Hardware

IR (Infrared) and RF Dongle Hardware

If you do not yet own a supported IR (infrared) hardware device then the device you choose will depend to some extent on your intended usage. The following table compares features and capabilities of the supported IR devices:

Supported IR Dongle	Iguana Works IR	Actisys IR200L	My.TV MyBlaster	Home-Electro Tira2*	USB-UIRT **	ADS IR Blaster ***	Firefly RF Remote ***
Feature
Signal Training	Not Yet10	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Listen Triggers9	Not Yet10	Yes	Not supported	Maybe1	Yes	Not supported	Yes
Transmit Range	Fair	Fair	Good	Good	Good	Good	N/A (receive only)
Universal Codes Support	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	N/A
Cross-device training2	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
IR Band Detection3	Not Yet10	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Usable IR Band Range	20-100kHz	32-250kHz	32-100kHz	32-80kHz	20-60kHz6	20-60kHz	N/A (RF device)
Transmit Response Time4	Medium	Fast	Slow	Medium	Medium	Medium	N/A
IR Emitter output Jack7	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Zone Support8	Not Yet10	No	No	No	Yes, 3 zones	No	Yes (unit codes)
Size (inches)	.4h .8w 1.8d	.6h 1.4w 2.4d	3.5h 2w 3.4d	.7h 1.4w 2d	.7h 2.4w 1.5d	1h 3.5w 4.3d	1.1h 2.2w 3d
Power supply	from PC	from PC	Power pack	from PC	from PC	from PC	from PC
Interface	USB	Serial5	Serial or USB	USB	USB	USB	USB

Notes:
* Support for Tira2.1 requires version 3.74 or later
** Support for USB-UIRT requires version 3.74 or later
*** Support for ADS IR Blaster and Firefly remote requires version 3.91 or later
1. Tira2 will listen in "timing mode", which has very limited range intended for training (1-2cm). If you have an IR distribution system installed then sticking a mouse emitter to the Tira2.1 should work for listen triggers, though this has not been tested. The original Tira2 is not sensitive enough in timing mode for this to work.
2. Cross-device training means that you can train a signal with one type of device (e.g., IR200L) and then transmit it with another type of device (e.g., Tira2). Likewise for listen triggers. MyBlaster is shown as "limited" because some of the signals it returns during training are in a proprietary format that cannot be decoded into the IRC2 "standard" internal format.
3. IR Band Detection indicates whether the device is capable of determining the sub-carrier frequency of a signal during training. The IR200L cannot do this and must be pre-set to a specific band. However, starting in IRC2 v3.62 you can set the band to any value in the supported range.
4. Transmit response time is an indication of how fast the device can transmit a signal and be ready to transmit again. All the devices are fast enough for most home applications.
5. Newer versions of IRCommand2 have greatly improved the reliability of the IR200L when it is used with a USB-serial adapter (see tech note).
6. USB-UIRT can train signals and transmit in the range indicated, but support for listen triggers is limited to 34-40kHz (which works for the majority of remotes) and it can be ordered with support for 56kHz trigger signals.
7. A jack for plugging in an external emitter can be very useful if there's more than one device to control or equipment is not all located together. This output can also be used to drive an infrared distribution system. Check this application note for more information.
8. A dongle supporting zones allows IR commands to be directed to one of several outputs, which can then be directed to different locations (zones). Starting in v3.85, a device can be configured to send all IR commands to a specific zone. The default is to send IR commands to ALL zones.
9. Listen Triggers are an IRCommand2 feature that "listens" for specific IR (or X10) commands from your remote controls that will "trigger" corresponding buttons in IRCommand2 to execute their programmed actions.
10. The hardware supports the indicated feature, but it is not yet supported in the software. The IguanaWorks IR dongle is transmit-only at this time. A different dongle or manual signal entry would have to be used to train signals.

Where to buy the hardware

• The following are some sources for the supported IR hardware:

Snapstream -- offers the IR200L (called "IR Blaster"), USB-UIRT, and the Firefly remote

My,TV -- offers IR200L and MyBlaster

USB-UIRT -- manufacturer of the USB-UIRT dongle

Actisys -- manufacturer of the IR200L

AyaGroup -- offers the ADS IR Blaster

IguanaWorks -- makes and sells the IguanaWorks IR Transceiver

Important Note: There are a number of Actisys devices, such as the IR210 and IR220, that appear to be identical to the IR200L, but  those devices are strictly for Irda applications and will NOT work with IRcommand2. Make sure you're purchasing an IR200L.

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X10 Dongle Hardware

• The following are X10 dongles supported by IRCommand2:

  X10 CM11A / HD11A -- dongle requires a serial port interface to PC, but most serial-USB adapters can be used. The HD11A is an RCA clone of the CM11A

  X10 CM15A -- dongle uses a USB interface to PC; requires use of special driver (see downloads) -- now supporting RF commands in v3.99

  X10 CM19A -- dongle uses a USB interface to PC; requires use of special driver (see downloads) -- NEW in v3.99

  Insteon 2414U -- dongle uses a USB interface to PC and is supported with the default Windows HID driver; support is currently for only the X10 emulation mode of this dongle

   

• The following are some sources for supported X10 dongle hardware:

X10.com -- CM11A and CM15A

Smarthome.com -- Insteon 2414U

X10 devices can also be found on eBay