OK, I thought of this great little routine to set up so that when my husband comes in from the garage door, the motion sensor would turn on the upstairs receiver and then play the 2nd track of a cd with a song he likes. I can't figure out if this can't be done or I'm just missing something. Here's what I have set up:
I dl'd the trial version of Homeseer to see if I could figure it out. I have a Pronto controlling the downstairs home theatre stuff and I bought a ir543 and various x10 modules. I've plugged the upstairs receiver into an appliance module. The CD player is plugged into the receiver so if the receiver goes on and is set to CD as input, it will go on, but the problem is getting the second track of the first disk to play. I dl'd a ccf for the layout of the cd player and then learned in the buttons, at least I think so. The CD player can be programmed for particular songs and i put that into the pronto routine under properties, but the cd player isn't changing, and I can't figure out how to get it to change in homeseer.
All help will be appreciated. Right now I can get it to sense motion when the garage door opens and turn on the receiver so he could hear music from the tuner, but i'd love to be able to get that particular song to play.
Thanks.
Carol R

What are you using to flash the commands to the cd player?

I am fairly new to this stuff too, but I see you using the 543 to make the pronto trigger an x10 signal...but what are you using to transmit the IR from the pronto to the cd changer....

Unless the home seer will do this...but what it looks like is you have no IR repeater on the front of the cd player to make these changes...

Forgive me if I am wrong here, I'm interested in the results.

This is true. You would need a device that would issue the IR commmands. The cheapest route would be to build your own [Link: x10ideas.com]. Also, X-10 just came out with a device that will do it [Link: x10.com].

Hope this helps,
Chris
www.x10ideas.com

Wait... the X-10.com link is wrong. I know that they make a cheap learning device though but I can't seem to find it. I will keep checking...

Chris

Here's where you would get a lot of help from a controller per say....

Look at the Ocelot controller by applied digital inc.
www.appdig.com. It's pretty inexpensive compared to other controllers, and, it's modular. you could use this to create a sequence that would do what you want with no other parts other than the ocelot, the x10 signal, and a pair of ir-uhf pyramids...

ok, reading all your messages i figured out a solution I think. I could hit the pronto aimed at ir543 to turn on the upstairs receiver and cd, but it was telling the cd to do anything that wasn't getting thru. then I remembered i had a pair of those little pyramid things for xtending the remote signal so I brought it down and sat it right next to the ir543. When I hit the little "Jack's Home" button on the pronto the lites on both flashed and it worked!

Ok, but now it works with the pronto, but how do I get it to work with homeseer and execute that little routine, or is that not possible?
Carol R

I have a very similar question to Carol I suppose. I'm interested in being able to remotely start my VCR recording (as an example) via the internet. Looks like Homeseer is well capable of the internet/remotely-scheduling-actions part, but I'm unsure of what devices are available to enable me to emit learned IR codes to the VCR. An example sequence of events would be something like this:

1. I command Homeseer over the internet
2. Homeseer sends X10 code to an IR Emitter
3. IR Emitter talks to VCR

My problem is that I don't know if the IR emitter is available (apart from ocelot).

Any thoughts/suggestions are eagerly welcomed

Regards

Floydster

Any of the following will work...

SmartLinc PCIRLinc
ConceptUK PCRemote
CLIC
Ocelot
JDS IRXpander
PCIR from ziplabel.com

most of these attach to your serial port and will emit IR codes by triggered events you've set up in homeseer....Homeseer is just the computer program that gives you control, you need to add one of the above to be able to have your computer emit IR codes. Then if you don't have existing wireing to your area, use the pyramids...

Also, this info can be found in the Homeseer user guide you can download for free at www.homeseer.com

If you press the links button on the left side, it will bring you to a page where you can find out more about the 6 items I listed above.

Matt,
thanks for your help. An admin at work is binding the Homeseer manual for me at the moment :). I know that the ocelot is available in Australia, but have not been able to find any of the others that you kindly listed. My original plan was to use an IR543 in my home theater, homeseer and a CM11A for my home control. Whilst this may have worked ok for me it didn't allow remote control of my HT (ie via phone/internet if I wanted to kick off my VCR from work for example).

