a new prodigy guy! lets get it right! :)

Haha... fair enough.

Kind of like driving a Scion, and claiming to be a Toyota guy I guess...

:)

The reason i love Crestron is because i have experienced a handful of other control products and Crestron is the one that delivers 99% of the time. The TPMC-10 and the AAS are in the other 1%. Both operated after enough elbow grease but it was a big time waster for me.

Crestrons tech support and return policy is fair but those are 2 things i don't want to ever have to use. I dont care that they turn around service quick or offer advanced replacement or have great techs answering the phone. My/our business model is based on things working the first time around. Crestron works the first time around 99% of the time for me.

That means that 99% of the time i am making profit from Crestron hardware and on top of that i am actually making profit on the entire job because i am not wasting time troubleshooting everything to discover that its a control system part.

Why are the last 3 paragraphs important? Because i could care less whos logo is on the hardware as long as it works. Prodigy is a Crestron product and based on experience with Crestron it will be rock solid. That means that you can now focus on selling your clients home theaters and lighting control and distributed audio etc etc and just KNOW that you can deliver because you have a solid product on the back end. You will not spend/waste another wasted minute trying to trick your control system into doing what it should.

So how do you avoid becoming "that guy"? Just like with anything we sell/use.... learn the product and its capabilities. Read every manual that comes with every product. Get the product in ahead of time and connect it up and test it so you know what to expect when you set foot in the clients home. Spec the product based on its limits and install it properly and you will have a great experience with it. When your clients get what you told them they would you will have avoided becoming "that guy".

Keith, i was just busting your balls, from your reply i think you got that. your obviously a guy who puts a lot of passion in his work. no matter what brand you try, stand behind it 100%. learn it from every aspect, learn what it will and wont do. dont sell it beyond its capabilities. youll do fine! also what 39 said is so true.

Hey, a little good-natured ball busting never hurt anyone.

Thanks edizzle and Stamp. I'm looking forward to posting about my experience with Prodigy.

Has anyone else noticed that the Prodigy IR database is pretty sparse? I know the composer has the ability to learn IR, but isn't that only through their proprietary IR learner (CNXLIR)?

Is there a way to obtain IR codes or an IR library without getting this CNXLIR and painstakingly learning all the IR codes?

Thinking about it more, even if I were to learn the codes from the equipment I have, it wouldn't necessarily take care of the discrete codes which don't usually have a hard button on the factory remote.

I'm very used to dealing with URC, who has one of the most extensive IR databases around, have I been spoiled by URC?

Welcome to Crestron! You will need an IR learner because you will use it on every project. The database never has current models in it. You can get ccf into the database with windeal. You can get some discretes from manufacturers, some from the files area here, some from RTI's or URC's database.

I use an old Pronto TS-1000 to learn commands. I add the discretes and then use the pronto to test the commands. Then i copy the CCF data into windeal. I have a crestron IR learner but i prefer the pronto because i can take it with me to a room and test commands locally. With the crestron ir learner you can test commands but it has to be done with an emitter which means you have to drag your laptop etc from room to room.

I normally just learn all the commands from a new remote then add the discretes. I dont even bother trying to get similar model files to work because its faster just to create my own IR files.

How hard is it to work with windeal if you've never worked with it before? Is this the software that once use for Prodigy the Prodigy composer cannot be used again?

Windeal is an IR capture program. Thats all it is. You can connect the CNXLIR to your PC and capture commands that way or you can add hex via copy paste. Once you create an IR file you save it to the user database folder and when you open simpl, systembuilder or prodigy composer you will be able to find/add it.

SystemBuilder is a Crestron program that gives you a drag and drop front end for multiple Crestron programs. And on top of bringing them all into a single user interface it also generates code automatically. So instead of just dragging in 2 switchers and a touchpanel that you have to program.. it automates the programming for you. This works out great as long as you follow the lines that have been drawn.

Prodigy Composer is even easier to use because its like multiple choice. You check all the boxes as you go thru it and it autogenerates the whole system. And if you decide you want to toy with the graphics or add buttons/commands to specific pages you can do that by opening it with SystemBuilder. The catch is that once you open it with SystemBuilder you cant go back to Prodigy Composer. That wont be an issue if you complete the programming with Composer and only open it in Prodigy once your DONE and ready to tweak.

As an example lets say you have a nice User Interface from NtDesigns or one of the other companies. You could go into SystemBuilder and swap graphics and have a Prodigy system that looks like a million bucks.

im excited for prodigy
but i am holding off until they get a bit more mature.

i want the X3 remote,
i want the audio distribution system,
and i want to be able to have the processors communicate
with eachother to make one large system in a home . .

i also want to see soemone make a module for dsc alarm systems . .
(crestron told me that the dsc arent so chatty)

you are making me real nervous with all this IR learning on every job talk.
thats not really what im looking forward too . .

Personally, I find the RTI database to be more impressive when it comes to discrete commands.

With the Crestron Software, can you paste in the HEX code? If so, you could just use the IR manager from RTI, copy & paste the HEX codes and you're set!

Yep, it takes HEX IR commands.

CJ

2nd that.  I don't need 300 different Denon codesets when they're all 98% identical...

Yes, you can select a command line like PLAY then click the CCF button and paste hex right into it. And yes.. you can copy paste codes right from ID. I typically get my discretes from there or from the pronto file section here. Many of the ON/OFF codes work forever.

motech, If your not looking forward to learning commands then you need to stay away from Crestron. I haven't been on a single job that didn't require me to learn a few products.

A plus to creating your own IR files is that if you stick to the same naming convention for your commands you can easily use 1 file for multiple projects. If you have NEXT TRACK always be NEXT TRACK (instead of skip or advance etc) then you can swap out a DVD player for a blu-ray player and have all the commands line up.

If you look at IR files created by other people you will see multiple names for the same button like "LAST" "JUMP" "PREV" "PREVIOUS CHANNEL". They all do the same thing but since they are named different you cant just swap devices. You have to go in an assign all the new commands to each button.

At the risk of being made fun of, I'm going to ask if anyone has any suggestions on where I could find some good tutorials on getting some codes from RTI or Pronto and building my own library for Crestron.

I'll admit that I've not had to work this hard in the past for remote programming. I usually just stick with my URC remotes and maybe learn a few codes through the remote now and then... this whole HEX, CCF, etc talk is going a bit over my head.

I've got some reading to do, and I'm perfectly willing to do it, just don't know where to start. I'll take any advice I can get.