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Re: Re: IR Repeater Thru Mains - was - New site for Infrared Remote Manager



Hi,

>I tried this, and abandonned it - the big problem with IR is the lack
>of feedback and poor reliability.
Lack of feedback can be an issue but they are solutions for that, if it is absolutely necessary.

> - IR is generally way, way less reliable than X-10 - affected by
> sunlight, line of sight obstruction
There is no such issue in a house... maybe outside. You can controll all the devices from one room using a single source of infrared (LED)
 
>- IR signals are corrupted if they originate from two different
>sources simultaneously (e.g. user picks up remote at same time as PC
>sends command). This can't be detected automatically.
 
I intend to use my system mainly for remote home management, then this is not an issue. Even if in the same room, the infrared command usually is sent several times so it is a very small chance to interfere each time.
 

>- It is impossible to determine the status of the controlled device
> when using IR (agreed, for most X-10 devices too, but the control
> model for X-10 works better, with all commands driven through a
> single interface in my environment, so I at least know the notional
> state of all devices)
Yes, but this gives IR a lot more flexibility. You can command electronic equipment by X10 and then an X10/infrared converter, but you must pay a lot more for this and there is no evident advantage.
 
 
> - Lack of discrete control codes for all products with IR makes
> robust control very difficult (devices end up operating on
> an "inverted" basis, toggled on when they should be off or vice versa)
Allmost all IR controlled devices have separate Power On/Power Off codes, even if they are not implemented on the supplied remote. For all my equipments, from several manufacturers, it was like that. You must make some research, but with my application is something very easy to be done. You can generate any command you want.

>Be interesting to see if you fair better though!
I am too.
:-)
 
Dan
P.S. I'm not an X10 standard oposant, but as I have not the opportunity to get some X10 devices for my house, I decide to do as much as possible using infrared. The Infrared Remote Manager application is not intended to be used solely for IR signals, but for X10 and radio signals as well(soon RF, X10 when I'll succed to get one PC interface and one HA inteface). This is the main advantage over the similar products. More, you can define your own protocols. A simple one is the HA protocol used in my configuration file, which is extremely easy to decode and can provide 6 digital outputs.

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