Advice on equipment

[norcalhkr]

It takes one port from the Flex and turns it into three:

http://store.homeseer.com/store/Glob...ble-P1481.aspx

Cheers
Al

Thanks for the link, I saw it listed on the i-tach page but didn't see it stand alone.

Looking at the i-tach and IP2IR, besides 1 port vs 3 what are the advantages and disadvantages between the two? They look comparable except for for more ports on the IP2IR.

[LeoS]

I have both harmony hubs (4 units) and global cache (some GC-100-12, ip2ir and wf2ir) and have mixed experience on both...

As far as reliability and performance, I think GC is really great. Their stuff are simple and build tough... probably industrial grade (also looks that way), but the programming portion is also 'simple and unaided' You'd have to learn/program each individual codes one at a time.

The Harmony series look nicer and have many presets in their online database, so you just need to specify what devices you have in each room, and it'll do the rest for you by loading all commands for the devices. The design is also fairly stealthy, as the hub is a pretty powerful transmitter on its own. So if your room is not too large, you can just place it on a table within reasonable line of sight to your devices and be done with it. It's wifi connected, so it just needs a single usb cable to power it up.

The plugin is pretty clunky though. I'd have multiple zombie harmony_hspi.exe (or whatever its called) after running HS3 for weeks with no reboot. Oh yeah, you can't rename different instances of the hub if you have more than one, and whatever else ppl are seem to be having problem with it, i haven't checked with the forum for awhile.

The Harmony supports activities (sorta like macro), where you can engange say, a 'movie' mode, and it'll turn on device A, B, C and set the line-in to X, etc. I know this can be an action that can be triggered by HS3, but I'm not sure if you trigger this action via its physical remote, it'll update the status correctly back in HS3. Anyway, it would be a time saver, when things work.

[LeoS]

Thanks for the link, I saw it listed on the i-tach page but didn't see it stand alone.

Looking at the i-tach and IP2IR, besides 1 port vs 3 what are the advantages and disadvantages between the two? They look comparable except for for more ports on the IP2IR.

Did you mean iTach Flex vs iTach IP2IR?

Flex is their newest device, which is a multi-output device, depending on what cable you connect it with. For IR, they have the following:
- Flex Link 3 Emitter Cable
- Flex Link 2E1B Cable
- Flex Link Tri-port Cable
- Flex Link Emitter Cable
- Flex Link Blaster Cable

They also serial and rs485 converter cables and relay/sensor.

In terms of connectivity, both have their wifi version (itach flex wifi and wf2ir), but the older one only supports older protocol (I think 802.11g).

For IR uses, they're mostly the same... I know the IP2IR (and WF2IR) can support really long IR codes. This matters on some brands of split air conditioner, where they combine multiple commands into one long code (fan speed, target temp, oscillating fins, etc, etc). Haven't tested this on the Flex.

[norcalhkr]

Did you mean iTach Flex vs iTach IP2IR?

Flex is their newest device, which is a multi-output device, depending on what cable you connect it with. For IR, they have the following:
- Flex Link 3 Emitter Cable
- Flex Link 2E1B Cable
- Flex Link Tri-port Cable
- Flex Link Emitter Cable
- Flex Link Blaster Cable

They also serial and rs485 converter cables and relay/sensor.

In terms of connectivity, both have their wifi version (itach flex wifi and wf2ir), but the older one only supports older protocol (I think 802.11g).

For IR uses, they're mostly the same... I know the IP2IR (and WF2IR) can support really long IR codes. This matters on some brands of split air conditioner, where they combine multiple commands into one long code (fan speed, target temp, oscillating fins, etc, etc). Haven't tested this on the Flex.

Thanks for the info, helps decide what might be best for the various locations. I think a mix and match might work well. Now to convince the wife.