As a lst note on this (for now) if you ever take apart an emitter head (they just pry open) and look carefully you will see (I need a magnifying glass) two things. the emitter and almost always a little resistor. The resistor is used to limit the current flow and therefore the total number of IR devices that will work in series. Shorting out the resistors or eliminating them entirely will make the IR emitters much brighter, and allow for more in series. I would not do it with 2-3 dual head emitters in series, but if you need more.....

if you are handy with a soldering iron then you can build a very nice patch panel for emitters where your components are. I take a small place of plastic or a TRS radio shack project box and a buch of 1/8" mono shorting jacks. Okay that a new one, what is a shorting jack.

With a normal jack if there is nothing plugged in then the wires are not conncted. With a shorting jack, if there is nothing plugged in then the two wires to the jack are automatically shorted together. This is just what you want for a series string of emitters. Build it with 3 jacks and each jack could take a dual headed IR emitter giving you 6 emitters. If you unplug one of the emitters the rest still work.

WARNING always have at least one pluged in or the entire string will appear as a short circuit to what ever is driving them. Most decent IR tranmission systems have a current limiting resistor built in just in case you short the IR output. As an alternate, just make one of the jacks non-shorting so that if only one emitter is connected that is where it must be.

Guys,
I just received the amplified connecting block. I didn't realize from looking at the pictures but now that I have it in hand I see that it is really just a circuit board with a metal piece around it. The ends, however, are open. So it is not in a closed container. Is it really ok to sit this in my equipment cabinet just like it is with the board exposed on the ends? Seems like it was meant to be built into something else.

Thanks. Sorry if it seems a dumb question.....

No issue. It generates no heat, does not care about dust (no moving parts) it does need power and I assume you got the 12V wall wart Power supply.

Barry,
thx for all the help!

Another problem! I connected the ACB to the RFX with a mono mini plugs on both ends. When I active a command on the TSU that uses the ir port on the RFX that is connected to the ACB, I see the RFX activity button flash. I aslo see the activity button on the ACB flash but it does not control the end device.

Here is what I've tried:

1. I put the sensor directly on the ir "eye" of the device.

2. I moved the ir sensor away an inch or so.

3. I tried different sensor wires (from my Harmony 890).

4. I tried setting the dip switch on the RFX to normal and to low.

5. I read in the instructions of the ACB that you should connect a stereo mini plug so I put a mono to stereo plug adaptor on the end of the cable going to the ACB.

None of these things worked.

When I connect the ir sensor directly to the port of the RFX it sends the signal correctly to the end device. So it appears something is wrong with the ACB part of the chain.

Any idea what might be the problem? thx

EDIT: Just spoke with Xantech tech support. The guy told me that instead of just plugging a mini plug in the irrcvd jack I should connect the RFX to the ACB by cutting off the mini plug and attaching the two wires to open connections for ir in and ground. The diagram in the instructions indicates that you use those connections when you attach another ACB to the first ACB unit.

Anyway, I just tried that too and still no luck. The light on the ACB indicates it's receiving the signal but somehow it is not getting transmitted to the end device.

Now what?

Have you had any luck? i think i have got it working let me know... Still Testing...

Yes. I think I started another thread on the issue. I should not have used the irrcvd in plug. Have to wire it to the terminal screws. By using irrcvd with mono plug I burned out the power supply. A stereo plug would have been grounded properly so I guess it wouldn't have burned out the power but I don't think it would have worked anyway. Once I got a new power supply and wired the in from the RFX to the ir and ground terminals it worked.

Is this working with the RFX9400 ???? Xantech 284m Dual Emitter
[Link: xantech.com]