Hey guys hope someone can help us out here. We have a customer purchased a fireball and wants to be able to control it throught the house. We thought we could accomplish this with a MX-600. NOPE! I have done a search here and everything we have foud says use an MX-700, but still no luck. This is the first device we have not been able to control with an MX. Any other ideas? I have downloaded the MX-700 file from here and it works but I need other functions (and UHF) so there must be something I can do to "capture" the IR codes.

Thanks for any help in advance,
Scott

Fireball uses a IrDA Protocal. I dont think the MX-600 can learn this correctly.

Probobly your best bet is to go to a MX-800 if you need RF.

We're not talking about a $99 MP3 Player here... A Fireball is decent money. $499 ona remote shouldnt be a stretch.

go to www.escient.com and click on support. You will see the list of remotes that play well with the fireball. They include Home Theater Master, RTI, Niles and others.

Second above. Any control offering RS-232 serial control can also be made to work, or use a Xantech IRS232A IR-to-serial interface module with any IR remote you choose.

I find it puzzling that Escient designed a custom installation product with such a balky IR interface, but I guess most applications call for serial comm with a high-end control system (Crestron, AMX, etc.), and IR compatibility was not a priority.

They buy a off the line linux box that includes IR... PC's use IrDa. Since its in the box, Thats what they use. I've used it on a Marantz RC3200/Pronto Neo which is NOT a high end remote by any stretch....

The online code database for the MX700 and MX800 contain working codes for the fireball. As has been posted earlier, the HTM products are unable to directly learn the current E40 and E120 Escient codes but they will learn the new DVDM100 Escient codes as it uses a conventional code structure. Step up to the MX800, use the manufacturer's updated ir database codes, and you will be ok.

Best bet is to use the IRS232a from Xantech though. I do have file which does work well with mx-700, mx-800 and mx-3000s as well.

Not sure why you couldn't get the MX600 to work. I just installed a DVDM-100 in a B&K Ct610 System and I programmed one MX-600 for each floor for the client to point at the CK1.2 keypads and it works great.

I've told Escient as much, as I'm sure many others have. I'm guessing that the large majority of Fireballs installed in the field use IR, not RS-232.

The off-the-shelf computer IR codes explain a lot, but a company with as much experience in custom installation as Escient has should know that most of their units go in with learning remotes of some type or another. An amazing oversight, in my view.