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    Making the step to IR

    I am interested in taking the next step and begnning to integrate IR devices such as my home theatre projector, receive etc into my setup, when I first got my ocelot I had this in mind but didnt do anything with it. my set up is that I have my ocelot in the basement with the rest of my homeseer equipment. I am wanting to know what equipment I will need to buy. will i need a SECU-16ir? I have a SECU-16 currently i use for relays and inputs, if I dontwant the mess of a SECU-16ir in my living room are powermids what i need? with those can I use the built in IR capability of my Ocelot in the basement? im mainly interesting in emitting IR as opposed to receiving it. my "Remote" is a Wi-Fi enabled pocket PC running a custom ASP page i wrote for it.. so far it just does lights and stuff but im figuring it wont be too hard to set it up to execute scripts to do IR.. im worried about the hardware first. I need a shopping list...
    -christopher
    PerfecTemp - the Most advanced HVAC system I've ever Built - and its in my House

    #2
    The easiest thing to do would be to add an IR emitter in your Home Theater room, and run the wires back to the Ocelot. You could use a pyramid if necessary.
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      #3
      whats your best suggestion for an emitter I can plug into the ocelot? how far can the distance be? Ive 2 extra pairs of wire in the cable used for my RCS WDU, it would be about 35-40 cable feet of cat-5 if i used that. im assuming the emitter is a small device I could put on a wall and it wont look too bad?
      -christopher
      PerfecTemp - the Most advanced HVAC system I've ever Built - and its in my House

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        #4
        35-40 feet is no problem at all. I use these:
        http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=276%2D143

        and place them close to my equipment. (Running 3 now with no issues)
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          #5
          Hi Christopher,

          No, you only need a SECU-16IR if you want a "zoned" system where you can pick where you want to send IR. Maybe you have 2 TVs that are the same brand in two different rooms. This would allow you to only send the IR to one TV without affecting the other.

          As far as IR distribution goes, many find the IR output of the Ocelot to be a little weak. Some feed it into a Xantech distribution system, others I know have used the Powermids with some success as well. Perhaps, since you alreay have them, you should go ahead and try them first.

          People seem to have varying luck with the Ocelot learning and also matching IR consistently. For some it seems to work pretty well, for others, like me, it's worked pretty well for some pieces of equipment, and not at all for others. For example, I have some Hunter-Douglas blinds that it never really could conquer. I even sent a blind to Applied Digital. They were helpful, but in the end, it never worked consistently enough to use it. (This is a whole 'nother story...). Ditto on a Grundfos constant pressure pump I have.

          I finally ended up purchasing an IRTrans device and a couple of bus units and have been extremely pleased with them. Recognition is dang near instantaneous as well as sending. They use a blaster array which never misses, and even have full IR routing capabilities. Each little box has the blaster array and a receiver, plus a connection for a couple of relays, and external emitters if necessary.

          I just put one by the A/V equipment I'm trying to control and it's done! No more external emitters stuck to the IR windows or anything.

          There is a HS plug-in available as well. If you're interested, the web site is:

          http://www.irtrans.com/

          Btw, I am not affiliated with the IRTrans people in any way, just a grateful fan.

          P.S., If you want a SECU-16IR, I've got two of them and I'd let them go real cheap!

          Comment


            #6
            the irtrans looks like a neat setup.. possibly overkill for my use. maybe I need to make sure the ocelot can learn the commands for all of my equipment.. esp the surround sound speaker adjusting of my home theatre receiver.. seems im always needing to turn the center channel up or down.. and with the supplied remote it is a pain. for music I like it down, for movies I like it louder.

            so you are saying wit hthe ocelot i haveto have all those little sticky things on my equipment? i just want a little "eye" or device on the wall or an end table that will look nice.. my equipment is not stuffed away in a close somewhere like some people. I have my home theatre stuff underneath my projector screen. although with my new fileserver online at 600 Gigs i wont be needing the DVD player much anymore... so maybe I could put the equipment away and have the sticky things on.. still dont like that idea though.

            what all would i need to buy for irtrans? and can I get it in the states? im not big on ordering and having it imported.. esp since i dont know how much it even costs in US $
            -christopher
            PerfecTemp - the Most advanced HVAC system I've ever Built - and its in my House

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              #7
              Christopher,

              Yeah, you'll need the sticky emitters, or some sort of blaster. I've seen and built a few of my own blasters during this journey, but none that have worked as well as the IRTrans. With it, I don't even have it aimed at the equipment. In fact, it sits on top of it and winds up being aimed at the user, so the receiver can catch what your remote is doing. That's nice because you don't have to find some sublte place in the room that's in front of the gear.

              However, in defense of the sticky emitters, the Xantech ones are so small I never noticed them once they were on that much.

              So you noticed the IRTrans stuff comes from Germany? I was also a bit hesitant, and I'm not sure why they don't give prices in dollars, but I think I used a Euro/Dollar converter on the web, and it's not cheap gear.

              If you want USB, you'd need the IRT-USB-Mod at about $114
              If you want serial, you'd need the
              IRT-SER-Mod at about $114.

              If you want to extend it to multiple zones, you'd need a
              Bus-IR-Mod at about $98.00 for each zone.

              My recommendation to you would be to see how you get along with the Ocelot for now, as you already own it, and some people do have good luck with it with respect to IR. If you find things less than satisfactory, know that this option exists, and don't spend a lot of time and money on "enhancement" products.

              Personally, I screwed around with many various methods of doing whole house IR over the past 4 years, each try fixed some things, but also left something to be desired. I've literally got boxes of Xantech gear, including emitters, receivers, distribution blocks, and various blasters. I've scrapped it all in favor of the IRTrans solution. It always easily learns my remotes and Pronto codes, is lightning fast, scales to take care of the whole house, includes routing, etc.

              I just want to save you the trouble of going down the same path I did. Pretty soon the price doesn't look so bad!

              Last edited by YoYo; November 30, 2004, 01:09 PM.

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                #8
                maybe I just need to buy your box of "scrapped" equipment. after all im only looking at doing 1 room IR.. my "remote" is wi-fi enabled pocket PC, actually ive got several of those pocket PC type devices with wi-fi .. im not using the infrared on those devices, I wrote ASP web pages for them once i figured out how to do it. however I will definately keep the irtrans in mind, .. still wish there was a way to do without stickies..

                whats a blaster? is that what a powermid is?
                -christopher
                PerfecTemp - the Most advanced HVAC system I've ever Built - and its in my House

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                  #9
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                    #10
                    The "IR Blaster" generally refers to an array of high current IR LEDs, usually 2 to 4, that are capable of getting the IR signal to cover an entire room without the use of the stick-on emitters. Generally speaking, you can't just plug them into the standard emitter jack as they require much more current to operate to their full potential and this is where the "IR amp" comes in.

                    Try the IR Powermids you have as Rupp suggests. You may be able to avoid the stick-on emitters and you won't have to run a wire either.

                    However, if you want some of my scrapped IR equipment let me know, I'd make you a very good deal on it!
                    HTH,

                    Comment


                      #11
                      went ahead and ordered a set of powerds and a IR emitter formy Ocelot, they arent very expensive And I needed to place an order to martin for more switchlinc 2 ways anyway.. we'll see how it goes.. heck I can make any of this stuff work now...
                      -christopher
                      PerfecTemp - the Most advanced HVAC system I've ever Built - and its in my House

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