I was thinking about picking up an RK-8 for controlloing a whole house system for an office space. Space is not used enough to justify a keypad, but will go that way if I need to.

I heard a lot of good things about the RK8 being used for an application like this - my question is, how do you customize it? The RTi dealer site says you can custom label the buttons with text, but how do you do that? Can anyone describe how they use this with custom text , and more importantly how?

Thank you

I guess its custom text, as in stick on buttons for just about any label you would need.

I use them in audio systems in unimportant rooms that need little control (dining room off kitchen, almost like subzones). If you have more than a couple sources, I would highly recommend the RK2. Although, it's not a fancy color screen, it does allow for separate pages to control different sources.

You can get creative with the RK1's, but will involve having to learn what buttons to press to do certain things. Lots of press and holds and flags to make it work well and someone who hasn't been taught how to use it would have no clue.

Yeah, I also suggest keeping it simple.

I geeked out on my first 8 button and did the following...

6 sources each with its own page and color fro the second zone off of a Denon AVR.

Buttons from L-R and T-B:

Power: press=on+source (flashed green), press-n-hold=off (flashed red).
Source Toggle: scrolled through different color source screens.
Pause
Play
Skip/Channel/Preset-
Skip/Channel/Preset+
Volume-
Volume+

I used press-n-holds in some cases to execute favorite station macros as well as the play and pause buttons (XM, Tuner, Cable, Music)

I was quite proud of my creation and I even created an extensive operation guide.

The customer hated it. They had a T3 in the other room and LOVED it. I tried to sell them on the RK3 to match initially but they were not interested in the additional price.
They are reconsidering... in fact, I need to call on this right now!

This was point I was trying to make. A person who enjoys this stuff might be willing to learn how to use it (a manual will be necessary). I believe it just gets too far away from what makes RTI great. It is not easy nor intuitive, and most will not like the product.

I do use the RK1-2 occasionally for theaters with good results. Basically, just an ON and OFF to fire up or shut down the entire system.

Guys, I really appreciate the comments, but I already know how to program it (going to use the same flag type style as the U1 since that has limited buttons), but my question was really geared to how do you customize text? Does it actually come with buttons that have text on them or something like that (kind of like the T1)

Sorry if I wasnt clear

Sorry... I guess we did get off topic pretty quickly :)

A few people have tried printing onto tranparancies and then cutting them out. This, of course, would likely involve doing this for every button. I have no idea what the ultimate result was.

Ughh. Thanks for the quick response. I am not lovin that idea - god guess I am going with a K2?

They come with several sheets of labels for the keys. You can see the names on the labels by adding one to a file in Integration Designer and going into the properties. Look at the pull-down lists on the Key Labels tab.

Note that each type (2, 4, 8) comes with a different set of labels.

Bruce

Sorry. I thought I answered that here.

"I guess its custom text, as in stick on buttons for just about any label you would need."

Stick with the RK2. Unless they only want source selection and volume control.

I misunderstood you until now... I thought that you knew it came with the inserts. The transparancy idea was tried by those that wanted more than what was supplied with the keypad already... having the limited supply of labels reminds me of doing Xantec buttons... blah... there are, however, quite a few labels to choose from on their supplied sheets

If you use the Rk1-8 with an RP-6 and put the RK1-8 in standalone mode, you will be able to do all kinds of cool button animations. I just did one today. I use the RK1-4 model for light switches. So if the customer presses the top "Lights ON" button, all four buttons do a sequential multi color animation, leaving the top button illuminated to show its state, and the remaining 3 buttons a dim slate color.

THAT sounds really cool. Would you care to send me an .exe to see it in action? This unit is going in a closet so it can just turn a receiver on, elect Siruis Tuner, and listen to the radio while in the shower or getting ready. It's not intended to be detailed, so the RK8 in theory sounds great. The labels sound better than I had pictured from the original description, but thanks you guys.

Something like that would be fine. As long as you or your customer understands its limitations.