I have a 40 foot run to a panasonic plasma... Signal does not seem to work.. Everthing is configured corretly. What are the distances that others have experienced?

I am purchasing an ir amplifier now....

I´m using RFX9400.
The longest wire for IR: 25m (cat5, 2 IR diodes parallel)
No extra ir amplifier.
No problems ( I took attention, that no mains wire is running parallel to this IR wire).

I would not expect any problems at 40 feet. I've done that countless times. Check for a bad connection or accidental polarity reversal. Or, in spite of your care, an error setting up the Pronto system.

blang2006: I'll accept that you got it to work, but wiring IR emitters in parallel rarely works. If you are using a factory made dual emitter, this is fine. The problem with a simple parallel arrangement is that, unless they are EXACTLY matched, one diode will turn on before the other and clamp the voltage and prevent the other from turning on. Series wiring works fine, up to about four diodes.

Here it is... lol..

If I use the phillips dual connector ... nothing.. If I use a russound single emitter and reverse polarity works like a champ.. The cable is 56' long solid cat5..

Buzz I am currently using a single emitter.

They need to be run in series? Hmmm... I am going to be installing.. What make do you use? are you using CAT? Stranded or solid? Just curious.

avdorks,

I've used XANTECH, RUSSOUND, NILES, and others. For my purposes there is not any difference. Make sure that you use the correct polarity.

I use solid CAT-5.

By the way, if you have a digital camera (or camera phone), you can view the IR emission on the camera's display.

Wiring for IR is very forgiving. I just use spare cat 5 leads (normally the blue pair as the brown pair is often used for POE). stranded, solid, twisted, untwisted, does not really matter.

Length I do hundreds of feet with no issue. Xantech claims thousands of feet (at 12 volts)

I generally terminate in a set of shorting mono jacks (1/8 inch) wired in series. The shorting jacks short tip to sleeve if nothing is connected. In a string of such jacks I remove the shorting contact from just one jack so it is open with no plug inserted. That is jack number 1 and must take the first emitter cable. Alternatively you could just insert an unwired plug. In fact you probably do not have to bother since most IR sources (all that I know of) can withstand a short circuit as there is a current limiting resistor at the source.

How many emitters. I actually prefer single headed emitters, but duals are really just as good and the choice is controlled more by equipment placement than anything else. If you ever open an emiiter head you will find the IR LED and a very tiny resistor. If you have to drive a Lot of emitters just lower the resistor value, it will be linear. That is halve the resistor value in each head and you can drive twice as many since the current draw will stay roughly the same. Good enough for Government work.

Barry,

In round numbers (depending on the exact technology), each LED has a voltage drop of about 2 Volts when it is turned on. A series string of four LED's will have a voltage drop of about 8 volts. 5 LED's will have a drop of about 10 Volts. This is close enough to the 12 Volt rail that there could be trouble in the switching circuit. (it only has 2 Volts of slack to work with) The series resistors make the problem worse.

Xantech recommends no more than four LED's in series.

I am pretty sure I have used 6 with no issue, but perhaps not. As I said I generally use single headed units.