Should Xantech IR Receiver LED Stay Lit?

I installed the Xantech 291-Kit yesterday. The receiver (291-00) sits beneath the screen and the equipment room is in the back, so i had to cut the connector off the receiver and run 24ga wire to the equipment room (about 30 feet).

I forgot to check the LED status before I cut the wire, so I don't know if the LED should be constantly lit as it is now. The LED flashes brighter when I send it a command, and everything works. I double-checked the wiring and everything's right.

I really don't want to fry the system so I appreciate any input you guys might have.

Avquest

Good point Les! Thanks for the reply.

The screen is passive. I'm running a front projection system but the LED stays on even if its the only thing on in the room. So, probably the answer is that the LED should only be on if it's receiving a signal.

I'm going to look for other potential sources of stray IR and try to minimize/eliminate them.

Avquest

My thought too that I had the wires crossed. So, I did the following tests just now...

1. Spliced the wires on the receiver back to the original plug (no 30' wire) and tried it out. Result - No LED lit.

2. Reran the 30' wire (with new wiring) without using original plug. Result - LED lit.

3. Spliced the receiver and the plug together with the 30' length of wire between. Plugged in the plug. Result - LED lit.

So, apparently the setup doesn't like the distance I have to run. Instructions state that 24ga wire can be run 200' without problems. I guess I'm stuck with the 7 foot distance the receiver came with.

Thanks for your help Les. If you or anyone else has any more ideas I'd love to hear it.

Avquest

Alright! ******* SOLUTION *********

My previous setup included a cheap Radio Shack IR-RF-IR receiver/base. The reason I changed to Xantech was that the IR blaster in the equipment room wouldn't blast more than two inches. Pretty tough to control 3-4 components.

So, I started to put it together in my mind...

1. The Radio Shack wouldn't go more than two inches but it was IR-RF-IR so no wires.
2. The Xantech would have the LED on if I extended it more than 7 feet.

My solution was to splice the Xantech back together and use the original plug. Then I placed the blaster from the Radio Shack POS about one inch away from the Xantech receiver.

I can now send all the IR signals I want from the other room and all the components do what they're supposed to do. The best part is that I didn't have to tear up the baseboard to route the wires for the Xantech.

Avquest!