What does this do? How does this remote contorl extender work?

This is pretty much Electronics 101.

The extender itself picks up the IR from your remote, modulates an RF signal with the waveform, which is in turn picked up by a receiver and converted back to IR. I use such a device (the X10 Powermid) to let me operate my SACD player, which sits to the side and behind me.

I've attached a secondary emitter to the receiver, which lets the receiver be positioned where it best picks up the transmitter's RF signal, while the emitter is pointed right at the SACD player. The device shown has a half-dozen emitters, so that each one can be stuck on an individual device (eg, equipment in a rack).

This is a satisfactory and sufficient answer. I hope no one else will spend time responding.

I guess the part that interested the OP is "Simply install our battery transmitter in place of one of the AA or AAA batteries inside your remote control". No IR involved.

James

God has spoken! Or so he thinks. Mike

Your link goes to a 6-eye wired cable assembly accessory, not to the receiver or transmitter that actually do the RF conversion.

At the ends of the cable assembly (those little blobs) are 6 IR "eye" emitters that are applied (double-sided tape) to the front panels of home entertainment devices, over the IR detector windows which pick up the original remote controls's IR signals.

The other devices shown below the cable assembly (separate purchase) is what does the RF conversion, then the signals are sent out along the cable assembly, to up to 6 pieces of entertainment equipment.

From what I can determine, the actual converter comes with only a single "eye" which will only control 1 piece of equipment, and 3-eye or 6-eye cable assemblies (separate purchase) are needed to control more than 1 piece of equipment.

-- Cheers, WB .............

That was a big part of my problem. Now I get it. The transmitter and a special rechargeable battery they sell, together, are the size of a regular battery***, and somehow the transmitter knows what kind of IR the remote is sending out, and sends the same thing in RF.

This is very clever.

Thanks a lot.

And thanks to everyone.

Aha! I was confused.

Aha!

I saw them, but didn't realize their importance until you pointed it out. They always have "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" or "Frequently Bought Together". I figured the computer always picks things to show, whether they are related or not. At least, they've never been essential before.

Well that sounds pretty good.

I had used for years a little Leapfrog device that sticks to the front of the remote, which has a receiver/IR transmitter in separate box in the room with the VCR. The only place I had to put it was on the other side of the room, 12 feet away, but it worked fine.

But it won't work so far with the new DVDR. Of course the DVDR is very touchy. With the remote itself only a foot in front of the DVDR, I have to hold it exactly right or it won't work either. Other tvs and VCRs haven't been so picky.

Thanks a lot.

And thanks to everyone.

Blasphemy!

It's just that I see trivial questions with simple answers that receive an avalanche of unnecessary responses.

In terms of the original question, my answer was, I believe, complete and correct. I did not read the section about the transmitter module replacing a AA or AAA cell, so it's possible my answer was not complete. But it would be nice if the people who post questions would be specific about what they want an answer to.

It also doesn't say anything about this, but I think the main thing would control anything it could "see", like if on a table facing the device or a bunch of devices. But if it is on the same shelf, next to things, I think it would't work at all unless it had the 6- or 3-ended wire that sticks on to the controlled-device IR window.

And yes, WS, my question was vague. There were so many parts that confused me, but I could have listed each.

I am now stuck in the embarrassing position of trying to figure out how the thing works in the first place!

Specifically, how does the battery/transmitter "know" what the IR signal is? I doubt there's enough optical leakage within the average remote control, and I don't see a sensor on the battery/transmitter.

The only obvious (???) way would be to read the fluctuation in current as each pulse is generated. The battery/transmitter would have to have sufficient series resistance (perhaps a small resistor?), and the remote's battery (as a whole) could not have sufficient bypassing to reduce the fluctuation to the point where it could not be reliably.

So... Exactly how does it work?

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So, that sounds like an interesting way to pick up the signal. It must use the current drawn by the LED driver in the remote. Better hope the remote doesn't have too good a power supply capacitor in it.

The transmitter must have some lithium cells in it. Hmmm, What happens if the other battery in the remote goes dead?

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

By magic of course.

It's almost certainly sensing the total current being drawn through the battery system.

I'd guess that a remote which uses one or two pulse-modulated IRLEDs as emitters would have a current pattern which varies from somewhere vaguely around a milliampere or less (when the LED is off) to 50-100 mA (when the LED is actually lit up).

If the sensor/transmitter sticks 1 ohm in series with its battery's "+" lead, and senses the voltage across that resistor, it'd see a voltage which might go from near-zero to around 100 millivolts. That ought to be enough to trigger some sort of sensitive switch, and turn the RF emitter on. The resulting 100-millivolt drop in what the remote control itself "sees" ought not to be enough to cause it to fail to function correctly.

If a larger voltage drop is acceptable (e.g. if the sensor/transmitter has an internal battery voltage significantly greater than that of an alkaline dry-cell) then the sensor might just stick an IR-LED or optocoupler in series with its battery, and use this as a way of evaluating the amount of current being drawn.

That would be my guess, too. IR remote controllers draw huge current peaks, to the point where a quite large electrolytic is often connected across the batteries, to form a low impedance current source as a 'helper' to the batteries on those peaks. If that cap goes open, the result is a very insensitive remote, even with brand new batteries, due to very weak IR emission from the transmitting diode(s).

Arfa

Well, then it wouldn't work even if you were in the same room.

But you're right. Now you'll have two kinds of batteries running on two schedules. Apparently this transmitter has a battery even smaller than an AAA that has to be recharged because they mention rechargers on the same page, or at least on the page that has the dome shaped receiver. So that's one more thing to do. And when the remote stops working, you won't know whether the regular battery is dead or the rechargeable battery needs recharging. That as much as anything is why I hope not to need this. (I guess I could both recharge and replace, and put the partly discharged non-rechargeable battery in my bag of partly used batteries that I keep in the refrigerator. I try to keep as few batteries as possible in that bag. Some would just throw them away, but I don't belive in wasting like that.)

I hope I don't need this or anything new, but I'm planning in case my LeapFrog (not the one they are still selling) doesn't work anymore.

It would seem to be rather foolish to deign a sealed transmitter/battery that requires recharging. Perhaps it takes a AAA cell...

Regardless, I be happy with my Powermid.