I currently have a tsu9400 communicating with my CAV6.6 via a rfx9600 using rs232. This setup works very well, but I am trying to figure out the best way to include control of the CAV unit via Homeseer. The goal is to remove the rfx9600 from the loop and to connect the CAV directly to my Homeseer pc via rs232. With this setup, I have no problem using Barry's pronto plugin (Thanks again) for Homeseer to control the CAV, but I have not been able to find a way to get "status" info returned to the Pronto. Is this possible, or would using a Global Cache unit to control the CAV be a better path to follow? The most reliable system is my ultimate goal.

Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge with a beginner,

Phillip

What you want can be done, but in my world Homeseer does nothing with media, that is handled by the PC that controls the theater ergo the Homeseer plugin just does what is classically called home automation stuff. There is nothing that says you can't do what you want, it would just take time and talent. Does the russound gear respond to TCPIP or is it RS232 only?

Bidirectional RS232 generally is as complicated at the message or application layer as TCPIP in that most components have elaborate rules for status retrieval and condition reporting. I think the physical layers are roughly equivalent if you are using TCPIP sockets. You open the channel send and receive messages and close the channel. If the Russound unit had TCPIP I might be interested in doing the interface, but not with RS232. Its my little bit to get manufacturers away from RS232 and over to TCPIP.

To my knowledge the CAV6.6 only has rs232.