Home Theatre Macros

In my home, I use an Ocelot for this. I'm trying to package up something easy to give for Christmas to enhance the "home theater" experience.

Anyone have any suggestions for the cheapest way to combine some lighting (X-10 or insteon, I said cheap) and IR macros?

IE, "Power on DVD player, house lights to half, accent lights to full" and "House lights out, accent lights to 50%, DVD 'play' " etc?

There are a few simple IR->X10 boxes; I can get some scene-aware switches (switchlincs are my favorite) for the lighting; I'd like to do the IR macros in something other than the remote. I've used Prontos and Harmony's and these would be perfect, but expensive. If there's a cheaper macro remote, I'll consider it.

But a simple little device to store and playback X10 and IR macros would be sweet. Any ideas?

Reply to
E. Lee Dickinson
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Reply to
Lewis Gardner

Plus

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so they can keep a list of button sequences on their forearm. ;-)

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Reply to
Dave Houston

The tattoo might be cool but it is not needed.

Using JP-1 with an extender the device buttons on a remote can contain macros. So if I press the DVD button at the top of the remote the following macro runs:

Turn on TV Turn on Receiver Turn on DVD (press Play) Select Component1 input on TV Select DVD input on receiver Send X-10 command for preset light level Set volume control to receiver Set transport controls to DVD

Powerful stuff for a $30 remote. Nothing else like it...

There is a learning curve to the software and you do need a cable and a supported remote.

All the basic functionality for most equipment can be put on a key that is labeled appropriately.

No usable remote can replace all the functions on all the dedicated remotes in a complex system. Some receivers now have over 70 buttons on the remote plus on-screen menus. Most of those buttons are never used. The trick is to figure out what functions you really need and put them on your remote.

I wouldn't trade my OFA Cinema 7 remotes for Prontos due to the lack of tactile feedback on a touchscreen and the extra effort required in programming.

If you work with consumer IR you should get to know JP-1.

Reply to
Lewis Gardner

I'm long familiar with it but not as impressed as you are. I should have written "button definitions" rather than "button sequences" because remembering which macro is assigned to which button is the difficulty, especially for those of us who now have trouble recalling what we had for breakfast.

I suspect most people would find a Pronto (or similar touchscreen) both easier to program and easier to operate although not as easy to pay for. Refurbed Prontos get into a much better price range - I paid about $100 for a refurbed TS-1000 (to which I added X-10 RF) and about $175 for a refurbed TSU-3000 (which has native RF but requires a 418MHz receiver with something like the BX24-AHT or roZetta).

Just yesterday the author of ZBasic modified one of the ZBasic functions to make it much simpler to handle multiple IR and RF code types which, along with a wide-band IR receiver (e.g. TSOP1100), will make these types of things much easier for DIY types with future releases of ZBasic.

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Reply to
Dave Houston

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