How the hell does one of these work?

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floydbloke

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Topic # 102562 17-May-2012 08:58
My fairly rudimentary understanding of appliance remote controls is that they pulse an IR led in a set sequence that is then ‘read and understood’ by the appliance. I’m trying to figure out how one of these gadgets would pick up this signal to re-transmit it, when it is sitting in the battery compartment. Next Generation Remote Control Extender Is it simply a case of the chip within the remote control that generates the pulses ‘radiating’ sufficient RF for this gadget to pick it up and re-generate, or is there something more sinister and magical about it?

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Reply # 626664 17-May-2012 09:04
I wonder if it monitors the current drain on the battery when the IR LED is being pulsed.. For this method, I'm assuming that the IR LEDs are being driven fairly hard so they suck a bit of current. Or... maybe it's just magic. contentsofsignaturemaysettleduringshipping

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Reply # 626665 17-May-2012 09:08
Yup, those short current pulses drawn by the IR LEDs are pretty substantial! though smoothed a bit by the capacitor you will usually find inside..

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Reply # 626671 17-May-2012 09:16
I used to have a couple of these and you are correct it picks up the current draw when the IR is blasting and sends that to the base. Generally they do worked very well. I sold mine as for some reason with my Harmony remote it would screw up the amp. it worked perfectly if I had them in the separate remotes and even if I used the Logitech as a dedicated remote for each device it was only when it ran the macro's to turn everything on that it would screw up the amp. Basically the amp would turn on but then ignore any commands sent to it for 30 odd seconds. Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

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Reply # 626679 17-May-2012 09:29
Currrent draw it is then. Thanks all.

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Reply # 627348 18-May-2012 14:08
A bit of controversy here. This article seems to suggest that my initial guess was on the right track. .. All remote controls send out low level RF commands when they are used. The Remote Control Extender picks these up at close range, interprets them, and transmits them to the base station for rebroadcast as IR commands. ..

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Reply # 627353 18-May-2012 14:31
Hmm unfortunately I cannot check now but I thought the information I got that is was the draw on the battery was from the manual but of course I cannot confirm now as I do not have one now. I do note that looking at the faq they have the following My range seems to be decreasing over time? The remote does not control my device consistently? The batteries may be low. Try charging the 2/3 AAA battery in the receiver/charging base. If that does not help you may need to change your alkaline batteries too. For the best performance, the RF transmitter sleeve should be placed so that the positive end is pointing towards the front of the remote. Also, try extending the antenna on our receiver. That may help boost the signal. To me that implies that as you have read it is working on rf from the remote not the draw. Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

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Reply # 627437 18-May-2012 17:51
We have had one for three odd years in the MySky remote in the bedroom controlling the STB in the lounge and it has worked flawlessly, battery lasts around four or five months before swapping them over to the spare in the main unit. Highly recommended.

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Reply # 627486 18-May-2012 19:48
Good to know the unit has been working well for you Clevedon :) Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64