RE: Slightly OT - IR Transfer

[Peter Bull]

At 13:17 22/10/2002 +0100, you wrote:
>Keith Doxey [mailto:<a
href="/group/kat5-users/post?postID=ZKccWfp2Oh7KzvXWiuWm2AokcfrIdNItl0aa0qxF2qs3bvCMDSjFef0bpvw0a1j9qBIlJeIOf1CsE-k">kat5users@d...</a>]
wrote:
> > KAT5 IR is not available yet.
> >
> > Ian Bird has an IR repeater at www.mollyology.co.uk
> > which is based on a design by Nigel Orr
> >
<<a href="http://www.geocities.com/nigelorr/ir_extend.html";>http://www.geocities.com/nigelorr/ir_extend.html</a>><a
href="http://www.geocities.com/nigelorr/ir_extend.html";>http://www.geocities.com/nigel\
orr/ir_extend.html</a>
>
>I'd just like to say that Nigel Orr's circuit is fantastic. Ian's
Circuit
>boards are great for build Nigels circuit for production use, my
version was
>done on a breadboard.
>
>I bought all the parts from Maplins, except the TSOPs that our good
friend
>Keith supplied. Mounted the two boards in small plastic black boxes,
and
>fitted Cat5 sockets (made from a Maplins Cat5 to Cat5 adapter). The
boxes
>include an IR Led for use in a blasting configuration (Keith is
probably
>gringing), but also have a little breakout socket for use with
mini-emiters.

Just to clarify, this is a Cat5-based extender which takes IR in at one end
of a
Cat 5 cable and sticks it out at the other end, right? But there only seems
to
be one end so how does it work. What are the various bits in the pciture of
Ian's circuit at

<<a href="http://www.mollyology.co.uk/WebPages/Projects/IR/IRTransceiverTop.jpg";>http://www.mollyology.co.uk/WebPages/Projects/IR/IRTransceiverTop.jpg</a>>

What is the range (of the Cat5 cable)? Is is the standard 100m?

How many mini-emitters can be connected at one time? Ideally I'd like to
have
one each for device (potentially 6). Does anyone make an off the shelf
"daisychain" of emitters. The most I've seen is a double (I
currently use a
double one that came with my TiVo, plugged into the Powermid). My AV
cabinet
has a smoked glass door - could the reflective properties of the door be
the
cause of some unreliability?

>When Keith gets his IR return out things should be easier for those who
>don't like to get the soldering iron out.

I would include myself in the latter group - I've always defined zeroes and
ones
as my lower limit! However, cash is restricted so I might be tempted to get
my
soldering iron out. And SWMBO is a (very) lapsed electronic engineer so I
might
be able to enlist some help.

Thanks for alll the help,

Peter.