USB-UIRT Forum

I am new to IR distribution and USB-UIRT. I need help determining which Xantech products will work best with USB-UIRT for what I want to do in my house. I need to send and receive IR in mulitiple locations. I see having small IR recievers and IR blasters in the walls.

Please take a look at my poorly drawn house diagram showing what I want to accomplish.

Basically I plan on having a LCD mounted in the kitchen that will run Xlobby (HTPC frontend software). Using EITHER a remote OR the touchscreen a person would be able to control music and tv. Pressing a touchscreen button or using the remote would send IR that would need to go to several places (either closet or living room mostly).

http://gallery.avsforum.com/showphoto.php/photo/15628/size/big

If any of this makes sense I would appriecate any direction someone could offer me.

I guess my question is confusing since no one has replied. Let me try a different approach.

Which Xantech IR products work with USBUIRT?


If you are using some Xantech products how many rooms can you send IR to?

Hi
Dont have a xantech system , but my FirM Jr works with the usb uirt and you can have up to 6 FirM Jr receivers connected to it..So the ir is available at each receiver as well as at FirM Jr...

Check out the link.....Bottom diagram is an actual setup of a UsbUirt / FirM User.

http://www.armaghelectrical.com.au/page8.html

HTH

Frank

Russound makes a very inexpensive distribution block that enables you to connect the usbuirt in via the the mini jack connector.

http://www.russound.com/857.htm

You have standard Xantech 3 wire compatibility for connecting ir receiver throughout you house and an isolated mini jack input for the usbuirt

Ok, so I think I am starting to understand all of this. I still have a couple more questions

1. USBUIRT can inject IR into the Russound 857 which outputs IR 6 ways (or 12 with dual emitters). Can I use IR blasters instead of the stick on emitters? Which brand/model? I’d rather blast IR to an entire room/zone than have emitters taped to every piece of my equipment.

2. My understanding of the USBUIRT and Grinder solution is that it can take any IR signal and process it and resend it transformed to any other IR code or multiple IR codes. Basically, this allows me to use a generic remote to control for example my Harmon Kardon Receiver? I could even setup USBUIRT and Grinder to receive a single generic remote control IR signal to set off “events” that could send IR to my receiver, DVD player and TV all at once? Am I correct with these assumptions???

3. If I place my HTPC with USBUIRT attached in a wiring closet I understand how IR will be sent OUT. This is done by injecting the USBUIRT’s IR into the Russound 857 which sends out IR 6 ways. But what if I wanted to inject more IR into the Russound 857? Input IR from more than one zone since the USBUIRT will be in a wiring closet cut off from line of sight of kitchen remotes, living room remotes, bedroom remotes, etc? For example: I want IR to be received in the kitchen to be sent to the USBUIRT and processed by Grinder and then sent back out through the Russound. Can this be done? I'm guessing more equipment is needed?

I'll leave some of your questions to those experienced with IR distribution.

While it is true that USB-UIRT + Girder can receive/process/and transmit an IR signal, please keep in mind that the nature of IR will affect how well this scenario will work.

For example, say you have a button on your remote which you want to press to turn all of your equipment on and set it up to watch a DVD. This can be done, but only one IR signal can be sent at a time so that they do not collide. This also means you need to take into account colliding with IR from your remote.

So, in practice, having a remote signal 'trigger' some actions works rather well. However, trying to use Girder and the USB-UIRT as a 'trasnlator' doesn't. A good example of this is trying to 'translate' the volume control -- if you press and hold the volume on a remote, Girder will see the repeated volume signals from the remote. However, it will not be able to transmit other IR signals (the translated signal via Girder) because there is no time to do so without colliding, etc.

-Jon

My home is wired in a similar manner but there are two IR networks, One for receive and one for transmit for just the reasons stated in the prior post.

The receive network goes to a dedicated input device, actually (2) which connect to two PC's. One PC is in the theater and handles all IR for the theater, the other is on the House server for home automation running Homeseer.

There are IR receivers all over the house to pick up IR from remotes. I only use a single protocol on all Remotes I own. The protocol is NEC which is used by many equipment manufacturers and is present on almost all remotes with internal IR databases ("ALL-In-One" like). I use a special receiver to pick up the IR and feed the PC. This receiver decodes NEC protocol at the hardware level and presents ascii HEX at the com port. I could have used a USB-UIRT for this, but I built the system before there ever was a USB-UIRT

The USB UIRT is used in the theater (replaced a Nirvis slinke)where all devices that accept IR are located. A master theater control program using table look up techniques interprets the received IR and transmits the transcoded (by that I mean the native IR protocol needed by the equipment) IR to the equipment. The PC program handles all macro work and logic.

On the Homeseer machine (House automation server) IR is only accepted, never transmitted. The two PC's are connected via TCP/IP and UDP so the homeseer system can command the Theter PC to emit IR if I ever need to.

The IR networks are fully Xantech based. By the way, the protocol Xantech uses on its devices (e.g. keypads) is NEC

Hope this helps

Some more answers to your questions. All of these answers and comments are based on Xantech equipment which I use.

A xantech network allows you to connect for all practical purposes as many IR receiving devices as required, and as many IR emitters as is needed.

Xantech also makes keypads that look like IR receivers (that is, they put "IR" onto the network). I believe they even have waterproof ones.

The network is protocol independent since it is a repeater network. For their own devices Xantech uses NEC protocol

Wiring lengths can be in the hundreds of feet.

Amplified connectors will provide multiple points where you can connect IR emitters to go to equipments with no issues of power loss or drain.

An IR blaster is nothing more than a powerful IR emitter. The Xantech system (amplified connecting blocks) has hi and low power outputs for single or multiple emitters (Blasters).

On a xantech network all IR receivers are sitting on the network (Bus architecture) essentially in parallel. In my home that network runs hundreds of wiring feet and is actually engineered in a star configuration as opposed to a bus (home runs as opposed to daisy chained). Looking at signal and ground (2 of the 3/4 wires on the network) an emitter can be connected there (actually several emitters could be connected at points along the network). I use "optical coupling" to connect the network to the "IR to PC" input device I use (I taped an emitter to the IR window of the device and wrapped the whole thing in tape so it is optically sealed).

A lot of this is described in detail on documents at my web site (www.the-gordons.net)

I have special programs that allow me to analyze IR signals (not available to the general public) and one that can generate IR patterns for just about any protocol for any device in several formats (Slinke, Pronto, ADI, etc). The program works from a protocol description and a code table stating the device and key codes for each function on the remote. I use this to load remotes/devices that accept Pronto IR display code such as the software to drive a USB-UIRT or an iPronto remote.

I am working on a general IR translation program (windows based) using the USB-UIRT and only need beta testers as the code is basically done (If I can find it). Too many projects so little time.

I can be reached at barry@the-gordons.net