1. Home
  2. General Home Automation
  3. Internal RF Adapter for Almost Any Remote

Internal RF Adapter for Almost Any Remote

formatting link
Has anyone bought one of these? I found it while (vainly) searching for a credit-card sized learning remote that Bill just asked about in another thread. Any ideas on how it works? Where does it pickup the originating IR? From being part of the PS circuit? At first I thought it might solve Bill K's problem, but apparently not. Still, it could be useful for some situations. It's a pretty clever idea, to stick a transmitter and an N battery in a AAA/AA sized sleeve. These RF transmitter chips must be getting incomprehensibly tiny!

This may sound like a stupid question, but does anyone know if the X-10

8-in-1 learning remote transmits RF as well as IR for each type of command (VCR, SAT, TV, etc) or RF & IR X-10 commands only? I can see the IR LED flashing when it executes X-10 via my camera's viewfinder, so I assume it's sending both RF and IR transmission simultaneously.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green
Loading thread data ...

I've not bought one but I can tell you a bit about how it works.

It's 418MHz so it's only useful with its target or other RF2IR devices, nearly all of which use 418MHz in N. America.

It senses the carrier bursts as RF.

It will not work in some devices - mostly those with LCD screens. The screens tend to put out RF noise that swamps this little thingy.

Single chip RF transceivers have been incredibly small for some time. Search for Chipcon and look at the datasheets.

X-10 uses 310MHz RF so it is of no use for X-10.

The 8-in-1 remote sends only modulated IR when in IR mode. It sends RF and _UNMODULATED_ IR when in RF mode. Unmodulated IR has very short range and will not be detected properly by receivers designed for modulated IR. Most consumer IR receivers are designed for modulated IR with a carrier in the

32-40kHz range.

Your camera is see>

formatting link

Reply to
Dave Houston

Thanks, Dave

That's not what I expected but it makes sense.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

I may have been wrong about the RF frequency as that was from memory and I'm finding that my memory isn't as good as I remember it. ;)

Reply to
Dave Houston

I bought another model some time ago. They're junk. As Dave pointed out some remotes don't work nicely with them. My Tivo remote wouldn't work at anything more than a few feet away from the base.

Nope, been there, done that.

If it actually worked reliably, yeah, it'd be neat. But as Dave points out the other RF noise inside many modern remotes precludes their actually being able to work reliably.

Which remote? There are soo many differnet models of X-10 remotes. Most don't transmit the AV devices commands as RF. Only a few of the button modes actually send RF. It depends on the X-10 remote involved. I gave up on using X-10 remotes because of this.

Get a JP1 capable remote like the 15-2117 or other universal remote with an RF base station. I picked up 4 of them for use around the house. Each one is programmed the same for everything but the local TV control. That way once you learn how to control the Tivo in the AV closet it's the same when using it anywhere in the house.

Trouble is they're a bit too bulky, discontinued and too expensive to add more of them in places like out on the deck or other places that I've got A-Bus keypads installed. I need a *little* more functionality than the basic Russound remote but not as much as (or at the cost of) the larger one. If I could find a credit card sized remote that was programmable (learned IR or uploads) then I'd be able to send the local keypad IR commands for on/off/source/volume while also being able to pass in a few other commands that the controller PC (running girder) could interpret. A Weemote DV is closer but not quite it.

-Bill Kearney

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.