How Many IR Emitters on One Port?

TurnipTruck

I have a system with many LCD TVs that have discrete power commands. All I need to do is turn them on and off. I would like to put multiple sets on one IR port. Does anyone have experience with putting multiple emitters on one port?

Thanks.

ericmedley

TurnipTruck wrote: »

I have a system with many LCD TVs that have discrete power commands. All I need to do is turn them on and off. I would like to put multiple sets on one IR port. Does anyone have experience with putting multiple emitters on one port?

Thanks.

We do this all the time. However, one thing that we've seen as of late is that it's pretty important to make sure the LED emmitters are the same kind.

Our use this kind of thing was kind of incremental. I had a designer come to me at first and ask if it was possible. We tried it and it worked. Pretty soon their coming at me wanting 2 then 3 then 4. We found practicle upper limit of 3. However, I've made a rule of no more than 2. The programming involved with getting 3-4 to work is a bit of a headache

TurnipTruck

Programming is not the issue here. I'm asking for a limit from an electrical standpoint.

Joe Hebert

Try this thread:

http://amxforums.com/showthread.php?t=2189

Spire_Jeff

I have had 4 of the same TV on one port wired in series, but the wire run to the TVs was not very far. I went with IR emitters that DO NOT have a flashing red indicator. I also refuse to build custom IR files that allow stacking multiple devices on one port. It may save the client a little money up front, but the extra time to create the file as well as the code needed to break from the standard channels adds up quickly. If they ever change a device, the time required to get back into the mindset and recreate the correct file generally pushes the money spent over the money that would be spent in just specifying the correct number of IR ports.

I understand that occasionally, you just need 1 more IR port, but in such a situation, I would either see if I can move one of the IR devices to be controlled via RS232 or IP. If that's not possible, I would explore the option of using an IP->IR adapter. Fortunately for me, I have not had to resort to the IP adapter and I can maintain standard AMX files thus far.

Jeff