I'm trying to integrate all of the various the audio/video components throughout my apartment, including PC's, etc. One of my biggest problems right now is that I have two universal remotes to control six or seven different things (two TV's, a digital cable box, VCR's, etc.) Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, for video capturing and/or displaying my PC's output (located in the bedroom) on my TV in the living room, I find the need to send remote commands to devices located in the "other room."

I've seen various remote extenders which either reflect the IR signals or translate them into some other kind of radio frequency. But I know nothing about these devices, have on experience with them, etc. Here are my requirements:

1. I need it to work both ways. That is, I need to be able to send commands to components located in my living room while I'm in my bedroom, and vice versa.
2. The distance being covered isn't all that phenomenal, it's just a 2BR apartment. No going up/down stairs or anything.
3. I need it to support an arbitrary number of remotes. I'm still in search of some universal remotes which do everything I want them to do, right now I have it narrowed down to one universal in the living room and one universal in the bedroom.
4. I'm also considering adding some kind of IR remote to my PC, but the ones I've seen stink. Anyone have any good experiences on that front? (For WinAMP, DVD programs, etc.)

I don't want to spend more then $50-$60 on a remote extender package if I can avoid it. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

I am using two of the Radio Shack remote extenders in my house. They are essentially the same product as the Terk Powermid and the X10 powermid. They work fine, even with universal remotes.

The only thing is that they are unidirectional. In order to go both directions, you need two sets.

I have had the following problems with the extenders:

1) One of the extenders is sitting on the kitchen windowsill just inside the glass, and is meant to get the IR signals from the hot tub to the Rio Receiver in the living room. It works great unless the setting sun is shining directly into the kitchen window. Then the IR receiver is getting random infrared rays from the sun and gets rather confused. David is supposed to be sending me some extra IR filter material to see if that helps it (haven't seen it, David, you mail it yet?). But if you don't plan on putting your IR repeaters in the sun, then you have nothing to worry about.

2) My Toshiba DVD player has a sketchy infrared input. For instance, if I point the remote control directly at the IR sensor on the DVD player, It will sometimes, intermittently, not respond to commands. For some reason which I cannot fathom, sending the remote signals through the IR repeater increases the likelihood of this intermittent problem. This is not a bug in the repeater as far as I can tell, it's the DVD player's problem. Every other device in my system responds to the IR repeater's signals just fine.

So yeah, go for it, they work.

Hmm I was hoping for some kind of bi directional solution.

How do the pyramids work? How many come in a set? They just reflect the IR signal, right? I've heard of solutions which actually turn it into a radio signal which a receiver translates on the other end... That might be better, because my other problem is the floor plan dictates that the signal needs to travel around a corner... Like this:



There are speakers in both rooms. So it would look like I need a pyramid on the wall of my hallway between the two rooms... That's ugly, two of them for bi-directional would be even worse..

Anyone have any info on the ones that use radio frequencies (non-directional) rather than IR reflection?

Heh, looks like my old apartment. Back in those days, I hung a mirror on the wall and bounced my IR signal that way. Worked like a charm, as long as the mirror was carefully placed and the remote was aimed carefully.

And the whole idea of the IR repeaters is not to put them in between the two locations. You wouldn't put the repeaters on the wall between the two rooms. You would put them each in the stereo racks with the rest of the gear in each room, they would be unobtrusive that way.

Re-reading your message, I now realize your confusion about how the repeaters work.

Each box comes with two devices: A transmitter and a receiver.

Transmitter: Looks for the IR signal from your remote, encodes it, and transmits that encoded signal with radio waves.

Receiver: Listens on the radio waves for the encoded signal, decodes it back into IR pulses, and sends those pulses out as IR signals from its face.

So to do it bidirectionally, you'd use two sets.

Why would you need two sets if it converts to a radio signal?

You would need two sets for bi-directional remotes. These are remotes that receive signals from components as well as transmit.

Ahh, ok. Didn't get that part. What types of things use bi-directional communication? Sounds cool...

I had a Sony receiver (STR-DE945) that had a bi-directional remote. It was worthless. The remote had an 4 line LCD on it instead of buttons for each source. So, when you wanted to change sources, the remote would query the receiver for what source it was currently on. So, on the remote, the LCD could indicate which source you were on. It was really dumb and took a couple more seconds to do simple tasks.

