IR Control of devices

I am interested in setting up IR control of my slip system AC.

All sounds easy on paper, but looking ast the hardware that I need (apart from the AC) I have to have an ugly 4 gang wall plate cut into the wall near the AC. Is there a better way to do it. Something more discrete would be great.

Placing these wall plates behind the stereo etc is fine as they cant be seen, but I feel that theya re not acceptable in plain view.

Again as stated in another thread, somewhere that can lend you the gear to learn the codes would be great as well

Wonder if I could get it to fit inside the AC somewhere?

Mick

 

When I installed my LG split AC a few years ago, I knew that the IR plate was coming. I too didn't want it near the indoor unit on the wall so I ran a Cat-5 cable from my patch panel through to the inside of the AC. I then spliced a Xantech blink IR mouse to the Cat-5, stuck it on the IR sensor on the front of the AC and closed the cover. Looks just like a plain ol' AC except for the nice red blink as it receives an IR command from C-Bus. Make sure you keep all the LV cables away from any danger. Mine is in some small flexible conduit to maintain seperation from the AC supply.
Regards,
Michael.

 

CAT 5 is really good stuff for extending the IR emitter distance due to it's low capacitance. Just remember that any extension to the IR Emitter leads needs to be taken into consideration when calculating your total length of C-Bus wire on the C-Bus network and the total needs to be less than 1000m.

 

Sorry Newman
The cat 5 used to extend the IR emmitter distance (as I understand it), so why make the statement that it needs to be considered with the c-bus network? They are not the same

Mick

 

I make the statement because the IR Emitter is referenced to C-Bus and therefore is electrically connected to the Bus. As such it needs to be considered when calculating maximum C-Bus network cable lengths.

 

Ah, the referenced to C-Bus thing brings up something else I forgot to mention...
One channel of my IR plate is for my AirCon, the other I use for control of equipment in my home theatre. This is a Xantech based system with two IR receivers, connecting block and emitters.
I made an opto-isolated interface for my IR output plate that isolates the C-Bus system from my IR system. This keeps everything happy.
I also have made a diode isolated IR "combiner" that allows me to "insert" the IR signals from the IR output plate and my StarServe system into my main IR system. I can then use a remote in any room in my house to control my home theatre via StarServe PLUS I can use C-Bus to control equipment too.
Fun fun fun!
Regards,
Michael.

 

Hi Guys
I have been using Homevision HA Controller as my ir sending and receiving device...It is connected to my FirM unit which effectively creates an 8 zone ir transmit + receive controller.......Have also added a 2 zone opto isolated board which allows either Homevision OR Cbus to send ir to any of the 8 zones ;-).....
I have a Cbus 2 channel ir transmitter...channel 1 sends ir directly to Homevision and the ir code indicates which zone cbus wishes to send to...Channel 2 is connected to the opto isolated board and the ir from this channel is the command ie vol up vol dwn etc....So in the ctouch i create scenes with 2 ir commands one is the channel number and the other is the actuuls command.....Works quite well.........Also currently testing my cat5 based ir repeater which i recently designed...........
Frank