I'm looking for some feed back on Crestron handhelds. What is the best solution for 2 way. The MLX2 is spotty at best. I need a range of approx. 150 feet.

Thanks,
G

150 ft is really far for 2-way and very poor design. You could try a 3x with multiple WAPS but you had better be very good at setting up roaming on a wireless network. I'm not even sure the 6x has this range but you could try 2 gateways with the single panel linked to both gateways.

Bottom line is you're pushing at the limits of 2 way reliably.

Alan

The MLZ2 is GARBAGE. I have two of them in my bedroom and I can spit to the gateway and they still have issues on occasion.

 The WiFi remotes will roam on a real wireless mesh system and be as reliable as they are in a one room solution. We have had great success with the Motorola Symbol products. You can also use the REAL Cisco mesh system however neither of these solutions are inexpensive. I have to agree with Alan that you are asking for problems.

We have our first 3X's at a large home. The first one showed up before the holidays of 09. The programmer set it up so we could control all of the zones in the house. The original network was a hodge podge of POE access points and a $50 consumer linksys router. I was able to get in the elevator on the 3rd floor and making it out to the pool house and stay connected to the access point.

Now there is a Ruckus zone controller & access points installed and it works very well. I have an issue with one remote but i think it may be defective. Occasionally when you pick it up from the base station its not connected. Power cycling it is the only way to get it to connect.

The biggest shock is that i can do the same with a TPMC-8X. I can walk from one end of the 3rd floor to the other, take the elevator to the first floor and head outside to the pool and never lose connection. Its insane.

Look closer and I bet you will find the remote is still connected to the network but the 3x has lost connection to the processor. You tell this by having a green signal strength but red crestron swirl logo on the feedback menu page.

Call Hagai at AN and search the yahoo group. Its a current issue for sure on some 3x remotes.

Good luck.

bump

Just as I thought. After my experience with the MLX2's, I'm hesitant to even use 2 way remotes. The problem I face is that this is a customer who had a simple single source system wired with no wiring to control points. Just speaker wire back to the head end. It would be impossible to get control point wiring anywhere in the house without alot of reno work. Using just an Xpanel for control and feedback will work but it's not a very good design solution either.

Thanks, Alan

Agreed. Had 2 MLX 2's in 2 rooms 10 feet apart and we had to have 2 gateways to make it work

How do you get the remote to connect again? I just got an email last night from a customer with that exact problem.
Thanks

I have only dealt with the MLX-2 as part of a Prodigy system where it's worked perfectly fine doing the tasks assigned. Consequently, MLX2 ( or PLX2 ) has had its own gateway. However, STX panels required 1:1 STRX or TPSRFGWX gateways. Isn't this the expected design engineering for 2-way remote?

I haven't tried to go further than 15 ft with a PLX2. But why would you? The idea is to control multiple rooms with a single remote? I don't like doing this with Crestron's scrolling GUI on fixed panels. On a RF UI, I like this even less.

It sounds to me as if you are pushing things. 150 ft connectivity, roaming, single UI controlling multiple zones. It can be done and most of us have done it. But it's still not an advantageous design. Maintaining awareness of which zone is being controlled is going to be a real issue on a 3x or 4x. I've done it with an 8x and with STX-1700CXP.

I hope you are getting paid for labor for attempting to save equipment dollars but I suspect you're not. I know I wasn't paid for the additional programming when I had to do this.

Alan

Holding the top hard power button in until the remote reboots seems to work. Thanks for the heads up ej.

Alan,
Yes, given the fact that we can't get wire to a TP location in any of the rooms, my initial thoughts were to control all rooms with one remote. It's not necessarily a cost issue. It's that the customer wants no drywall cuts to do this. The concern I have, as you have, is the distance that this remote will be travelling from the processor at any given time. MLX2's are out for obvious reasons. The 6X may have been an option ( the spec reads that the range is 100 to 200 feet indoors). But once again, I'm not buying that unless someone else can chime in and say that they have had success at this range with the 6X........

100-200' indoors is the diameter. So you're talking 50-100 Radius indoors FROM THE ANTENNA best case scenario.

Right