Can you increase the range of the remote?

SirXcalibur

SirXcalibur

Admin in Shining Armour
Just wondering if there is a way to increase the range of the remote. Is it dependant upon the remote, or the reciever?
Is there something I can add to the reciever to increase the range, like extra wire to the antenna or stick it on a more powerfull USB port?
What affects it the most? What have some of you found?

The reason I bring this up is that I replaces my 300W PS with a 450W one and now the range seems to me increased. I don't know if it was the PS or just becase I moved the reciever around during the upgrade.
 
probably cause you moved the receiver... put it as far as you can from the computer and other electric things. Or use an USB extension cable :)
 
Re: Can you increase the range of the remote?

SirXcalibur said:
...and now the range seems to me increased.
Click to expand...

I presume this is supposed to read DEcreased?. I read somewhere that the range is suposed to be about 30 metres (assuming you dont have lead lined walls etc). What distance do you need it to operate over? A huge range won't be that much use anyway since you still have to be able to see the screen/tv it's outputting to (unless it's audio control only you want). I have wireless headphones which I can use to listen to my MP3 files through file player out in the garden. The remote wonder controls it out there with a standard setup.

If changing the PSU has (de?)creased the range of the remote, my guess is it will be because of electrical noise/interferance (assuming nothing else has changed). This can be minimised by moving the receiver further away from the PC case as Cronozzz wrote.

tai, I would have thought the length of the RF antenna would be tuned to the frequency it operates at, how much difference did changing the wire length make for you and what length did you increase the wire to?

PS Interesting watercooled set-up you have there SirXcalibur, I'm considering watercooling my machine (also to reduce the noise). Pity more (case) manufacturers don't offer professional ready made solutions - eg Power Supply Manufacturers who provide water cooled units. Even Koolance has to resort to fan equipped PSUs at the moment.
 
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Re: Re: Can you increase the range of the remote?

Re: Re: Can you increase the range of the remote?

Flying Kiwi said:


I presume this is supposed to read DEcreased?. I read somewhere that the range is suposed to be about 30 metres (assuming you dont have lead lined walls etc). What distance do you need it to operate over? A huge range won't be that much use anyway since you still have to be able to see the screen/tv it's outputting to (unless it's audio control only you want). I have wireless headphones which I can use to listen to my MP3 files through file player out in the garden. The remote wonder controls it out there with a standard setup.

If changing the PSU has (de?)creased the range of the remote, my guess is it will be because of electrical noise/interferance (assuming nothing else has changed). This can be minimised by moving the receiver further away from the PC case as Cronozzz wrote.

tai, I would have thought the length of the RF antenna would be tuned to the frequency it operates at, how much difference did changing the wire length make for you and what length did you increase the wire to?

PS Interesting watercooled set-up you have there SirXcalibur, I'm considering watercooling my machine (also to reduce the noise). Pity more (case) manufacturers don't offer professional ready made solutions - eg Power Supply Manufacturers who provide water cooled units. Even Koolance has to resort to fan equipped PSUs at the moment.
Click to expand...

Heh, i do mean INcreased acually. And it still seems to be that way frankly. The reason for the question was that I was hoping that someone would maybe have an Idea as to why that might happen. I can now control my pc (for mp3's) from my kitchen fine now and I couldn't before.

Does the lenght of the wire have anything to do with the frequency? I wouldn't think it would...

As for the watercooling, I am suprised at how easy it is to do one you buy the right stuff. The loudest part of my case is definatly the hard drivers and then the power suppliy.
 
Oh I see - sorry my mistake

Oh I see - sorry my mistake

Sorry I misinterpreted your post. As to an explanation, all I can think of is that perhaps the USB port supplying the receiver wasn't getting its full "quota" of 5 volts under the old PSU. Now you have a nice new one, its suplying the correct voltage so the device can operate as it was designed to do. I used to have an "old" Enermax 431 Watt PSU which had trouble keeping up the 5 volt line (was down to 4.3 in the end before it finally died) - several bits on my system stopped working properly while in this state. As soon as I replaced my PSU with a 460 watt Enhance (which has a very accurate 5 volt line), the problems went away.

I know that with RF antennas its not just a case of provide as long a wire as you can and that will give the best result. It IS possible to decrease effectiveness by making aerial wires too long - how suceptable the Remote Wonder receiver is to this I don't know. It is tied in somehow with the frequency/wavelength it operates on. Have a look at this page related to tuning CB aerials for the gist - http://www.roity.com/rc/swr.html
 
Re: Oh I see - sorry my mistake

Re: Oh I see - sorry my mistake

Flying Kiwi said:
Sorry I misinterpreted your post. As to an explanation, all I can think of is that perhaps the USB port supplying the receiver wasn't getting its full "quota" of 5 volts under the old PSU. Now you have a nice new one, its suplying the correct voltage so the device can operate as it was designed to do. I used to have an "old" Enermax 431 Watt PSU which had trouble keeping up the 5 volt line (was down to 4.3 in the end before it finally died) - several bits on my system stopped working properly while in this state. As soon as I replaced my PSU with a 460 watt Enhance (which has a very accurate 5 volt line), the problems went away.

