User's Manual

RRW1B • 15
USING THE RRW1
There really is no secret to using the RRW1 system. You primarily want to
position the RRW1B in the stereo cabinet or on top of your components so the
antenna can stick up. The RRW1A should be placed so that the IR sensor can
see your remote control’s IR signal and is in the location you want your remote
to work from. Put the receive on top of a book shelf or even between books to
hide it. I am sure you will think of something clever.
The real trick is how to get the IR LED on the RRW1B mounted so that all of
your components can its relayed signal. The optimum way would be to use a
coat hanger to suspend the LED out in front of the components and have it
shine back at them. Unfortunately this is quite ugly and could poke out too far
to be able to close the doors of a cabinet. If it will be inside of a cabinet, you
can conveniently bounce the light off of some small pieces of aluminum foil
mounted to the back sides of the doors and reflect the IR down to the compo-
nents. With a little work, you could even permanently mount the IR LED on the
inside of one of the doors. This configuration might take a bit of wire however
in order to discreetly snake the hook-up from the RRW1B receiver down
through the cabinet and along the door. So far the longest piece of wire we’ve
tried was about 750 feet… no problem!! However the output of the IR LED is
intense enough that it will probably activate all of your components just by re-
flecting around inside of the cabinet.
If you do not have doors to reflect the RRW1B’s emitted IR signal from, try
angling the light from above somewhere. This usually works well also. In my
case my components are currently sitting on a coffee table behind the couch
until we save enough pennies to buy a cabinet. In this case I can actually
mount the IR LED in a crack in the couch to aim it at the components. This
worked out quite well for me since the IR LED is now all but hidden from view.
Hopefully it doesn’t get yanked out the next time I’m scrambling through the
cushions for change to tip the pizza delivery guy!
To determine the maximum range of the entire system, add up all of the indi-
vidual component ranges that make up the entire system. Your remote’s sig-
nal can be picked up by the IR receiver (RRW1A) up to 36 feet away. It can
then broadcast that signal with the included antenna more than 100 feet. Now
run the IR LED emitter wire from the RRX1B as long as you like up to 300 feet
or so (I’ve used up to 750 feet while testing!). The output of the IR LED will
then span another 20 feet to give you over 450 feet more of extended range!
Change the stock whip antennas to one of our 433 MHz directional antennas
(RMZ# 4004 or LPY41) and you may be able to reach 1/4 mile or more! I
can’t imagine a scenario where you would want to do that, but it can be done.
Notice how the ground area on the bottom side of the circuit board near the
antenna position has been left open for your to attach the ground shield of the
coax should you choose this optional configuration.