I still have one or two questions for the forum.

1. If I used an ocelot linked to my Homeseer PC in one room, and pyramids to transfer IR data from the Ocelot into the Home Theater, would I be able to do away with the CM11A and IR543 all together? (I don't have any special wiring between the rooms, but could run any required cables under the floor if need be).

2. How would I control the Ocelot from the Home Theater if the Ocelot is in another room - would I need another set of pyramids in reverse. If this was the case - do the pyramids all work on the same frequency?

Example setup:
- Home Theater Pyramid-IN-A (at front of HT) receives Pronto IR and Sends it to Computer room Pyramid-Out-A (which sends to Ocelot-IR-in)

- Computer room Pyramid-In-B receives IR from Ocelot-IR-Out and sends to Pyramid-Out-B in HT (at back of HT) which sends to Home Theater equipment.

Is it possible that the IR sent from the pronto to Pyramid-In-A (actually destined for HT equipment nearby) will be repeated by Pyramid-Out-B at the back of the HT - and cause some sort of loop between them (probably causing my VCR to have an IR stroke due to the volume of the one command it then starts receiving during the loop)?

3. Is the ocelot essentially the next level up from a CM11A that has all CM11A functionality PLUS more?

I guess what I'm trying to do is to avoid buying a solution that I'll later realise can't do everything I have planned.

Sorry for this humungous post. As you can see I'm as green as they come right now, but thanks to this forum - I'm learning.

Regards

Floydster

Well, from what I've seen from controller is that the Ocelot is probably the best one of it's kind...because of a few reasons, in my opinion.

1) It's modular - if you only need to trigger X-10 from IR or visa versa all you need is the ocelot with a power supply.

2) If you want to add hardwire control to it...which is really more realiable than uhf or x-10. It costs aout 70 bucks for 8 i/o and 8 relay....you can even add zoned IR if need be.

3) pretty neat little programming program that comes with it...although HomeSeer would hook right up to the ocelot...

your questions...

1) yes, you will

2) Well, not quite sure why you would need to put the ocelot in a different room than the home theater.(maybe you thought it was a computer program, it's actually a free running system) A cool thing to do with the ocelot is to use some digital bob sensors and automate the power control of your home theater for a FRACTION of the cost of an Crestron or Panja pad with MORE functionality. Just use the Ocelot to trigger x-10 lights etc, and leave the pronto remote to do the IR emitting.

3) you can get the manual for the ocelot at www.appdig.com. The ocelot can store up to 1024 IR commands with the first 80 being triggers. What this means is you can program a code into the pronto and into the ocelot that isn't even a component of your system to trigger an x-10, IR, or relay closure...really whatever you want. Taking care of the 'LOOP' problem.

when you have the Ocelot in your theater room...you will just need to buy an IR receiver to plug into the Ocelot to receive the IR commands.

Hope this can help and let me know how it goes!!

One more thing...if I recall correctly, there is something that the ocelot cannot do with the homeseer. I know it's in the homeseer manual, be sure that this isn't important to you before you buy.

Matt,
I can't thank you enough for the time you've spent on my queries.

I was thinking that the ocelot had to be in my computer room because it would need a constant connection to homeseer (assuming that I'm too wimpy to code the ocelot as a true standalone system, and use homeseer on a dedicated homeseer PC 24x7).

The ideal situation is to have the ocelot in the Home Theater for sure. I suppose I could have the ocelot in the HT, and connect the Homeseer PC to the mains via a CM11A in the computer room. This way the computer could control the ocelot via X10 and not via a serial cable. Otherwise I would need a 30 foot serial cable to connect the ocelot back to the computer (so the computer has a way of generating X10 onto my house wiring via the ocelot).

Am I still making sense, or should I go and have a nap?

btw - I'll check the homeseer manual for the ocelot limitation. Thanks for the tip.

Regards

Floydster

You can actually use an adnet modem, and 'dial-in' to your ocelot without a direct serial connection to your computer.

Or, you can use the rs232 - rs485 bridge that adi makes also...that allows you to use any 232 program and adapt it to the two wire 485 protocol. This would require a run of 2 conductors to the ocelot from the computer.