USB-UIRT Range (was: not working with SageTV after a few...)

[aclarke]

Hi. I bought a USB-UIRT a couple months ago and use it to control my satellite receiver box and also to receive signals for SageTV from my remote. I've been mostly trying to use my 45 button Hauppauge remote.

One of the problems was that both my Hauppauge remote and my Sony TV remote send more than 20 IR codes for each button. However, someone on the SageTV forums suggested that might be due to dead batteries and having replaced the batteries on my Hauppauge remote that seems to be the case. I tried lrnhelper.exe and can verify that now each button on my Hauppauge remote only puts out 2 codes with the new batteries. Occasionally it will throw a 3rd code sometimes but that might only be 1 out of every 50 button presses. The Sony remote with old batteries still pumps out huge numbers of codes for each button press but that's because I can't find any more batteries around the house...

Now when I load SageTV the Hauppauge remote and the USB-UIRT seem to work well. However, if I come back a few hours later, SageTV has become almost completely non-responsive to the remote. I might press a button 20 times and have it only work once. If I restart SageTV (the client interface, not the service), then my remote works fine again.

Even when the interface is not responding to remote button pushes, I can still see the IR light coming on on the USB-UIRT so I know it's receiving the commands. I also can see that the USB-UIRT is correctly sending channel change codes as my recorded TV shows from all night are correct. So it just seems to be that for some reason, after SageTV client has been running for a period of time, the remote just stops working properly.

Thanks for any suggestions anyone may have,
- Andrew Clarke.

[aclarke]

I'm replying to myself so that even if nobody has answers for me maybe there will be an answer in here for someone else.

I think the problem with the USB-UIRT not sending remote codes to SageTV only happens when SageTV goes into sleep mode on its own. I THINK I've solved this by having SageTV never sleep. I'm still testing this "solution" but I think it's working.

Now to my next question: how much range are remotes supposed to have with the USB-UIRT? With new batteries in my Hauppauge remote, I get about 2 metres of range, and after that my remote is completely useless. Using lrnhelper.exe, I can see that it pretty much only sends 2 codes per button until 2 metres of range, then accuracy precipitously drops off and I suddenly get many more codes.

Do I just need a stronger remote, or what? I'm not sure what the problem is here, or if there's a solution. I don't think moving my couch closer to the TV is a solution

Thanks again,
- Andrew.

[aclarke]

Hi me, it's me again.

I just tried my Sony TV remote with brand new batteries, and my satellite receiver remote with < 2 month old batteries, and got the same results. At 2 metres, they worked fine. At 4-5 metres, they threw out a lot of codes for each button and so basically didn't work any more.

Do I have a defective USB-UIRT or am I doing something wrong? This is with a clear line of sight between the remote and the USB-UIRT.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out here,
- Andrew.

[jrhees]

Andrew,

There are a few possibilities here which could be causing the problem:

1. Your remote may be using a frequency which is far away from the USB-UIRT's 'center' frequency of 38KHz. This will reduce the USB-UIRT's sensitivity.

2. You could have a defective unit.

3. You could have a poor USB power supply (lower voltage or noisy). This is the case on some PC's, and can have the net effect of reducing the sensitivity of the IR receiver. If you have a powered USB hub, you can easily verify this by plugging the USB-UIRT into the powered hub (in powered mode) and see if that improves the issue.

4. You could have something in the room generating a lot of IR interference -- such as a Plasma TV, or fluorescents. You can test for this by turning off lights, etc. and see if the range is affected. Also, if you see the receive LED blinking at times other than when you're using the remote this could be a sign.

-Jon

[aclarke]

Cool, thanks a lot! I'll bet that inadequate power on my USB hub is the problem. I even posted on that here a few weeks ago ( http://www.usbuirt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4366 ).

I've been using the USB ports off my motherboard and off a riser card from my mobo. I've had troubles with power surges from those ports ever since I built this computer years ago. I haven't had a "power surge on hub port" error in the last week or so but from your post it's the most likely culprit. I'll try to hunt up the power supply for my external USB hub or failing that buy a PCI USB card and try that.

I've tried 3 remotes so it's hard for me to imagine that they'd all have the same problem with beint too far off frequency, but I suppose it's possible. The room in general has no plasma tv and no flourescents or anything like that. I've never seen the USB-UIRT blinking except when SageTV is changing channels or when I'm pointing a remote at it.

I'll check the USB power issue and report back.

Thanks again,
- Andrew.

[aclarke]

It took me a couple weeks to follow up on this, but I bought a new Linksys USB hub and plugged my USB-UIRT into that. Unfortunately it seems to have not helped the range issue. I still get tops 3 metres of range with any of the 3 remotes with which I'm testing.

At first I thought that the range had improved slightly (i.e. from 1.5 metres to 2.5 metres) but the more I use it the more I realize that it's the same as it was when I had the USB-UIRT plugged directly into the computer.

I'd really appreciate any other ideas or feedback you might have.

Thanks,
- Andrew.

[jrhees]

Andrew,

Contact support@usbuirt.com and we'll discuss getting a replacement unit to you.

-Jon