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X-10 Ninja Pan & Tilt Mod
Haven't gotten around to taking component photos of the
project yet, but it concerns the range of the Ninja system with the
hand-held remote, which in my case was only about 20 feet or so out in the
back yard with no objects blocking the path, and depending on which way I held the remote. I am planning on
mounting the Ninja base unit on my garage roof which is about 60 to 70
foot away from the rooms in my house where I want to be able to control
the camera. I did a lot of Googling only to find a couple sites that
suggested adding an antenna to the receiver, and one that suggested adding
an RF amplifier on the receiver end, along with an antenna. I found
nothing about altering the transmitter unit in any way.
I had a pretty good feeling that I would be wasting my
time with these schemes, as I needed to at least triple the range I was
getting, and adding antennas might help a bit, but I doubted whether they would
get me an extra 20 foot even, especially since I will be going through
several thick indoor walls, and my exterior walls are the old stucco type
with lots of metal in them.
So, here's what I did to get the range.
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Ordered a pair of Linx modules "TXLC-315-LR" and
"RXLC-315-LR" from Reynolds Electronics at
http://www.rentron.com
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Swapped out the receiver board in the Ninja base unit
with the new receiver module, and added an antenna jack.
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Removed all the transmitter components from the
hand-held remote to make room for the new transmitter module.
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Installed the new transmitter module along with it's
antenna into the remote, and added the LED modification circuit.
Adding the new receiver module was a snap, all I did was unsolder 3
wires from the old module and removed it, then soldered those same 3
wires onto the new module, and glued the thing back in the same location
as the old one. And where the antenna is supposed to be soldered on the
new module, I instead soldered a 9 inch length of very thin audio coax to that point
and ground, and ran that
cable down the middle and to the outside of the unit along with the
existing power cable, so it would not be revolving with the unit.
The transmitter took a little longer, but not a whole lot. I found a
schematic of the hand-held remote on the internet, drawn up by a
hobbyist who just likes to help out people like me I guess. I say thanks
to him, as things would have been a lot tougher without the diagram of
the transmitter circuit. I used the schematic to identify the components
that would no longer be needed, then set about removing them. I wound up
with a nice blank spot right at the top of the board, a perfect location
for the new module and antenna.
After getting everything wired up and put back together, I gave it a
try.............Wow, lots of range now !! Not sure how much, but a test from
across the
street in front of the house to the back fence worked fine. I haven't
measured that distance as of this writing, but I'm pretty sure it's well
over 150 feet or more, and that is with the house between the remote
and the base unit. Plenty of distance for my needs, so I did no further
testing on just how far away I could actually control the Ninja camera
base.
And with the new transmitter, there was no way to enable the transmit LED to
function, and although it is not needed except maybe to help guess when
the batteries are going dead, I created a simple one transistor circuit
to restore the function.
Later on I will add more photos to this page. I just
wanted to get some info set down before I forgot any of this stuff. My
memory ain't too so pretty good anymore since I ventured into my 60's.
To email me, Click
Here............... JR
LED Modification Circuit (
Only needed if you still want the LED to light when you squish a button
on the remote )
| Receiver Module, Front & Back |
Transmitter Module, Front & Back |
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Transmitter Component
Removal
Added Transmitter
Components
Note: The voltage at the vcc pin of the transmitter
must not exceed 3.6 volts with fresh batteries !
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