You can see a pic of it here.

Why would you need two sets if it converts to a radio signal?

You don't need two sets. Not usually.

The only time you need two sets is if you want the signals to go in the opposite direction. For instance, if you wanted to control the livingroom VCR from the bedroom, then you need only one set.

But if you ALSO wanted to control the bedroom stereo from the livingroom, that's when you need the second set. This is what Ynot said he needed.

How much do these extenders cost? I've been looking for something just like this. I can't find the product on the Radio Shack site.

These are cool. I've been meaning to get a set:

X10, the great satan of advertising sells a set for $40

And I thought everyone here knew about Smarthome.com. I love that home automation stuff.

Smarthome has several options like the X10 product (but for more money) or this one.

Have fun!

Yeah, that's what I need. Not bi-directional remotes (don't have any of those), but bi-directoinal extenders. I need a transmitter and receiver in each room, it seems. Sounds expensive.

I thought there might be some kind of solution that would already have a transmitter and receiver in each room, but I guess most people work with one main area that they're usually in, and another area that just happens to have components they need to control.

The next question is would two sets even work... They might try to use the same frequency?

I use two sets in my house, and I don't have a problem with them.

Even if they use the same frequency (not sure if they do or not), I'm controlling different brands/models/types of components with each receiver, so it doesn't matter. I don't need to isolate the signals from each other.

The only time you would have a problem is if you had two of the same exact brand/model of stereo or TV (one at each end of the equation) and you did not want both of them to be simultaneously controlled by the remote.

Ahh, found it.

How much do these extenders cost? I've been looking for something just like this. I can't find the product on the Radio Shack site.

Does that site's search engine really SUCK or what?

I would look up the exact radio shack part number for you, but I have to head out to pick up a friend for lunch right now. Perhaps someone else has it. Or, as mentioned in another post, you can get any number of alternative devices which are either the same exact product, or are a different product which does the same thing.

Ah, good job Svferris. Thanks.

I'm not sure about these models that I linked you or the RS one, but RF devices frequently have a frequency selector. I have an RF A/V transmitter and receiver. Each has a toggle switch for 4 different frequencies. The idea is that you don't interfere with someone who lives by you and possibly has the same device. Same thing goes with the whole x10 system and its "house codes."

Have fun!

Ah, hmm. $40 for the X10 ones at their site. I think I might go with those, though I feel kinda dirty supporting X10 and their awful pop-under strategies.

Maybe I'll order a couple wireless cameras so I can spy on the neighbors, while I'm at it.

So how about the 2nd part of my question... Anyone know of any good remote controls that can control a PC? I see X10 has one but it only works with WIn3.1, Win95, and Win98. I'm running Windows 2000. I would mainly want to just control WinAMP and DVD software with it, but I like how the X10 remote seems to be able to remotely control the mouse and such. I would prefer USB interface but could use serial if necessary.

Oh, and I've searched for this stuff but all I've found are lame Packard Bell remotes that only work under Win95 and have like six buttons.

The IRMan from www.evation.com is a serial IR receiver that can receive IR codes from the vast majority of consumer remotes including learning remotes. The software side of it is best handled by girder (freeware) from www.girder.nl. Girder has a steepish learning curve, but is *incredibly* powerful for PC automation.

Software looks good to me. Can you reprogram buttons to act like mouse movements and clicks with the software?

Looks interesting.. Just spent $80 at X10 and got a free 5-in-1 remote out of the deal... This IRman might be another good buy...

Edit: Argh, Their U.S. reseller is back-ordered until the end of the month... But it looks like you can order directly from them... Wonder if that'd be quicker.. Also wish I could find one that used USB, as my serial ports are kinda full right now.

I have the iRman and the x10 remote. I haven't tested the X10 in win2k, but I'd assume it still works in it.

I think the irman is a fantastic device for the money. I wouldn't recommend trying to operate the mouse cursor with it, though. I tried once and did fairly well. However, you need at lest 10 buttons aligned in an easily rememberable way on your remote. The way I did it was to have 4 buttons for small mouse movements, 4 for large ones, and 2 for the buttons.

I basically only used the irman for simple functions. I used a very small stick remote from an old discman to control winamp (play, pause, next, volume, etc).

