I have an old sq blaster puck with single IR cable output. While I’d have to double check, I have at least 2 Y splitters in order to be able to run emitters to projector, screen, home theater receiver, DVD,etc.
The system is integrated with Vera and has been pretty solid for a number of years. With SQ remote’s existence in question, doe anyone have any idea how many times you can split the IR cable with a Y adaptor to run more ir blaster emitters?
I’d like to be able to control TV and 4 other devices in adjoining room in addition to home theater. The would mean 2 more Y adapters and one triple and one dual emitter cable plus an extender cable. If I’m going to spend $50-80, I’d like to know if my hair brained idea has a shot at working and milking more out of my old sqremote puck.
Thanks. It looks like Hometech.com carrys the Xantech splitters. I also just found the SQ Blaster plus on homeseer.com. Now the conundrum. A new blaster costs $200 (just missed one on eBay for $125–dang).
Getting all the cables and emitters needed for the additional room will run about $130. I really like the Xantech 10 channel splitter. That could actually help me clean up all of my Y splitters. The other advantage is that I’m only working with one blaster that is already set up. All I’d need to do is add devices. Plus, it looks like the Xantech splitter also amplifies. This will be nice for the two 40 ft runs I have to do.
I think I’ve talked myself into it and now is the time to do it since I’ll be running other wires in the wall behind floor trim.
Ordering Xantech XA 79144 10 output connecting block, 50 ft of 3.5mm cable and two-three emitter cables to control 5 devices in the new room.
Will update in a week or so with hopefully happy news that everything is up and working as desired all running from one SQ Blaster.
Thanks Frunple for pointing to the Xantech stuff, it looks like it is just the ticket.
For long runs you’re better off using cat5 with 3.5mm keystone jacks on each end.
Of course running the phono wire will work, just a bit flimsy and not as ‘protected’ as the cat5. Plus the keystones make for a very neat install.
I have the cable now and am in the process of running a bunch of different wires that were formally along the wall behind floor trim (so nice not having wires all over the place). Waiting for the splitter to be delivered, then I’ll be able to test the system. If all goes well, I’ll be able to control both my home theater and my TV set up (two different rooms).
The next step after that will be figuring out the blaster plug in so that I can have Vera push controls out through my blaster. It is relatively easy having the blaster call a Vera scene. It looks a bit more complicated going the other way.
Update: I finally have some time to tinker with the system. I ended up with a xantech 4 output repeater, but do not have it operational yet. I have the cable run to the other room and can send IR signals fine when cable is plugged into sq blaster. However, when I power up the xantech (green light), plug the blaster into the IR receiver in port using headphone cable, and then plug the IR cable into one of the output ports, I get nothing.
Any ideas? Could it be the headphone cable? It has the exact same size connector.
Looking at the Xantech manual, it an IR eye plugs into the receiver in, so I don’t see any technical reason why the blaster could not be repeated through the xantech device.