I know that with RF antennas its not just a case of provide as long a wire as you can and that will give the best result. It IS possible to decrease effectiveness by making aerial wires too long - how suceptable the Remote Wonder receiver is to this I don't know. It is tied in somehow with the frequency/wavelength it operates on. Have a look at this page related to tuning CB aerials for the gist - http://www.roity.com/rc/swr.html
Click to expand...

AH very interesting.

LOL at the PSU thing though. I just upgraded to the 431W enermax PSU :) I believe they just had issues with certain motherboards. Works great on mine :)
 
Enermax PSU

Enermax PSU

SirXcalibur said:
...LOL at the PSU thing though. I just upgraded to the 431W enermax PSU :) I believe they just had issues with certain motherboards. Works great on mine :)
Click to expand...

Initially the Enermax worked fine on my board too (Tyan Tiger MP S2460 - Dual Athlon) - albeit noisily and NOT whisper quiet. Over about 6 months it gave up. What happened was as the 5 volt rail voltage decreased, the current drawn increased to help compensate. In the end the 5 volt area of the 20 pin connector burnt out (actually fused itself to the motherboard plastic connector). Fortunately, the PSU distributor was on the ball and supplied a full refund for the PSU and a new motherboard (of a newer revision too). I've read of similar experiences from others with the same hardware. This connector burning problem is not uncommon with this same PSU and motherboard combo. As for your hardware, if you keep an eye on the red PSU wires (at the end of the 20 pin ATX plug) you'll be able to tell any problem if the plug starts to go brown, also if you monitor the 5 Volt line using any motherboard monitoring software you have/BIOS hardware check page. With a single CPU/lower electrical load, I imagine it's less likely to occur - my fingers are crossed for you!:)
 
Just thought I would note that the range in my house has DEFINATLY increased. The only think I can think is that power supply is that much better or whatever, as the reciever is in the same place.
I can now using it anywhere in the hosue, were before it had problems in some of the far corners. Plus it wouldn't work from my basement at all and now it works perfectly. Very strange.
The reciever is sitting on the floor beside my tower in a corner room on the second floor.

If anyone else upgrades their power supply, could you note of there is any difference? Thanks.
 
Small update here.

its turns out that the power supply didn't make the range and better. I moved it around again this weekend and the range was shot again. So what I did what stretch it out as far as I could long the floor and then the range dramatically increased again. So range seems to change dramtically depending on the postion on the reciever.
So if you really want to test the abiitlies of it, move the reciever to various places around your computer, you might be pleasantly surprised....
 
I dont personally own one of these, but if its an rf (radio frequency, or led) you can go into your local RadioShack, and get a remote extender. They are about $30 and one of the 2 triangles has a reciever in it and the other one has a booster and a antenna for getting back to the original device. They effectivley allow you to go around corners and can extend range of to 200'.

Any other questions email me @ [email protected]

Eric
 
When i first installed my remote wonder i thought it worked fine. But i got it at the same time as my radeon 9700 pro so once i checked it worked i left it at that. Now when i try to use it i have to hold the remote right next to it. The batteries can't be dead yet, altho they did look cheap next up on the list is to get some brand name batteries.

Also i tried stripping the end of the wire and connecting an old AM radio antenna set of wires that goes up and wraps around a circlular plastic thing made to mount on the wall. That didn't help much, now i have to hold the remote right next to the extended antenna.

Anyone else experiencing this extremly short range?
 
Buy USB cabel 1.8m. This is solved my problems now it works everywhere in the house not only in my room, and move it awey from the case.
 
I checked staples and best buy and the shortest they sell by me is 6ft cables or 10ft cables. Well, they are belkin and cost 19.99 and 24.99 respectivly. I talked to someone who worked at best buy and best buy buys them for a little over 3 dollars. What a markup. I don't enjoy getting ripped off so i'm gonna look around for a cheap hub (which i need anyway) or a cheaper extension cable.
 
Well you shouldn't nessesaraly have to move it that far from your system. Just try moving it round some without the extentsion cable and see how that works. Maybe try and move it farther away from your case or monitor. Even jsut moving it a few inches in a certain direction can make a world of difference.
 
I tell you guys i have a preaty big tower (ok it is a midi tower) but it is preaty big and widouth usb extension cabel, my remote wont work good even from a 5ft long range from the computer case :( , and width cabel remote works fine all around my house :D , only dont work out of the house.

Sorry for my band English.
 
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