CAM6.6 w/o keypads?

[johnoc]

Can any of the CAM or CAV owners confirm if you can use the amp without keypads?? I'd like to just use HST (and the Russound plug-in) through touch sceens vs. installing all the keypads... I've been looking at zoned audio solutions (with volume) for so long I think I'll just bite the bullet on a Russound device...

Thanks!

-John

[nojstevens]

Hi Johnoc,

The CAV6,6 will work without the keypads - I have one and used it like this for a while, not sure about the CAM.

Jon

[Waddsy]

IR control without keypads

I'm also looking at operating a CAV6.6 without the keypads. Do you know if the HS plugin can receive IR commands and interpret these as keypad commands if the keypads aren't actually installed.

Thanks.

[nojstevens]

Yes, this will work provided you have the necessary hardware to receive IR and HS can respond to this. You can then just use the CAV control box without the keypads to switch zones on and off etc - you have full control of all the features.

Jon

[Waddsy]

Thanks for the response.

The bit that I'm still unsure about is how to distinguish which zone has issued the IR command.

I could have a different type of remote per zone issuing different codes for the same function this creating zone specific commands. However, that is not that great a solution and I'm concerned it will be difficult to remember what key does what on each different remote.

Do you have any suggestions for a more elegant solution?

Thanks

[Uncle Michael]

I wanted to do the same thing! Unfortunately, as far as I have been able to determine, Russound equipment does not decode the IR signals by zone. There is no way that I am aware of to determine from which zone the IR signal originated. I think Russound missed an opportunity on that feature.

[nojstevens]

Hi,

Using the GC-100 you can have IR zones (you would need a receiver in each zone wired back to the GC-100) and then Homeseer can tell which zone the IR was received in and then have events based on different zones.

I don't use IR to control my CAV, I use the Insteon network and have a light switch with 8 buttons - i.e. "Play Jon's Music" or 'Radio' etc. - it works really well. I also use the virtual keypads that the Homeseer plugin provides, and HS Touch

Jon

[Waddsy]

The GC-100 looks like it will do the trick (not cheap though for the 6 IR input model).

I would end up with the same kind of mix - multiple IR remotes + multiple touch screen (PPC via WiFi) access to the homeseer virtual keypads.

I'll try to fight my natural reaction to save money and go for the GC solution which looks like the rest of the household will find usable.

Thanks for the advice.

[Waddsy]

On further investigation it appears that the GC-100 jack sockets only support IR out. The only IR in capability is via the serial port.

That go me looking around - the CG IRE converts IR to serial.

If I purchased several of those and connected them to a serial device server e.g Quatech ThinQ 100D that should provide port (zone) specific inputs over TCP/IP

Question is: does the above make sense, is this something Homeseer can handle, are there any exisiting plug-ins for a serial device server?

Apologies if any of the above are dumb questions - I've searched the forum & googled the components - I can get a view of the individual products but nothing about integrating them.