I'm trying to solve a problem in a hall at a church for a projector install that requires a remote for power and input changes on a mounted projector.

What I'd like to do is put in a wall mounted control that is simple and relatively inexpensive. Was looking at something like Xantech's 598 with a 590, but the docs don't show me much with respect to what the buttons can do/look like. ALL I want are Power and Input change, plus I would love the option to somehow "lock" the keypad... (Any way to assign a certain key-press combo to "wake-up" the 590?) I know that seems like a silly request, but there a lot of kids that use this hall and don't want the projector fired up and left on by the wrong people. I can probably find some kind of commercial locking single gang coverplate I guess....

Any thoughts are appreciated.... (also posting on IP)

The 590 is pretty nice. It can use any contact closure. it would be pretty easy to make a single gang plate the way you want it. You could use a momentary key switch for power and that would alow you to remove the key after it was on. Simple pusbuttons could be used for the inputs. I could build one pretty quick.

This message was edited by jayson on 02/14/05 16:01 ET.

Good idea Jayson - You have mail!

you know those clear plastic enclosures they put over thermostats in many commerical buildings?

If you don't find a kaypad with a lockout feature, one of those plastic t-stat covers can also do the job...

Good point Ahl... I am also looking into the Sonance K2. A bit overkill for what I need, but the sucker can do all kinds of things!

You can create password protected areas in a K2...
Plus you can create as many additional pages as you would like as you dedcide to add funcitionality.
A priomary emaple would be if you wanted to retro in a Grafik Eye or Spacer System dimmers, you could control them from the K2, and make a macro that slightly dims the lights as you select a video feed, and kicks them back up when you switch to an input with a static display of the churches name/logo etc. while the video feed is not live and people are entering or leaving.
I think the power of the K2 makes it well worth the difference of a Xantech Smart Pad based system.