Posted: October 26 2002 at 13:13 | IP Logged

Terry,

The multi-CIR is just the standard CIR circuit with the transmitter portion duplicated for however many zones are required.  The standard circuit has the transmitter on pin 2 and the receiver on pin 3.  For a multi-CIR just duplicate the transmitter circuit and use pins 4 through 9 for additional zones.

Dave.

Posted: October 27 2002 at 15:03 | IP Logged

Terry,

That would be great.  I was actually planning on experimenting with the design myself to try and make it more reliable but never found the time.  Good luck with the circuit and be sure to post your results.

Dave.

Posted: October 31 2002 at 10:09 | IP Logged

Terry,

I have seen the MidonDesign website and feel that it is an excellent resource for additional CIR information.

Concerning the Multi-CIR...yes, the software will drive pins 4 thru 9 in addition to the standard pin 2.  Zone 1 would be pin 2, zone 2 would be pin 4, etc.  However the software is not Ziplabels and is a custom assembly language DLL which Ive written to help overcome some of the inherent problems of the CIR device.  The original software is very dependent upon the speed of the computer and any captured signals will generally not be able to be used on a different speed computer.  The custom DLL also compresses the raw CIR data so that it can be stored within the database without taking an excessive amount of space.

When I was originally testing the CIR, I was able to get distances in excess of 15 feet using the original design.  I got my most reliable results though when I had the IR LED about 3 inches away from a PowerMid and then had the signal retransmitted.  With mulitple zones though, you could basically use the stick on emitters placed directly over each individual piece of equipments IR sensor.

Good luck with your assembly on Friday.  Some people have great results with the CIR and some people can't get it to work at all.  When I had my CIR device, it was extremely tricky learning the codes.  The correct distance between IR phototransistor and the remote had to be nearly exact.  Once the codes were learned however, the transmitter portion was a piece of cake.

I don't know of anywhere that might have a library of previously learned codes.  It would probably be difficult because of the PC speed specific nature of the codes.  Also, the PowerHome software would only support the codes for which it learned since the custom DLL is different from Ziplabels.  You could try http://www.remotecentral.com and might be able to come up with codes of some sort which could be translated.  Concerning the Panasonic VCR, I would suggest buying one of the cheap pre-programmed remotes such as one-for-all and finding the code that controls your VCR.  Then use that remote to learn the codes for the CIR.

Dave.

Posted: August 08 2003 at 20:35 | IP Logged

Has anyone figured out if the PCIR is beter then the original CIR?

And what is the typical setup?  they interface plugged directly into the parallel port and twisted pair (or cat 3/5/6) from there to the location needed?

Thanks

Posted: August 10 2003 at 21:59 | IP Logged

Todd,

What is the link of the PCIR?  If it is the essentially the same circuitry as the CIR, it should work.  However, a quick search on google turned up several devices going by the name PCIR and at least a couple probably would not be directly supported by PowerHome.

Dave.

Posted: August 12 2003 at 20:22 | IP Logged

Dave

It can be found here http://www.midondesign.com/CIR-II/CIR-II.html.

Posted: August 13 2003 at 11:43 | IP Logged

Todd,

I get it now .  Both circuits should work with PowerHome.  Apparently only the transmit sections are slightly different and I am not enough of an electronics person to tell which would be the superior design.

In my testing however, I have found that the CIR's range seems to be limited to about 10 feet.  What I have used to extend that range and solve the problem you have concerning locating the output LED close to the equipment is to combine the CIR (or the RedRat2, etc) with an IR extender like X10.com sells.  This consists of two pyramid shaped units, one a receiver, one a transmitter, which converts the IR to RF and back again.  This allows me to go over a hundred feet as well as send the signal to multiple rooms by using multiple transmitters.

Dave.