Advise Required

[lwillerton]

Hi All,

I am currently looking in to moving my AV equipment around and would appresiate your views. the plan is to have all AV under the stairs and this will feed up to 7 tv\'s. I dont want to go down the expensive rpute of matrix switchs right now and am considering a 3 tv solution, sitting room, master bed, kitchen.

want I will be moving is:

2 x 1TB Tivo (ir conflicts here I think)
1 x apple TV
2 x xbox 360
1 x Bluray (not purchased yet)
1 x Panasonic DVR (will replace at some point for network version)
1x Wii
1x MacMini Server
1x vista PC

I am thinking of buying a Yamaha rx3020 which has 8 x hdmi inputs and 2 hdmi outputs that work independantly. The sitting room TV will be connected to HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 will be split into 6 other locations (2 initially).

I woud like to be able to run macros that for example turn on the amp, selects a source and turns on the TV in the room I am in and selects the right input.

What is the best way to achieve this?

I have considred ir extenders, harmony remotes and links, Comfort says there is an application note about this on the web page but cant find it.

Also the world of AV is changing because most of the devices link to the network and can be controled via apps, can this be tapped in to as that would get round the ir conflicts.

If I am to expand Comfort to add ir control what is the part list?

Currently I have:

Comfort II Ultra
LEM03 16 inputs
Z-Wave UCM
Doorstation with ringer.

The box is full and I will need to expand inputs and outputs at some point.... Other projects I amconsidering which might affect an expansion route are around heating control (was thinking z-wave or poss lightwave) and blind control. Obviously, I don\'t want to restrict my future options by making purchases the don\'t fit the long term plan...

Does anyone have and thoughts around Comfort and Control 4 / other automation solutions and how they might fit in to improve home automation experiance?

Cheers

Lee

[ident]

Comfort can send IR signals from any of its outputs on the main comntroller, LEMs or Slaves or RIOs. The Ir signals must be learned using the UCM IR learner in Comfigurator
The IR01W, IR03W or IRM01 transmitters can be connected to the outputs to send IR signals to the receiver

If the AV device as an RS232 or Ethernet port then you can use the UCM/Universal to send any command to them
You can use a mixture or IR and UCM/Universal

There is a Harmony application soemwhere, will post it if I can find

[lwillerton]

Hi Ident,

Thanks for the quick response.

If I have an IR dome in the bedroom and an emmitter near the AV equipment under the stairs what happens if I press a button on the remote does the pass through or does it trigger a learned response?

I have 2 bits of kit that are the same therefore if a send a ir signal they will both do the same thing rather than act independently. Can I tie an ir input directly to an output? The if I program a response or fire a remote at the ir receiver they channel that at the ir emitted associated with the device I want to control.

Do you have any instructions on tapping in to network connected devices such as tivos

Cheers

Lee

[ident]

If I have an IR dome in the bedroom and an emitter near the AV equipment under the stairs what happens if I press a button on the remote does the pass through or does it trigger a learned response?

The IR dome accepts commands from the RC01, via IR received Responses


You cannot use the AV remote control to send through the signal to the AV

I have 2 bits of kit that are the same therefore if a send a ir signal they will both do the same thing rather than act independently. Can I tie an ir input directly to an output? The if I program a response or fire a remote at the ir receiver they channel that at the ir emitted associated with the device I want to control.

If the 2 pieces of equipment receive the same  signal then they will both be controled
You can use the IR03W  IR emitter which sticks to the receiver individually to make sure that the signal goes only to one device

Do you have any instructions on tapping in to network connected devices such as tivos

If the Tivo has known  commands that can be sent to it then use a Universal  UCM + ETH02  to send the commands to it

Download the Ucm/Universal manual from https://www.cytech.biz/universal_ucm_manual.html

Also visit the Universal UCM forum at https://www.cytech.biz/universal_ucm_manual.html where there are application notes of interfacing to various products like LightwaveRF which is also via Ethernet

[lwillerton]

brilliant thanks, if you can find how to get a harmony remote to work then I should be able to get something going.

Cheers

Lee

[palmlodge]

I have 2 x IR systems for control of devices.

Firstly, I have a standard Xantech control system, and they do a zoned version (map one room\'s IR receiver to one particular Tivo in your case).

Secondly, I use Comfort\'s IR control alongside to the same devices where I want to automate predictable sequences ie turn the amp on to a particular input when i turn the TV on (which is also handles by Comfort over RS232) and mains control by CBUS. I also use this for Sonos so that when music is detected, Comfort turns on the amp A/C power and selects the correct input.

In summary, I use the OEM remotes that come with the AV equipment, but Comfort supplements that by performing the repetitive commands.

[lwillerton]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, I had considered this configuration.

I have come to the conclusion that I will use comfort to run some scenarios and to turn the TV on when we are away. Just need to understand how I get the ir codes in to comfort.

I have looked at the Xantech ir system and considered the 10 unit amp but could not see how to use it with the 2 Tivo\'s. I can see you can add extra ir receivers and zones, but can\'t see how I would channel the commands to the right device. Do you know how that works?

Cheers

Lee

[ident]

You need to use the UCM/USB or ethernet (or an older UCM05 with Rs232) to learn IR codes from a remote control

The instructions can be found in the UCM Manua;

Note that Comfort is not an IR distribution system, it allows the learned IR signals to be sent to any output to control equipent

[lwillerton]

Hi All,

Happy New Year,

I have had a bit of time to look at this and seems easy enough. However, the UCM manual refers to pointing the remote at U8 & U9 which are not shown on the board layouts in the manual. I will take the lid off in a bit to look at the board physically to see if I can find where they are, but in the mean time can anyone tell me if I need to buy an IR receiver?

Best Regards

Lee

[ident]

When you learn IR codes, you add the learned codes to the IR Library in Comfigurator
You can then send the IR signal from any output using an IR Transmitter, IR01W, or IR03W or IRM01 to control the appliance

hence you need IR Transmitter, not a receiver