The Slink-e comes with one IR receiver and transmitter and can support the connection of up to 8 receivers and transmitters total. The receiver and transmitter ports are given the names IR RX 0 through IR RX 7 and IR TX 0 through IR TX 7 respectively. The included IR receiver (IR RX 0) is built into the Slink-e main unit. Depending on the model of Slink-e that you own (2.0 .vs. 2.1 or later), the IR transmitter (IR TX 0) connects via either a 1/8" mono phone plug cord or a modular phone plug cord respectively. If your Slink-e uses a modular jack, you also have the ability to connect an additional receiver module (IR RX 7) to the jack.
The IR expansion adapter, receiver and transmitter modules By purchasing an IR expansion adapter, it is possible to connect up to 7 additional IR receiver and transmitter (IR RX 1-7, IR TX 1-7) modules to allow IR functions to operate in other rooms of your house. Both the modules an the expansion adapter use a standard 4-conductor modular jacks for interconnection. You can either purchase pre-made modular data cables of the lengths you need, or you can make your own if you have a modular plug crimping tool. The Slink-e modules have been sucessfully tested with modular cables up to 100 feet in length. It is important to recognize that you must use a data type modular cable, not a phone type. Data cables are wired "straight through" whereas phone cables have their wires crossed over from one end to the other. The easiest way to determine the cable type is to hold the connectors on each end of the cable side-by-side in the same orientation. If the order of the color coding of the wires inside the connector is the same, it is a data cable. If it is reversed, it is a phone cable - do not use it as damage could occur to the Slink-e modules or the main unit.The modules are very simple to connect because you can plug a receiver, a transmitter, or both into the same cable. For example, if you want to set up a receiver and transmitter in a distant room, you only need to run one modular cable from a Slink-e IR expansion port to that room. Once in the room, you can use a duplex or "Y" adapter to branch the cable to the two modules. NOTE: Only one recevier and one transmitter can be connected to each IR port.
The modules can be attached the wall easily using the double-sided adhesive pads provided.
Setting up the IR ports to echo commands into other rooms The Slink-e has a handy feature which allows you to "echo" the commands picked up by the receiver module in one room to the transmitter modules in other locations. The Slink-e is very flexible in terms of which receivers get echoed to which transmitters, and you must set up the Slink-e to specify these settings. Using SLINKSERV.EXE, go to the View->Slink-es->Settings dialog. In this dialog there is a cross-point matrix of blue lines which specify which receiver inputs (on the left) go to which transmitter outputs (on the top). By clicking on any of the line intersections you can turn "on" (a red dot) or "off" (no red dot) the connection between a given receiver and transmitter. Each receiver can go to any / all of the 8 transmitters. For each receiver you must also specify the carrier frequency of the remotes you are using, since the receiver module does not pass this information on to the Slink-e. The choose a default of 40000Hz if you are not sure.Usually you want a given receiver to echo to all other transmitters except the one that is in the room you are in (as this re-transmission will interfere with the signals originating from your remote). If you have connected your rooms up such that each room is on a different port, you can set up the cross-point matrix for this case easily by pushing the "Set All Others" button.
In order to maximize the fidelity of IR signals which are echoed to other rooms, you should also set the Slink-e IR sampling rate to 100us and the baud rate to 38,400 bps in this same dialog.
Your changes to the Slink-e settings will not take effect until you press the "Store to RAM" or "Store to RAM / EEPROM" buttons. When setting up the echo feature, you will want to use the "Store to RAM / EEPROM" option since this will store the settings in the Slink-es non-volatile memory so that the echo settings will not be forgotten if the Slink-e power is lost.