The X10 remote is great too, but I found it doesn't co-exist with your real mouse very well. I'm also not sure how mice work when you have a USB and a PS mouse plugged in at the same time. Do they work?

Anyway, which remote were you looking at? Did they show a picture? If the remote has a circular pad on it, that one controls the mouse cursor really well. If it's the other, I've heard it doesn't do it as well.

So basically, the X10 controls the mouse better and has RF (might not be the one you were looking at), and the irman is more customizeable with that software.


*edit* Another good thing about the irman software is that you shouldn't need the mouse. You can program it, for example, so that a certain button presses "x" in Winamp. This means that even if, on your computer, Winamp isn't the window/program in focus, that button on the remote will always mean "play" in Winamp. (by the way, that's how you'd program it, by the keyboard shortcuts - x=play,c=pause,etc) *edit*

I have a strange question for y'all. I have the Radio Shack pyramid IR extenders as well. I use it so that I can control my TiVo from another room in the house. The strange thing is that on the side of my remote TV, the LED on the pyramid goes on when the TV in that room is on. There's no physical connection from the TV to the pyramid. How the heck does it know that the TV is on?

- Jon

Well actually there's some promotion where X10 is just throwing a 5-in-1 remote in with your order. I guess they figure if they throw in a remote with an X10 automation button, I might be tempted to order X10 automation stuff in the future. I am not so lazy that I can't get up to turn off a lamp, however, so this will probably be my only order from them. I'm not big into having surveilance cameras or turning on my coffee pot with a remote control.

This is the remote they threw in. Looks okay...

http://www.x10.com/products/x10_ur73a.htm

Thanks for all the info on IRMan and the X10 remote receiver product... It looks like IRman is more hackable and easier to use, and since the X10 software doesn't work under Win2K, it's an easy choice. I guess I'll be ordering an IRMan and trying it with the 5-in-1 remote that X10 threw in.

Yeah, I never really understood the appliance modules. There aren't a whole lot of things you could do with those.

But the light modules are nice. I'm pretty lazy, so I like it

However, it's not just about being lazy. I have all my outside lights and 3 indoor lights on my x10 system. I've also got a timer that turns them on and off indivisually at certain times. This is nice for when I'm on vacation or whatever. It's also just cool to see all your lights turn on without you doing anything. Plus, you can dim any of them

So yeah, your idea seems good. I think you'll like the irman.

good luck!

The strange thing is that on the side of my remote TV, the LED on the pyramid goes on when the TV in that room is on. There's no physical connection from the TV to the pyramid. How the heck does it know that the TV is on?

It doesn't. It's not directly reacting to the TV, but to environmental conditions (perhaps indirectly related to turning on the TV).

I didn't catch clearly which of the two modules is the one that lights up. But here is what is supposed to light the LED:

- On the transmitter module (the one without the rabbit-ear antenna), the LED will light up when it sees some kind of infrared light through its sensor. For instance, on the one that sits on my kitchen windowsill, the LED light blinks randomly pretty much all the time during sunny days (although I got that filter material from David yesterday and I have high hopes it will fix the problem).

- On the receiver module (the one with the rabbit-ear antenna), the LED will light up when it receives a radio signal anywhere near its frequency range that it thinks is a transmitted IR signal. This could be RF interference from other electric/electronic devices (perhaps the TV itself), or it could be receiving random IR signals from the transmitter module.

In both cases, maybe altering the placement of the module will change the response.

They can be useful for some pieces of networking and other computer equipment. It's nice to be able to remotely power cycle some things. Most folks would get a remotely controllable power strip, but the appliance modules can be a cheap alternative.

Yeah, Appliance modules are also great for those of us that are addicted to halogen lights. Standard light modules cause anything but incandescent lamps to have issues and hum and generaly not be happy.

I've also been thinking about controlling my DSL modem with an X10 applicance module. This way, at least in theory, I'd be able to have the linux server reboot the modem whenever the DSL connection went down. But, seeing as I've heard a rumor that I'll get free TV cable if I sign up for cable internet access, this may be a moot point.

Matthew

We're doing a deal with Streamzap right now. Can't personally recommend it, since I've never used one, but they have an impressive list of compatible programs.