Though not IT related, this might help a fellow home theater aficionado. I use a Logitech Harmony 900 for my home theater room. This is Logitech’s latest RF remote which you can see here: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/5874
As pictured above, it comes with an IR receiver and two IR mini blasters which convert the RF signal to IR. These blasters are 6 ft. in length allowing you to stick them practically anywhere to control your AV equipment. My dilemma 6 ft. was not enough to run one of these mini blasters from the IR base receiver through the wall, through the ceiling, and down into the home theater room to control the projector.
Since these IR mini blasters have 2.5 mm jacks that connect them to the base RF receiver, I figured I could try using an extension cable and hopefully not lose any signal in the process. I bought a 12 ft. extension from Amazon for just $5.99. It was worth a shot:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Z0YECU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000Z0YECU&linkCode=as2&tag=amazon0b13-20&linkId=df20d17be3bfd70682b26935c019d6f8
I attached the extension cable to the mini blaster end and then the other end of the extension cable to the base receiver. That effectively gave me an 18 ft. mini blaster. Ran it through the wall and ceiling, then used double sided mirror tape to attach the blaster portion to the ceiling pointed at the projector which is a good 15 ft. to the back of the room. It works flawlessly and it’s barely noticeable attached to the ceiling! I hope this IR extension cable helps anyone that was in the same situation as me. Please do comment if it works for you. 🙂
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Sam
December 21, 2010 at 6:59 AM
i’m in the same boat. i didn’t know the size of the jack, but have used your article and advice. thanks for the post.
Fire Martial Bill
February 7, 2014 at 4:47 PM
Don’t run cables in the walls and ceilings not designed to be used that way. There are cables with fireproof ratings designed to be run in those locations and that are more durable. Cheapest way to do this is use Cat5/6 and solder on some jacks.
John
July 6, 2014 at 5:28 PM
YES! Thanks for the tip. My TV is on one side of the fireplace. All my equipment is on the other side. Now all I need is some fireproof wrap for the wire. Not really, there is a way around.
thanks,
Dan
August 18, 2014 at 2:48 PM
So you were able to use a stereo extension and it worked? I bought this very cable to no avail. Thought stereo vs mono might be an issue. Did yours simply plug and play?
Now I’m considering cutting all the connectors off and practicing my soldering technics…