How Far Can You Stretch Ir...

JohnMichnr

Has anybody had success pushing an IR signal out 400'?

I had somebody ask me and while I've gotten away with 150' or so, I've never tried 400' Any thoughts? Any special cable. I figure I need to oversize the wire gauge, but I don't want to be pulling welding cable.

If anybody has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

(It is a budgetary issue, so I can't add additional equipment)

Thanks.

DHawthorne

I would say 100-200' is the practical limit; too much signal loss. I have had runs of less than 100' fail if there was a lot of "noisy" wiring of other sorts in the premise (Lutron being the chief among them).

You can always try it. Sometimes, "we tried but it won't work, now you need to spend more money to make it happen" goes over better with a customer than hitting them straight up for more money. And maybe you will get lucky - though I seriously suspect if it works at all it will be spotty and unreliable.

mediapilotinc

IR transmission length is greatly affected by IR signal itself (frequency, modulation pattern, etc.), the type of cable (sorry - no good suggestions for which type would be better) and the sensitivity of the device (Some devices have extremely sensitive IR receivers and will not work with the supplied remote too close to the receiver, while others need a full dose to operate reliably).

The only way to find out if it is going to work is trial and error.

If you run into a problem there are a few options: 1) Run AXlink or ICS-Net to the device's location and install a controller there (AXB-TC would be the cheapest Axcess, NXC-IRS4 would be lowest cost Netlinx, I beleive), or 2) use IR extenders like those made by Xantech (Hiddenlink) and others.

Matt Bradley

I had one job where the IR was run probably 600'. The customer pulled the cable themselves, using CAT5 cable! It actually worked amazingly enough, though I didn't think it would. I still would never recommend a run that long.

VLCNCRZR

DHawthorne wrote:

there was a lot of "noisy" wiring of other sorts in the premise

In instances like this, we usually try it on a spool of wire in our shop as a test.
We have also had things work fine on the shop, but fail within a customer's facility
for whatever unknown infrastructure reason.

I would say that 400" is way too risky, and I would find a way to add hardware. I would hope
your client would want/expect you to integrate a solid system for him.

GSLogic

If you use 18/2 shielded you can go up to 1000'