IR control systems

["paul gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

the time has come for me to finally sort out a "proper" Infra-Red
control
system, as nothing I have used previously has been suitable.

What I have previously used are a couple of different flavours of
"blaster"
emitters, all based on radio signals between the Xmitter & Receiver.

The first kind was a "radio remote" - Replacement URC handset,
that emits
both IR for local control, AND radio to a remote emitter at the far
location. The problem with this one was that the range was CRAP! - My
bedroom is immediately above my lounge, & I had this set up so that
there
was only a normal wooden floor, and about 7 feet distance between the
transmitter & receiver, and I STILL had to hang over the side of the
bed and
put the transmitter on the floor for the signal to get through... When I
rearranged the bedroom layout & moved the bed to the other end....
(forget
it....)

The second kind was a powermid-type whereby I had a seperate transmitter
and
receiver pair. This was much better in terms of the radio range, in fact
this one worked fine, EXCEPT for one slight problem: the receiver would
pick
up extraneous radio signals from somewhere, and as a result would transmit
IR "noise" at my equipment, none of which was bothered by this,
apart from
my Pace MSS500 satellite receiver, which would go absolutely loopy, and
would have to be power-cycled in order to get it back to life.... (So
scratch attempt #2)

I know that the sensitivity of these radio based products is adjustable,
but
I could not get the right balance of range in relation to susceptibility to
stray radio noise.

I've come to the conclusion that anything based on radio is just too
problematic, so I want to put in a wired system. I don't need anything
fancy
- all the equipment to be controlled is in one location in the lounge, I
merely want to be able to control this equipment from multiple locations
(kitchen & a couple of bedrooms). So I need just one output zone, and
anything up to 4 input zones. I don't mind having a "blaster"
type emitter
with sight of all the equipment, as I've had no problems with that
arrangement per se, and I think it's probably simpler than going into
mini-emitters stuck to each piece of kit.

What could anyone recommend that would fit the above requirements, and is
available in the UK, with UK support, and is not grossly expensive? I don't
particularly want a product which does IR "on the back" of
something else
(IE, I've seen video senders that do IR as well, but I neither need nor
want
a video sender, and I don't want to pay for a video sender!) - But, I
_could_ make use of something like Keith Doxeys KAT5 senders which do
stereo
audio & composite video as well as IR. (DVD has no UHF output!) I have
no
problems running Cat5 to wherever I want to put a receiver.

All suggestions graciously accepted...

Cheers.

Paul G.

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