Taking The Plunge - Need input

[ldragon99]

I have been running HS forever it seems. (started on HS1) I upgraded to HS2 years ago and afte rthe sytem was built it ran quietly in a closet on my xp machine and I never really had to do much to keep it woking.

I was recently asked to do a paid gig and install a system for a client and now realize Nikki (My HS system) could do so much more.

I am currently running a trial of HS# and finally dug my 5 Global Cache 100's that I bought on ebay for 10 bucks a peice. and forgot about.

They have havde the firmware updated tot he latest about 6 months ago and now I am wondering...

What can I do with them? I mean besides IR control of my AV and such. What about the relays, and serial ports???

What else are people doing? Tell me about all of the cool things that you are controlling with these, besides IR. I get that part.

[Automated]

Taking The Plunge - Need input

The serial ports are great for controlling AV equipment that has serial ports. As the speed of the serial ports on the GC100's are limited to 56k, they are ideal for this as a lot of other non-AV gear will often communicate at 115k.

I use a few GC100's with my AV gear, and try to use the serial interface of a device before resorting to IR. You will often also get the benefit of two way communication and device status updates by doing this. I have used the serial port and TCP plugin that is available for free on the board here for several generic interfaces.

I have a few Samsung TVs, an AVR, an OPPO Blue-ray player, and a motorized television mount all controlled by Homeseer/HStouch and interfaced through a few GC100's serial ports.

I also cashed in on that eBay auction a year or two back, and also had the firmware updated by Global Cache, so go for it. I can confirm that Ultra's plugin controls the IR portion great, and the serial ports you can address directly over TCP ports.