD player also  

To bad I missed the auction though  

I keep a look out for another one.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

I built my own with the RF bits from another (obsolete and out of business) satellite system. 

I built the IR receiver/RF transmitter system by taking the IR sensor from an old TiVo, and literally gluing it to the RF transmitter form the old remote (and using bits of wire to electrically join the two). In the TiVo, I interfaced the RF receiver to where the IR board connects (I used a PNP drive thansistor soldered into the place on the mainboard where an IR receiver would go).


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

Lots of parts here.
http://www.smarthome.com/prodindex.asp?catid=257


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## mmach (Aug 11, 2005)

After trying several brands of IR->RF->IR units, all of which worked very poorly over a distance of ~30 feet through only one wall (I think we have a lot of RF interference in our house for some reason), I got some units from Xantech that worked like a charm sending the IR signals over the coax cables we already had for video. 

BUT, a few weeks ago the sender in the family room dropped from 100% reliability to about 10% reliability, with the IR receive LED flickering a little bit constantly. The sender in the bedroom still works fine to the same receiver (where the DTivo is), so it seems to be some new source of interference in the family room that is so bad it's affecting the Xantech IR receiver. Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Assuming you don't have anything like whatever our recent source of major interference is in your house... the Xantech units worked very, very well until recently, even when, like I mentioned above, every IR->RF unit we tried failed miserably. 

Good luck. Let us know what you get and how it works. 

-Matt


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

I use a hardwired system using components from Smarthome. The signal is sent over a separate multiconductor wire (I had some phone wire around.) Works 100%.


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## stim (Jan 10, 2002)

mmach said:


> After trying several brands of IR->RF->IR units, all of which worked very poorly over a distance of ~30 feet through only one wall (I think we have a lot of RF interference in our house for some reason), I got some units from Xantech that worked like a charm sending the IR signals over the coax cables we already had for video.
> 
> BUT, a few weeks ago the sender in the family room dropped from 100% reliability to about 10% reliability, with the IR receive LED flickering a little bit constantly. The sender in the bedroom still works fine to the same receiver (where the DTivo is), so it seems to be some new source of interference in the family room that is so bad it's affecting the Xantech IR receiver. Does anyone have any suggestions?
> 
> ...


Maybe you've got a remote in the couch with a button stuck on or something like that. You could try taking the batteries out of all of the remotes in the family room and see if it stops.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

Klez said:


> Thanks! That would work great, plus I could add my DVD player also
> 
> To bad I missed the auction though
> 
> I keep a look out for another one.


The seller has a few more listed in other auctions right now.


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## luder (Sep 7, 2006)

anyone have any circuit/wire diagrams of your ideas


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

I'm not sure what you mean by circuit diagrams here, but this is my setup which is typical for such things.

Near the TV, I have a tabletop IR receiver. It plugs in to a Xantech receiver connecting block with an attached power supply. I then run three-conductor cable from the connecting block to another one in my equipment cabinet into which emitters are plugged in.


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## RonP (Oct 16, 2003)

mmach said:


> BUT, a few weeks ago the sender in the family room dropped from 100% reliability to about 10% reliability, with the IR receive LED flickering a little bit constantly. The sender in the bedroom still works fine to the same receiver (where the DTivo is), so it seems to be some new source of interference in the family room that is so bad it's affecting the Xantech IR receiver. Does anyone have any suggestions?-Matt


Do you now have a laptop PC in the room? When mine's on, my Xantech IR flickers continually and my remote reliability drops significantly. The laptop has an IR port and is looking for an IR device (cell phone, etc) to connect to. I had to disable it.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

mmach,

Have you installed any compact flourescent bulbs lately? THey can interfere and there are remote sensors that are made to deal with that interference.


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## luder (Sep 7, 2006)

So you guys use computers to forward the signal?

I always wonder if there is a way to make a unit with pbx boards and resistors,leds,capactors, yada yada perhaps i should take apart my leap frog and make a diagram but, i'm not that good perhaps it could be my projects for next year


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Computers? Heck no. Simple IR distribution blocks.


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