Locating the ISY for IR reception

[paulbates]

Probably an obvious answer, but wanted to see what others have done. I'm getting an ISY with IR. It looks like the IR receiver is built in to the chasis of the ISY, which implies placing the ISY in my TV cabinent to user that functionality. I have a harmony remote that will come in very handy.

 

The flipside is I want my PLM in the outlet i have at the panel right next to the insteon phase coupler.  The trip between is across a crawl space. Its a reasonable length for a serial Cat 5 cable.

 

Wondered what others have done to deal with this? It doesn't look like that the IR receiver can be extended via plugin IR on a cable?

 

Thanks!

Paul

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Paul,

 

You do need an IR extender:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=ir+repeater+extender&tag=googhydr-20&index=electronics&hvadid=6837388688&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14710233536475030778&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3weudqve3f_b 

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[oberkc]

I would think one of the insteon IRLincs could be useful here, as well, depending on your intentions.

[paulbates]

Hi, thanks Michel and Oberkc.

 

I wanted to use the IR capability out of the box if possible. I'm now leaning towards mounting the ISY in the tv case and plugging the PLM into the outlet nearst there which is maybe 20 wire feet from the panel. I'll measure Insteon performance and see what suffers since I have a good communications baseline through my existing system. If I run into comm issues, i'll fish a cat 5 wire through the crawl space to the panel for the PLM.

 

Regards.

 

Paul

[Xathros]

20' should be OK between the ISY and the PLM.  I wouldn't try to push it much farther than that.

 

-Xathros

[paulbates]

Thanks for that clarification Xathros.

 

The 20' wire feet is powerline around the walls; how far my PLM would be from the panel on powerline if I put the PLM at the TV. The Cat 5 trip down through the crawlspace to the panel is more straight-line than that, so even less distance, to your point.

 

Placing the PLM near my AV equipment doesn't sound ideal. I'll try it, add a few of my "problem child" Insteon devices, remote on my Insteon powerline and test their communications to see what happens.

 

But I'm leaning more towards putting the PLM in the outlet on my panel that I've always used for powerline interfaces. And suck up a trip through the crawlspace

 

Paul

[Xathros]

It is also my preference to have the PLM located at the panel along with my phase bridging access points.

 

-Xathros