Are there any specs on extending the wire between a GC-100 IR jack and the emitter? I have put about 40' of Cat5 between the jack and emitter, it works but not 100%. Since the problem could also be codes or a code sequence, I wanted to check for a wire issue first. The device being controlled is an Epson projector, just power on/off.
Date
Votes
5 comments
-
Josh Sherman When extending IR emitter cables, all you will need to do is make sure you have clean, solid connections where you splice the two lines from your emitter and you should have no problem running lengths far exceeding 100 feet. If you are getting consistency issues, first confirm that your wiring is solidly spliced, then you will want to check your emitter placement. The point on your emitter which has the highest signal concentration is the point completely opposite where the wire enters the bubble at the end of your emitter, so having this point directly above the IR receiver of your hardware will likely resolve any sort of signal strength issues you have.
-
Jim Addie Thanks, good to know we can go up to 100'. The wires are spliced well, actually used connectors rather than splicing. The emitter is pointed at the IR sensor of the projector, and is actually in contact with it. I don't think I could position it for any more IR signal. The reason I thought the cable may be corrupting the IR codes is that the actual remote always works, an the projector's sensor seems to be very sensitive, doesn't matter where you point the remote, it seems to work. But codes coming from the GC-100 through the cable to the emitter don't always work. My other guess is that since the On or Off code is part of a macro that also spits On or Off codes to other equipment on other ports, I may need to isolate the projector control codes outside of that macro. But I'm not sure why that would matter. Straight ON or Off commands seem reliable, but not ones grouped in a macro. I've also tried sending a series of OFF codes in a row to see if the projector is looking for a more solid "button press". Seemed to help, but not solve the issue. That's why I thought the cable capacitance may slightly corrupt the data sent to the emitter. I might try using more conductors of the Cat5 to reduce series resistance, thus swamping any cable C. Any thoughts?
-
Josh Sherman If you are having problems with macros, you may want to increase the amount of delay time between your commands within the macro. It could be as simple your hardware not being able to digest the commands within that short span of time. If this doesn't resolve the issue, do a little more extensive testing to see if single commands are really more reliable than commands within macros and hopefully we can characterize the difference enough to find what is causing your problem.
-
Jim Addie Increasing the time between commands was the first thing I tried. No positive effect. The single command vs macro would be a good idea to test. I'll have to do it on site though, and I hate to show up without a solution in had. Another observation is that in testing the system in my shop, the projector responded correctly every time. After installation, it's pretty unreliable. The only difference between the shop test and the installation is the length of cable between the GC-100 and the emitter, at least, as far as I can tell. The hand-held projector remote always works. That leads me to a corruption of the actual signal driving the emitter. How about you? When I get back there again to reprogram some of the lighting functions I may bring the scope along and take a look at the actual IR signal. Might be interesting to compare to the hand held remote IR signal.
-
Josh Sherman It is possible that your signal is being corrupted, but this would only occur if the connections made were not completely clean. Something you may want to check is that your wiring is connected correctly, as a swapped line could be causing the problem you are seeing. Also, you may want to try with the same length extension in your test setup to see if you get the same results. Also, have you tried using a different IR connector on your GC-100? It is not likely that this would alter your symptom, but it would be another data point with which to derive a conclusion.
Please sign in to leave a comment.