When You Don't Want Your Components In Full View
Written: Nov 22 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wife friendly - allows ugly equipment to be hid
Cons: Takes some time and effort to install
The Bottom Line: Need to hide your equipment? This is the device for you!
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| rbinck's Full Review: Xantech 17294 |
Introduction
This Xantech product is a great way to allow you to hide your components and still control them via infrared (IR) remote controls. One point to mention is the current part number for this product is the 291-KIT HIDDEN LINK (TM) KIT.
What you get
In the kit you get the following:
(1) 291-10 Hidden Link
(1) 789-44 Connecting Block
(1) 781RG Power Supply
(4) 283M Mouse Emitters
Hookup
The 291-10 Hidden Link is placed somewhere in your entertainment center where it can be located within line of sight of your remote control. This is the system's eye and will receive the IR signals your remote sends out. The 291-10 is wired to the connection block that is located out of sight inside the equipment cabinet. The connecting block is really just a fancy terminal block that has connections for the various components that need to be interconnected.
The connection block may be mounted to the interior of the cabinet with wood screws or double sided tape. I have found that the use of double sided tape works best to attach the block to a shelf or other surface where gravity is not trying to remove the connecting block. If you want to attach the block to the side or other vertical surface, I would recommend using screws.
Once the Hidden Link sensor is located and wired to the connecting block, the next thing to do is to locate the mouse emitters. There are two ways to place the mouse emitters.
One way is to stick them, using the double sided tape furnished on them, to the interior of the cabinet in front of the equipment to be controlled. The rounded side of the emitter will act as an IR blaster and flood the cabinet with IR and generally the equipment IR sensors will pick up the IR. There are 4 mouse emitters furnished and often times only one or two are required.
The other way to place the mouse emitters is to stick the flat side directly over the equipment's sensor. To do this you need to locate the sensor by either consulting the user's manual for the equipment or using the equipment remote very close to the front of the unit moving the remote about the front until the sensor is found.
Last is the power supply, which will just plug into a 120vac socket and into the connecting block via a mini phono plug. Be careful to use the jack marked power.
The instruction manual complete with drawings is located here: http://www.xantech.com/products/i_folder/i_291kit.pdf
Operation
Once installed the kit will repeat the IR signals sent out by your remote control(s) and repeat them inside the cabinet. This allows all of your equipment to be placed inside your cabinet without the need of glass doors or having to leave your cabinet doors open during operation.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rbinck
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Member: Richard Binckley
Location: Houston, Texas
Reviews written: 125
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
Retired A/V professional, likes Hawaii and Classic Cars
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